Touring After the Apocalypse – Episode 1

Content Warning: Flashing Lights

What’s it about? All alone in a world after the great collapse of civilization, two girls ride a bike through the empty, often silent, ruins of Japan. But don’t worry: that’s not enough to stop them from sightseeing and finding every way possible to have fun on their journey at the end of the world.

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Most of the time, I enter premieres with little to no knowledge about a series in order to present the best case scenario: a completely uninfluenced view of a show that can be applicable to a first time watcher in any season. This is not the case here with Touring After the Apocalypse as it’s a series that’s near and dear to my “slice of life after the end”-loving heart.

Unlike Girls’ Last Tour, another series with a similar foundation but very different (and excellent) execution, Touring After the Apocalypse is kind of a girl’s trip through a barren world that is still thriving, even if it doesn’t involve a distinct human hand. There’s an appeal to that, but on question remains: how will this premiere execute that for people who aren’t me and aren’t invested?

Only one way to find out.

Episode 1 starts us in Hakone on Kyushu, the most southerly of Japan’s most prominent landmasses. It’s here that we see a young woman gas up her Serow motorbike as she prepares to hit the road in a world where humanity mirrors our own. But this isn’t a story about civilization—at least not a stable civilization. This is a story about what comes after it all falls apart, and who inhabits the now-spartan world that once flourished.

Enter Yoko and Airi, sometime after nature has reclaimed society, leaving the remnants of an apocalypse in its wake. Together, these two girls—one human, one mechanical—explore our world through the lens of just seeing what they can. Once safe in a shelter, our two protagonist venture around Japan, snapping pictures in the same spot Yoko’s sister once was while discovering what our world was like. 

Longtime readers know that I spent quite some time hyperfocused on Super Cub and let me tell you, this is scratching that itch again. I just love shows about girls traveling and exploring the world around them, and while touring Japan when it’s overgrown by flora and being overtaken by fauna isn’t necessarily the way I’d prefer to return to a country that feels like home to me, I’ve got to admit that this is a really engaging way to do it.

That’s, in part, because Yoko and Airi are just so dang authentic in their enthusiasm. Sure, there’s the very stark fact that this is a world devoid of humans or any entities like us, but also…it’s a world brimming with life. In the end, Yoko and Airi are still both girls in their youth making the best of the world around them, and they’re living out their days amidst towering forests, forgotten stores, and vehicles choked by vines and weeds. This is a world stuck in time, frozen at the impact of the apocalypse and left to choke on the dust. Still, Yoko and Airi find a way to be genuinely happy, even when that happiness clashes with the reality of our forgotten world.

I have to admit that I already knew I’d be slapping this one onto my watchlist. It’s the exact kind of series I love to sink into, with all the atmospheric white noise of a world set in some distant, desolate future that, instead of being incredibly dismal, is instead filled with the potential for exploring what it means to go beyond humanity in our now. At times cozy and travelogue and all parts curious, this is a really easy series to turn off your big thoughts to and just enjoy.

That said, there’s still enough to engage the viewer: most notably, Yoko’s visions of what, to us, is modern Japan and to her, the distant, pre-apocalyptic past. There’s no current explanation for them: are these memories, stories her sister told her, or simply daydreaming? In truth, I don’t think that matters right now in the grand scheme of things: there’s too many beautiful places for Yoko and Airi to explore and exist in.

My verdict: yeah, this should be on your watchlist. Touring After the Apocalypse is incredibly grounded, offering a look into the lives of two girls doing their best to make the most of existing in a world stripped of all modernity. Whether that’s dodging mortar rounds from a tank, snacking on MRE rations, or simply observing the landscape around them, I think anyone hankering for a series that offers a healthy dose of hope will easily find themselves at home in this fantasy story all about surviving, and thriving, after the world comes to an end.