Published in Zine 16 of University of Nottingham UK’s Anime Society.
Since time immemorial, there have been two constant beliefs roaring against the other throughout the existence of the world. The fear of the world’s end, and the yearning of innocence and comfort to combat it. In some respects, it can be called escapism. Looking towards happier times, more comforting imagery, such as in the present day, through the existence of cute anime girls.
Then what happens when in fiction these two images collide? The images of escapism, of comfort that one finds through supporting the everyday lives of the girls, whose lives are now encompassed within the ruins and confines of a world yet-to-end, in the midst of destruction, or having already past the apocalypse. What we get, is an exploration of the dreaded aspects of the world, of humanity as a whole, of mortality, and of the self as we are accompanied by the reassuring presence of the cute anime girls along our journey into existentialism. And through all this, we experience the many flavours of possible futures we will (hopefully) never get to see, allowing us to imagine them and reflect. And I’m here just to show you a glimmer of the works I’ve found within that realm that I enjoyed.
Post-War
To do this, I will split it up into sections which I have arbitrarily decided should exist within this specific niche. And with how post-apocalypse stories go, this section (unfortunately) might not be too far-fetched from the current state of the world. These are the stories taking place after or during a world-ending war that sport similar military technology or at least, adopting the aesthetics of the big World Wars, 1 and 2, no three-peat. The two anime I will spotlight here is obviously Girls’ Last Tour as well as Sound of the Sky (So Ra No Wo To).
Girls’ Last Tour takes place within a war-ruined world with two girls journeying to get to the top because that’s what their grandfather told them to do. The empty, ruined buildings in the cities, save for a few people they meet along the way, echo the future that very well may happen if every country just decided to say fuck it, we ball. But the girls find their way through the world despite everything, taking semblances of joy, of life throughout their travels. Through finding things from the old world, through the occasional happiness of food and the faint beauty of the ruined scenery. The girls continued their tour.
The girls doing their laundry upon finding a large reservoir.
In Sound of The Sky, the world is ruined yes but unlike Girls’ Last Tour, the world still has people and countries left that the war was still ongoing. To directly quote someone else: “In a lonely corner of the world, on the edge of No Man’s Land, sits Clocktower Fortress. It’s home to the 1121st Platoon of the Helvetian Army, and their newest member is a 15-year-old volunteer named Kanata Sorami, who enlisted to learn how to play the bugle.”
The city of Lakes and Glass, Seize, where the girls live, is separated from the current horrors of war due to its strategic position being right in front of a horrible wasteland to wage war in. The citizens there live in relative peace, but always with a sense of foreboding dread. The show explores this bastion of light in the darkness through music, and through the maidens that symbolise the ones in their own urban legend.
Average new bugle player colorized circa 1981
In both works, there are traces of hope, carried through the girls, like a small candle on a harsh, long, war-ridden, winter night. Whether the world is already over, or it threatens to be the case, the aspect always focused on is the hope and the joy there is to be had from just continuing to live. Living despite everything, is a great way to spite a world that curses you, after all.
Reformation of Society
What do I mean by reformation? In this specific circumstance, I am referring to societies interrupted by the development or insertion of another, stronger, more mysterious species that led the world to ruin and the story thereafter. While this genre tends to get more serious, bloody and existentialist, I must assert its relevance in this piece because the protagonists are cute girls or at least, have the appearance of one. From the New World (Shinsekai Yori) and Heavenly Delusion will be the two focuses in this section. For real though, these ones really stray from the cutesy slice-of-life aspect with some parts really getting into the messed-up aspects of humanity. But they’re here because I believe they still kinda fit.
So, leading off that, the theme we follow in this section will specifically be the extents of the sins of humanity that led to the apocalypse, as well as the continuation of the sins done in the newly bleak world. Heavenly Delusion tracks two main narratives, the adventures of Kiruko, who acts as a bodyguard for Tokio to escort him in search of a place called Heaven as well as the story of children who live in a facility, and which they are told the outside world is Hell. A lot of things happen because of the past hubris of man, the monsters roaming the outside world suspected to be a direct result of that. But also treacherous are the actors who abuse the world’s enshittification. The story explores both, through the two narratives.
Kiruko, squaring up.
Shinsekai Yori also explores similar things, but with an atmosphere of dread and horror hovering above the characters throughout. In a world transformed by the outbreak of people awakening to psychokinesis, the world is left in a fragile state of peace, with the psychic humans shaping an isolationist society that conforms to their own complex rules and rituals. The story explores the students at a school of psychics, through the character of Saki who was relieved to awaken to her own powers. But dread continues to invade the air as suspicions on what happened to those who didn’t awaken to their powers fill Saki’s mind as she’s forced to confront the mysterious state of the world, the unawakened children as well as the queerats, intelligent species meant to serve humans.
Saki, unlocking her Persona. (IDK what she’s doing here FR)
In lieu of spoilers I didn’t mention a lot of things but do be warned things really do get into some fucked up territory, for both works. Illustrating these aspects of the world created by the hubris and downfall of man, serve to display the worst of what could be done. A horrifying list of atrocities and cover-ups and forceful conformation in the setting of a post-apocalyptic world shines a light on the hidden nature of man that might be obscured by the distractions that point the light away from the modern sins of the people. Offering an interesting look at how we could end up, if, for whatever reason, things go too far.
The Cosmic Cycle
Well, that was fun huh? Let’s move on to something brighter, now we are looking at girls trapped in the dreaded, unflinching, merciless cycle of the cosmos. Having to face horrors beyond the comprehension of man as the world itself works against them. Yeah okay, I lied. For that reason, we look at Yuki Yuna is a Hero, as well as Land of the Lustrous. (I’d say, this section has the most spoilers for the shows on the scale of worldbuilding so feel free to skip.) Both series either in the show or later in the manga, tackle the cycle of rebirth that’s forced onto the world on a cosmic scale. Its post-apocalyptic nature comes from the world already being post-humanity or only a small set of the world still being left under attack by cosmic entities beyond humanity. So, let’s get into it.
First, we must address the elephant in the room. I know, I know. Gems don’t have genders, but c’mon, look at them. They have the vibes of cute girls and that’s enough for me. The story follows Phosphophyllite, or Phos, the weakest, clumsiest and most brittle Gem of the bunch which makes her not suited for battle though she yearns to be helpful. The Gems go out on patrol to repel the invasion of Lunarians, beings who break Gems and take their bodies and collects them. MAJOR MANGA SPOILER. The cosmic cycle in this work is due to the nature of Gems and Lunarians both being aspects of humanity, the bone (Gem) and the Soul (Lunarians). The flesh is a different party. Throughout the story, Phos struggles and struggles to find a way to make everyone happy, but only finds herself alone, with no allies. Yet she still tries and tries, and the despair gained, the meaninglessness attempts at still trying to save everyone makes her so unimaginably tragic and in a word, human.
Phosphophyllite, Best Girl 2017
Yes, indeed this show is in fact about magical girls. Yuki Yuna is a member of her middle school’s Hero Club where she participates in activities like putting on shows for kids and cleaning to help others and bring a smile to their faces. One day, in the year 300th of the Age of Gods, time stops all around them and an explosion of light transports Yuki and the other members of the club into a strange colourful forest. The app the members had downloaded when they first joined the club was in fact a symbol that their club was chosen to be magical girls and fight against large enemies known as the ‘Vertex’. Okay let’s get into the SPOILERS. As the girls have to fight off stronger and stronger Vertexes every time in the forest to prevent the destruction of the real world, they have to activate a stronger skill, known as Mankai which, again SPOILERS, makes the user lose a something from their body, whether it be a loss of usage of a body part or one of their senses. They fight and fight to keep their small existences and world alive despite the overwhelming odds and cosmic horrors in the forest.
Yuki Yuna, Being a Hero
And that’s the reoccurring theme in both these works. Hopelessness and meaninglessness in the face of the vast iteration of time and space working against the person. But its given meaning, by virtue of action, by virtue of still moving and fighting against it all it retains the meaning of humanity and of life. Unlike post-war’s faint traces of hope against the ruin of the world, this section showcases the roaring wills of girls brought to the brink against the will of the world forced onto them. Deriving meaning from the jaws of hopelessness and of tragedy, by simply willing oneself forward despite everything.
New Odd World (With Some Humans)
For real this time, something brighter. In this section, we look at the alternate less serious aspects of post-humanity, about a world that has become warped or made to be so much more different that normal Earth, due to the existence of a new civilization as humanity becomes a minority. The work in question being Humanity Has Declined.
In Humanity has Declined, only a few remnants of humanity remain, and the world is dominated by faeries, tiny creatures of surprising (and questionable) intelligence. The main character Watashi, or Okashi-chan works as a mediator between humans and faeries. I love this show, and its in large part because I enjoy the main character’s narration and reactions towards the shenanigans of the faeries. A light-hearted and fun watch about living alongside the new residents of the world which in their actions, mirror the chaotic nature of humanity itself.
Lord of the Faeries, Okashi-chan
This show provides a nice contrast to the other anime of the post-apocalyptic genre, humanity declined naturally due to declining birth rates and the new civilization of faeries only exist to fill that ecological niche. Putting forth the question, are we truly afraid of the world ending? Or are we afraid of humanity ending? There isn’t inherent meaning in life, except for the pursuit of living, so maybe from this perspective if we can live alongside anything, things will still be fine. Post-apocalypse leads the world into rebirth.
Conclusion
So, what’s the point in all this? The existence of these works illustrates the exploration of philosophy that is inherent within the existences of worlds shaped by apocalypse, not just through the lens of a female character, but through layering the atmosphere and tone that is relevant to the slice-of-life genre onto what usually is the bleak and merciless setting of the world these characters lived in. From this, there is a progression, a push-and-pull of the hope of those who continue to live on versus the bleakness of reality, of a world coming to an end. And I think that’s great, in fact I find comfort in it. Something about the small traces of light, a solace in meaninglessness that I find touching. So does the idea of a pleasant post-apocalypse. Both of them I think, are pretty neat.
Before we cut off, I must mention what I believe to be the grandmama of this genre combination. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind provides a blend of New Odd World and Post-War that pushed the environmentalist perspective and anti-war sentiments Miyazaki had pushed in his earlier works. Human sin destroys nature, but slowly, faint traces of hope and understanding can still let humans live on in Nausicaa. Another show I would like to mention is Made in Abyss, despite it formally existing as a fantasy, because I believe it does many a similar thing. The characters’ journey into the abyss mirrors a hellish landscape a ‘point of no return’ vibe that exists within many post-apocalyptic media. I should also mention Madoka Magica here too which would have fit in cosmic cycle if the world got ever so closer to being destroyed, but because Homura is the GOAT, it’ll have to stay in the time travel genre.
In any case, I love the confrontations of my own mortality that these works bring to my slice-of-life, comedy, CGDCT-rotted brain and I can only hope more of works within the same realm release in the future. As a manga reader, my heart still holds onto the hope and copium of a movie adapting the final chapters of the Girls’ Last Tour manga, as well as a sequel for Land of The Lustrous (Wow, it has been eight years, for both). Anyway, if any of the shows mentioned today interested you, do give them a watch, all of them bring something interesting to the table, though clearly, I have a bit of a bias. I believe any good story in this sort of setting will bring out some sort of reflection about us as people, and if you were forced to face these thoughts anyway with how the world is, why not do it with anime girls? Thanks for reading, deuces.
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