Everyone feeling ready for some poignant, atmospheric adventures in a beautiful decaying world? I certainly hope so, because it is absolutely time for more Girls’ Last Tour. After two episodes that explored such heavy topics as our search for meaning in life and our fear of being forgotten in death, Girls’ Last Tour’s most recent episode shifted its focus, instead exploring such resonant, universal questions as “what if Chi was huge” and “what if Chi was huge and also a fish.”

That was fine with me, to be honest. Girls’ Last Tour was already very satisfying as a warm, quirky travelogue even before it started dabbling in the Big Questions, and this kind of story demands a balance of philosophical inquiry and intimate, relatable character vignettes. The personal stuff is what lends the thematic stuff the weight of emotional investment, and beyond that, Girls’ Last Tour’s little vignettes are just really charming and satisfying in their own right. Watching Chi and Yuu find joy in this strange world, and in each other, expresses Girls’ Last Tour’s empathy and faith in humanity more clearly than any purpose-of-living monologue ever could. Let’s see what mischief they get up to in episode six!

Episode 6

We open with the girls still in the steel forest from the end of last episode. Yuu is admiring the sky and the weather, while Chi frets over some unrepairable issue with their vehicle. Their relationship in miniature, a dynamic that both results in lots of endearing personal drama, and also naturally facilitates the show’s philosophical discussions, by presenting a clear contrast between the rational, anxious mind and the open, experience-minded heart

“It’s peaceful.” “It’s hopeless.” Chi would make it on her own for longer than Yuu, but the two still need each other. Chi takes care of the mechanical needs of survival, while Yuu offers persistent reasons to keep struggling, by consistently finding joy in this broken world. Though I’m sure Chi would protest at Yuu being assigned “psychological wellbeing duty” instead of any real work

“Let’s get along with the feeling of hopelessness.” Yuu offers a perfect slogan for the modern age

A plane flies by. Civilization!

Really charming beat of the girls talking over each other as they point out the plane and also a person running beneath it. The dialogue between these two is always so convincing

“They fell over.” Both Chi and Yuu are naturally good at deadpan punchlines in their own way – Yuu with her airy acceptance of everything that happens, and Chi with her fatigued, perpetually unimpressed attitude. They bounce off each other wonderfully when they have an active event to comment on

Heavy focus on the sound design for this character introduction; the clicking of her pocket telescope and her harried breath naturally draw focus, due to both the lack of background music and the stillness of these long held shots

Both her lack of concern for her own falling and her failure to notice the girls imply she’s the classic preoccupied inventor type

Ahaha, this “and together we’re…” gag is so good. Chi just ignores Yuu, but Yuu is kinda used to being ignored

This new woman’s voice acting is somewhat unusual, in that it sounds a bit more like live action voice acting than anime voice acting. Anime voice acting tends to be dramatically exaggerated a bit, but certain shows or directors intentionally avoid that affectation – check out Erased’s first episode for a good example, since its protagonist is voiced by a live action actor

Lucky as hell of these girls to find an engineer the moment their car breaks down. They’re always one unexpected disaster away from death

I like how this woman’s face has its own simplified, angular shape. Chi and Yuu both have circular blob heads, but all the adults’ heads have distinct geometric profiles

Ishii is her name

She brings them to her home, a derelict air base

She’s building a plane she herself can ride in. Everyone needs a dream

There was actually a Kino’s Journey episode just like this. If you enjoy Kino or Girls’ Last Tour, you would probably be a fan of the other one too

The girls engage in some minor cannibalism by eating some potatoes

“Why’d you want to make an airplane?” As usual, Yuu hits on a surprisingly fundamental question through her general curiosity and lack of intellectual preconceptions. She’s a very classic kind of accidentally wise; because she knows so little, she’s able to cut right to the heart of things with her broad questions

Ishii’s answer is “I had the blueprints.” She didn’t do this because this was always her dream – she did it because the tools were at hand, and action is more fulfilling than inaction

“True hopelessness is not having anywhere to go, right?” Ishii makes the theme explicit

Chi is worried by the threat of failure, but Ishii is determined to fly while the weather is still amenable to it. This feels like a distance in perspective reflective of their relative experience – Chi is young enough to think in terms of avoiding risk altogether, but Ishii is willing to take a dangerous chance because she knows inaction is death in its own way, and you only get so many chances

Yuu’s “hopeless, hopeless” song is wonderful

A beautiful moment as they finally get the car working again. Yuu laughing as she follows the car, entirely oblivious to how dangerous this situation was, while Chi actually tears up with relief that they avoided catastrophe

This lengthy montage is doing a fine job of supporting what seems to be this episode’s core message – that regardless of the outcome, productive labor can give your life a sense of purpose and joy. The temporary breakdown of their vehicle stole Chi and Yuu’s ability to push forward, and this collaboration with Ishii is giving them purpose once more. Their vehicle serves as a neat metaphor for their emotional struggle

They celebrate the completion of the plane with TWO potatoes. Let’s not get crazy, guys

“You really have no shame, Yuuri.” Chi is forced to apologize for her wife

“On a sunny day when the air was clear, I got a small glimpse of what lies on the far shore.” ‘The far shore’ is some really resonant imagery. Ishii doesn’t know what awaits in the next city over, but having a dream to chase is enough

And the girls take a photograph of Ishii to remember her by. I like how this show’s various subthemes are naturally building on each other, with lessons the girls have learned in the past now being incorporated into their everyday routines. Illustrating how the lessons we learn actually shape us as people is a key part of fiction’s ability to turn intellectual arguments into emotionally resonant experiences

“The most important thing of all was having someone watch this moment. If someone’s watching, I’m sure it will become history.” Ishii finds her own answer to the quest for immortality

“This flight will be etched into the tail end of history.” She actually finds a kind of comfort in this being the end of human civilization – if she is truly the last, then her actions carry that much more significance

This sequence looks a little shaky when it’s just the CG plane in this dark warehouse, but the scene comes alive when that plane is contrasted against the beautiful, crumbling city below. This city is the cornerstone of Girls’ Last Tour’s aesthetic power

The plane crumbles, in keeping with the theme it represents – labor for its own sake, a task whose most fundamental value is giving us a sense of purpose. And as she floats down, Ishii reflects “once you fail, you feel so carefree.” She can’t regret all her labor – those were happy, busy days, no matter their outcome

“Maybe she’s getting along with it now. With the feeling of hopelessness.” Oh my god Yuu

Just as the map-maker’s map was scattered to the wind, so does Ishii’s dream of conquering the sky end with her floating down to the lowest level. Girls’ Last Tour’s individual characters all play out the same arc of its larger human society – everything is lost, and yet there is still hope

And the girls head west, in search of the great potato farm in the sky

And Done

We return to Girls’ Last Tour’s core themes with a vengeance! This episode gracefully combined the focus on purpose from the show’s third episode with the focus on legacy from its fourth, through a story that celebrated the simple yet essential joy of having a goal to pursue. Ishii’s thoughtful perspective and very specific goals seemed to indicate she might have actually had significant trouble adjusting to the powerlessness and hopelessness of the post-apocalypse, and while I’m sure she appreciated Yuu and Chi’s physical contributions to her project, their natural ability to find joy in everyday labor, and not feel defeated by their seemingly hopeless larger circumstances, was likely even more essential. The hangar setting meant this wasn’t the show’s most compelling episode visually, but its contrast of Ishii, Yuu, and Chi’s perspectives made for a fascinating excavation of the show’s underlying views on purpose and hope, as well as the profound importance of sharing your journey with others. Onward to Potato Paradise!

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