© apogeego/「終末トレインどこへいく?」製作委員会
Train to the End of the World has dropped its training weight. It no longer holds your hand. It grabs your arm and throws you into the abyss. I respect that. Most series use the first three episodes to acclimate the audience to their style and intentions. Here, Mizushima and Yokote gently smooth out the strangeness, lull us into their oddities, and then turn the knob to 11 after it's too late to jump off. This fifth episode doubles down on the manic energy of the fourth episode, which becomes clear as soon as the cold open features an archery match where hitting your opponent with a bow is a decent move. France. No explanation was given, nor was it needed. Today, the girls are still trapped in their Lilliputian environment, but the shaggy-dog comedy of their struggles keeps this setting from feeling stale.
For me, the pacing was the standout this week. Watching this episode feels like watching a normal anime episode at 1.5x speed. The characters are motivated people. There are hardly any breaks between lines of dialogue. The plot slips and turns at breakneck speed. And most importantly, it works! The Shuumatsu Train feels like a classic comedy, with the characters throwing punches left and right. These are not “realistic” or “natural” dialogues, but are often humorous and excellently localized. The scene where Shizuru and Reimi hold full balloons like loaded guns is so fun! What other anime will give you golden lines like “Help us and become a skeleton, or get pissed and become a skeleton”?
Obviously, the show's brave commitment to its underlying absurdity is what determines the feature, but the quality of the writing makes this story work. Captivating dialogue and strong characterization create a foundation for surrealism. For example, I thought last week's flashback of Lil'Akira tricking Lil'Reimi into eating paper was just a cute anecdote that summed up their relationship. However, that scene actually paid off in Akira's cure, with her best friend lovingly pinning her down and stuffing the pages of her favorite book into her mouth. It's a pleasant surprise and a sign of a tightly crafted script. I also liked the restraint with which the conspiracy/mystery angle was presented. Each episode breaks out a little, but not too much, and it plays out in a tone that matches the rest of the story. That's how you get a thirty-second lobotomy scene that's both funny and horrifying. It's camp, baby.
The visual direction of an anime is also important to its continued success. I consider Mizushima and Yokote to be equal partners in the beautiful crime that is the Shuumatsu. This episode in particular draws a lot of great comedy from its differences in scale. The sight of two kaiju-sized high school girls sneaking around buildings and warehouses as if they were Snake made me howl. Berserker Reimi makes the necessary King Kong references and the looser animation style makes the scene more enjoyable to watch. You can also see Mizushima applying his experience with The Magnificent KOTOBUKI's dogfights to the aerial bombardments featured here. There is a real possibility that this series will be considered his masterpiece.
I'm not joking. The Shuumatsu might make you think it's all stupid, but I assure you that its brain is as big as the mushrooms growing out of Akira's butt. Doctor Makoto confirms that 7G causes a person's perception to change their reality, and that it is a thread flooded with mineable ore. I think one of the defining storylines of modernity is the dissolution of the relevance of reality in the public and political sphere. Take, for example, “The Boss” in this week’s episode, a fitting stand-in for the paper tiger strongmen who make up stories to gain power. Shizuru and the film sympathize with him to some extent, but he is an extremely pathetic character—a misguided bully playing with the gods—who has a final and appropriate fate. only exile. Sadly, we don't need 7G to unravel the fabric of reality. Our brains are already very good at doing this on their own.
However, Ship Shuumatsu was not completely skeptical. The girls have the deck stacked against them, but Reimi still manages to restore Akira's soul. They boarded the train back to Ikebukuro. Akira recited the encyclopedia entry on sadism. As long as you are not a skeleton, life goes on.
Rating:
Train to the End of the World is now streaming on Crunchyroll.