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This Week in Anime - The Fantastic Final Days of Girls' Last Tour


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mgosdin



Joined: 17 Jul 2011
Posts: 1302
Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA
PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 1:56 pm Reply with quote
OK, as soon as they finished driving the stake into Anime Strike's heart ( Yes it did have one, and Yes it appears to have been hard to find. ) I went onto my Amazon Prime account's video, looked Girls' Last Tour up and started watching. It was worth it, totally.

Now I've got some more bingeing to do.

Mark Gosdin
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 2:34 pm Reply with quote
While the higher concept stuff was all really nice, I think episode 6 was my favourite because it was such a concise and incisive thesis statement for the show. Ishii falling slowly into the abyss is an all-time great image.

One thing that impressed me about this show is how consistently it improved throughout the season. Each new episode hit some new emotional chord or included some profound set-piece that I never really expected the show to contain. Also the best ED of the whole year imo.


Last edited by 鏡 on Tue Jan 16, 2018 2:41 pm; edited 3 times in total
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yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
Posts: 3804
PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 2:36 pm Reply with quote
Girls' Last Tour is now firmly ensconced in my pantheon of truly unique anime alongside Nakamura Kenji's Apothecary stories, the "Bake Neko" arc of Ayakashi Samurai Horror Tales and its continuation, the series Mononoke. I might put Dennou Coil in that list as well.

My favorite sequence might have been their discovery of music. I watched this show with a friend who described their motivations as "primal." How the plinks and plunks of falling rain translated into the concept of music had that quality. At that point they were no different than their prehistoric ancestors out on the plains listening to rain fall and enjoying the patterns of sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_yQWl7AidM

I think we should also thank Kubo Yurika and Minase Inori for their performances as Yuu and Chi. These had to have been particularly demanding roles requiring the two seiyuu to have the right chemistry and endurance to carry nearly the entire show on their shoulders. Well done, ladies!
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Takkun4343



Joined: 19 Jul 2007
Posts: 1493
Location: Englewood, Ohio
PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 3:30 pm Reply with quote
I saw the mention of EMPs and almost got depressed...

...and then that Pop Team Epic reference and everything was happy again.
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Dark Mac



Joined: 17 May 2008
Posts: 309
PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 3:52 pm Reply with quote
Hmm, are we sure they aren't sisters? I kinda got that implication a few times. Wouldn't say it's definite, but it felt a bit like that to me.
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Blanchimont



Joined: 25 Feb 2012
Posts: 3426
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 4:25 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
and in a way, their journey continues this season

Actually, the manga this is based on has already ended too. spoiler[The Answer to Everything holds the clue. Proceed at your own peril.]
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yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
Posts: 3804
PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 4:43 pm Reply with quote
Dark Mac wrote:
Hmm, are we sure they aren't sisters? I kinda got that implication a few times. Wouldn't say it's definite, but it felt a bit like that to me.

I saw them as unrelated orphans who had been taken into that bunker by "grandpa." Chito seemed especially close to him because of their shared love for books. As for the lesbian implications that many observers see, if you're the only two people left on your planet, what else would you do? I don't see either of them portrayed in an especially sexualized manner, either. Friendship, forced though it was by circumstance, seemed the more powerful emotion binding them together. Perhaps they had become friends in the bunker, and grandpa sent them off together as a result. They might also have been the only girls their age, or even the only children left, so grandpa saw them as humanity's last hope.


Last edited by yuna49 on Tue Jan 16, 2018 4:55 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Zin5ki



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 6680
Location: London, UK
PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 4:48 pm Reply with quote
Dark Mac wrote:
Hmm, are we sure they aren't sisters? I kinda got that implication a few times. Wouldn't say it's definite, but it felt a bit like that to me.

A credible point, certainly. The subtitles never made it explicit that the grandfather character was only a blood relative of one of them.

That said, the social differences between varying kinds of relationships would probably be meaningless to Chito and Yuu. One could argue that part of the series' appeal is how they often reflect on the presumed norms of society despite outlasting society itself, and indeed the fact that while they cast plenty of such norms into doubt—such as property rights, rights to life and so on—they neither question their impulse to stay together, nor consider it a mere matter of convenience.
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ultimatehaki



Joined: 27 Oct 2012
Posts: 1090
PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 4:52 pm Reply with quote
yuna49 wrote:
Dark Mac wrote:
Hmm, are we sure they aren't sisters? I kinda got that implication a few times. Wouldn't say it's definite, but it felt a bit like that to me.

I saw them as unrelated orphans who had been taken into that bunker by "grandpa." Chito seemed especially close to him because of their shared love for books. As for the lesbian implications that many observers see, if you're the only two people left on your planet, what else would you do? I don't see either of them portrayed in an especially sexualized manner, either. Friendship, forced though it was by circumstance, seemed the more powerful emotion binding them together. Perhaps they become friends in the bunker, and grandpa sent them off together as a result. They might also have been the only girls their age, or even the only children left, so grandpa saw them as humanity's last hope.


They were raised as sisters by their "grandpa" figure. They're both orphans he picked up as really young kids. People paint them in lesbian relationship for some reason (cause it's apparently impossible to have a close relationship with a member of the same sex without it being gay in this day and age Rolling Eyes) but they're not. Not even close.
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A Mystery



Joined: 10 Oct 2010
Posts: 1886
Location: Netherlands
PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 5:08 pm Reply with quote
Regarding their sexualities:
They could just as well be heterosexual. Everything is possible (asexual, bi, hetero, gay, you name it). But you know - there aren't any young dateable men in sight. Or just dateable young people period. They might not even exist anymore. If I had a remotely attractive partner in crime who was the only one in sight, why not have sex if both sides want it? Doesn't make me gay per se.
They never showed any affection though that could be translated as purely romantic. They already had a deep friendship bond and hugging and kissing sometimes could be part of that bond without romantic aspirations.

In the end it doesn't matter, they were happy together.
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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5821
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 5:34 pm Reply with quote
Got to watch this show, but I guess based on the outcome, spoiler[the lady pilot and the camera man must die] in the show.
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mgosdin



Joined: 17 Jul 2011
Posts: 1302
Location: Kissimmee, Florida, USA
PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 5:43 pm Reply with quote
@TarsTarkas, it's unclear what happened to Ishii and Kanazawa. The Adult Mushroom people say that to their knowledge only Chito and Yuuri are left, but these are also the same people that lost their youngest one. So, they aren't infallible.

Mark Gosdin
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BodaciousSpacePirate
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Joined: 17 Apr 2015
Posts: 3017
PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 6:11 pm Reply with quote
ultimatehaki wrote:
People paint them in lesbian relationship for some reason (cause it's apparently impossible to have a close relationship with a member of the same sex without it being gay in this day and age Rolling Eyes) but they're not. Not even close.


Putting aside the distinct possibility that these girls wouldn't have even the faintest inkling of what the word "gay" meant, there are a non-zero number of Japanese men who are buying the manga because it's being marketed to them as a series about lesbians. Meanwhile, there are still people who vehemently deny that the guys in Yuri on Ice have anything more than "a close relationship". These shows are all deliberately coded to allow people to maintain plausible deniability, and have been for decades, so why not just let people think what they want about the characters' sexualities?
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Nordhmmer



Joined: 11 Feb 2017
Posts: 1028
PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 6:24 pm Reply with quote
mgosdin wrote:
@TarsTarkas, it's unclear what happened to Ishii and Kanazawa. The Adult Mushroom people say that to their knowledge only Chito and Yuuri are left, but these are also the same people that lost their youngest one. So, they aren't infallible.

Mark Gosdin


That is not what they tell the girls...

The "Mushrooms" tell the girls that they've only explored the higher levels but not the highest level.

So Ishii,last we saw,was headed for the ground level and Kanzawa was left wandering the lower levels.
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ultimatehaki



Joined: 27 Oct 2012
Posts: 1090
PostPosted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 6:48 pm Reply with quote
BodaciousSpacePirate wrote:
ultimatehaki wrote:
People paint them in lesbian relationship for some reason (cause it's apparently impossible to have a close relationship with a member of the same sex without it being gay in this day and age Rolling Eyes) but they're not. Not even close.


Putting aside the distinct possibility that these girls wouldn't have even the faintest inkling of what the word "gay" meant, there are a non-zero number of Japanese men who are buying the manga because it's being marketed to them as a series about lesbians. Meanwhile, there are still people who vehemently deny that the guys in Yuri on Ice have anything more than "a close relationship". These shows are all deliberately coded to allow people to maintain plausible deniability, and have been for decades, so why not just let people think what they want about the characters' sexualities?


They can think what they want, that's what fan fiction is for after all. My problem comes from people passing it off as fact when you don't even have to read the manga to know it's not but you can just to drive the point home even further.
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