Shuumatsu Train Doko e Iku?/Train to the End of the World

Episode 5, as usual, was a trip. Pretty funny to see Reimi acting like King Kong! Also to see the Boss get deported to some random island in the middle of nowhere, he probably deserves it.

That scene with Zenjiro getting lobotomised was pretty horrifying, I hope that he gets to meet up with the Doctor again, and that we find out more information on the development of 7G.

Seems like they found two parters here.

also localized Zombie Apocalypse

Episode 6: So it turns out the fight between Shizuru and Yoka was, in fact, simple: it's because Shizuru was a total ass. Of course, it's probably because Shizuru felt she would get left behind, or something along those lines. Regardless, no wonder Yoka ran off to Ikebukuro.

Migratory zombies! They even explained why the move around, which is funny as heck. Also there seems to be something up with Pochi. That dog eviscerated that one zombie.

The whole comparison between Shizuru and a deadbeat lover had me in stitches.

Ep 6: So it turns out that Shizuru is...kind of an asshole without knowing why. Well, she gets literally captured by zombies, so make with that what you will.

I've been seeing people saying that the Pochi death flags are going up and...I don't think the show will, but I hope they don't.

zombified is more likely to happen.

as for Shizuru I think addressing that attitude will be the last hurdle they have to clear to resolve everything. And tie into her tendency to push everyone away assuming that isn't resolved in the next EP

Edited by MorningStar1337 on May 7th 2024 at 11:44:57 AM

Pochi is probably safe until they meet Yoka. He's needed to find her.

Yep, we're definitely building up to another confrontation between Shizuru and Yoka. And for that to get resolved, Shizuru has to undergo some character development.

A random thought. With the implications that the 7G project Yoka's perception onto the line and the argument boiling down to Shizuru thinking that intellectual works are too difficult to pursure. Do you think the whole "turning into animals" is the result of Yoka's feelings towards her specifically? A karmic reflection of her complacency and laziness?

Could also be a representation of Yoka's fear that she would grow up to be someone who's only going through the motions in a backwater town, which would explain why the transformation only happens at 21 years old.

So I slept on this series, because I didn't know it was the Girls Und Panzer director's latest entry into the "girls drive big things" subgenre. And after binging all six episodes ... it's really not very good. Given the director's past work, I suspect this is a budget issue. It starts out with semi-decent animation, but that tapers off quickly. The cinematography gets so bland and the pacing so choppy, it's like he had a tight budget for background plates or something. It's a road trip series, but there's no sense of adventure in the way the shots are planned out. It lacks sakuga and sweeping music and interesting composition to sell the audience on this being a thrilling journey. When the show isn't holding on still background images (or shots of the train from the side, so they don't need to animate it) it just looks cheap and bad, like that goat-man attack in episode 4. The idea of taking a wild train ride through a psychedelic Japan really needs, like, a Rolling Girls or Flip Flappers level of animation quality. Compared to those two, this is just "bleeeeegh".

And the less said about that poorly-paced, clumsily-handled subplot about "the Doctor" that totally wasted Yuka Iguchi, the better.

I got the impression that the towns were all manifesting some gimmick that makes them unique, not specifically anything to do with Yoka. Hence the reference to Tokyo being a shitshow in the last episode. It's so bombarded with advertisements and fads that it has no cultural identity of its own, or something like that.

There is heavy foreshadowing in the flashback in episode 4 that Yoka is indeed influencing the changing of the towns, because those towns changed according to how Shizuru described them.

Or she's just describing things they're known for, and they themselves are manifesting their own existence as some social commentary on small towns being known for one thing.

"Everybody is trapped by their thoughts in a hell of their own making" seems more Buddhist-y than "find one girl who can fix everything," which is why I suspect that's the route they'll take.

Edited by WarriorsGate on May 10th 2024 at 2:20:19 AM

That seems way less likely to me, especially considering it would be more thematically fitting for Yoka to have projected her views onto the world.

It'd be far more thematically appropriate if the 7G phenomenon was a consensual illusion generated by everybody, considering episode 3 was all about a parochial town refusing to change their way of thinking, and instead trying to force others to accept theirs.

The core of the story is clearly Shizuru and Yoka's relationship. So it's more thematically fitting for Yoka's mind to have influenced the 7G.

The core of the story is social commentary about the decline of Japanese rural areas, like a surreal version of Sakura Quest, with some Buddhist philosophy about thoughts creating the world mixed in.

Yoka is barely in it; she's a plot device more than a character at this point.

Frankly I think that's a major misread of this coming-of-age tale, but let's just agree to disagree. Part of the fun of anime-originals is we will find out the answers at roughly the same time.

That said the argument of Yoka being a plot device is valid. She is basically Shizuru's macguffin.

The flashbacks should try to address that, but YMMV on how effective that it.

Train is not the first work to use that combination of factors, granted.

To be honest, I don't think this series is particularly well-written. The decision to roughly sketch the characters out in the first episode and fill in their backstory later left them bland and underdeveloped, with unclear motivations, initially. I also think the choice to have them spontaneously hop aboard the train rather than consciously decide to all leave together in advance robbed them of agency.

It's got good ideas, but the execution feels very muddled and sloppy.

Stories rarely tell you everything about a character at the outset.

Edited by MisterTambourineMan on May 10th 2024 at 12:53:03 PM

Im predisposed to agree. not all stories are meticulously planned affairs.

That said, I do think there were issues with the pacing and character development.

• In terms of spotlight. Shizuru got the most. Being the driving agent behind the plot and there the mc if the first and most recent EP, and likely the next one as well.
• Akira was explored next with the mushroom thing, bit that was only one episode.
• Reimi was next as a consequence of the above in both causality and dynamic, yet her and Shizuru's stint as unintentional Kaiju lasted for two episodes.
• That left Nade(shi)ko as the most underdeveloped and unexplored member of the Apogee thus far. All we know about her is that shes the matronly one and she's an archer (albeit in the sense that Shirou Emiya is one) that's it.
• And then there's Yoka, currently stuck in Macguffin status and therefore has no presence outside flashbacks.

I guess it could be argued that Nadeko and Yoka are going to get their spotlight later, but that would imply the former is as involved as Yoka is with 7G in some way. Or that there is a personal connection there beyond friendship (and that seems like Shizuru's role).

I agree on the characters being kind of... bland. I feel like I have no idea why any of them are there- not in a "reason they decided to hop on the train" way but in a "what does this person bring to the story" way.

Imagine this:

Instead of Shizuka chasing after her friend, have it be her big sister. When she was little, she watched "onee-san!" come and go from the city by train. She grew up to be "the train otaku", just like Yukari Akiyama was "the tank otaku". Shizuka idealizes trains as a means of freedom and escape from the drudgery of her parochial small town. You can cut out that shit with the conductor and his magic hat. Shizuka is the train otaku, so she knows how to drive the train (in theory) because she's been fixing it up and preparing for this trip to find her big sister for a long time.

Meanwhile, Nadeshiko has to take over the family melon farm. She says, "Shizuka, you can't leave, because subtext about Japanese rural decline!" She has roots in her hometown and she's been railroaded (pun intended) by her social obligations into accepting her parochial existence. Reimi wants to go to the city because she's trendy, and Akira wants to go to the city because famous books or something (see what I mean about unclear motivations?). But Nadeshiko puts her foot down and says to the other three, "I won't go with you!"

Then, at the last minute, she runs after the train and climbs aboard anyway. But she brings a little melon plant with her, to symbolize the fact that you always bring a little piece of your hometown with you, wherever you go. You establish what this means on a character level, like how A Place Further than the Universe spent its first episode building up the main character's personality, so the audience understands what it means on a dramatic level when she decides to "spontaneously" take a chance.

Then, as the girls go on this grand adventure through the psychedelic Japanese landscape, you have the freespirited Shizuka and the conservative, parochial Nadeshiko conflict with each other. Through their rapport you highlight the theme of whether to abandon your dreams and stay in the countryside, or leave and contribute to rural decline.

These elements are all there (Nadeshiko was specifically described as having a green thumb, so I'm 100% sure farming will be part of her spotlight episode), but they're not told in a particularly clear or compelling way. While some of that is down to the flat direction, it's also a script problem. This is like a first draft, where you jot down ideas and notions as they come to you, and it's a big sloppy mess. You're supposed to rewrite your first draft to make the story stronger, not just put it into production like that.

They justify the genre of course

More seriously. If I had to guess. Shizuru would been the leader. Yoka is her objective and she was the most proactive in that end to the point she learned how to drive the train. Akira would've been the smart one (and the Morse expert), Reimi the brawn, and Nadeko the one that keeps the group together and mediates the conflict.

Of course that is still bare bones and I don't think came into play that much and it doesn't help that not only did the other girls learn how to operate the train, but also know Morse enough to communicate with Agano. It's a specialization problem.

Were I in a position to address that i'd, have Akira be both the point of contact and the one most versed in pre-7G Japan, enought to tell what to expect and see which had carried over or became exaggerated. Reimi would be the seemingly dumb muscle, but with a hidden smart side, esp in terms of fashion and would end being in scenarios where that background would be useful (saw for example if fabrics was needed for an obstacle). Nadeko would serve a secondary role in combat with covering fire and hunting.

But of course those are just my ideas and they might not even be good ones. Or at least better than what is already set in stone.

That said it might be a result of pacing issues. 12 episodes and a desire to do two parters meant there might not much room here for making the girls feel like they have a nessecary role so far. Otoh you can argue that it is the point. That they didn't have to be there but wanted to go anyway despite perceived redundancy.

Next EP just became more interesting through that lens.

Edited by MorningStar1337 on May 10th 2024 at 12:15:42 PM

Here's an article from the Japanese government about what I believe was the inspiration for the anime, the "Digital Garden City Nation", their plan to revive rural areas via digital infrastructure.

https://www.japan.go.jp/kizuna/2022/01/vision_for_a_digital_garden_city_nation.html

Funnily enough, one of their mandates was 90% 5G coverage by March 31st, 2024, the day before the anime aired. I wonder if that air date was intentional satire.

I'm sure the reason they skipped over 6G and went straight to 7G is because it's some Buddhist wordplay that'll get revealed in the final episodes.

Is there a particular reason you think the show is so steeped in Buddhism?