“Sleep and wake and eat and move” - Yuu

Apocalyptic stories in anime come in many forms and serve a variety of purposes. Many times the setting allows for action scenes and having a hero come into their own, something like Attack on Titan or High School of the Dead. Others take the situation in slightly different ways, more contemplative ways, series like Casshern Sins or Neon Genesis Evangelion as examples. Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou takes an alternative route of using an apocalypse for object lessons on a variety of topics.

The story of Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou isn't so much about an overarching plot as the chapter to chapter encounters and experiences of the main leads, Yuu and Chii. The only connecting element of the series is the girls’ constant movement upward and need for supplies. Their stops along the way result in a wide variety of thought-provoking situations from odd encounters found throughout the crumbling city them are in.

Many of these situations take a look at modern society and norms from a future that has forgotten the reason for some inventions: the amazing marvel of technology that is the camera, why humans take pictures at all, and what happens when those pictures are either lost or outlive their subjects as a single example. Other stops focus on the nature of living and what one does when the world and time as we know it has ended. These ideas and their underlying themes make up the true appeal of the series and form the major reason for reading it at all. Each chapter works through a new idea, not offering an answer for the questions the series raises but instead gives that reader a chance to consider things they might take for granted or as a normal, and whether that mundanity is really something to appreciate

The art of this manga skillfully plays into the messages and themes of the story, drifting between believably run down and apocalyptic buildings to slightly fantastical or constructions out of science fictions story. The art, whether meant to be literal illustrations of the dilapidated world surrounding the girls or showing how they see their world as a mysterious,vaguely foreboding landscape pairs well with the readers lack of knowledge of the world, being shown only what the main characters see. Every location that Yuu and Chii visit contains broken constructs, hints about the activities and purpose of each area, and creates a wonderful atmosphere of a once mighty and thriving world now breathing its last.

Especially effective are the vaguely ominous and foreboding backgrounds, hinting at world that fell to ruin and only continues down the path of entropy. The final few chapters especially point to how little remains of the human world and how broken it is without upkeep and inhabitants. Watching Chii and Yuu traverse this vast and varied landscape is another major selling point for the series, as it is a masterful example of a story without words, giving information through interpretation and implication rather than outright explanation.

Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou is a masterfully crafted trek through a dying world, contemplating the very reason for living and being, seen through the eyes of two girls who make do with whatever they have. While perhaps a slow boil, Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou is a unique collection of ideas wrapped in a deceptively simple yet deeply intriguing world.