Train to the End Ep 9 Review - Youka’s Re-Introduction

Written by Rei Caldombra 5/31/2024 Video Version: https://youtu.be/KpD4dlT6G1A

Previous Train to the End Post: https://www.blogunderalog.com/blog-collection/train-to-the-end-episode-8-review-traumatic-magical-shogi-battles

We finally get a proper look into Ikebukuro in episode 9 of The Train to the End of the World.

We start off with Youka waking up in a room, and getting spoken to by her guard, who I will refer to as “Pochi” in quotations so as to not cause confusion with our doggo. “Pochi” I’m thinking is definitely not a normal human. He is named after the dog while having many mannerisms that would fit for a dog, like having a watchdog role that promotes Youka safety above all else while being very direct and orders focused. He says he has taken on a larger body now, and Pontaro would punish him by taking his “chow” away. He definitely seems to be a dog transformed into a human.

The classroom Youka is taught by “Pochi” in has 5 chairs despite Youka being the only student. These 5 chairs fit for her plus our 4 main girls. Based on what we see from “Pochi” and Pontaro, it is strange that they would allow this reference to the past. Youka is getting glimpses, so perhaps this setup made her more comfortable deep down but on the surface she was not sure why. Maybe this is minor enough that Pontaro was not concerned and used it to keep the balancing act of appeasing her while hiding things. They want her to have the normalcy of school to help keep her pacified.

Youka is clearly not in a great mental space right now. She is very spacey (pun intended), taking a lot of time to think before speaking and reacting while not having a proper understanding of who she is and the situation she is in. She is mostly just going through the motions, focusing on the usual day to day activities and seemingly not thinking about much else. She has some moments of recollection, but those are generally fleeting moments. Based on what she says about Ikebukuro, she seems torn between what she can remember. She has some memory, as she would not be able to have contradicted expectations of Ikebukuro if she didn’t.

She can barely even remember the details of her usual day, as she couldn’t remember Pontaro’s fake persona as the mayor despite seeing him a lot. She may be able to remember her important memories if she consistently worked at it, but she has a force working against that.

Said negative force is our techbro Pontaro, which to be very clear I am intending as an insult.

Now that we have spent a lot of time with him, I have no reservations about giving him that label. He recklessly pursues his technology, ignoring the dangers initially and then even after all this stuff has happened, he still sticks with this. He does not want to take any blame or face any consequences, which is what would happen if things did go back to normal. He is so committed to this that he would rather everything stay terrible then come clean. He’s a conman acting like a showman, flying by the seat of his pants while trying to act like he has things under control. He will do whatever it takes to get what he wants, whether it’s lying, sucking up to Youka with lavish compliments, or directly hurting others. The big lie here is the cover story Pontaro has made for Youka. He is trying his best to keep her from regaining her memories. Whenever something Agano related comes up, he starts blabbering on, which succeeds in 2 ways. It works as a way to mentally overload Youka so she has trouble holding on to what she is trying to remember, and it also serves as Pontaro trying to make himself sound smart by being unnecessarily descriptive. Which is also a method of the techbro type, word vomiting to keep people from realizing they are just talking out of their butt. And shamelessly sucking up to people if they think it will benefit them.

At one point we see Youka hooked up into a big machine, which seems like it was right after the 7G press. A thought that came to mind is that they did the procedure they did to Zenjirou, but I don’t think so. I think it’s more likely that machine was monitoring her health more than anything, specifically her brain. In this part we get to learn more about Youka’s situation now.

Let’s lay out what Youka seems capable of as the “trigger” and Princess/Queen of Ikebukuro. Youka can directly control reality. She seems like she may be 7G itself. She is able to alter her surroundings, such as bringing space closer. She is able to change people on a radical level, including herself. Youka turns a dude into custard then Pontaro eats him. I really don’t think this guy is going to be redeemed lol. And maybe I’m just being harsh, but to use his own verbiage in this episode he is unforgivable. She is also able to change herself, growing her hair when she was thinking about the past. She seems to not like when things are quieter, which I think is because it makes her feel alone. She may not fully remember, but that quietness may bring up feelings of her breakup with Shizuru. Because that event made her leave for Ikebukuro alone and leave her friends behind. Her powers seem most connected to her emotions. When she felt happy, she brought space closer (as her dream involves space). When she felt sad, her hair grew to cover her more. When she was angry over the guy contradicting the Ikebukuro story that Pontaro had been selling her, she transforms him.

We do not have a great grasp of Pontaro’s plan, but it may be as simple as keeping the status quo so he can do what he wants. To make a prediction, I definitely think the final conflict will come down to Shizuru reminding Youka of her dream and encouraging her. It seems like a clear direction for the characters to reconcile, and talking things out is definitely the only way to combat Youka having control over reality. Shizuru will have to bring Youka back down to Earth figuratively and by the climax maybe even literally.

Another prediction is that “Pochi” will likely fight the girls at first but then back down once he learns about the girls. His main purpose is to “protect the princess”, so if he believes that the girls are acting in her best interest, he can follow his orders while not stopping the girls.

One last notable detail is the 7G button being in Youka’s room. If it was no longer important at all, it wouldn’t need to be there specifically. But if it still had its powers, I can’t imagine why Pontaro would leave it in her hands without direct supervision. Maybe he leaves it there as a reminder to Youka since she has trouble remembering things now. If Youka has all the power then the button likely no longer has functionality. I want to bring up a point I did earlier about how the button was pressed twice, but I could not find any info that seemed related to that idea. Maybe the second button press brought the power into her? Or maybe in the end this favorite detail of mine will end up being a red herring. We’ll have to see.

The later half of the episode goes back to the main group, but it was not especially notable. The main event is the girls meeting the hermit again and getting some more info. The main lore info is that the mini scientist was able to get more info from Zenjirou. Pontaro indeed has evil plans and if he isn’t stopped, the world could be destroyed. Apparently there is cosmic expansion that likely links with the dark matter type stuff that the people in Ikebukuro have been detecting. I don’t have much scientific knowledge and don’t have a lot to say about it. We have the hermit, the people in Ikebukuro, and Zenjirou all learning cryptic info in different ways, but all lead to the same conclusion.

This episode had a lot of exposition and setup, but I don’t mind as we have had a lot of action-packed episodes and this is the stuff I really wanted to get into. It does not hold back on the craziness either. I am glad we got into the Ikebukuro stuff now rather than getting all of it at once. I’m sure we will get some action from the next episode since Pontaro has Shiinemachi (likely our next villain) lying in wait for the Getan Gatan Gang. Let’s see what we get next episode. Thanks for reading!