Touring After the Apocalypse ‒ Episode 6

© 2025 さいとー栄/KADOKAWA/「終末ツーリング」製作委員会

Just who, or what, is Yoko? We already know Airi is a synthetic being, especially considering that in this episode, she suddenly shuts down completely, and we see that her irises are mechanical before she reboots back to normal again. In the first episode, we saw her fire a ridiculously powerful plasma cannon, hidden in her arm. She can't swim in the sea as she's too heavy. The suspiciously timed text message Yoko receives on her signal-less phone from her “big sis” gives Airi's true designation as AI-Re06. I suspect Airi functions as a localized cellphone transmitter when required, and the phone message probably originated from either within her body or, using her body as a relay, possibly from a satellite source. There's no way that cellphone networks and towers are still operational in this ruined world.

Yoko, though… She certainly seems to be organic. Cut her, and she bleeds. Yet, as we see in this episode, small injuries heal almost instantly. She survives significant physical trauma with barely a scratch on her (and I think this probably signifies something more intentional than mere lazy writing), plus she claims that she has “never been sick”. This is hard to believe, considering she lives in a post-apocalyptic world, surviving on whatever food she can scavenge (and in this episode, that means roasted rat – yummy), and surely infectious gastroenteritis is only ever one dodgy meal away. She's also apparently a school-age girl who lives decades, perhaps even centuries, after the end of human civilization. Plus, she seems to retain pre-apocalypse memories she's only able to access in dreams.

So was Yoko in cold sleep until recently? Is she a clone, implanted with a former incarnation's memories? Is she an artificial human, cyborg, or android who just happens to be better at floating than Airi? When she and Airi decide to head to Tsukuba, to a lab facility where Airi can receive maintenance, Airi suggests that Yoko “get checked out too”. Now, unless this facility has super-advanced AI medical diagnostics, which it may well do, I'm wondering if this is a subtle hint from Airi that she and Yoko aren't all that different in nature?

Speculation aside, this was a more dramatic than usual episode of Touring After the Apocalypse that managed to feel very… apocalyptic. The seemingly unnatural storm continues to rage outside, with multiple tornadoes and so much lightning it illuminates the distant Tokyo skyline. The girls' face-off against a huge army of very aggressive, very hungry rats is tense and unsettling. Apart from the berserk autonomous tank in the first episode, I think it's the first time we've seen them in any real danger, and it's only due to an exceedingly explosive mishap with petrochemical fuel that they're able to escape (and subsequently munch on a few of their tiny, toothy pursuers.)

It's a reminder that their until-now (mostly) cheery journey has the potential to be fraught with profound personal risk, as the remains of human civilization collapse around them and nature takes over, sometimes in strange new forms. Take the enormous turtle and overgrown crabs seen in the sea around Umihotaru, for example. The show's turn for the dramatic bodes well for the future. As much as I have enjoyed these two mysterious girls' fairly low-stakes journey through a crumbling yet beautiful world, I'm keen for something more substantial to get my teeth into. Probably not roast rat, though.

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Touring After the Apocalypse is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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