Hey folks, let’s watch some more Girls’ Last Tour. You’ve already funded me through the end of this season and the conclusion of the manga besides, so I think it’s safe to say at least some of you are enjoying this series, and for that I’m glad. Like Yuu and Chi’s own journey, Girls’ Last Tour seems like an experience that’s best shared, and though you’re not all technically here beside me, it still feels nice to ramble about this very pleasant show with the Theoretical You. And though you folks don’t also get to appreciate this, it also feels very Girls’ Last Tour-appropriate to channel something I’d already want to do into theoretically “useful labor,” since this is also my job. Though I’m often too busy to watch anime on my own time, perhaps an even greater hurdle to personal viewing is that nagging voice in my head that demands I Must Be Producing all the time, that if what I’m doing isn’t productive or moving towards a greater end, I’m going the wrong way.

That voice in my head is pretty stress-inducing, but it’s also one of the things that helps me keep pushing forward. But you can’t just have the Chi voice – if you’re perpetually trying to put the world in a clear and coherent order, and act upon that stable order in the most sensible and productive manner possible, you’re going to burn yourself out. The world is chaotic, and though pursuing a greater purpose is admirable, you also need to be able to rest, appreciate the chaos, and enjoy the world that’s already around you. Yuu is extremely good at, as she bluntly put it, “getting along with the hopelessness,” and I think you all help me in a similar way – I know what I’m doing is productive in terms of my job, so I can get my Chi voice to shut up for a bit, and fully appreciate each moment for its own sake. So thank you all for helping me get out of my own head for a bit, and let’s see what’s in store in one more Girls’ Last Tour!

Episode 11

An unusually straightforward opening this time, as we pan across broken girders to reveal the girls puttering along as usual. Considering they picked up a living dough-puppy last episode, I suppose we need context more than mystery right now

Yuu is feeding the doughpuppy bullets, of course. What is happening in this show

I’d wonder if the doughpuppy is actually a conventional animal that these girls just don’t have the context to categorize, but the show hasn’t really messed with visual perception up until now – we can generally trust that what we see is what the girls are seeing

Oh my god it’s so adorable with its chubby cheeks no wonder this city has a temple for these things

“It’s yummy, so I want to eat more.” Apparently the doughpuppy is sentient

Oh no Yuu is basically its mother now, and teaching it her ways. This is terrible

There’s a sort of grim relief in the fact that it can eat bullets; they’re basically the only thing these girls have an unlimited supply for

Chi sniffs out a new book! “War and Human Civilization”

Chi’s happy, proud giggle at finding this book is so charming. In a life like this, each new book expands her world to an unimaginable degree

I was always a voracious reader as a kid, and though I’ve gotten shamefully slow about getting through books in recent years, I couldn’t imagine not having an early life full of fantastical worlds and stories. Great books feel like such personal, confessional experiences; like all the most vivid memories of another soul are being bequeathed to you, enriching your own life in turn

“The letters are from an old, far-off place.” So it looks like we’re actually in Japan, since Chi can read hiragana but not the English alphabet

Yuu pokes at Chi for wanting to bring “something they can’t use,” raising the question of how valuable an unreadable book is. Without an interpreter, it is simply a signifier of knowledge – it’s like the tombs and temples they’ve passed, divorced from the context that gave it meaning, now simply a flammable paperweight. With a book, we can protest “but the meaning still exists!”, but the question remains

“Things I can’t eat don’t have value.” See, I told you Yuu shouldn’t be raising that thing

“Apparently some wars were caused by culture differences.” “Why?” “Maybe because things we don’t understand are scary… or something?” Nope, you got it in one, Chi. That’s pretty much the core political motivation of many millions of people

The two girls’ philosophies on new experiences echo their roles in the group – Chi is inquisitive but cautious, whereas Yuu is only idly curious, but reckless enough to actually push them towards new discoveries

They arrive at a truly bizarre contraption composed of interlocking gears and large reflective panels, perpetually spinning in an uneven circle. Yuu and her doughdaughter immediately start hanging off of it

I kinda miss the less active drama of some of the earlier episodes; I like the focused episodes, but I also enjoyed watching the girls simply experience this city at rest. I would absolutely love to see a slice of life show with vague horror tones of characters exploring something like the landscapes of Giorgio de Chirico

Another song comes through the radio, and the doughpuppy directs them towards where it’s coming from. The last embers of a fading culture, smoke signals to guide their hopeless journey

“Let’s go see something we don’t really understand”

“Maybe it was actually people like Yuu who created culture.” Chi arrives at one of the natural takeaways of their discussion on culture and identity – that you need people willing to make brave and potentially foolish choices in order to drive humanity forward into the unknown. Of course, you also need people like Chi to walk along behind them and sweep up the pieces, organizing all that brave and potentially misguided discovery into useful inventions or effective art. Perhaps the fact that I’m so much more of a Chi than a Yuu has something to do with why I prefer polished art to wild creative invention

And then Yuu immediately starts complaining about having to wear her helmet. See, this is why we need people like Chi

One of those massive robots falls in a vast open warehouse district. Such a sad sight – this lone sentinel still holding a vigil here, and when it falls, there’s no one left to witness it

Beautiful as well, though. We’re getting some lovely city shots this episode

Their little doughpuppy can fit its paws into outlets in order to power giant robots. I have many questions

Yuu presses a button that launches a giant exploding missile, and her immediate response is “let’s press another one.” Society may need people like Yuu, but holy shit do they terrify me

Another button fires out a tremendously powerful laser beam, offering a simultaneously gorgeous and harrowing vision of the city in flames. At last, the girls see what this city looked like in its moment of destruction – fire dancing in their eyes as the city seems to writhe in pain

The two have very different reactions to this genuinely awe-inspiring vision of destruction – Chi is humbled and frightened by it, but Yuu laughs, and Chi punches her for doing so. The necessity of both of their types is now illustrated from the other end – people like Yuu need a Chi to draw them back from the brink, and consider the context and consequences of their reckless pursuit of new experiences

Yuu realizes how angry Chi is, and apologizes, even though she might not understand why Chi is angry. Their personal bond and mutual concern for each other transcends their clear lack of mutual understanding, which is one of the only ways we can overcome those cultural and philosophical divides Chi mentioned earlier

Yuu gets mad at the machine for causing this destruction, and then the human pilot instead, before being reminded that she was that human pilot

There’s something very tragic and characteristically Girls’ Last Tour about this fire being slowly doused by the automatic sprinkler systems of a long-dead city. Like Chi and Yuu themselves, much of this city’s remaining apparatus is still busy rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic

Chi at last notices the similarities between the face statues and doughpuppy

Doughpuppy also likes drinking fuel. “He’s lucky. He has food all over the place.” The time frame obviously doesn’t work out, but I feel like it’d be in line with Girls’ Last Tour’s general philosophy to have humans already being replaced by creatures better-suited to surviving in this environment – perhaps even returning creatures that existed once before, and inspired the culture that built those temples many cycles ago

They arrive at an abandoned wind farm

The wind farm makes Chi think of a forest, something she’s only read about. Like full languages, individual words are only as meaningful as our collective understanding of them – but absent that understanding, they can find new life as new tools

The girls reflect on the limits of their knowledge. The lack of books means they can’t know much about the past, but their own finite lifetimes means they also can’t see much of the future – they are riding a tiny boat of understanding through a vast stretch of unfathomable time

They reach the end of the wind farm, and find the source of the music transmission – a massive submarine, now abandoned on the snow

This episode’s soundtrack sounds a bit more diverse than usual. This high, piano-driven melody seems new, and more like a conventionally tension-raising thriller track than Girls’ Last Tour’s generally more soothing, contemplative soundtrack

Ah, it was the build to a more conventional Girls’ Last Tour song, complete with a choir

And we get our first genuine cliffhanger, as the girls wander into the belly of a nuclear submarine!

And Done

Jeez, that episode was friggin’ stuffed. Girls’ Last Tour consistently offers conversations that serve as either/both tiny philosophical puzzles or meditations on the follies of human society, but rarely is it so direct or sharp-edged as this. Yuu and Chi’s conversations here felt like an interrogation of human nature itself, and whether war and self-destruction are inevitable consequences of curiosity and creation. Additionally, this episode felt like a more propulsive “adventure” than most, with the combination of their newly enlarged party and this episode’s consistent threats making our heroes’ journey feel more urgent and dangerous than ever.

!o be honest, I think I might prefer the show’s more contemplative usual mode – but of course, this is Girls’ Last Tour, and so we’re still talking about an episode that was mostly absorbed with rambling conversations and post-apocalyptic tourism, all of which I loved dearly. And with only one episode to go, it’s looking like Girls’ Last Tour will be concluding on some of its most exciting and high-stakes material so far!

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