Train to the End of the World, episodes 1-7
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There we go. There's probably a whole book to be written about anime and train journeys into the strange and unsettling, whether it's
Night on the Galactic Railroad, Galaxy Express 999, Evangelion, Spirited Away or even
Elfen Lied, the convention of the train as a conduit not just to other physical places but to realms of the psyche seems to have embedded itself into the Japanese cultural landscape as surely as giant-robots-as-golems that grant mere men the power of gods to use for good or evil or say, four archetypal girls on an adventure of some kind. Here we have the girls and we have the train, what happens when you combine GE999's railway to weirdness with Cute Girls Doing Wacky Things? Well, you get that one 10 minute segment from
MagiPoka or you get this full 12 episode series, I'm certainly on board for that.
The tone of the show is certainly set early, I don't think anybody would be under any illusions about what they're in for after the very first pre-credits scene. I knew I would get along with its sense of humour as soon as the Mad Max style spike and blood covered delivery trucks of the post apocalypse arrived playing a cheerful ice cream van tune. And boy, do things just get odder from there. I was pleasantly surprised with just how off-the-wall this show is prepared to get, I mean perhaps I've just been missing out (it's entirely possible) but it felt like this kind of insanity went out of style for a while as the isekai and the slow-paced relaxing CGDCT shows reigned supreme. Are we back? Do we have the return of Urusei Yatsura to thank for this (which I shamefully have still not gotten around to)?
It's not all wacky hijinks though and the show does have something of a heart, even if it feels a litle contrived at times and a bit like the staff would rather just be chucking the girls headfirst into another mishap than slowing down for a heartfelt moment. It does however provide the impetus for the girls to continue on their journey any sane person would 'nope' out of in search of their disappeared friend. Most of this is provided by Shizuru who so far is so capable-but-mildly-flawed-protagonist and Nadeko who is... well she's not there for
me, let's put it that way. She's kind and pleasant and sensible and all those kind of
boring things. As far as the main characters go, Akira and reiten Reimi reichōrui are carrying the show hard for me. The love-hate relationship between the airheaded genki girl and the arrogant cynic makes me feel like I'm watching an anime adaptation of
Planes, Trains and Automobiles at times, I'd be perfectly okay with the show just being about them. Please, if there's a definitive ending after these 12 episodes I want a road trip spin-off. But so far this show is very definately not what I was expecting in the best of ways.
