Hey everybody, and welcome back to Girls’ Last Tour. This lovely show’s last episode concluded on one of its most beautiful and transcendent moments yet, as the discovery of a long-abandoned beer stash led to Yuu and Chi drunkenly dancing on the edge of the world. It was a terrific sequence that, like the girls’ earlier discovery of music during a rainstorm, seemed to embody Yuu’s philosophical defense against the harshness and unfairness of this world: “if you keep living, something good might happen.” The rational, day-to-day substance of Yuu and Chi’s lives is fundamentally hopeless; there is no better future waiting for them, and the threat of death is a constant companion. But any life, even lives like these, can occasionally erupt into moments of wonder and joy – and in between those moments, they still have each other.

Last episode was a very generous combination of basically all of this show’s strengths, from its beautiful shots of the city to its reflections on impermanence to that final dance. I’m not expecting another episode to match it so soon, but either way, I’m eager to see what’s in store for our girls. Let’s dive into another episode of Girls’ Last Tour!

Episode 9

Inside a metal structure again, with Yuu commenting on the darkness. Instead of creating a sense of danger or disorientation through mystery, these first shots hint at the idea that someone might be watching our heroes, by framing the shot through foreground pipes that both emphasize the physical sense of space and also imply a potential third party hiding in our perspective

“It sounds like things are moving, so maybe this facility is still alive.” We never see any living animals in this show – the closest thing to being “alive” here are the creaking, loyal shifts of the remaining active machinery

The camera zooms in on those spinning fans, the length of the shot creating a sense of unease. Audiences are trained to understand a variety of cinematic shorthand, and long held shots can generally imply importance, or that some specific object holds a meaning that the active characters have missed. Given this context, and the fact that the roaring of the tunnels amplifies as we draw closer, this sequence effectively ties that initial sense of “they’re being watched” to the factory itself, as if they’re driving through the belly of a softly snoring beast

Chi clarifies that she didn’t mean the factory was actually alive, leading Yuu to ask “what’s a life form?” As always, her lack of knowledge and preconceptions allows her to ask questions so fundamental they demand we reassess our understanding of the world around us

Wild sequence of quick cuts, as Chi mulls over Yuu’s question while reflecting on all the “life” they’ve found – striking chimes, splashing raindrops, churning machines

A giant horse-shaped mechanical strider walks back, further complicating the question of what qualifies as “alive,” while also building off the horror tone of these early minutes

Yuu crouches down like a cat when she’s actually scared

The strider offers a fine chance for Yuu to poke at Chi’s definition of “living being”

“They say there are no other living beings aside from humans on earth.” Wait, WHAT? I love how this show just casually tosses off the most consequential tidbits of worldbuilding. Though there was that one fish…

And then they immediately find a living fish. Okay, overreach by Chi

And on top of that, they’re immediately greeted by a robot who walks up to them and says hello. Chi’s authoritative knowledge is really taking a beating this episode

I like how this robot’s “thinking” process is illustrated through these overlapping geometric curves. The design echoes the architecture of what seem to be this city’s initial creators – a far more advanced society that built the initial pillars, before scavengers built their own bridges and lifts to navigate the prior scaffolding

An entire massive aquarium structure, and this robot has been reduced to preserving a single fish in a single tank. But like all of this show’s human characters, any meaning can be enough to keep you moving

Yuu goes swimming while Chi does their laundry

“The earth was once one large living being, but humans chose to separate themselves from its processes. Humans built cities to provide the environment for their existence, as an alternative to the cycles of water, air, and energy.” Really interesting framing of the situation by this robot. While Girls’ Last Tour’s city is one of its greatest strengths, I hadn’t really considered it as an embodiment of mankind’s movement away from natural cycles of living, at least in the context of this show. But to these girls, it is basically a natural wilderness

Chi doesn’t want to get naked for swimming because the robot’s watching. A funny reflection on our relative conceptions of personhood – this robot isn’t “alive” or even necessarily a “person” to Chi, but it’s still a third party who isn’t allowed to see her naked

Chi starts drowning, leading into another vivid series of quick cuts, as her memories of the “sea” from that dream fuse with her troubled thoughts on the current nature of the earth. Girls’ Last Tour has been pretty emphatically episodic so far, but these quick cuts are creating a sense of consequence that implies we’re leading up towards some sort of actual destination, if only a psychological one

“I wanna take you with me on our journey.” The Adventures of Chi, Yuu, and This Fish They Found

“We were equipped with the ability to evoke empathy in order to facilitate communication with humans.” That first civilization accomplished so much, and yet all that remains are these proud remnants. Humbling to consider that a society which advanced so far beyond our own was still subject to the cyclical decay of time and human nature

“What’s empathy?” “It means that when you are happy, I am happy.” What a clever and specific definition. A great deal of political friction comes down to this empathy gap – many people are politically driven not by the pursuit of greater collective happiness, but by the desire to see the “wrong people” punished

The large strider smashes through a wall, and begins breaking down their facility. Our small robot friend says that sometimes this must happen to preserve materials, but that he will ask the strider what is going on

Oh man, I love this sequence so much. We can’t hear anything they’re saying, but the quick cuts between their faces, as well as the contrast between their furious electronic processes, makes it clear that the little robot is arguing with all his might to protect his home and his fish. And when he goes back to the girls, he simply phrases it as “I proposed that he stop, and he refused.” This robot is incapable of vocally expressing the depth of feeling he seems to have attached to his home, but it’s clear in his proud tour for the girls, and his defense against this other robot’s directives

“A bug lethal to the city must have occurred.” “A bug… is that the driving force behind evolution, too?” “If you would call breaking down something to build something new evolution.” I really, really like this robot. He’s got a good head on his shoulders

And having come to care about their robot friend, Yuu actually proposes that they save the fish she wanted to eat

Oh wow. I figured they’d just, y’know, take the fish to a different water body or something. Instead, they’re planning on blowing up the strider

And having met both of these robots, Chi is forced to reassess her definition of “life,” and admit these machines have a vitality that makes the question of whether they’re “alive” or not meaningless

“The fish and I will live for a little longer now. Though we will all die one day.” Man, this show

“Maybe ‘life’ means something that had an end?” A hopeful thought, and almost a necessary one

And Done

Welp, that one immediately joins my favorite episodes, too. After last episode’s three independent vignettes, I was kinda hoping/expecting us to engage in another full-episode story, and this was one of the best of them. Yuu and Chi’s robot friend proved to be a terrific addition to the cast, a character whose knowledge of the old city and clarity of perspective let all three of them come to a happier relationship with impermanence, and with the life of the city around them. Watching Yuu become friends with a fish was adorable and totally convincing, and that sequence of the small robot arguing to save his fish without any words was one of the most impressive and heart-wrenching moments of the show so far. This show just keeps impressing me anew, and at this point, I think I’ve got a lot of Girls’ Last Tour proselytizing of my own in the future. What a wonderfully human show.

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