Wellcome! Welcome all. For this mysterious, puzzling and bizarre adventure! Let's delve into a world that seems to care little about the laws of the universe imposed by humans. A world where wonders and the unknown lurk around every corner! So put on your tinfoil hats, watch out for the reptiles that rule us, and join us in delving into the ultimate Weirdness with Train to the End of the World.
What is extreme strangeness? Um. You see, UAPs actually fly in our skies, but no one knows what they are. It's a long time ago, when we were as afraid of little green men as we were of those damn communists. Astronomer and university professor Josef Allen Hynek is a consultant on several projects related to the authenticity and existence of UFOs. In these projects, he coined the term “high strangeness” to refer to the uncannily bizarre.
Aliens crossing galaxies to poke your ass? It's the height of strangeness. Crytpids running around your attic? It's the height of strangeness. 7G causes an apocalypse and forces a herd of lolis to go on a rescue mission? There's definitely a high degree of strangeness.
Training to the End of the World, Volumes 1 and 2
From the beginning, Train to the End of the World raises some important red flags. Any corporation that kidnaps a teenage girl via a robotic owl that leaves her covered in a mysterious, opaque substance either really knows how to have fun or is miles away from the law. Here, it's the latter. Yoka Nakatomi learned this lesson the hard way when she was chosen to be the person to launch the world's first 7G network. As she stood there, confused and upset. An executive named Poison Pontaro informs her of what's going on. Speak wisely. If one day an owl covers you in sticky liquid and a guy named Poison Pontaro approaches you, raise your hand. Channel your inner Mike Tyson and bite an ear off! But guess she's from a small town because she couldn't try that there.
7G, as heavily advertised, will bring humanity closer to paradise. It will heal all past and present illnesses. It would have brought us No Game No Life season 2. But because Yoka was forced to press the button, instead of all the magical promises. The end of time begins. Perhaps the Mayans arrived 12 years earlier. And all over Japan (and perhaps the world), things are going wrong. Humans transform into animals (insert FMA flashback). The geography and topography of the landscape are altered beyond recognition, and the night sky shows how miserable humans are.
In the town of Anago, humanity is not doing very well. However, Shizuru Chikura had only one thing on her mind: Yoka, who had been missing since 7G began. But try to find her, since the world became chaotic, she is Karen. An even more pressing problem is that she has little time to find her. For unknown reasons, when villagers turn 21 years old (plus 3 months), they will turn into animals. While they still retain their sanity, they are trapped in the village. Venturing like animals into a world where humans have little food, supplies, and god knows what other disgusting creatures lurk around is just an easy way to get eaten.
However, due to a sudden fate, one day, Shizuru received the clue she was waiting for. As a heavily armored supply convoy makes its drop, Shizuru and her friends notice a crumpled newspaper in one of the boxes containing a photo taken in Ikebukuro. And in that photo is the missing Yoka. Realize that life is almost over, everything is falling apart and time is running out. Shizuru begins searching for the missing Yoka via a derelict train that she learned to pilot with the help of the curious, transforming Zenjiro.
But because her departure is so quick and violent, her friends are abandoned by it and, in confusion, join her journey. As the girls head towards Ikebukuro, they realize that they may not be prepared for the journey ahead. They lacked food supplies and did not know how long the journey would take. The train ride that once took an hour from Agano to Ikebukuro has now become a months-long journey as the distance between the two places increases. So the choice to return to Agano and resupply was made. But a tsunami forces the girls to head towards Ikebukuro.
7G: It's like 5G but with two more dangerous growth spurts
While 7G is the end of the world it seems hard to believe. Please remember that we live in a world where people believe 5G is everything from a form of mind control to the raison d'être of COVID-19. And if you are not aware of it, I envy your life. But if you can't avoid stupid things online, have you wondered why people believe this? What a lack of education. I'm not saying that all conspiracies are false. There's some really wild stuff out there 100% true.
But not this one. This stems from a misunderstanding of the difference between harmful radiation and the non-iodine radiation of RF electromagnetic fields. But for the moment, let's say 7G (which scientists have warned about) emits harmful radiation. How could that have caused what we saw?
High strangeness with a train ride to the end of the world; Space/time distortions
From the start, the most notable problem that 7G causes is the complete change in the Earth's environment. Based on what we saw in the debut as well as what we saw later in episodes 1 and 2, like the different planets present in the night sky. We have to assume that 7G created enough disruption to not only disturb the planet but perhaps even move it to another point in the universe or another dimension altogether.
Why can we speculate that? If you were somehow on Pluto and looked up at the night sky, it would still be somewhat familiar. The positions of the constellations you see here will vary. However, the constellations themselves will be the same. Those things are so far away from us that no matter where you are in the Milky Way, you'll find them somewhere in the night sky. So let them be absent and have the planets in their places. We are far from home.
But how? Yes, gravity holds everything together. It's what makes the planets cohesive and also what determines their orbits. When 7G is on, everything shakes. Those vibrations can be so strong that they literally warp space. How humans or even this planet survived is a mystery. The expansion of people when 7G is turned on is a pretty good sign that this may be the case. If a black hole appeared near Earth, we wouldn't collapse into it. We will be stretched and deformed as we approach the event horizon.
7G and sporadic somatic mutations
Once 7G was activated and the Anthropocene was shut down, everything changed. But that change is not consistent. While in Ikebukuro mainly the infrastructure has changed. In Agano (our MC's hometown), people have changed. To be more precise, they turned into animals. And again, one has to wonder how.
Radiation would be a reasonable answer. If enough radiation is released, either directly by 7G or indirectly by foreign substances introduced into the Earth's atmosphere. That radiation/substance can cause mutations and cause human cells to assimilate cells from other animals.
However, an important note is that, as stated, humans do not completely transform into animals. Instead, they take on their form. Animals cannot talk or reason because the structures of their brains and vocal cords are very different. However, in animal form, Agano residents are able to retain their intellectual abilities and the ability to speak.
That suggests that there is mutation or horizontal gene transfer and assimilation going on. But there's a problem with this explanation: the species is already extinct. If we pay attention to the background scenes in episode one, we see dinosaurs and woolly mammoths roaming the town. Since no viable genetic material from either of these animals still exists, we must assume that not only space but also time was affected. Or it's something completely different.
High strangeness with Train to the End of the World – Article notes
A few things worth noting are the hyper growth shown in the program and how electricity still works. As shown in the train in episode 2, the growth rate of plants is accelerated. Likewise, crop yields are also more abundant than before.
Although the town's electricity is still used, the electricity rate has decreased significantly. Only a single device can be used, anything more than that will result in the circuit breaker tripping. Trains still operate but run on fake electricity that now flows across the tracks. This initially seems unrelated and part of the course, but the researcher in episode 2 says that everything other than those along Seibu-Ikebukuro is probably gone. It seems the rails hold the key to what might happen. Trusting a crazy person on a swan boat is never a good idea. However, when that person gives you a realistic map of what you will see, it is best to listen and follow suit.
Screenshot via Crunchyroll
© apogeego/Shumatsu Train Doko he Iku? Production Committee