Train to the End of the World – Ep. 1 (First Impressions)

I assumed from the title that Train to the End of the World takes place in a post-disaster scenario. What I did not expect is how the world gets messed up in this show. Basically, a young girl named Yoka Nakatomi (Nao Toyama) gets roped into participating in the public unveiling of a 7G cellular network. Upon pressing the big shiny button that activates the network however, Yoka inadvertently warps the fabric of reality. This causes numerous side effects, the most widespread one being an increased amount of space between various locations in Japan. I kind of find this absurd but then again, some people genuinely thought that 5G gave us COVID so what do I know? Maybe this will happen when 7G is a thing in real life.

The episode then cuts to 2 years later and shifts perspective over to Yoka’s hometown of Agano. There, the residents have all transformed into talking animals after they turn 21 years old. We get introduced to the principal cast: Shizuru Chikura (Chika Anzai), Nadeshiko Hoshi (Azumi Waki), Reimi Kuga (Erisa Kuon), and Akira Shinonome (Hina Kino). Shizuru is the de facto leader of the group, Reimi and Akira often butt heads with each other, and Nadeshiko mediates between the two with violence. Not much else to say about them but they’re charming enough.

All four girls are childhood friends of Yoka and they’re unsure of what became of her. Shizuru in particular has searching for clues; she hopes to find Yoka and make amends with her after they had a falling out prior to the 7G disaster. After receiving a delivery from an associate, the girls stumble upon a recent newspaper article showing Yoka in Ikebukuro. The show will need to flesh out the girls’ connection with Yoka but this is a pretty solid premise on paper. Past the absurdity, this story is really just four girls who want to travel the country to find their missing friend. That alone gives us something to relate to but the stake of Shizuru wanting to reconcile with Yoka adds some urgency and drama to the plot. For all she knows, she has only one chance to make things right.

By chance, Shizuru finds and returns a train conductor’s cap to the mysterious Zenjiro (Kazuyuki Okitsu), which somehow restores his youth and sanity for a limited amount of time. Zenjiro reveals his history with the creators of 7G and he gives Shizuru a crash course on how to operate his train so that she can travel to Ikebukuro. This part is the only time where the show actually baffles me. The premiere generally does a good job going over the effects of the 7G disaster and how people deal with it, with pretty decent exposition no less. Here though, it doesn’t really explain why giving Zenjiro his hat restores him, let alone why it’s unreliable. Also rushed is Zenjiro saying that he can’t accompany Shizuru because reasons (that is literally in the subtitles provided by Crunchyroll). I could chalk this up all to 7G but that feels more like sloppy writing than a justification and it’s still a far cry from the worldbuilding seen earlier in the episode.

At the end of the episode, the show establishes that there are 30 stops for the train to travel through before reaching Ikebukuro. My guess is that this show will have a very episodic format, with one of these stops being featured in each episode. Bear in mind that Train to the End of the World is only slated for 12 episodes so unless the staff are betting on getting a second season, this show will likely depict a third of the stops before showing Ikebukuro in the finale. I am curious to see what the other locations look like. The show risks using the 7G disaster as an excuse to do a bunch of nonsense but there is nevertheless potential for some creative and evocative vistas.

OP: “GA-TAN GA-TON” by Rei Nakashima

ED: “Eureka” by Rokudenashi

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Watch Train to the End of the World on Crunchyroll