Touring After the Apocalypse

Episode 8

Mud wrestling certainly wasn't on my cozy post-apocalyptic Cute Girls Do Cute Things bingo card, but sometimes Touring After the Apocalypse can surprise me like that. From Airi hilariously acting out a scene from Apocalypse Now (was that a part of these girls' basic education???) to her casually efficient execution and subsequent effusive butchering of a duck, I wondered if this was the episode where Touring After the Apocalypse would get gritty. Not that I particularly want that from the show, mind. Thankfully, it's more of the cheerful, whimsical travelogue we've come to expect, and in my case, very much vibe with.

This time, the girls visit former fishing spot Lake Kasumigaura and the Honda-built Mobility Resort Motegi and its famous racing circuit. With the end of civilization, the formerly heavily-polluted Lake Kasumigaura is now pristine and teems with fish, and we see a massive eel-like thing that leaps from the water. Near its banks are mudflats where Yoko revels in the simple pleasure of mud squirting between her toes. She even finds an edible lotus root to cook with the duck. Shame the girls are distracted by climbing the nearby Rainbow Tower at Kasumigaura Fureai Land, leaving their dinner to burn to a crisp. At least crispy duck tastes good at Chinese restaurants, though maybe not when abandoned to a campfire…

At the top of the tower, there's the somewhat ominous graffiti, translated by Crunchyroll as “We saw the sunset before it ended.” From the top, the girls can still see Mount Fuji and its smoking crater, over one hundred miles away. The iconic mountain really does dominate the landscape for a large area of Honshu. This world, emptied of humans, yet vibrant with life and color, continues to look gorgeous, with greenery and flowers sprouting everywhere. It's a little surprising that the roads remain clear enough for the girls to travel with their electric bike; similarly, the Motegi racetrack remains passable for its entire length.

Yoko and Airi use their new Stamp Rally function to explore the Mobility Resort fully, and we see a still-pristine showroom, protected from the elements, featuring all manner of Honda-produced vehicles (I wonder if they sponsored this episode?), including some ASIMO robots, built in 2000. I don't think these are meant to have anything to do with the apocalypse, despite the remains of various mechs we've seen strewn across the landscape in previous episodes.

A further flashback on the racetrack seems to confirm that the “present day” version of Yoko raced motorbikes, proper gasoline-powered beasts that could travel far faster than “future Yoko's” current electric bike. Her sudden flashback puts her in the driving seat, re-awakening her previously thrill-seeking tendencies. (I remember wondering if the girl had a death wish in a previous review.) Sadly, her trusty electric-converted Serow isn't built for speed, mainly for range. A gasoline-powered vehicle in this world would be quite useless; she should be thankful she has a bike that charges from the plentiful sunlight they seem constantly blessed with!

Episode 8 doesn't do much to advance our knowledge of Yoko's nature or the world's history. There are still those odd floating lights in the sky that look a little like fixed constellations. I suspect they're satellites, and maybe they'll be explained one day. I don't really watch Touring After the Apocalypse, expecting world-shattering revelations with every scene, though. Sometimes it's just fun to watch adorable characters interact with their environment and each other. It's not dramatic, but it is soothing, gently amusing, and even a little melancholy.

Rating:

Touring After the Apocalypse is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

---

Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.