Anime: Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou

Shoujo Sjuumatsu Ryokou (Girls' Last Tour) is a late 2017 anime set in a post apocalyptic world (over 3000 AD apparently) following two girls, Yuuri and Chito, who travel a ruined multi-level (levels are called strata) city for survival on their Kleines Kettenkraftkrad HK 101. This is an abstract anime that explores a lot of quite deep themes, but it is quite simple and is a very nice watch.

The plot is very simple and almost all of the episodes describe daily self contained events that happen on their advance to the higher levels of the city. There are no real plot holes aside from Yuuri and Chito sometimes acting illogically, but that seems to have been the point that adds to the sometimes childish nature of the duo and the situations they find themselves in. There are quite a few post credits scenes, but they are not necessary to the plot.

This anime can be compared to quite a few other anime, such as Planetarian, Sora no Oto, and Made in Abyss. Planetarian is likewise set in a post apocalyptic world, but it is much closer to our own and explores somewhat different themes, but both this anime and the Planetarian overlap in their themes regarding machines and their relation to the city as well as to life. The best way to describe Sora no Oto is free therapy as opposed to Girls' Last Tour being free depression. Sora no Woto has a massive contrast between the beautiful Hispanic town around the garrison and its peaceful life and the overwhelming horror that the world is probably slowly dying. In this anime there is no such contrast, only the empty streets of a very grey city and compared to the situation in Sora no Oto, you could say that the world in this anime is already dead and deserted. It is similar in its travel concept and overall plot to Made in Abyss, though in this case the characters travel up and are not really in any obvious danger. There is also a reference to Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind in the shape of the robots that fire lasers and a small scene where they are shown for the first time. It is apt, since the themes are similar.

The animation is very simplistic and artsy, but surprisingly it does not take that long to get used to. CGI is used fairly sparsely, mostly to animate the motion of the characters and the Kettenkrad when moving. The CGI is used fairly well, fits in with the background, and works very well with the animation style used. Maybe the only concern I have is that the cities themselves as well as the buildings seem both a bit too empty and almost crude in their construction. This is especially clear in the first half of the anime when the characters are at a lower strata. I understand that this is a decision made about what would futuristic buildings would look like, but I just can't imagine living in those. The massive train also seems a bit too massive and crude.

The OST is very simple, but it is used at the right times and is rather graceful. It gets across that feeling of desolation yet hope. Both the OP and ED are great. The OST is used rather sparsely in order to instead play around with sound, such as the sound of a gust of wind going through the empty snow-filled streets to further the aforementioned feeling of desolation.

The cast is very notable in this anime. Chito is voiced by the well known Minase Inori, while Yuuri is voiced by Kubo Yurika who made a lot of music and voiced Koizumi Hanayo in Love Live!. The scientist Ishii was voiced by Mitsuishi Kotono, who also voiced Katerose von Kreutzer in Legend of the Galactic Heroes as well as Sailor Moon. Nuko is voiced by Hanazawa Kana which is why it sounds a lot like Shiina Mayuri from Steins;Gate. There are quite a few others. Overall, despite the cast being rather small, it has amassed quite a few famous CVs.

There is also an ONA made for this anime. It is made up of 1 and a half minute segments. It appears that you are supposed to watch each segment after a corresponding episode of the anime.

This anime definitely deserves a high rating. It is quite simple, yet the thought and the effort put into it as well as the execution is of a very high standard. Unfortunately, I have not come across any news regarding a continuation, despite there being two more volumes of the source material. In any case, the anime has an open start and end and so it is not detrimental to this particular anime that there is no sequel. This really is an anime that ought to be taken somewhat seriously when watching it, but it is also rather relaxing. It should be said that this is much closer to a slice of life anime than an adventure one and even compared to Made in Abyss, this has a slower pacing.

Civilization is dead, but Chito and Yuuri are still alive...

Animation: 9
Post-apo done right.

The characters are drawn in rather simple, deformed style, contrasting with the detail-filled lifeless city; this potato-like chara design may drive away some of the viewers. The low saturation of color and sometimes overwhelming whiteness of the snow creates the genuine feeling of emptiness. There are occasional CGI scenes when girls are riding Kettenkrad and these are a little subpar from the rest.

Sound: 10
Suehiro Ken'ichirou, the master of sound.

Music is simply beautiful and the OST is one of the best I've ever listened to. I got the feeling of wading through the world that is tough and harsh, but maintaining the sense of genuine curiosity about what lies at the next corner. Usage of background music in episodes is simply great. OP is very energetic and ED, animated by Tsukumizu, the original manga author, is very climactic. I've never skipped them when watching the episodes.

Story: 9
SLOW is the word.

If you expect your anime to be action packed and filled to the brim with heart racing scenes, then don't watch this. Girls are basically wandering through the world to reach the upper city, collecting food, water and fuel alongside. During that, they create this weird archeo-team, walking on the remnants from the past and trying to guess the meaning behind them. However, nothing even really matters anymore - the humanity is past its dusk. Is it the story to your liking? I think it depends on your character. Do you like observing the surroundings when taking trip? Is the trip as important as the reaching the goal? Do you agree with the saying "It is not the point to catch the bunny but to chase it."? If you are the kind of person who enjoyed watching "Endless Eight" arc of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu, then you will probably understand what I mean. You may say that there's nothing interesting ever happening in this anime and you could be right. It just gives you the possibility to really appreciate small, simple things.

Character: 10
Probably the best duo I've ever seen in anime.

The chemistry between Chito (Minase Inori) and Yuuri (Kubo Yurika) is nothing short of a masterpiece. Girls create intimate world of the two, giving us the glimpse of their trust in each other and showing their strong and weak points. True, there's almost no character development. There are some other occasional characters' like Kanazawa and Ishii or the Automaton, but I think the real third character should be the City itself.

Value: 9
When was the last time you listened to the falling rain?

Maybe this anime won't teach you how to survive in a post-apocalyptic world, but you will certainly see some of the things in a new light. Girls are not fighting with the reality that surrounds them but rather accept the fact that someday they will perish alongside the City and the human world itself. Maybe the only things you will gain from watching this is the lesson to enjoy the company. To enjoy hot soup or sugar-sprinkled cookie. To simply accept things as they are.

Enjoyment: 10
Zetsubou to nakayoku!

You can literally breathe the atmosphere, feel the setting and simply enjoy your ride. After over a quarter of a century of anime watching it gave me the thrill for waiting for the new episode each week. It reminded me how much I miss the "slowness" and that kind of storytelling found in the older anime. I enjoyed the music, character interactions and overall climate of this anime. It was really the ointment for the soul. The story is animated till the volume 4 out of 6 of the manga. I'm really hoping for if not full Season 2, then at least some OVA episodes in the future.

Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying And Love The Apocalypse

Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou is a 2017 fall anime of 12 episodes, based on a manga of the same name. It follows Chii and Yuu, a pair of girls, as they're on a tour through a post-apocalyptic landscape on their kettenkrad (a tracked motorbike used by the German army in WW2, because lord knows if we have an anime season without underage girls and Nazi gun porn in the universe will probably implode or something). They move throughout the landscape on their bike. They have no essential goal and only the vaguest of origins behind them, and have episodic conversations on the nature of life and existence as nothing really of import happens and they never really get anywhere of note.

The experience might charitably be called 'calming', or 'utterly bloody pointless and boring' if you're feeling less so.

Art & Animation: 7/10 -- What an amazingly wide variety of brown and grey to look at.

Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou is set in some vague post-apocalyptic environment full of scrap material and decay, with some kind of vague WW1-style aesthetic and the hollow concrete shells of buildings everywhere. That said, the show manages to get a surprising amount of good locales out of such a cliche setting, and there's very little to no recycling. A bit of CGI is used for some of the animation, and it is noticeable, but it's hardly a lot and most seems to be drawn, and quite decently so.

As for the character designs, well, Chii and Yuu look ridiculously deformed and 'moe' in contrast to the very gritty and realistic-attempting environments, making them stand out of place. I'm not sure it's such a bad thing though, since it from the very beginning sort of underscores that this show has a somewhat warm and harmless tone despite its harsh environs. All in all, the silly character designs do not detract too much from the quite significant work put into the environs, and means I actually felt like giving this show my main attention even though it's the sort of thing I could just as well have left drifting in the background while playing bridge in another window.

Sound & Music: 8/10 -- Sparse, a bit minimalist, but very well put together for all that.

The music of Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou is quite nice. Relaxing, again, with use of string instruments and singing as some of its most common musical motifs. The singing is quite well-done even if they don't seem to be using any particular words (it's essentially scatting, just singing wowels in some kind of psuedo-Latin), and the sound design helps to underscore the sense of relaxation and calm exploration as well as the feel of sadness of a world in decay. Voice-wise, well, there's only Chii and Yuu, and they're distinguishable and fill their archetypes well enough.

The OP is really annoyingly catchy too. I mean, no great work of art or anything, but probably the catchiest opening I've had to suffer through since "History Maker" and one I never skipped over in the ten episodes it features.

Story: 7/10 -- It's probably all just a metaphor for *something*, anyway.

The easiest way to describe Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou's story is 'Kino's Journey with *two* girls', or, if you've never seen Kino's Journey, 'four hours of landscape shots and philosophy'. Chii and Yuu start the show driving their bike through an empty, post-apocalyptic landscape with no particular goal or destination in mind, and end the show twelve episodes later on exactly the same note after having met a few interesting situations and mainly just talked, and talked, and talked, about a lot of stuff between heaven and earth. For those to whom this isn't an immediate turn-off, Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou is not by far the *worst* example I've seen of such meandering navel-gazing. For one thing, the conversational themes and language used are both simple enough that it avoids seeming pretentious. Secondly, as I've mentioned, the scenery and music are both quite good and gives off a relaxing vibe that lets you just sit down and enjoy the twenty moments of sensation interspersed with some quasi-philosophical gabbing. I mean, it's no Waiting for Godot, but... I mean, it basically *is* Waiting for Godot, but not quite so funny to watch. Each episode has a coherent theme, and sticks to it, and it doesn't take a PhD in literary analysis to see said theme. It's not the deepest conversations, obviously, but it works.

Again, you just have to judge these things on its genre. I mean, sure, the setting is an anachronistic mishmash that makes no sense, and the complete lack of any civilization or people that can keep a sustainable population makes the whole thing essentially fantasyland (especially the last three episodes). The Nazi gun porn, as mentioned, is a lot more blatant than in Kino's Journey and makes just about as much sense here, but again, it's not the point. None of these things are the points. The point is four hours of aimless conversation that touches on themes of life and existence, and everything else is just... Set pieces. Flavour, with only the occasional connection to anything the show actually has to *say* or talk about or explore (like whether or not a robot is 'life'). You may as well complain why The Empire of Legend of Galactic Heroes is basically Space Prussia. It just is.

Character: 7/10 -- Well the characters are basically metaphors too, so who cares if they're walking archetypes.

Having established the genre of the show, really the only thing you can ask of its characters are: "Are they good enough vehicles for aimless conversation to keep you watching"? To which my answer at least is: "Yes, good enough at least". Chii is downcast and serious, Yuu is upbeat, sanguine and a bit of an airhead, and the two spend the show playing those traits off each other every episode, again and again and again, as they explore this week's topics of conversation. It's really bare-bones, with no character development or character exploration, which makes sense as the two aren't so much intended to be fully rounded characters as they're soundboards for dialogue anyway. Their archetypical behaviours apes 'life' well enough for the story to not just be a completely blatant case of a P-zombie debating with a wall, and that's about all that can be said (and demanded, really) about that. Without spoiling too much there are some other people who occasionally appear, and like Chii and Yuu they fill their roles well enough in keeping the episode's theme going.

Again, you just have to judge it by its genre. None of the characters grate too badly on my nerves and serve to keep the general sense of relaxation going. Nothing else to it really. I'd be lying if I considered them 'people', but for a pair of sock-puppets spouting 'Sartre for middle schoolers' they get the job done.

Value: 6/10 --I really can't see why anyone would equivocate this with Made in Abyss, cutesy character design aside.

'Value-wise', this show borrows so heavily from Kino's Journey (and other similar shows like Mushishi) it's impossible not to mention that. It's a show with the same genre and pacing, featuring girls and motorbikes and two-person conversations in a mostly metaphorical setting. It's very obviously not going to be anyone's cup of tea, being even less eventful than Kino is. It's very much a 'slow and talky show' with some rarely interspersed tension, and as an example of its genre it's an entirely satisfactory example that really doesn't break that much new ground.

Enjoyment: 7/10 -- Sure, why not.

This show is four hours of relaxation that occasionally tickles your neurons with music and conversation. Anime Zen, if you will. So, yes, I enjoyed it, in a sense. It made me relax and just watch the screen in half-asleep mode. A lot of shows I've watched have done worse, and given that this reaction was pretty much the intent I can't really get up in its grill about it. It's nice, in its way.

So, in summary, Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou can be summed up and judged by this quote from its third episode:

Total: 7/10 -- "You don't need a reason. There are nice things, sometimes."

And that's about all that can be said about that.