Month: January 2025

Title: Train to the End of the World

Episodes: 12

Streaming: Crunchyroll

At the rate that new technologies are developed and released upon the public, it’s natural to feel nervous when yet another miracle invention (which may or may not have been fully vetted by, well, anyone) appears for public consumption. Enter 7G, a communications technology that Japan tech gurus and government leaders alike hope will return the country to the technological forefront. Teenager Yoka finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time and is plucked off the street to press the start button for 7G during a ribbon-cutting ceremony. However, immediately after her finger pushes play, reality warps to the point that most places and people become unrecognizable and civilization collapses.

Now two years later the very few settlements that remain are scattered along the Seibu Ikebukuro line, where each stop is now hours or even days travel from its neighbors. Shizuru has spent the last couple of years since the 7G incident living her life in the town of Agano where, due to the effects of 7G, residents transform into animals after they turn 21 years old. Shizuru and Yoka had a falling-out just before the incident, and Shizuru grasps onto any snippet of information she can find about Yoka’s possible whereabouts so that they can hopefully repair their rift. When she by chance sees a newspaper clipping with a photo of Yoka in the now-mutated Ikebukuro, she makes it her mission to pilot an old abandoned train car to make the weeks-long trip into the city. However, she won’t have to make the trip alone – she’s joined by friends Nadeshiko, Reimi, and Akira, who experience this wild new world along with her.