ZNoteTaku

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.

Marinate1016

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.