It's amazing how Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou manages to be so melancholy and so comforting at the same time
I think it's because of the fact that on the surface, it's rather cheerful & laid-back for post-apocalyptic show & yet, once you stop & think about the meanings & implications behind everything the characters do, it's rather depressing. For example, when Chi & Yuu take the photo of themselves. They are creating a memory with one another & that's incredibly heartwarming, & yet, based on the conversation that leads up to it, they're doing this since they want to immortalize themselves on the photo as their real existence is just as fleeting & bleak as the rest of their world. Even the entire idea of recording down these last moments into history also reinforces the idea of human's bleak existence. The resolution to both the side characters have a rather sad implication as well. While they are able to come to term with the hopelessness of their situation and cope with the loss of their respective meaning of life to at least not commit suicide, they are both starting from zero & at the mercy of their desolate world & both are accepting of the possibility that they may die along their new journey. "How far can I make on foot?" & "Guess I'm gonna fall all the way to the lowest level at this rate"
There're a lot of existential horror & nihilism going on in this show, but the fact that its overall message is about coming to term with these ideas & finding beauty in them that it somewhat lightens these underlying implications. It's this weird mixture of accepting the fact that their situation is desperate & their existence fleeting, but still keep on living for every little thing that may come to their lives that makes this show so comforting & depressing all at the same time. Very much in the lane of the idea that life is about the journey & the present moments rather than the end result. I honestly expect a very bittersweet ending.
last edited at Nov 11, 2017 2:26PM