Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~

That ending made me so confused. Right when I was certain they would live peacefully together.... *stzk*. Just wow, it was the first time I was doubting if I was looking at a good or bad ending.

But after some rewatching of the last few minutes I came to the conclusion they both died. The scene where you can see her lying, staring at the sky... her eyes don't look very alive.
But there are still other questions! Who shot Reiji? Was it Ein? But why would she do that? If not, who did it then?

I'm not really a lover of these kind of endings. I want to know for sure, damnit. This is Elfen Lied all over again...

(Also, poor Mio lol. She'll be waiting her whole life for nothing :()


EDIT:

Alright, here are some of my own interpretations:

We got us another open ending, free to have our own interpretation on what might have happened.

1. Elen killed Reiji and ate the poisonous flower to commit suicide afterwards. Why she did this, is still unknown to me. Although this is very unlikely, giving the motives they both had.

2. Reiji got killed by Inferno. Elen turns around to return to Reiji, showing her true smile for the first time. Before she realizes Reiji died, they freeze the moment and let the credits roll by. Afterwards they show Elen lying on the field, possibly (and probably) dead. This is after she realized Reiji is no more and committed suicide. It is logical, since the only reason she had left to live was Reiji and since he was gone, she had nothing left.

These are my 2 'views'. A sad ending nonetheless... I really hoped it wouldn't come to this, yet, it's hard to imagine any other ending right now.

Everybody dies, Reiji, Ein and Cal.

I don't think they both died or at least that we saw Elen dead. The way she's lying there likely portrays either her bliss from being happy (while still not knowing Reiji is dead) or some sort of apathy/disbelief/shock since the one person she held dear isn't there anymore. I'm inclined towards the first since shortly before he's shot, we see Reiji walk away from Elen making it very much possible he died out of her sight (some more elevated location most likely).
She still might have poisoned herself though since there's indeed talk about the flower being poisonous ... This however rules out the scenario of her killing him since in her final words she talks about being able to live on (with him and the memories they share most likely).



This alone has been the subject of more blog discussion than the rest of the series put together. I for one very much doubt she did it. The cart driving by is too convenient for one. If she would have done it that would have been the worst possible moment since it creates potential witnesses. Furthermore the shot was fired from a gun with a silencer. The only type of gun she could have been hiding form sight is a handgun and the one she always used was a big ass, loud revolver.
Besides his eyes flicker slightly after he's shot, likely expressing surprise at the whole situation. As such the only option we're left with is that she went nuts and shot him on her own accord as opposed to both of them planing on it. Not a scenario I'm willing to accept. Besides the sequence of events is wrong too since she turns around after he's shot.
The way I see it is that Inferno caught up with them and did what a badass crime syndicate does on such occasions. Made me think of them a bit better too since both Inferno and McGuire himself were pretty unimpressive in the late parts of the series. They were patient but they didn't forget.