Reviews for Train to the End of the World

Director Mizushima Tsutomu isn’t concerned with making the next “hit” – if anything, he’s concerned with making the next “concoction.” A look at his filmography will show that he has directed several projects which involve the heavy collision of various ideas that, on paper, seem like they should get along like cats and dogs. How, for instance, is the idea of cute girls doing cute things in a tank battle setting supposed to work? Why would anybody expect a lowbrow teenage sex comedy that also functions as a prison escape flick to mesh together, and somehow have that work? Crazy, right? But crazy is thepoint, as lo and behold, *Girls und Panzer* exists, as does *Prison School*.

And those are just two examples! Mizushima’s understanding and approach to genre is to take what it is about each that people enjoy, and bend or twist them into new, almost-unrecognizable forms. Mizushima doesn’t care about having something to “prove” as it were, mostly because he gets his jollies out of being weird rather than being artful in the way that other directors are. And in an anime landscape where fresh ideas seemingly are in shorter supply, it’s at the very least worth considering just what he’s cooking up at any given moment.

It therefore makes perfect sense why *Shuumatsu Train Doko e Iku? / Where Does the Doomsday Train Go? / Train at the End of the World* functions as it does in its weirdness. It is quintessential Mizushima, in that it feels like a sensible next step in his handling of preposterous entertainment ideas. Our foursome of heroines all embark on a post-catastrophe science-fiction screwball road comedy journey through a topsy-turvy funhouse world of strange landscapes, bizarre people, and way too many bitter lemons to eat. Each stop along the path to Ikebukuro comes complete with its own warped or finagled place, where the people there are just as mystifying. One stop has a serious shroom problem (to put it one way), while another location has a miniaturized military. But where could the adorable Yoka be, the person who accidentally got this whole 7G Network mess started when she pressed the button and screwed everything up? Can the world return to normal?

From the first minute, *Shuumatsu Train* doesn’t pretend to be concerned with giving fully fleshed-out character biographies to Shizuru, Nadeshiko, Reimi, and Akira and assumes you’ve seen enough cute girls doing cute things anime to know this rigamarole already with who is who. The immediate need-to-know particulars of who they actually are comes through in the quick conversations and colliding personalities about incidentals and the grand design, and expects you to “get it” already so it can “get on” with the real point – the journey. Any development or more-dynamic character building will come not from the native environment that they know, but instead by venturing into the yonder.

And if cute girls doing cute things has often been the gravity surrounding fixations on hobbies / “the main thing” that could be considered either abnormally obsessive or unusual (we all can list at least one show in which the cast revolves around a niche activity that more or less defines them), then *Shuumatsu Train* takes that gravity and maximalizes it to the universe itself. Each location does indeed have its own central “thing” that distinguishes it from every other stop, almost like the different levels of a video game in which each location has its own puzzle to crack before opening the door. It provides a sheer unpredictability to each setting even when the outcome inevitably ends with the train pulling out of the station and moving on. Sometimes, they’re simply passing through and commenting on how weird something is because…well, sometimes something is just weird and there’s not much more to say. Other times, the ridiculous level of micro and macro analysis needed to get through is itself like an overstuffed shogi board ready to collapse under the weight of its excess pieces.

Yet, miraculously, it never falls apart because it never stops being fun. The inherent appeal of the screwball road comedy is in the varying locations and peoples, and how the characters are forced to interact with both in order to make heads or tails of what’s happening. Using post-catastrophe science-fiction as the backdrop allows any crazy idea to be applied without needing to spend all this time and energy explaining why something is the way that it is. Any such explanation can be chalked up to “LOL 7G” (its activation in the first episode makes a further lack of explanation all the more acceptable) and instead put resources into making each stop more tangibly present. Beyond the “trait” that each place possesses, each also presents obstacles that are distinct enough to require different solutions rather than a single tried-and-true method. As such, the variety in the settings complements the variety in the situations.

But that maximalization I spoke of does not occur often with the heavier drama, though drama is certainly present. Tone-wise, the show rarely makes actually sincere attempts to divert away from the comic because the attempts that appear on the surface to do so are, in and of themselves, far too deliberately silly or tongue-in-cheek to take too seriously. Yokote Michiko’s series composition lets you know who is doing what and how they are functioning within the show’s overall universe either as a force for, against, or within the main foursome, but never to the point where it forgets or misplaces its popcorn origins. This is only broken with Yoka and Shizuru, the ones who got the metaphorical train running in the first place. As a result, the show’s inner structure is quite bare-minimum, but the color explodes every time, coming with some genuinely-impressive layouts and animation displays that go far harder than a show like this would reasonably be expected to have.

Coupled with the understanding that Mizushima’s Twitter account over the past several weeks has been talking about train stuff from facts to fascinations, including other incidental things about the production or locations used for making it, he clearly got bitten by some kind of bug and decided to just run full-tilt with it. He’s created something with the full awareness of what it is and avoids the pitfalls of derailment, even if it couldn’t escape production problems with its final episode. The whole is an unusually free-spirited anime, chugging along its merry way and always prepared with a fun little something to whet the appetite.

There is no room for normal on this route; *Shuumatsu Train* takes delight in its oddness, and that’s the way it should be.

A man-made creation that has warped the world into a hellish place a phenomenon that transforms humans into something other than human when they reach a certain age a journey of a group of girls on a train through a post-apocalyptic world to find their friend. this anime combines three plot points that could each stand alone as separate stories, yet remarkably, it works. The story revolves around an accident where a 7G network warped reality, turning Earth into a post-apocalyptic world. In the subsequent years, the same accident also caused some humans to transform into animals that can talk. On the other side, a group ofgirls discovers that their friend, who is essentially the one responsible for the accident, is still alive. Determined to find her, they embark on a journey by train.

The plot sounds like a fever dream, it's basically feels like when you are asleep and having a weird dream yet nobody wakes you up so it goes on and on and on,which also make this anime a very great mystery anime, because not only we don't know what the fck is going on,the characters also don't know what the fuck is going on, and the fact that it's an original story makes it even better.

The music and animation add depth to the viewing experience. The portrayal of the world's end in this anime is hauntingly beautiful, conveying a sense of serenity tinged with underlying dread.

An original show with a genuinely unique plot, it's definitely worth watching.

I am not good at reviews, but this show deserves more reviews than it has, so here I go. If I had to imagine what one of my favorite anime would be, it wouldn't have been a surreal post-apocalyptic fever dream with casual 'slice of life' anime vibes, but here we are. Ever get that feeling when you're watching a new anime that you're witnessing the beginning of something special? Train to the End of the World gives me that feeling, and I haven't felt that in a long time. This show toes an interesting line because I'd say at this point that it's stillfairly family friendly - but there are a lot of dark undertones, the most obvious in the first episode being the bloody handprints and bullet holes in the armed caravan vehicles. The art, animation, sound, voice acting - all are superb. Practically every scene in the first episode would make for a great desktop background.

It is dialogue heavy - like Monogatari levels of dialogue heavy. All of the conversations feel natural and have great flow, and I think they are important for establishing the atmosphere the show is going for, but I know people that cannot handle that. If there were any reason to dislike the show this would probably be it.

I'm very interested in seeing how this goes. There's a lot of potential for it to go to a very dark place - the clues are certainly there - but even if it doesn't I'm still on board.

"Train to the End of the World" is a whimsical show that very much felt like it had a lot of promise at the start. Even now, 9 episodes into the show, it still feels like it intends to build to something big. However, the show sadly also has quite a few problems that undermine its own whimsical and saney tone, and which makes it hard for me to call the show little more than "Fine" in quality. As the synopsis for the show explains, the show is about an alternate version of our world that has been transformed into a whimsical-but-dangerous wonderworld filled with oddities andstrange phenomena. In this world, a group of girls take control of a train so that they might travel this "wonderscape" and find a lost friend of theirs. As they ride the train from stop to stop, they experience one weird and dangerous encounter after another, seeing what has occurred to the citizens of this altered world. Furthermore, as the plot progresses, the girls slowly learn more and more about the dark secrets behind how-and-why the world has come to be as it is.

Now, this premise sounds like a really fun and technically quite simply structured adventure. The show offers the viewers a sorta "monster of the week"-style story (but with a focus on one or more oddities rather than monsters as such). This is however where problems start to show with the series. The pacing of the show is generally quite fast, which I acknowledge doesn't have to be a bad thing, but in the case of "Train to the End of the World" it constantly feels like the show is rushing itself from one conversation to another or from one oddity to the next. The show almost never allows itself to settle and truly explore its odd ideas. And when the show occasionally does try to take its time with a scenario, it often does this with some of the least wacky of its ideas (such as spending two episodes on a town of tiny people).

This really "rushing pacing" also frequently hurts the show's emotionally complex scenes. The show very clearly wants to be something more than just a wacky adventure, and thus it often attempts to have deeper scenes, especially in flashbacks to before the "end of the world---if you will." And these scenes are indeed also some of the times when the show shines the brightest, but even still, they are rarely allowed much room to breathe before we have to rush on to the next scene----be it serious or silly.

Thus, if people will forgive me a reference to a show outside of anime for a moment, it feels like "Train to the End of the World" is trying to be something akin to the show "Adventure Time," a show that masterfully balances both serious and silly scenarios. However, it is also a far longer show than "Train to the End of the World" is, so I can't help but wonder if the problem deep down simply is that the show is too short? Would it have benefited from having a 24-or-so episode run? It is hard to say.

In conclusion, "Train to the End of the World" is not a bad show in the slightest, but it is a "busy" and "messy" that seems to struggle with where to put its focus and time, a lot of the time. The show has had a lot of promise since its beginning, something that it has struggled to live up to during the majority of its runtime, but even still it does still seem to be building towards an interesting ending. However, even if the show manages to stick-the-landing, viewed as a whole, I would still only consider it a decent experience.

I hope these thoughts have been helpful to any potential reader.

:

:

:

Update:

With the show now over, here are a few final thoughts.

As suspected, the show did indeed build to a relatively big finish, but certainly not one so big or emotionally impactful that it saves the show as a whole. No, the final few episodes too were filled with issues, even though it was quite clear that a real vision was in place for them in the "writing and directing rooms."

Overall then, the show is a massive, messy experience that I have a hard time recommending to anyone, especially since it isn't even wacky enough to be a "must-see" for fans of that sort of shows.

No, for the most part, the show is just an example of how big concepts sadly don't necessarily amount to something great.

So far through 2024, Shuumatsu no Train has got the wackiest and most original anime award locked up. A truly odd experience full of twists and turns, fun characters and some genuinely head scratching moments in the best possible way. Anyone looking for something new to try should check this out I am a big sucker for shows that deal with journeys through post apocalyptic settings and Shuumatsu train is one of the coolest takes on that trope. Following a group of high school girls on a train through various stops between suburban Tokyo and Ikebukuro to save their friend was not something I had onmy bucket list, but I’ll be damned, it was some of the most fun I’ve had watching anime.

This show has no rhyme or reason for a lot of the things that happen and I enjoyed that. It made things feel unpredictable and fluid. All the train stops have been affected by the 7G disaster, altering realty and the people living there. For example, we go from mind controlling mushroom spores, to zombies, to a town that’s been shrunk etc. It’s really a hodgepodge of anime genres packed into one. The only complaint I have is that we didn’t get to see more of the stops. Like it’s established that there’s a certain number of stops between where the girls are coming from to Ikebukuro. We only got to see maybe half of those. I know it probably would’ve been difficult with the number of episodes, but it felt like the journey aspect got streamlined at the end. Still, for those that we did see, they were all over the place in the best possible way. A truly eccentric story that mashes a lot of different stuff together and it just works.

In a journey anime, the biggest thing is the chemistry between the group and I think the writers here nailed what it would be like to travel with teenaged schools. The fights, the make ups, the doubts and insecurities.. they’re all handled very well and even the way the characters talk to one another feels authentic. There’s so much banter between the group and never a dull moment. One of the highlights of my week was turning this on on Mondays to see what Reimi was getting up to 😂

Although the ending wasn’t quite as good as the start, Shuumatsu train was still fun throughout. Just imagine throwing paint at the wall and making a beautiful painting, that’s basically this anime. Comedy, adventure, hilarious characters, good story, it’s got it all. It’s one of those shows that’s best experienced rather than described so if my description seems a little light at times, it’s because I don’t want to spoil that experience of seeing this insanity for the first time. No doubt one of the best anime originals of the last couple of years. Hats off to the staff for a great story and ride. You will be missed.

Shuumatsu no Train gets 9, out of 10.

The sense of mystery huh. After all, who doesn't want to connect to the 7G, and warp reality right? Story and characters: 7 For starters, I will say that the show at first does take a moment to get used to. You might be thinking 'what on earth' is going on? Why am I watching this? But as the show progresses, you'll want to stick around to see more of it. Which is mainly done by it's pacing, and sweet characters, each layered through their personalities, and what drives them. Even if they don't come across as super amazing characters, but they don't need to be. They'refit for purpose, and that's all you need to be a good anime. While it's not a stand out by any means. But because of those elements, it then expands the story out more for you, and you'll want to learn more about the mystery of WHY this is happening, and WHY this happened. Something we grasp and learn bit by bit as each and every episode progresses. Our four girls aren't the only main characters however, they're also joined by a mix of wild bunch, and sweet characters that fill out the casting quite nicely.

Art and sound: 8

This is where the true meat and potatoes of the whole production comes in for me. While we've got a stellar story to follow, and be invested into. here we've got quite a creative direction in terms of it's quality, and production. It's as if throughout it's mystery, they wanted to produce such a weird and colourful world, that much like other shows, you'll remember for it's aesthetics, and pallet more than anything. Wich isn't a dig at the story, but more there is a lot of creative juices with it's production of art style. Matched with a great sound quality, that really blends all well together.

Shuumatsu Train is quite an experience venture, filled with wonder and interest. With cute girls to boot. What's not to love? It make take a moment to get used to, but you'll be glad you did. Give it a go!

🟢2024---A cute anime of girls doing things in a strange world filled with strange things like a society of beastmen hmm... it reminds me of "Blue Archive" from this season but luckily it is much better, although not as good as people say.... 📢 The story takes place in a world ravaged by "7G", which deformed everything we know and made it a mixture of various things. In this world there live young girls who are one of the few who are still human. One day, they track down their missing friend and use the train to set off on an adventure to find her.It is mostly a very loose story with anime girls who, in a post-apocalyptic world, in the most extreme situations, behave and look as if they just went somewhere on vacation and forgot to take off their school uniforms, little girls left with animals even though 2 years after the start of the apocalypse they should not be obvious how people turned into animals will behave xD

But from the beginning...

We start the story with the scene of the beginning of the 7G apocalypse, then we fast forward 2 years and we have a very quick and somewhat bland introduction to the actual story, where, using exposition in dialogues, everything that happened is explained to us in a rather naive way. after the launch of 7G, the creators set a very fast pace in the first episode just to send the girls as quickly as possible on the journey that this anime is about, i.e. the strange place (train station) of the week.

After the first episode, we set off on an atmospheric, mysterious and chaotic journey into the unknown in a world full of various strange things.

But as I mentioned, the plot is a strange story and place of the week, most of the stories seem to have an interesting general idea but the execution is worse, where the stories are more or less written in a stupid way, and the pace of these stories increases more and more from episode to episode, the worst thing is when we arrive at a new place where we rush as fast as possible, as if the author had an interesting idea but didn't want to develop it and wanted to move on to the next station where there would be similar chaos and haste.

The mentioned stations, like the levels of the abyss in Made in Abyss, have their own quirks, as if the landscapes through which our heroines come are so completely different from each other, very creative and thanks to the fact that 7G has deformed the world, everything can be explained, the author can go to the limits of absurdity and all these things don't have to be consistent, but just diverse and strange.

This is also a minus because in MiA everything was logical and it was better to watch because you saw the sense in it all and it was dosed appropriately so as not to make you immune to new amazing things, which made it more pleasant to discover the world and here, hmm... just with time. it stops making an impression and the next random thing is acknowledged with a simple "OK" xD

But in fact, despite so many strange and creative things, this anime mainly decides to explore the most clichéd motifs, such as zombies, and ignores the most unusual ones, as if it didn't have some more interesting idea for them, apart from the fact that it was supposed to be strange, it was much more interesting to know what's going on with these goats in the grass than zoombie, i.e. an ultra-creative anime but not entirely.

The characters... are very cool, characteristic and have a lot of funny interactions, they often talk about seemingly unimportant things, which allows you to get more into the stories BUT ultimately they don't fit into this world, in general, the character relationships sometimes seem to be an unnecessary addition and in this strange world, as if in the world of secrets and all this, we get something so ordinary, their relationships are ordinary, as if taken out of an ordinary school anime.

I think that a post-apocalyptic series in which the characters are no different in terms of relationships, conflicts and behavior from the regular school series makes little sense and seems stupid, e.g. the characters will allow their offended friend to go somewhere in the middle of the night, forgetting that it is ultra-dangerous world.

I think this anime has a lot of problems, but unlike the crap this season, it tries to be something special.

Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐❌❌❌❌

The Train to the End of the World might look like CGDCT moerot on the surface, but men actually exist in this world, there is a plot and goal to strive toward, and the post-apocalyptic setting—somewhat similar to Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou or Girls' Last Tour for the more lighthearted contrast to the usual bleakness—is on the unique side because of the slice of life tendencies, absurdist comedy, surreal happenings, and the usual power of friendship theme so common to moeblob high school setups that provides an emotional grounding to contain what otherwise could end up as a train wreck. Even if the writer often toyswith the conventional by inserting zombies with a slight twist or presenting a few simple and predictable storylines in several episodes: Whether it's a parasitic copy of Invasion of the Body Snatchers or the mushroom mania of Matango crossed with the introspection of Mushishi or employing lilliputians to parody Gulliver's Travels, Gojira, and King Kong to hilarious effect. The episodes are at times a variation on the monster of the week setup but instead become an exotic locale or whacky situation of the week, with the train chugging along like the progression of a corrupted video game, growing more manic with each stop.

There's usually enough inventiveness to keep these sub-plots somewhat fresh, but, as opposed to fantasy that tends to have an inherent logic and a cohesive world, we're tossed into disconnected pop culture parody realms, blazing through many of them without much detail and sifting through others for perhaps too long. There are also some ridiculous ideas here, stretching the boundaries of believability, such as our characters communicating with the train foreman by hammering the railroad tracks to communicate in morse code, despite being hundreds or thousands of miles apart. This could never work in a realistic series, but the crazy distortions of the world make it mostly believable; meanwhile, the choice allows the girls to have a continued connection to their village (made all the more important for the usual conflict between the village and the city), acts as a relay point for new information, and provides extra comedy as the competent-for-five-whole-minutes train conductor is quickly zapped into a doddering, beady-eyed fool. Although earlier scenarios resemble fiction I'm familiar with, the series does benefit from becoming more warped as we get closer to Youka, for the Alice in Nerima Land manga comes to life, which has one of the more complex plots and a large cast of quirky characters, heroes and villains alike; but, most importantly, it does far more to build upon the relationship of the moeblobs in ways that most other scenarios fail to do. We're also treated to unhinged parodies of manga cliches and magical battles along the way, and Ikebukruo looks wholly alien.

For the duration of our whimsical train travelogue, our moeblob quartet engage in fast-talking and rather naturalistic banter. Shizuru is your typical lead role, though wracked with guilt; throughout much of the series, I mixed Nadeshiko up with Shizuru because their designs and hair aren't too dissimilar. The former's only defining trait appeared to be "I can use a bow," but she also plays mommy to the group and breaks up fights, yet she lacks a character arc of her own or even much screen time devoted solely to her, leaving her feeling incomplete. Reimi and Akira have a kind of rabid-dog tsundere relationship and conflicting personalities, with the former being emotional and physical-oriented and the latter intellectual, providing most of our encyclopedia drops and a surprising dose of humor being wrung out of literary references. We know less of Youka, and her relationship with Shizuru is short-cutted via the usual power of friendship dynamics that are experienced amongst our moeblobs and then interpolated where needed. There's even a dose of melancholy and understated emotion (emphasized well in both the OP and ED), preventing it from being too insubstantial, and even small details like the train being named Apogee has meaning that remains buried for much of the series (didn't expect it to be spelled out in such a sentimental fashion).

Unfortunately, the nature of the series is telegraphed heavily from the opening scene and a few parts throughout the first episode. What we know is not just implied; it is shown. The missing Youka had a hand in what happened with 7G and the unraveling of the world as we know it, and there was an apparent falling out between these friends. The journey to find Youka has a "We're not in Kansas anymore" Wizard of Oz vibe, like we're stepping out of monochrome into a whacky technicolor wonderland, at first just a girl and a dog and maybe a potential Wicked Witch. Mystery was not the main concern for the creators, but revealing the catalyst for all of the strange events we see unfolding each episode so soon is indeed a misfire. The delivery of what ended up happening would be more compelling if we didn't know the cause and the search for Youka didn't have an immediately established connection to the world becoming a jumbled mess. These coming of age scenarios are turbulent, and the fantastical impetus engulfing the entire world often ends up being deeply personal in storylines such as these, but an aura of mystery and uncertainty would complement this aspect better than bluntness. It doesn't need to be as dense in its unraveling of an elaborate mystery like, say, Tengoku Daimakyou, but it shouldn't blow its wad faster than the minutemen either.

7G warping the world in a myriad of ways is the type of goofiness the show goes for, but it would have been preferable if that idea were changed to something else instead of being the direct continuation of 5G and 6G, which are real technological projects. Most sci-fi fails in its predictions, and while the writer's intent wasn't to predict anything here, it would have been better to frame the problem technology with a unique name and property, as this aspect, intersecting with the real world, is goofier than just about anything else in the series. There's certainly a relatable anxiety here about the hubris of mankind and a never-ending thirst for "progress," rarely willing to stop and consider the potential dangers of technology rolled out at a rapid pace without any concern for safety or wellbeing, which could have an irreversible impact on the world. There's even a sense in which the various societies warped by 7G are stagnating or regressing technologically, with one village's humans becoming cute furballs (presumably) incapable of advancing civilization, so one could say this is nature "correcting course" to humanity's tampering in unpredictable and even nightmarish ways.

Looking through the director's credits, one can easily see how a series like this was inevitable, as he directed the well-produced and quirky CGDCT series Girls & Panzer and worked on a lot of oddball comedies like Shin-chan, Jungle wa Itsumo Hare nochi Guu, and Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan. Overall, despite a sometimes bumpy ride and certain scenarios not being overly strong or original on their own, the combination of various genres, ideas, settings, comedic timing, and effective direction and writing weaves everything together in a pleasing fashion, topped off with decent production values and an atmospheric score. The epic and uncanny proportions of the series lends more weight to this conventional but earnest story of coming of age and friendship than I'd expect from all the tired high school moerot that we usually get combined.

This isn't a show for everyone, but it feels so rewarding seeing it from start to finish. Pros: To start off, this show is extremely weird. In a really good way. How many times have you seen the first episode of a brand new anime and you just go "yup, I know exactly what's gonna happen in the next 11 episodes"? This is not one of those. The premise of the show seems really insane, but that's just how the author decides to set the stage, it doesn't change the fact that the story itself is very well done. Outside of that, I think the part thatmakes it really standout is how this show balances humour and emotional portions of the show. We've seen this type of things done to perfection in many shows in the past; Kaguya, Konosuba... This show knows how to create an extremely bizzare situation, throw the main casts into the situation, and just let things play out in the most ridiculous way possible. But it also knows how to keep things grounded whenever we get these scenes that talks about more important and serious topics.

Cons:

Pacing: I would most certainly have hoped for a couple more episodes. There are 28 stations between Agano and Ikebukuro, and majority of those stations are skipped. Some parts of the show definitely feels rushed.

Train to the End of the World - A WTF show of batshit insanity that is so unpredictable, yet a certified train-on-rails doomsday of a journey to the vast unknown, and to come out feeling overwhelmingly satisfied with the entire product. In the quarterly grinds of the boring seasonals where you find lots of the "same same but different" Isekai and fantasy take over the reins, one thing that I really miss the most are original shows that take the experimental approach and succeed with their growing fanbases (i.e. this season's Girls Band Cry, which you SHOULD definitely watch, despite having to sail through the highseas), which is becoming more of a rarity these days. But in this Spring, there is a show so out-of-whack that immediately encapsulates the average anime consumer, yet still sticks close to coherency that everything still makes sense from start to finish. And that show is Shuumatsu Train Doko e Iku? a.k.a Train to the End of the World, Kadokawa's show to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Railway Day: the founding of Japan's first railway on October 14, 1872, concocted by the masterminds behind the anime: director Tsutomu Mizushima and storyboarder Michiko Yokote, both of whom had previously worked on Fall 2014's Shirobako (one of P.A. Works's cult classic Working shows), as well as Winter 2019's Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai a.k.a The Magnificent Kotobuki, an underrated 3DCG show, which I feel that everyone should give it the second chance that it deserves (my review from 5 years ago still stands resonant).

It's easy living in the world of today to think about what the incoming future will be like, but sometimes, minds and ambitions are damned to deliver a future so out of control that there's almost no reset button to return to normalcy. This is exactly what happens in this show: an experiment of obtuse technological advancement gone horribly wrong — the 7G celluar network. What is poised to become Japan's next step in technology, quickly becomes an aftermath of doomsday proportions where the network spawns a warp in reality, from the likes of people turning into animals when they reach a certain age, to fully controlling the word by the thought process of its creator. In the process, a friendship brewing between friends also unfortunately gets heavily involved due to rough patches, disagreements, and the like, so much that it also plays a significant part in the reality warping as well. This is the plot of a group of high school girls setting out to save one of their friends, in a world so messed up where danger lurks at every corner, expecting the unexpected and not coming out a mess from it, all while commandeering an abandoned Seibu 2000 series passenger train on the Seibu Ikebukuro line to reach the aforementioned city to reunite and save their dear friend from all of the chaos of the disastrous launch of the 7G network. And as I always say with every original show: I will not spoil the show in its entirety with the review, it's best to go in blind and experience it for yourself.

From the very start, after Shirobako and Kotobuki, you can feel that both director Tsutomu Mizushima and scriptwriter Michiko Yokote have certainly elevated in their respective fields. To go from a pure classic working series to a show of CGDCT-esque feeling of the Wild Wild West that's laden of dogfights, and now to a crazy wild doomsday journey just to reach a fellow friend, this show is the sum of everything that the both of them have mustered to give it a long-lasting reputation for being one of the most crazily thought-out plot settings, yet make everything Monogatari-esque with the heavy dialogue, and still be coherent and consistent. That is not an easy task, and while you can certainly debate if the extra Episode 13 is ever needed to wrap up the rather loose plot holes in a rather tight squeeze of the 12-episode runtime, I think this show really doesn't need that since its unique story and plot is a one-and-done thing that can be done within that timeframe.

With that being said, Shuumatsu Train is a rather eclectic show, bursting full of ideas that'll hit you left, right, and centerstage, almost as if the train journey itself is something of a fever dream that never has a terminus station. The group of JKs, all with their unique personalities and meeting even more crazy people along the way as they analyze the effect of the warped 7G reality, group leader Shizuru Chikura and her gang of peacemaker Nadeshiko Hoshi and frenemies of the optimistic Reimi Kuga and the intelligent Akira Shinonome, as they progress to Ikebukuro to save the friend who had fallen away, Yoka Nakatomi, it's a guilt trip of the supernatural to touching stories of the girls as they start from their rather unassuming hometown of Agano, with train conductor Zenjiro Taira at the helm, with one of the weirdest quirks that only beckons the girls on their journey of fate learning to drive the train (nicknamed Apogee, a reference to the "apogeego" creation name) to areas unseen without foresight for the unexpected. I kid you not when this rather deceptively hours (or rather, episodes) long trip from Agano to Ikebukuro has surprises at every corner, expected at the very least for its post-apocalyptic, sci-fi plot with a slice-of-life setting that's full of surreal comedy, and I LOVE IT.

On the production side, this is hands-down, easily the best work that the 3rd-rate studio EMT Squared has ever done, being the studio's first-ever original work (and most likely it's ONLY one for a long time), with gorgeous, beautiful visuals, even if they're intentionally made to be thrown out of whack. It's a good thing that director Tsutomu Mizushima specifically dragged fellow P.A. Works director Fumihiko Suganuma as the chief episode director of the series, since they both worked on Shirobako together, and long-time anime veterans already know the result of that formula. As for the involvement of storyboarder Michiko Yokote, while Shirobako is great, Kotobuki is rather decent, aside from the fact that it and Shuumatsu Train aren't P.A. Works' produced shows for a reason (i.e. the studio can't do dark settings well, a la the rather underwhelming show of Fall 2020's Kamisama ni Natta Hi a.k.a The Day I Became a God). Still, you have to give credit where it is due, and both Tsutomu Mizushima and Michiko Yokote deserve every ounce of praise for creating this once-in-a-lifetime, unforgettable show to commemorate Japan's 150-year-long history with trains.

The music also deserves a mention here. Composer Miho Tsujibayashi may only have the credits of Isekai Shokudou a.k.a Restaurant to Another World, and Season 1 of Machikado Mazoku a.k.a The Demon Girl Next Door, but Shuumatsu Train's OST is so well-composed that, as the youth of the current generation will say, she absolutely "slays" the competition with her work here, and I'm really excited to see where she'll go from here. Both the OP and ED songs are exceptional, with the catchy 8-bit-cum-modern funky tunes of Rei Nakashima's "GA-TAN GO-TON" which is a banger bop of a song, and the dark tunes of Rokudenashi's "Eureka" really setting the motion of the seemingly arbitrary train ride to unpredictable and unforeseeable lengths. Honestly, it's outstanding.

Shuumatsu Train is a show that may not be for everyone given its unruly nature, but in a unique season of reboots and remakes, the original shows (this show, Girls Band Cry and Yoru no Kurage wa Oyogenai a.k.a Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night, forget Astro Note) have been far and away the biggest surprises of the Spring 2024 season, and all 3 shows are great in their own right. But back to this show, if you haven't caught on to my endless singing of praises, then I don't know how to convince you to watch this magnificent anime, which has been a VERY LONG time that a show like this has managed to just capture and suck me into oblivion of its greatness since Winter 2018's Sora yori mo Tooi Basho a.k.a. A Place Further Than the Universe, that I can personally call this my AOTS.

Take my word that Shuumatsu Train Doko e Iku? a.k.a Train to the End of the World is a show NOT to be casted on the wayside and should be watched at least once. All aboard this doomsday GA-TAN GO-TON train ride to the vast unknown!

All things considered, this show handled its extremely tight time constraints pretty well. That being said, I still must remain fair in judging this against other anime of the same runtime. In short, this should have been a two-cour (24 episode) anime. If anything, 7/10 is generous by my standards of rating solely based on narrative explanations and things making sense, although I will admit that things could have been handled a lot worse (as I have seen in the past), so I’ll give this a pass on that front. Shuumatsu Train is an anime original, a notoriously mixed bag ranging anywhere from masterpieces such as MadokaMagica to several atrocities which I will not be naming here for fear of getting off topic. It is for this reason that I reserved judgment until the VERY final episode, only deciding on my rating once all was said and done.

Without going into spoiler territory, all I can really say is that this would have been MUCH better if it had been given the time it needed to actually develop its story and characters without going at the same breakneck speeds of the eponymous train. Theorising based on hypothetical scenarios is a waste of time, however, so I will conclude this with my thoughts on Shuumatsu Train as it was.

For what it was, this anime was fun and refreshing, albeit heavily rushed towards the end. If you don’t care too much about certain elements being skipped over or moments of almost laughably thick plot armour (these are some BUFF train tracks), I’d give it a watch. However, if you’re in search of something with carefully thought-out lore and detailed character development for the entire cast, perhaps look elsewhere.

Train to the End of the World is the latest screwball sci-fi comedy (?) anime on the block, and the sheer creativity of it had me quite impressed with it. It is not often that we see an anime go so far into the depths of “What were the writers thinking?”, and commit so hard to every comedic bit, but also tell a coherent story, so full credit to the writers for that. It being so out there does not surprise me though, given what the director, Tsutomu Mizushima, has directed previously. With the likes of Prison School, Shirobako, xxxHOLiC, and Girls Und Panzer on hisresume, Train to the End of the World follows in the same vein, as it lands between a lot of genres, but not committing to just one or two, but distorting and breaking the mold to create a memorable experience. This is a risk to take for sure, as sometimes, these sorts of stories fall flat from one misstep, leading to a snowball effect that brings the viewer completely out of the experience, whether it’s through questionable writing, theming that is all over the place, or just an incoherent storyline. Perhaps, that was what happened to Mayoiga, which funny enough, took place on a moving vehicle as well. Was this show the redemption to that one? Such a fate happens rather often to anime originals, but this anime had no such fall off.

One particular thing I really enjoyed about this anime was how snappy it was, while not feeling too rushed. Yes, there is an argument to be made about whether or not this would have functioned even better with more of a runtime, but what we got here was excellent nonetheless. The characters talk quickly, the story is fast-paced, and the comedy is as well. Honestly, that’s very befitting since the characters are on a train for a good portion of the anime, and trains in Japan are associated with fast speeds. The director’s Twitter account made numerous tweets about trains, inspirations for the show, and talked about some real life locations as well. It is great that he did his research beforehand on such things to make the show pop even more. Despite all the odd things that happened in this show, it feels like you’re on a tour along with the characters, with how the story is structured that some stops along the road to the final goal, which is Ikebukuro, get explored, just like if the viewers were on a crazy train ride themselves. The background music in this show certainly helped a ton as well.

Another thing I was very glad to see was that it stayed a fun romp until the very end. There were numerous opportunities to perhaps delve into more drama, with how the relationships between the characters were like, but the show stuck to its identity of being more comedy and adventure-based, and didn’t fall into the pit of emotional backstories. It did not deviate from the path of the train at any point, rather, it charged full steam ahead at every turn, and left no time for any interruptions.

Visually, although not the most polished at times, it ended up being quite solid and creative. Episode ten stood out to me the most with how many styles it employed to create such a hilarious battle between the main characters and the antagonist henchmen.

Overall, this was one of the best anime the Spring 2024 season had to offer. I had high hopes going in, and I leave this train having been on such a wild, and fun ride. Its imaginative, creative artistry had me in awe, and its comedy kept me laughing throughout.

Mizushima grabbed a blender, scooped up every ounce of his wild ideas from that head of his, blended it, and out came a delicious smoothie. I don’t know how this mad man did it either.

A literal psychedelic drug trip with friendship at it's core. While Train to Busan made my cry tears of sadness, Shuumatsu Train made my cry tears of reconciliation. While it looks like a turn your brain off show when you begin watching, the purpose of the mission is much deeper than that. Great job Shuumatsu Train for keeping me guessing all the time what will happen next. Every train station (civilisation is probably the best word) the girls come across is a roller coaster of emotions. One of the best things about this show is how unpredictable anything can be, yet still worthy to watch.From a city where mushrooms give the girls personality disorders rather than magic to a zombie kingdom and "no words to describe the chaos" manga land, worldbuilding gets a solid 8/10. Trust me, stuff just happens which will leave you laughing or scratching your head, but you'll still wanna know more what happens next despite confusion.

There is not too much depth to character writing, but each girl is unique in their personality and does their best to look out for each other. In times of crisis, these girls are the epitome of thinking outside the box. Plus this show takes "a dog is a man's best friend" to the next level; all pet lovers assemble. The story weaves not giving up and friendship together in addition to the moral of leaving the past behind and moving forward. True friends never let each other go!

If you like heavy metal music, this show will be even more enjoyable if you listen to Primus' songs while watching the chaotic episodes. Overall a joy to watch, even though some parts of the story may be too all over the place for comprehension. Yes, this original story maintains wholesomeness until the end.

From the first episode, an analogy with "Kino's Journey" arises. Each station somehow reveals different, often not entirely pleasant aspects of the world, which is reflected in Yoko's eyes. The main characters directly state — we never got to know her, and the journey serves as a method of revealing her worldview. The density of ideas here was multiplied by the brevity and simplicity of presentation. Because of the speed of the narrative and the absurdity of the form, it can be difficult to grasp the meaning of a particular scene. References to different anime, sometimes comical narration, familiar images that appear and collapse inan unusual setting and combinations.

Ikibukuro for the newly arrived Yoko, which looked unfamiliar and frightening as a hodgepodge of products and furnishings that are outlandish for her usual habitat and crawling out from everywhere, at the push of a button turns into its artistically framed and brought to the point of absurdity version - an urban jungle in the literal sense of the word.

The selection of the protagonists reveals the views of different types of people. Akira gives metaphysical comments, tries to get to the meaning and categorizes according to theory. Kuga is straightforward, values beauty and has more mundane interests. Nadeko values social interaction and connection, and Shidzuru acts as a person of action and not words, in this case from the desire to protect her values, playing more of a driving force. If you dig into the names of the characters (not only the main characters, but also the secondary ones) - you can find a reflection and references to their roles.

Maybe the river was not that big, maybe the distance between the stations was actually much smaller, but in Yoko's perception it feels like a huge space that is difficult to overcome.

There are references to harmful but pleasant habits and drug addiction. To people who like to rush headlong without understanding the meaninglessness of their actions. To those who lure with a berry, but, in fact, are just scammers. To people who dedicate their lives to making the ball fall in the right place. For show-offs or believers who stagnate motionlessly. And so on.

The baffling opening of Shuumatsu Train greatly piqued my interest - a whimsical way to start, isn’t it? The anime created an eccentric atmosphere with strong contrast: despite the extremely grim, catastrophic background, the narrative and art were of an unusually light-hearted and energetic style. The main characters embarked on an unprepared, resource-scarce journey, yet they still joke and chatter like regular school girls. Maybe that’s the side effect of a 7G as well? lol After 3 episodes, the world gradually revealed, and viewers were allowed - or guided - to speculate the metaphorical aspect of the story. Like most road movies, the journey isan instrument for MC’ encounters and growth. Each station has its own way of mutating local people (as depicted in the map shown in ep.2), and these mutations seem to represent a form of lifestyle. The MC’s task is to be observers and experience each stations’ lifestyle. Each episode feels like an essay by the creators, making comments on different attitudes towards life, which were exaggerated by the end-of-world situation. It still felt very realistic - I’m sure most people can think of someone around them living in a similar way, even in our modern world.

The character visuals weren’t the best; the design looked simple and movements are often weird since ep.1. But it didn’t bother me, as apparently visual is not the focus here. Background visuals are beautiful; who would hate a deserted but colorful rural view?

Where will this anime go? So far the metaphors were very straightforward, which was somewhat unsettling. After all, I don’t want to watch a creator monologue preaching obvious ideas. However, according to director Mizushima Tsutomu, the first 3 episodes were designed to be simple on purpose; starting from ep.4 it will head towards chaos - really looking forward to it! Hopefully the anime will get as unpredictable as possible.

Train to the end of the world is another in a long line of great off the wall anime. It's a wild ride that firmly sticks the landing with it's ending. Visuals are above average to good, limited CGI is used but it's well integrated and personally I found no issue with it. I generally find an episodic style to be slightly annoying but the really good quality of these episodes pushed it over the line for me. I'd highly recommend this show especially if you liked sonny boy (more serious and contemplative) the night is short walk on girl or Id invaded (more ofa mystery style).

When you give this work a chance, you have to understand that it's an anime that blends fantasy, comedy, action, and surrealism all at once. The post-apocalyptic world is great, and the references to pop culture are spot on. The premise of the show is great and it starts off in a very good and captivating way. But before I talk about what I thought, I have to say that I loved the animation, the character design, the setting, the soundtrack is excellent, the jokes are good, and the voice actors' work is very good. That said, the anime kind of stagnates in its middle, butthat's more the fault of the script than the direction (which is very good for what it sets out to do).

What I liked: - Creative and unique world-building: the anime is full of weird and surprising ideas, people turning into animals, zombies, mixed-up dimensions, and even a magic button that can “partially” reset the world. It’s wild, but in a cool way. - Bold and fearless style: The anime isn’t afraid to go all out with surreal, crazy, or unexpected stuff. The transformations, strange humor, and over-the-top ideas give it a totally unique vibe. - Fast pace and variety: You never get bored. Almost every episode brings something new, a different place, a new threat, or a weird twist in reality. There’s always something surprising going on. - Thecharacters: I really liked the main cast. They’re written in a simple but heartfelt way that makes you care about them.

- The ending: I loved how the story wrapped up. The world doesn’t just go back to normal, and that’s a strong message. It kind of reflects how some things (like a major event or technology, like 7G in the story) leave a lasting impact, even after they’re “gone.” It makes you think before jumping into big changes.

---

What I didn’t like:

- Some unexplained things: Since this is an original anime, a few plot points are left vague. For example, the plant that Nadeshiko carries feels symbolic, but it’s never really explained clearly.

- Some side characters feel shallow: While I liked the main group, many of the characters they meet along the way don’t get much development. Some exist just for jokes or weird moments and disappear quickly. Also, the show focuses a lot on Shizuru and Yoka, which makes the rest of the cast feel a bit forgotten by the end.

What happens when an anime studio is supplied with unlimited DMT? This! This is about the trippiest train trip you'll ever take. And while this could have easily jumped the track, you make your station safe and sound, if somewhat amazed. This series definitely deserves more consideration than it's gotten. The artwork is well above average. Colorful and bright and a touch surrealistic. Some of the background work is masterful. The animation takes some minor shortcuts, especially in the middle episodes, although it doesn't detract from the narrative at all. Some of the animation, especially as the story progresses, gets pretty trippy. Just about sentme into flashbacks.

They did such a great job with the characters, They start out cookie cutter: You got your driven MC, her trusty sidekick, a gyaru and the goth girl. As time goes on though, these young ladies bond closely, and find their way to confronting another friend who's unknowingly gotten herself into some deep doo-doo. My favorites turned out to be the gyaru and the goth girl. They fight like real sisters, but when push comes to shove, they are there for each other. Their dynamic is perfect, in large part due to some fine VA work, which pervades this series. Could have been easy to leave them 2 dimensional. Even side characters like the Zombie Queen or the Swan Hermit are quite interesting. Many kudos for the character designs, writing and acting.

If there is a problem with this series, it is the narrative writing, though. It's so weird and bouncing around, it's hard to follow at times. Plus there are lots of plot holes that get conveniently overlooked as time goes on. But this is not horribly distracting, as the series is more about the characters and the journey, not the destination. And in the long run, the writers do rope in most of the dangling strands and make for a satisfying ending.

I found myself so looking forward to my weekly trips on the shoo-shoo train. If it hardn't been for the writing quirks, I would have rated this a 10 for it's creativity. I'm still going to grade it at 92/100 and give it an A-. Highly recommended, especially if you are bored with the trash the studios dump in the mass consumption trough for the last 20 year. One of the recent titles that gives me hope that the anime artform is not yet dead.

Humor, heart and intrigue color this anime original, with the caveat of many limited runs being a rushed, mostly mediocre conclusion. The reality-warped post-apocalypse setting serves the absurdist elements of the narrative really well. While our bubbly, young leads feel fairly archetypal, there are enough inklings of character growth etched out through fun banter and some contextual gags that flesh out the world a bit. (The train conductor who's granted five minutes of sanity a day and, otherwise, speaks in "choo choo" noises is a genuinely "wtf" concept that warrants a good laugh.) The journey to find a missing friend feels appreciatively familiar. Plus, theanime's lighthearted, almost "slice-of-life" tone, already distinguishes this from most other post-apocalyptic media that tend to view the characters and setting through more cynical eyes.

That being said, the anti-climactic finale sort of loses this appeal, even if its heart remains mostly intact. Decidedly, it's one of those shows that captures your attention, but then derails itself slightly by the end. Fun visuals and concepts are held back by passable animation. This is not a massive drawback, as I don't often hold a show's quality to that criteria alone. It's the destination that leaves much to be desired. Considering how charming the rest of the show is, the resolution and buildup feel mostly expected and humdrum.

Everything, from people turning into animals to braindead fungi, still feels like a fun mashup of past concepts within the genre, despite my overall nitpicking. All of it rolled into a cutesy, wholesome package that has you solidly along for the ride.