Manga artist Chikara Nagai is in the process of ending his current serial,
Resonance, by having the heroine, investigator and
telepath Satoko Miura, fight the brainwashing cult leader of the "Nameless Faith", the Masque, and having the
esper Lin sacrifice himself to defeat the Masque. While working late to meet his deadline, he encounters the angry Lin stealing the
two-page spread of his death and Nagai is sucked into his manga in the middle of a fight between Satoko and the Masque. She helps him escape, but meanwhile, the Masque brainwashes Chief Hanamura of the Special Forces to find them. When Lin finds the Masque, they fight outside of the boundaries of the manga that were drawn, revealing cracks that lead to other pages. When the chief finds Satoko, Lin attempts to escape through a crack with her, but Satoko is shot in the process. Nagai falls through the bottom of the world and ends up back in the real world, but finds that he cannot draw Lin and finish the final spread. Frustrated, he breaks into the sketch of an alternate ending, rescuing Satoko from being shot by the chief and bringing her into the real world. Satoko explores the area and while reading the manga about her, finds Lin appearing in an earlier volume. From her experience, she determines that Nagai's world is just as cruel as hers and they resolve to save her world. When they go back, they find that the manga's world is disintegrating and the Masque and Hanamura try to kill them again. The world disappears, save for Nagai. He finds Lin's sister Mei, who gives him his lost pen, and he redraws Satoko. They travel back to the first volume of
Resonance, where Satoko was the target of a serial killer, but was saved by the police detective and telepath Sawamura, who died in the process and was reincarnated as Lin. Nagai suggests that they avoid interfering with the story, but when they interact with characters from the world, cracks start forming. Lin finds the killer, the precursor to the Masque, and tries to kill him, but is stopped by Nagai and Satoko. After the younger Satoko is kidnapped, the group and a wounded Sawamura try to save her. The killer finds a copy of
Resonance and foresees an ambush by Sawamura, killing him. Lin is shot while trying to stop him but kills the serial killer, releasing the older Masque who had hidden inside his body. The freed Masque takes control of the world and the party falls into the world of the second volume. Unable to do anything, the group continues falling as Nagai declares that it is "the end." Satoshi Kon, the artist of
Opus, is informed of the cancellation of "
Comic Guard" magazine and laments the fact that he could have finished the story in three chapters. Later, he calls his editor and tells him about a final chapter he is working on for an abrupt ending, but cannot draw it because he is busy with
Perfect Blue. Nagai appears out of the chapter and admonishes him for not completing his story, offering ideas for getting it published. Kon's wife arrives home and screams at the sight of Nagai. ==Release==