Girls' Last Tour

Girls' Last Tour
Cover of the first tankōbon volume, featuring Chito (left) and Yuuri (right)
少女終末旅行 (Shōjo Shūmatsu Ryokō)
Genre	Iyashikei Post-apocalyptic Science fiction
Manga
Written by	Tsukumizu
Published by	Shinchosha
English publisher	NA: Yen Press
Magazine	Kurage Bunch
Original run	February 21, 2014 – January 12, 2018
Volumes	6
Anime television series
Directed by	Takaharu Ozaki
Produced by	Mitsuhiro Ogata Shō Tanaka Noritomo Isogai Tomoaki Iwasaka
Written by	Kazuyuki Fudeyasu
Music by	Kenichiro Suehiro
Studio	White Fox
Licensed by	NA: Sentai Filmworks UK: MVM Films SA/SEA: Muse Communication
Original network	AT-X, Tokyo MX, BS11, Sun TV, KBS, TV Aichi, TVQ
English network	SEA: Animax Asia
Original run	October 6, 2017 – December 22, 2017
Episodes	12

Girls' Last Tour (Japanese: 少女終末旅行, Hepburn: Shōjo Shūmatsu Ryokō) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tsukumizu. It follows the adventures of two girls, Chito and Yuuri, adventuring a world that has fallen into a post-apocalyptic winter.

The manga was serialized monthly through Shinchosha's Kurage Bunch manga website from February 2014 to January 2018 and collected in six tankōbon volumes. An English release of the manga is licensed in North America by Yen Press. A 12-episode anime television adaptation with the same name, produced by White Fox, aired in Japan from October to December 2017. It mainly covered the manga's first four volumes. The anime won the "Best Slice of Life" category at the 2nd Crunchyroll Anime Awards in 2018, and the manga won the 50th Seiun Award in the Best Comic category in 2019.

Plot

The series follows two girls, Chito and Yuuri, as they navigate the ruins of civilization after a major conflict leaves the world in a desolate post-apocalyptic winter. They travel in their Kettenkrad motorcycle and seek food and supplies while surviving day-to-day.

During their journey, they encounter a man named Kanazawa, who is mapping out one of the levels of a large city. He gives the girls his camera before he leaves after having helped them reach the next level of the city. They next encounter a woman named Ishii after their Kettenkrad breaks down. The girls help Ishii complete the plane that she was building—she helps them fix the Kettenkrad in return. Ishii subsequently leaves in a plane, heading to the city across the water.

Ishii leaves them information on a facility that grows potatoes and creates rations before they leave, and the two girls capitalize on this opportunity. They pass by a series of black slabs filled with drawers, Chito deducing that they are graves, before ascending to the next level of the city. They destroy a construction robot in an aquarium to save a fish after having a discussion with the caretaker robot.

The two girls find a cat-like creature they name Nuko after exploring a drinking hole; Nuko can communicate with the girls via radio signals. They decide to follow such signals which eventually leads them to a submarine. The camera's images are synchronized to a computer that displays pictures and videos of various past events. Yuuri is eaten by a larger version of Nuko; she is released shortly after and it is discovered that Nuko is part of a species that consumes and stabilizes unstable energy. Before the creatures ascend into the sky with Nuko, they inform Chito and Yuuri that they are the only two humans left on this level.

Chito and Yuuri continue on despite this. They ascend another level, but their Kettenkrad finally breaks down and cannot be repaired. They encounter a museum and a research facility, discovering rockets that people attempted to leave in during the war. They finally reach the top of the city and discover it to be desolate. There, they go to sleep, resting against the wall of the stairwell.

Characters

Chito (チト)

Voiced by: Inori Minase (Japanese); Cat Thomas (English)

One of the two main protagonists, nicknamed "Chi-chan". She has a wide knowledge of machines and drives the Kettenkrad. She is literate and an avid reader. She is generally calm and composed, but can be riled by Yuuri on occasion.

Yuuri (ユーリ, Yūri)

Voiced by: Yurika Kubo (Japanese); Juliet Simmons (English)

The second main protagonist, nicknamed "Yuu". She is more easy-going than Chito, and cannot read, but is proficient with rifles and is a crack shot. She rides in the back of the Kettenkrad. Yuuri has little fear of the unknown and is quite adventurous. She is driven by her personal desires such as often wanting to eat more food than they have.

Kanazawa (カナザワ)

Voiced by: Akira Ishida^{Ep. 3 credits} (Japanese); Mark X. Laskowski (English)

A traveler that Chito and Yuuri meet while trying to find a path to the upper stratum of the city. He is a cartographer who wants to map the entire city. He gifts his camera to Yuuri and Chito when he leaves them to continue his mapping project.

Ishii (イシイ)

Voiced by: Kotono Mitsuishi^{Ep. 6 credits} (Japanese); Stephanie Wittels (English)

A scientist who lives in an abandoned airbase, building an airplane based on old records. She wants to do that so she can fly to a city on the opposite shore. She helps fix Chito and Yuuri's Kettenkrad and enlists their help to finish the airplane. She gives Yuuri and Chito potatoes and tells them where to find more.

Nuko (ヌコ)

Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa^{Ep. 10 credits} (Japanese); Kalin Coates (English)

Named Ket in the English manga translation. A mysterious, cat-like small creature that is long and white, which Chito and Yuuri pick up on their journey. It communicates with the girls via radio signals. Nuko can shape-shift to activate mechanisms and likes eating bullets. It is later revealed to be part of a species which consumes weapons and power sources to stabilize them. After being discovered by more of its own kind, it leaves with them.

Production

Manga

Girls' Last Tour was Tsukumizu's first original work, beginning as a short story that later became Chapter 3 of Volume 1. They were inspired by Blame! which influenced their worldview. Girls' Last Tour's message was influenced by the works of Haruki Murakami and Kaori Ekuni, most notably Haurki's "Norwegian Wood" and "Dance Dance Dance", along with Kaori's "Twinkle Twinkle Hikaru". The Kettenkrad was seen by Tsukumizu in Saving Private Ryan, who decided to incorporate it into the story. According to a 2015 interview, Tsukumizu initially drew scenes with a pencil, then imported it onto a computer to ink and tone using Clip Studio Paint.

Anime

"Our goal is to show the leisurely daily life of two girls, while allowing the audience to rediscover the value of things around them from their pure perspectives." (女子の二人のゆったりとした日常が感じられて、なおかつ彼女たちの純粋な目線で身近にあるものの価格を再発見するようなものを目指しています。)

Takaharu Ozaki, TVアニメ少女終末旅行公式設定資料集 [TV Anime Girls' Last Tour Official Setting Materials Collection], page 82

About two-thirds of the way through production of the manga, a television adaptation was proposed. Its director, Takaharu Ozaki, discussed its ending with Tsukumizu, and he asked them to come up with an ending to the manga. After reading the manga, Takaharu said that he wanted a spiral-shaped scene; Tsukumizu took this as an opportunity to arrange a large spiral staircase at the end of the manga for Chito and Yuuri to climb. White Fox, the animation studio behind the anime adaptation, initially had doubts that the manga's style was suitable for thirty-minute episodes and thought that fifteen-minute long episodes would be more appropriate. The studio's president, Takeru Iwasa, cited an example of a movie with only two characters and almost dialogue; the studio decided on thirty-minute long episodes.

The anime adaptation was announced at the Anime Expo in July 2017 alongside a teaser visual. Also announced were its director, writer, character designer, and animation studio.

Direction

Takaharu said that the whole work should feel like a spiral; when one thing ends, another begins. He also said, in terms of emotional portrayal, that Chito and Yuuri had to feel that being by one another's side is the most important thing. The anime added various sound effects to highlight the feeling of silence, and that the sound of water was emphasized as water served as a symbol of life in a mechanical environment with almost no living things.

Art and animation

Full-body illustrations of Chito and Yuuri, as well as various head positions

The character design was done by Mai Toda, who said that Chito and Yuuri should be kept simple. Their eyebrows were shown as a thin line, which served as a challenge when expressing the character's emotions. The anime also added reflections to the character's eyes, which was a detail not present in the manga. The ruins that make up the background of the anime were given a special aesthetic effect as not to depict it as a messy and dirty place. The art director Masakazu Miyake incorporated color into the background to avoid it appearing as a monotonous grey world. The storyboards for the opening theme were done by Takaharu. They included directions for camera techniques and how the overall composition of scenes should look. Additionally, the ending theme animation was done by Tsukumizu using only pencil drawings.

Sound effects

Though the original manga was set in a silent post-apocalyptic world, various sound effects to highlight the feeling of silence. This was because natural phenomena such as wind and water still survive, and the sound director Yuji Furuya believed they could be gradually added beginning in the first episode of the anime. Among the highlighted sounds included those of the ruined city and the Kettenkrad. Mechanical sound effects, such as the sounds of signals coming from the robots taking care of the fish in the aquarium, were created by Yuji after processing Morse code. The Kettenkrad's sound effect came a mix of the onomatopoeia "dong dong dong dong" (totototo) that appeared in the manga as well as the sounds of small fishing boats, tractors, and tanks.

The sound of raindrops in the fifth episode, "The Sound of Rain", was specially arranged. The sound of raindrops in the first episode was made realistic, and then percussion-sounding rain was combined with the anime's opening song to create a sound like both rain and music.

Music

The person in charge of the anime's soundtrack, Kenichiro Suehiro, read the manga and initially considered using music in the style of Brian Eno. However, Takaharu requested that the music be performed partly in a singing style, and with unplugged instruments. Three pieces were completed by Suehiro, who then used them as a basis for the remainder of the music. He used harp to emphasize the atmosphere between Chito and Yuuri.

The anime's opening theme, titled "Ugoku Ugoku" (動く、動く, Moving, Moving) was composed by Mao Kai. He wanted to start from the perspective of the characters rather than the worldview of the work, so he created the song that is like Chito and Yuuri talking back and forth, not stopping. The ending theme, titled "One More Night", was arranged by emon(Tes.) and was composed by Hige Diver. The first line of the song came to the two when they were discussing the song's content. Additionally, the Japanese pronunciation of "not yet finished" in the song sounds similar to it's title; they echo each other. The insert song "The Sound of Raindrops" was created by baker. It was based on the sound of water droplets falling onto empty pots and cans, then combining the sounds into a rhythm. It also served as the ending theme of the final episode at the suggestion of sound director Jin Aketagawa.

Voice acting

Chito was voiced by Inori Minase, and Yuuri was voiced by Yurika Kubo. The two sang the opening, ending, and insert themes. During the voice acting process, they were permitted to speak freely and were unrestricted; this was appreciated by Tsukumizu, who believed it expressed some ambiguous parts of the work. Inori and Yurika performed the opening and ending themes, "Ugoku Ugoku" (動く、動く, Moving, Moving) and "More One Night".

Media

Manga

Girls' Last Tour was written and illustrated by Tsukumizu and serialized in Shinchosha's Kurage Bunch online magazine between February 21, 2014, and January 12, 2018, and collected in six tankōbon volumes. Yen Press released the series in North America. A manga anthology illustrated by various artists was released on October 13, 2017.

Volumes

No.	Original release date	Original ISBN	English release date	English ISBN
1	November 8, 2014	978-4-10-771781-8	May 23, 2017	978-0-31-647062-9
2	July 9, 2015	978-4-10-771830-3	August 22, 2017	978-0-31-647064-3
3	February 9, 2016	978-4-10-771874-7	November 14, 2017	978-0-31-647068-1
4	November 9, 2016	978-4-10-771929-4	February 27, 2018	978-0-31-641598-9
5	September 8, 2017	978-4-10-772009-2	December 11, 2018	978-1-97-538093-9
6	March 9, 2018	978-4-10-772060-3 978-4-10-772019-1 (LE)	February 19, 2019	978-1-97-532903-7

Anime

An anime television series adaptation by White Fox was announced by Kadokawa at Anime Expo 2017, with Takaharu Ozaki as director, Kazuyuki Fudeyasu in charge of series composition, and Mai Toda adapting the character designs for animation. The series aired in Japan between October 6 and December 22, 2017, on AT-X and other stations. Sentai Filmworks have licensed the series and streamed the series on Anime Strike. MVM Films has licensed the series in the UK. Muse Communication has licensed the series in Asia-Pacific.

Episodes

Each episode consists of two to three short, interconnecting stories.

No.	Title	Original release date
1	"Starry Sky" Transliteration: "Hoshizora" (Japanese: 星空)	October 6, 2017 (2017-10-06)
	"War" Transliteration: "Sensō" (Japanese: 戦争)
In a time following a massive war, two girls, Chito and Yuuri, travel aimlessly through a dark abandoned factory in their Kettenkrad. After Yuuri slobbers all over her hand during her sleep, Chito realizes that they can use a wet finger to find a way out by feeling the direction of the breeze and they emerge to see a starry sky. The next day, the girls explore a battlefield from the apocalyptic war and come across an abandoned plane. They find explosives and rations. Surprisingly, Yuuri pulls her gun on Chito and demands the last piece in a ration pack.
2	"Bath" Transliteration: "Furo" (Japanese: 風呂)	October 13, 2017 (2017-10-13)
	"Journal" Transliteration: "Nikki" (Japanese: 日記)
	"Laundry" Transliteration: "Sentaku" (Japanese: 洗濯)
Taking shelter from a snowstorm, Chito and Yuuri discover a power plant with hot running water and they use it to fill a metal tank to take a makeshift bath. Chito becomes upset at Yuuri when she throws one of Chito's books onto the fire to keep warm during the night. The next day, after the storm passes, the girls collect drinking water in a river created by melting snow. They decide to wash their clothes as well and come across a dead fish which they roast for dinner.
3	"Encounter" Transliteration: "Sōgū" (Japanese: 遭遇)	October 20, 2017 (2017-10-20)
	"City" Transliteration: "Toshi" (Japanese: 都市)
	"Streetlights" Transliteration: "Gaitō" (Japanese: 街灯)
While searching for the source of the fish they ate, the girls are impeded by a chasm dividing the city. They encounter another survivor named Kanazawa after he demolishes a building to create a bridge across the gap. Kanazawa has been mapping the abandoned city and hitches a ride with the girls as they make their way using his maps. They reach the base of a tower and the group take an external freight elevator towards the upper levels of the city. However, the elevator suddenly tilts, causing Kanazawa to drop his maps and he becomes despondent. Yuuri manages to cheer him up, and in gratitude Kanazawa gives the girls his camera. As Kanazawa sets off alone to start redrawing his maps, night falls and the girls watch the street lights come on.
4	"Photograph" Transliteration: "Shashin" (Japanese: 写真)	October 27, 2017 (2017-10-27)
	"Temple" Transliteration: "Jiin" (Japanese: 寺院)
Yuuri uses Kanazawa's camera to take photographs of curious tall, white stone statues around the city while Chito discovers the camera's self-timer. Later, the girls are exploring a temple when their lantern suddenly goes out. Yuuri fumbles around in the darkness until they both discover a bright room with a pond and fake metal lily pads.
5	"House" Transliteration: "Jūkyo" (Japanese: 住居)	November 3, 2017 (2017-11-03)
	"Nap" Transliteration: "Hirune" (Japanese: 昼寝)
	"The Sound of Rain" Transliteration: "Amaoto" (Japanese: 雨音)
The girls explore the city and spend the night in an sparsely furnished apartment, picturing what it would be like to live in a house. Feeling tired after staying up all night, Chito takes a midday nap and has peculiar dreams in which she is threatened by a gigantic Yuuri. Later, the girls shelter from the rain in some ruins, taking an interest in the sound the dripping rain makes when hitting various objects.
6	"Accident" Transliteration: "Koshō" (Japanese: 故障)	November 10, 2017 (2017-11-10)
	"Technology" Transliteration: "Gijutsu" (Japanese: 技術)
	"Takeoff" Transliteration: "Ririku" (Japanese: 離陸)
While exploring the city, the Kettenkrad breaks down and Chito cannot fix it. The girls encounter a woman named Ishii who offers to fix their vehicle in exchange for helping her. Together they finish constructing a simple airplane which Ishii is building from old plans in an effort to escape and reach a neighboring city. Once completed, Ishii sets off in her airplane, only for it to fall apart shortly after take-off. Luckily, she manages to parachute out safely and she slowly drifts down to the lower levels of the city.
7	"Labyrinth" Transliteration: "Meiro" (Japanese: 迷路)	November 17, 2017 (2017-11-17)
	"Cooking" Transliteration: "Chōri" (Japanese: 調理)
The girls enter a labyrinth of large pipes while following Ishii's map to a food manufacturing plant. Chito struggles with her fear of heights as she and Yuuri walk on top of the pipes before discovering there is a actually pathway inside them. They eventually find a facility filled with machines and cooking ingredients; powdered potato, sugar and salt. The girls deduce that they were used to make rations, and using the ingredients they bake their own food bars using one of the huge ovens.
8	"Memory" Transliteration: "Kioku" (Japanese: 記憶)	November 24, 2017 (2017-11-24)
	"Spiral" Transliteration: "Rasen" (Japanese: 螺旋)
	"Moonlight" Transliteration: "Gekkō" (Japanese: 月光)
Back outdoors, the girls discover a strange place featuring tall black slabs filled with drawers. Yuuri finds a mysterious device and other seemingly meaningless objects inside them. Chito deduces that the drawers are graves containing the belongings of those who have died so they would be remembered. Afterwards, the girls ascend a spiralling path up another tower in their Kettenkrad. They are forced to take an outside path which dangerously collapses behind them, but they manage to reach the summit. Exploring the top of the tower, the girls find some bottles of beer and spend the night getting drunk under the moonlight.
9	"Technology" Transliteration: "Gijutsu" (Japanese: 技術)	December 1, 2017 (2017-12-01)
	"Aquarium" Transliteration: "Suisō" (Japanese: 水槽)
	"Life" Transliteration: "Seimei" (Japanese: 生命)
While exploring a facility, the girls are surprised by a large construction robot which is oblivious to their presence. They then discover an aquarium containing a single fish guarded by a robotic caretaker. It explains that the facility was once used for fish farming. The robot allows the girls to swim in one of the empty aquarium tanks, although Chito almost drowns. Later, the large construction robot begins dismantling the facility apparently due to a bug in its programming. This leads Chito to engage the caretaker robot in a discussion about what it means to be alive. Fearing for the fish's life, the girls save it by destroying the construction robot using explosives.
10	"Train" Transliteration: "Densha" (Japanese: 電車)	December 8, 2017 (2017-12-08)
	"Wavelength" Transliteration: "Hachō" (Japanese: 波長)
	"Capture" Transliteration: "Hokaku" (Japanese: 捕獲)
The girls drive their Kettenkrad onto a goods train, finding its carriages filled with broken down machines. They disembark at the last station and ride an inclined elevator towards the top of the building. As they ascend, Yuuri starts hearing music coming from the radio she picked up earlier which they hear more clearly as they reach the surface. The next day, as the girls explore a large hole for some drinking water, they discover a small long, white life-form. They discover that it can communicate with them using their radio. Naming it "Nuko", the girls decide to take it with them on their journey.
11	"Culture" Transliteration: "Bunka" (Japanese: 文化)	December 15, 2017 (2017-12-15)
	"Destruction" Transliteration: "Hakai" (Japanese: 破壊)
	"The Past" Transliteration: "Kako" (Japanese: 過去)
Yuuri discovers that Nuko likes to eat bullets and begins feeding it while Chito finds a book on war and civilization written in English. They soon arrive at a huge clockwork-type contraption, where music starts playing on the radio again. They decide to head towards the source of the broadcast. The girls are interrupted by an incredibly large robot which crashes down in front of them. Nuko powers up the robot and Yuuri tries out some of its weapons, causing massive destruction to the city. The next day, the girls follow the music's signal to a still functioning submarine lying in the snow, inside of which they find an array of nuclear missiles.
12	"Connection" Transliteration: "Setsuzoku" (Japanese: 接続)	December 22, 2017 (2017-12-22)
	"Friends" Transliteration: "Nakama" (Japanese: 仲間)
While exploring the submarine, the girls inadvertently synchronize their camera to the submarine's computer and it displays their photographs, plus those Kanazawa took before giving them the camera. Among the computer files, they find videos of people and past events, including the war which led to the destruction of humanity. Later, a larger Nuko resembling the pillars they encountered earlier, suddenly appears and swallows Yuuri. Chito pursues the creature outside the submarine and finds Yuuri safe as the creature had only wanted to ingest her radio. The creature then explains that their purpose is to consume and stabilise unstable energy, like power sources and weapons. It says that life activity on Earth will eventually come to an end. It explains that their work in the city has finished as more creatures emerge from the missile tubes. It says that Yuuri and Chito are the only humans they have detected up to this level. Slowly, the tops of the creatures expand and open like mushrooms, then they begin to drift upwards together like dandelion seeds taking Nuko with them. With the submarine now completely shut down, Chito and Yuuri continue their journey towards the top level of the city, with a new sense of camaraderie and their importance to each other.

Spinoffs

Two unnamed characters with identical appearance and behavior to Chito and Yuuri appear in Tsukumizu's second manga, Shimeji Simulation. The first volume was released in 2020, and the last volume was released in 2024.

A twelve-episode series titled Girls' Last Class (少女逬末授業) was designed as a short spinoff. The work featured Chito and Yuuri as schoolgirls, with characters and objects from Girls' Last Tour appearing as teachers. It ran starting in 2017, being broadcast on the Kadokawa Youtube channel and the AT-X television network.

Reception

Manga

In 2019, Girls' Last Tour won the 50th Seiun Award in the Best Comic category. The English release of the first two volumes were included on the American Library Association's list of 2018 Great Graphic Novels for Teens.

Anime

The series won the "Best Slice of Life" category at the 2nd Crunchyroll Anime Awards in 2018. IGN listed Girls' Last Tour as one of the best anime of the 2010s, describing it as a "morose anime" which is "made brighter through [Chito and Yuuri's] perspective on a barren world". It was named the best anime of Fall 2017 by Anime News Network.

External links

• Official manga website (in Japanese)
• Official anime website (in Japanese)
• Girls' Last Tour (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia