Touring After the Apocalypse

Episode 4

After last week's unexpected Sword Art Online radio song jumpscare, intrepid duo Yoko and Airi arrive in Akihabara, searching for the signal's source, in the hope of meeting another survivor of the mysterious apocalypse. We're treated to a little history lesson courtesy of Yoko's sister's voiceover, which explains that after Tokyo was destroyed in World War II, it was swiftly rebuilt, and the Akihabara region became famous for producing electronic goods, sold all over the world, hence its nickname “Electric Town.”

This world's Akihabara is no longer alive with the throng of human crowds, nor permanently lit by illuminated billboards. Instead, the city is a verdant garden, the streets overgrown with lush meadows of vibrant green grass, in which live a diverse collection of exotic fauna, likely escaped from a nearby zoo and have gone native. Amongst the rundown vending machines and abandoned cars, the girls find kangaroos, monkeys, a worryingly enormous turtle, and even a random capybara.

Their sudden encounter with a hungry tiger is nerve-wracking, yet Yoko keeps her cool, observing that it's already made a kill, and it wishes only to eat its meal in peace. Airi's ready to break out her arm-concealed plasma bazooka thing to blast the ferocious feline to kingdom come, but Yoko stops her, musing that even being eaten by such a beautiful creature wouldn't be the worst way to die. Airi's expressionless face seems to think otherwise.

Understanding there's no point coming to Akihabara without visiting one of its famed maid cafes, Yoko forces Airi to get in on some cosplay action in a cat-maid costume (referring to her henceforth only as “Anyan,” with Yoko accompanying her as a cat-butler, both complete with pointy ears and tails. They're both adorably cute and spend the rest of the episode in uniform! I wonder why the maid cafe's internals are so perfectly preserved, including rows upon rows of pristine costumes? Tokyo doesn't look like a city devastated by nuclear blasts, merely a place suddenly abandoned.

Akiba Radio gives us only the vaguest of hints as to what happened, as it turns out that, of course, there isn't another survivor. The radio station is run by an autonomous AI, programmed by its human predecessor to keep the music going, regardless of what happened to humanity. There's something hauntingly sad, beautifully elegiac about the concept. Long after humanity has died, this lonely PC continues to select songs it sends to drift through the airwaves into eternity. At least it has good taste, playing Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai's ending song "Fukashigi no Karte" this time.

Yoko's obviously disappointed, especially once she realizes this AI is extremely simple and can't really hold a meaningful conversation. Nonetheless, she and Airi do what they can to upgrade the solar-powered DJ's capabilities, wiring up Akihabara's external speaker system so anyone passing can hear the music without a radio. I love this about these two. They absolutely don't need to bother with this seemingly pointless task, but it's something that feels right to them. As they depart, singing along to the track they requested, we see them ride through the gorgeous, empty but living city, as the flamingoes flock in the skies above them. As far as world-ending catastrophes go, this is pretty damned beautiful.

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Touring After the Apocalypse is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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