As I have written before, many questions pose deep philosophical questions to their audiences, and I am constantly trying to find the answers to those questions. In a previous column I dealt with the question “Is it wrong to try and pick up girls in a dungeon?“, a humdinger of a question to be sure. But never in my life have I been as challenged by a title as “WorldEnd: What Do You Do At the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us?” Truly few anime have had such a complex philosophical structure as WorldEnd: What Do You Do At the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us?, but I will try my best to break the show’s underlying questions piece by piece.

WorldEnd: What Do You Do At the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us?‘s first question sets the scene. The end of the world has occurred, and now we are left with an existential question of what to do now. Many post-apocalyptic stories have dealt with this question before, and WorldEnd: What Do You Do At the End of the World? Are you Busy? Will You Save Us? uses this standard premise as a leaping-off-point for further question. Furthermore, this question establishes WorldEnd: What Do You Do At the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us?‘s 2nd person interrogation. WorldEnd: What Do You Do At the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us? isn’t asking what to do at the end of the world in a general sense, it’s asking you, the audience, what you would do if you found yourself in that scenario, encouraging self-reflection and honesty.

WorldEnd: What Do You Do At the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us?‘s second question then asks, “Are you busy?” This question is deeply ironic on many levels, asking us to consider what the word “busy” truly means. Can you truly be busy when the world has ended? Is busyness simple a societal construct based on capitalist structures, or is busyness something inherent to human nature? Indeed, WorldEnd: What Do You Do At the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us? further asks you to consider whether you are truly “busy” in the present, as opposed to what you might be doing after the world ended, which again, is still an open question based on the first part of the title.

The 2nd question serves as a branching idea that takes us to our 3rd question: “Will you save us?” When I first read this question, it struck me to my core. Indeed, would I save them, if the world had indeed ended? Which simply raised the further question, why am I not saving them now? Am I truly too “busy,” watching anime and posturing about its meaning? I came to the realization that I must save them, with the “them” being of course you, the audience, and the “save” being of course by delivering my newfound knowledge of how life should be lived without changing my own behavior whatsoever.

WorldEnd: What Do You Do At the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us? is truly a life changing show. Not since Hollywoo Stars and Celebrities: What Do They Know? Do They Know Things? Let’s Find Out! has a show raised so many questions with just one title. This show’s title may require an entire series of articles to truly fully analyze, and if you would like your life changed as well, please support my Patreon, GoFundMe, Ko-Fi, and Twitch channel.

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