I don’t know if Prepare to the Finish of the World is a real turning level in anime, but it surely appears like an necessary intersection of quite a lot of developments and forces which have been at play over the previous ten, possibly even twenty years. 

On the planet of the close to future, an try to launch a 7G community truly twists Japan right into a nigh-unrecognizable land of weird mysteries and elementary modifications to the whole lot folks know. Within the metropolis of Agano, adults have become sentient animals, wi-fi communications are lifeless, and knowledge is difficult to come back by. Chikura Shizuru is a pupil dwelling in Agano, going via their day by day lives within the fallout of the 7G Incident, however when she learns that her lacking buddy Yoka may be in Ikebukuro, she and her pals commandeer an out-of-commission practice within the hopes of reaching Yoka.

This anime touches on quite a lot of standard tropes, however in a approach that performs with expectations. The collection is certainly about Cute Women Doing a Factor—on this case driving a practice via Japan—however it will possibly hardly be referred to as “slice of life” as a result of there may be quite a lot of narrative momentum. It follows within the pattern of post-apocalypse and travelog collection like Women’ Final Tour and Kino’s Journey, but it surely’s much less concerning the ennui of the atmosphere and extra about exploring an odd new world. The truth that it’s finished through commuter rail and with women whose relationships carry totally different levels of luggage pushes the story away from the quiet gravitas such works usually exude and into one thing extra private. Loads of titles (particularly from the studio P.A. Works) spotlight much less well-known components of Japan, however they don’t sometimes current them as Escher-like warpings of actuality. I believe the closest collection may be Rolling Women, however even that collection’s model of fantastical could be very totally different.

What’s extra, Prepare to the Finish of the World takes all these considerably contradictory instructions and ties all of them collectively in a satisfying method. This type of creativity is definitely one thing I used to be hopeful about once I first heard concerning the collection, significantly as a result of Mizushima Tsutomu was on the helm. Because the director of each SHIROBAKO and Women und Panzer, he’s confirmed skill to inform remarkably concerned tales that marry quite a lot of disparate energies collectively. Whereas Prepare to the Finish of the World isn’t my favourite of the three, I really feel prefer it may be probably the most spectacular of them from a storytelling perspective. 

I encourage the skeptical to offer it an opportunity.