Serf on Nostr: Serf’s Weekly Manga Recommendations Week 21: Girls’ Last Tour “Two young girls ...
Serf’s Weekly Manga Recommendations Week 21:
Girls’ Last Tour
“Two young girls travel through a desolate landscape in search of food, water, and fuel for their precious Kettenkrad motorbike. Although the world they wander through is a lonely one, Chito and Yuuri find happiness in the little things they encounter on their journey: a forgotten supply of military rations, a hot bath thanks to a leaky pipe in an abandoned power plant, or the discovery of a lone autonomous robot protectively guarding a solitary fish. Even if human civilization is dead, these two can always find something to live for.”
mangadex.org/title/5b93fa0f-0640-49b8-974e-954b9959929b/girls-last-tour
This is another must-read, though hopefully I’m preaching to the choir with this recommendation and you’ve all already read it. It’s the pinnacle of the slice of life genre: beautiful detailed art of vast decaying cityscapes, cute protagonists who are in a way stand-ins for all humanity but not in a way that detracts from their status as individual memorable characters, and thoughtful contemplations on the meaning of life. It is melancholy, I probably cried more reading this manga than any other, as the central theme is more or less “what is the point of life with no future?” But it isn’t ever despairing, it firmly falls into the “iyashikei” genre of books that are comforting and healing to read. I remember reading this the first time when Made in Abyss was blowing up and thinking that they are interestingly parallel but inverse stories: both are about deceptively cute kids on a mature psycho-spiritual journey through a hostile world, but Abyss is a descent into hell and Tour is an ascent into heaven. Put them together and you have a whole Japanese pop Divine Comedy on your hands.
I wish I could recommend the anime as strongly, as it is as beautiful, well put together, and poignant as it ought to be with the edition of some fantastic music, unfortunately it only adapts 2/3rd of the manga and you really owe it to yourself to get to the ending.
Girls’ Last Tour
“Two young girls travel through a desolate landscape in search of food, water, and fuel for their precious Kettenkrad motorbike. Although the world they wander through is a lonely one, Chito and Yuuri find happiness in the little things they encounter on their journey: a forgotten supply of military rations, a hot bath thanks to a leaky pipe in an abandoned power plant, or the discovery of a lone autonomous robot protectively guarding a solitary fish. Even if human civilization is dead, these two can always find something to live for.”
mangadex.org/title/5b93fa0f-0640-49b8-974e-954b9959929b/girls-last-tour
This is another must-read, though hopefully I’m preaching to the choir with this recommendation and you’ve all already read it. It’s the pinnacle of the slice of life genre: beautiful detailed art of vast decaying cityscapes, cute protagonists who are in a way stand-ins for all humanity but not in a way that detracts from their status as individual memorable characters, and thoughtful contemplations on the meaning of life. It is melancholy, I probably cried more reading this manga than any other, as the central theme is more or less “what is the point of life with no future?” But it isn’t ever despairing, it firmly falls into the “iyashikei” genre of books that are comforting and healing to read. I remember reading this the first time when Made in Abyss was blowing up and thinking that they are interestingly parallel but inverse stories: both are about deceptively cute kids on a mature psycho-spiritual journey through a hostile world, but Abyss is a descent into hell and Tour is an ascent into heaven. Put them together and you have a whole Japanese pop Divine Comedy on your hands.
I wish I could recommend the anime as strongly, as it is as beautiful, well put together, and poignant as it ought to be with the edition of some fantastic music, unfortunately it only adapts 2/3rd of the manga and you really owe it to yourself to get to the ending.