Train to the End of the World Ep 11 Review- On and Off a Train Towards the End.
Written by Rei Caldombra 6/10/2024 Video version: https://youtu.be/DRXasOqh7uQ
Previous Train to the End Post: https://www.blogunderalog.com/blog-collection/train-to-the-end-of-the-world-ep-10-review-artistic-expression-galore
We’ve finally made it to Ikebukuro in Episode 11 of Train to the End of the World! The journey took awhile but we finally made it to our destination, getting straight into the action.
Very cool entrance, Shizuru.
Shizuru sends them into Ikebukuro full speed, crashing the train in the process. This approach reflects her headstrong nature and her desperation to meet Youka. She may have a slightly better handle on her emotions now thanks to the time she spent with the girls, but deep down she is still desperate. It also makes sense when you consider that they know they will be facing opposition in Ikebukuro. If they had driven slowly the enemy would have had more time to prepare and could’ve done something catastrophic to the mission like blocking the road. We get a brief view of this part of Ikebukuro, where most people seem to be owls or in owl costumes. This is different from all the other citizens of Ikebukuro we have seen, but I do not think we will get anything about this considering how fast they move through it. Since this is the epicenter of 7G, maybe within Ikebukuro there are various pockets where things were affected differently.
Once the girls have made their entrance, we cut to Youka with “Pochi”, having a similar morning to the last one. Suddenly an alarm blares, making “Pochi” step outside. The alarm sound the anime uses is not a normal stock sound effect, it sounds higher pitch. I thought it could just be their choice to do one more unique and off sounding to fit with the messed up Ikebukuro. But then when I heard Pochi’s barking, I thought it sounded exactly the same. It could be possible the alarm sounds like Pochi because that’s a high pitch sound Youka would think of. And then we get to the moment we’ve been building up to since the beginning.
Wow the meeting with Youka came fast, I was not expecting them to meet within the first 5 minutes. I love the facial expressions and character acting we got from Shizuru in this scene. Shizuru’s face when she first sees Youka looks fantastic. And I love the mouth movement when she could only barely get the first sound of Youka’s name out. These elements are on point and really sell the swirling of emotions Shizuru is going through after finally finding the person she had been looking for this whole time. She may have been building up to this, but that does not mean she was ready. And she wasn’t, she isn’t able to get out what she knows she needs to say quick enough.
During this meeting we see Youka’s powers truly in action, in stunning display.
The effects of the show continue to look so awesome.
I think the connection between Youka and 7G is that it is acting as a defense mechanism for her emotional state. It is trying to protect her from the pain she felt from the breakup. Whenever she gets inklings of her memories, her eyes and the 7G button glow, releasing her power to alter things around her. Then she goes back to acting robotic and unfeeling, listing out her character traits as if she is reading off a script. From what we have seen from her life in Ikebukuro, that basically was the situation. Once she gets to the part of her dream, her powers kick back on because the breakup is centered around Youka revealing her dream. Again she almost reaches a core memory but the powers stop it. The girls are forced to flee back to their train and return as they are unable to get through to Youka in time and have Pontaro’s forces on their trail.
In the last episode, I brought up how it was strange for the 7G button to be in Youka’s room. It turns out that Pontaro did not know it was there. Perhaps Youka wanted it with her, and “Pochi” obliged in bringing it there. Notably, the button was glowing when he saw it in Youka’s room, but he did not try pressing it. We see later that pressing the button while it is glowing seemingly does not do anything. This shows us that he does still have some understanding of the button in its current state, both since he was involved in its production and from being in its vicinity since the 7G incident. It is hard to know exactly what Pontaro is planning, but I think that’s because he does not have a proper plan. As I’ve accused him of before, he is just a man desperately clinging to power without risking himself. He is having people look into things, but he just does not want to lose his position more than anything. And he is willing to tell his goons to pulverize a group of children to do it. He knows the power that 7G can give, but he also recognizes the mental cost it put on Youka. So he has Youka do all the dirty work while he is the one properly in control. Without properly caring for her feelings.
This is a good segway into a big character point of this episode, how Pontaro and Shizuru are very similar. Both characters are selfish. Pontaro ruined the world with 7G but doesn’t want to accept that reality. Shizuru ruined her friendship with Youka but didn’t want to accept that reality. They both rejected the idea of taking responsibility for their mistakes. While Shizuru did not manipulate Youka in the same way Pontaro did, that may be how Youka sees it. Youka thought she could be vulnerable with Shizuru about her dream and receive support, but she got the opposite instead. Like Pontaro, Shizuru did not take Youka’s feelings into account when she responded. And that betrayal is what leads to Youka’s powers activating when she starts to get emotional, which is an aspect of vulnerability .Shizuru’s growth in accepting her faults is what will allow her to appeal to Youka and separate her from Pontaro.
Using a bitter melon as a telephone is ridiculous but I’m here for it. This is another random funny thing that moves the plot forward without much logic, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing here. This is a great time for some goofiness that also keeps the story moving. Our resident wibbly wobbly doctor gives the girls some more information and most notably their next mission- to press the 7G button and hopefully that will reverse things. This sends the girls into a debate about Youka, now that they can properly process everything that has happened. Then we get the return of our zombie queen, who brings the manpower needed to find and get the button.
The girls first have to get through a messed up department store, which is a very cool albeit brief set piece. Then we get to the big climactic fight for the button with girls and zombies on one side and “Pochi” and goons on the other. This conflict is solid, and I like that the button ends up not doing anything, at least on the surface. This keeps the tension up and keeps us guessing how things could play out. This show has excelled at being unexpected in the best ways so it is continuing that strong towards its ending.
Shizuru went 90s magical girl for the fight with “Pochi”. Her eyes are taller and less wide, and her chin is rounder. I wonder if there was another director for this scene or if they just felt like changing it up. I love the lighting too.
In this fight with “Pochi”, we get a bit better of a look into him as a character. I still hold true to my prediction that he will help them once he understands the full situation, seeing as this ends with the girls being in his custody. I really like how overwhelmed he was in the first interaction, not doing anything until Youka pushed the girls away. That detail alone humanized him a lot, that felt natural and contradictory to the stoic personality we got from him before. It also matches with his main directive of protecting her. You could say that he did not immediately recognize them as a serious threat, so he allowed Youka to handle it until she started to be in pain. This is how someone with a caring role should act. We also got him saying he was not willing to fight Pochi. “Pochi” knows that Pochi is the dog Youka named him after, so he respects him. This also works with him potentially being a dog in origin.
Youka and Pontaro get away on their own train, with a platform being made in front of them seemingly by Youka.
Youka and Pontaro end up on a train parallel to the main group reaching Ikebukuro by train.The platform is made by hands, which I believe is symbolic of how Youka is being manipulated. She is the one creating the tracks, but she has been tricked into thinking that this is the right thing to do. The hands of other people, mainly Pontaro, are guiding her forward rather than her own thoughts. The gross appearance of the tracks represents the negativity of this, they’re not uniform, bulging and this off white and orange that just doesn't look right. One way we see the negative portrayal shown is in the color opposition between both sets of trains. The Gatan Goton Gang’s train is yellow, and the tracks are the standard color. While Youka’s train is the standard white while the tracks are yellow. The main group went on their journey by train to bring them closer to someone (Youka), while Youka’s train is taking them further away. Transportation has the capability to bring people together and pull them apart. This also ties into how trains are often used for symbolism of spiritual journeys. Youka leaving Agano, Shizuru looking for Youka, and Youka now running away from Shizuru all happen by train. These are integral parts of their journeys as people. And now that they are both on trains at the same time, they can both end up in the same place at the same time. Which metaphorically is them understanding each other and making up. Now that Shizuru has seen Youka and gotten through the shock, I think she will be prepared to say what she needs to say next time.
I was surprised at the way things played out in this episode, but I don’t have too much problem with it. The fast pacing makes sense considering what we got, and I assume we can expect that pacing to continue for the last episode. I do have some concerns about whether everything can be resolved well in a little over about 24 minutes, but until the last episode is out I will reserve strong judgments as I really don’t know what to expect from the finale. That’s the kind of show this is, and I like that aspect of it. So I will have faith that it will stick the landing. I expect some crazy action at least, like a train chase that could end up feeling like a runaway train roller coaster before the emotional resolution between our main girls. Sadly there is just one more stop left on the crazy train ride, I don’t want it to end but am excited to see the conclusion. See you next time for the finale. Thanks for reading!
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Previous Train to the End Post: https://www.blogunderalog.com/blog-collection/train-to-the-end-of-the-world-ep-10-review-artistic-expression-galore
