EntertainmentTVAnime ShowsThe weirdest must-watch anime of spring 2024 is a trippy sci-fi story about girls taking a train through the post-apocalypseWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
EntertainmentTVAnime ShowsThe weirdest must-watch anime of spring 2024 is a trippy sci-fi story about girls taking a train through the post-apocalypseWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Crunchyroll)
The following contains mild spoilers for The Train to the End of the World - so if you want to go in completely fresh, be warned.
The spring 2024 anime season has quite a few gems –Kaiju No. 8is poised to be yet another mega success, Wind Breaker is a surprisingly heartfelt (and beautifully animated) take on brawling delinquents, and Astro Note is a low-key riff on classic ’80s romantic-comedy anime. But the one that seems most destined to become a cult hit is Train to the End of the World, a sci-fi series that embraces the surreal at every turn and has become a can’t-miss story in the process.
A parade of oddities
(Image credit: Crunchyroll)
But whether it’s a guinea pig getting emotional over lost family members or an iguana’s impatience over his students or the use of a bitter melon to ward off a mushroom-infested horde, the audience is allowed to embrace the surreal on their own. Of course, there are some outsized reactions, but much of it reeks of the truth of this new world. It makes for something surprisingly poignant. As we come to know the new, chaotic logic of everything, we come to feel for this parade of oddities.
All on-board
(Image credit: Crunchyroll)
The genres deftly glide between adventure, slice-of-life comedy, sci-fi, and horror, the latter of which being the focus of the most recent episode ‘Short, Happy, and Easy’. In it, the group arrives at Higashi-Agano, a town where every resident has mushrooms sprouting from their skulls. The mushrooms, as we come to learn, place the residents in a kind of idyllic relaxation, one that numbs their eventual death from the infestation within a few years. Their attempts to lure in the group are a prime source for creature-feature thrills (it’s not hard to recall the Japanese sci-fi/horror classic from Godzilla director Ishiro Honda, Matango, or Attack of the Mushroom People).
However, the most troubling reveal is that the town isn’t a mindless zombified swarm after all. Rather, it’s the opposite. They think it’s foolish that the girls wouldn’t want to have a few years of oblivious peace before kicking the bucket, especially with the potential nightmare of the wasteland around them. To survive and to venture forth on this train is just offering more chances at misery. Why not grasp anesthetized bliss while you have the chance? Of course, the girls turn it down, but just like the world itself allowing the audience to find their own place among its structure (or lack thereof), it also provides themes like this to chew on and consider.
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Train to the End of the World is available to watch now via streaming on Crunchyroll.
To keep up to date with what’s new inanime in 2024, check out our guide to the biggest upcoming and ongoing shows.
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