Shuumatsu Train Doko e Iku?

The introduction of 7G Network technology promised miraculous technological advancements; however, the aftermath of its launch plunged Japan into chaos. From drastic changes to the terrain to bizarre mutations among people, the way of life is overwritten with new rules. The town of Agano is one of the few remaining settlements, and its citizens aged 21 and above have transformed into animals.

Shizuru Chikura, a high school student from Agano, is desperately searching for her friend, Youka Nakatomi. Coming across a picture in a newspaper placing Youka in Ikebukuro, Shizuru starts packing for a trip. But with public transportation effectively shut down, her options are limited. Fortunately, Tairo Zenjirou, a senile old conductor and the only human adult in town, comes to the rescue when he teaches her how to operate an abandoned train.

With her destination set, Shizuru ventures off on a journey to find her missing friend. On the day of departure, however, her other classmates—Nadeshiko Hoshi, Reimi Kuga, and Akira Shinonome—decide to tag along at the last minute as they embark on this one-track adventure that might expose them to dangers far surpassing anything they have encountered in Agano.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Shinonome, Akira Main

Kino, Hina Japanese

Kuga, Reimi Main

Kuon, Erisa Japanese

Hoshi, Nadeshiko Main

Waki, Azumi Japanese

Chikura, Shizuru Main

Anzai, Chika Japanese

Zenjirou Supporting

Okitsu, Kazuyuki Japanese

Kuroki, Mito Supporting

Kohara, Konomi Japanese

Matsutake, Keiko Supporting

Fukuen, Misato Japanese

Suu-chan Supporting

Izawa, Shiori Japanese

Nakatomi, Youka Supporting

Touyama, Nao Japanese

Swan Hermit Supporting

Tobita, Nobuo Japanese

Sotokawa, Akihiro Producer

Itou, Shousei Producer

Nishimae, Shuka Producer

Kawamoto, Sachi Producer

Reviews

Jun 14, 2025

Tonystark4-Otaku

Recommended

All Aboard the Unknown: A Review of Shuumatsu Train Doko e Iku?

There’s something inherently compelling about a journey into the unknown — especially when it’s done on rails. *Shuumatsu Train Doko e Iku?* (Where Does the Doomsday Train Go?) doesn’t just ride that mystery, it builds a whole surreal world around it, delivering a strange but strangely comforting post-apocalyptic adventure that feels like a cross between *Girls’ Last Tour* and *Wonder Egg Priority* — only this time, the setting moves with every passing station.

A Journey Unlike Any Other

At its core, the anime is a road-trip — or rather, rail-trip — story, but what sets *Shuumatsu ... Train* apart is how it blends slice-of-life camaraderie with eerie dystopian imagery. The cast of high-school girls onboard a mysterious train sets the tone early: this isn’t your average end-of-the-world tale full of grit and despair. It’s reflective, oddly whimsical, and often haunting.

The worldbuilding is delivered in layers — each stop along the railway brings the girls face-to-face with strange environments, each more surreal and fragmented than the last. The show's charm lies in how it never fully explains itself, letting the atmosphere and oddities of the journey speak louder than exposition-heavy dialogue.

Sound That Drives the Soul

The sound design in *Shuumatsu Train* is a quiet star. It doesn’t force itself into the spotlight, but it's there — immersive, meticulous, and emotionally tuned. The ambient noises inside the train, the mechanical hums and creaks, and the subtle environmental cues from the outside world all breathe life into each scene. The contrast between the almost serene calmness of the train and the unsettling worlds outside it is sharpened beautifully through these soundscapes.

You’ll often find yourself listening more than watching — waiting for that faint mechanical whistle, or the clatter of metal, or even the echo of silence that hangs heavy between the girls’ conversations. It’s all part of the atmosphere: a world that's lost its logic but not its soul.

OP & ED: Bookends That Hit Home

The opening and ending songs of *Shuumatsu Train Doko e Iku?* don’t just serve as catchy intros and outros — they enhance the emotional texture of the series.

The OP is both melancholic and energizing, like the sunrise on an empty horizon. It mirrors the girls’ hopeful spirit despite the ambiguity of their journey. Visually, the sequence bursts with symbolism and soft chaos, reminding viewers that this train ride is as much about internal discovery as it is about reaching a physical destination.

The ED, on the other hand, slows things down — it’s a reflective, almost lullaby-like melody that wraps each episode in a gentle melancholy. It leaves you thinking not just about where the train is going, but about where each girl’s heart is headed.

Final Thoughts

Shummatsu Train Doko e Iku? may not be for everyone. It doesn’t hand you answers, and it doesn’t rush. But for those who appreciate atmosphere-heavy storytelling, layered emotional cues, and journeys that are more about the ride than the destination, this anime is a quiet gem.

Its uniqueness doesn’t lie in loud twists or flashy animation — it lies in the mood it creates, the questions it makes you ask, and the strangely therapeutic rhythm of wheels on tracks in a broken world.

Rating: 8/10
For those who love quiet mysteries, melancholic beauty, and train rides through the end of the world.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Apr 15, 2025

Pezguy97

Mixed Feelings

This anime surprised me. I thought it was pretty fun. It had good visuals. It was pretty funny. I liked the main characters. The opening was cute. No episode felt wasted, because everything came together in the end. The premise is that after an accident the world is no longer recognizable. Each town has been transformed into something new with a surreal twist. My favorite episodes were the ones where they fought the zombies and when they got to the town where everything shrank. The only thing that was pretty bad about the show was that the girl that they were trying to save has ... no real motivation for much of anything that she did.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jun 26, 2024

Justykanna

Not Recommended

Train to the End of the World was a slog to get through because it never really feels like it's inching towards it's ultimate goal, outside of x-point is getting closer to y-point, physically. This lack of real progression can make audiences feel like they're taking more of a passive watch than anything.

Story: Train to the End of the World is a strange, strange tale with, possibly, a stranger basis. Pontarou considers himself a genius and believes he has figured out a way for humans to telepathically communicate with each other with, literally, the push of a button. Middle-schooler Youka Nakatomi is ... randomly selected to push this button to activate this new invention, which is labeled as "7G". She pushes it, and the entire world turns into, what I can only describe as wacky and weird over the course of a few minutes. Youka goes missing shortly after this happens, and Shizuru, along with classmates Nadeshiko, Reimi and Akira, along with Youka's dog Pochi, learn to drive a train so that they can make it to where Youka is suspected to have run off to - Ikebukuro.

One of the comparisons I made to the series when I first started watching it was that it reminded me of some of the Studio Ghibli films - weird, wacky and entirely too strange. While I understand that the point of this is to emphasize what the 7G did to the entirely of Japan, it got a little too strange for my liking. Yes, it keeps audiences guessing, but I never felt like it told a great story to go along with it. Look, the ultimate goal for our main cast is to use this train to get to the end of the line where Youko is. But you could basically watch the first two and last two episodes, and really not feel like you're missing out on too much - outside of the brief arc where you learn to Mito Kuroki is. It makes the series feel like it's got a start, end, and really no filling that doesn't feel like a "filler". There are actually some scenes where our characters need to fight against enemies in physical confrontations, and maybe I missed it, but they really make them seem strong for ordinary middle-schoolers. I don't get it.

All this being said, the series still does an okay job at addressing the distress that our main cast have with Youka. While her main reason for her disappearance is never very clear to us, the girls believe they know why she is missing and have a real emotional reason to find her. In a series where good storylines feel absent a lot of the time, this was not the case when referring to the reason for our main cast's search. This is the main reason that I was pleasantly surprised by the final two episodes. Were they perfect? No, there were still some bland points or others that moved too quickly, but it was a step up from the storytelling that we got in previous episodes. (5/10)

Characters: Our cast each have their own strengths, but there's not enough depth to them. Shizuru mostly acts as our lead, but her time to shine doesn't really come in until the end. She's just kind of feels "there" sometimes. Akira has a solid moment a few episodes in, but otherwise, is probably the biggest worry-wart of the group. She's able to read past the picture in front of her, likely in part because she loves to read novels, but after her little arc, she's doesn't do much. Reimi is the supposed bully of the group, the classic example of more brawn over brain, but she wasn't that exciting otherwise. Nadeshiko was similarly just kind of "there", which isn't great considering I'm say similar things about all four of our main cast.

Youka doesn't get a whole lot of screen time, and I'm a little surprised by how little she was involved in the plot until the end. My guess for this is related to her mental state after we meet her, but leaving her and Pontarou until the end doesn't feel right to me. Pontarou, similarly, doesn't come up very often, but his whole idea of a messed up 7G didn't have nearly enough depth to it. Mito meets up with our group about halfway through and reappears near the end. She's a fine character that certainly has a purpose, but her inclusion felt like it didn't have much of a purpose for dedicating so much time to her. Zenjirou has a small role, but it mostly feels like his job was to keep us informed more than anything. Or attempt to anyways. (5/10)

Art: This series looked pretty mediocre in basically every aspect. It never really shone and was unspectacular for the most part. Which is weird considering what 7G did to everything. (6/10)

Sound: This series actually had some decent tunes, which surprised me. It never went with anything significant going on in front of us, but hey, small positives, we take those. I was actually a really big fan of the ED, Eureka, by Rokudenashi. VA work seemed fine for the most part. (7/10)

Overall: I'm a little surprised by how well Train to the End of the World was received on here, but it might just be that I'm not a huge fan of the journey our characters go on. It doesn't feel like it ever has progression to it, but some people are just fine watching the weird and wacky happen whilst turning their brain off. This could appeal to those audiences. I'm just not one of them. (5/10)

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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	Poll: Shuumatsu Train Doko e Iku? Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) KANLen09 - Jun 24, 2024	122 replies	by mo_lave »» Jun 18, 8:13 PM
	Poll: Shuumatsu Train Doko e Iku? Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Apr 15, 2024	134 replies	by ForgotEyeWasHere »» Jun 5, 9:17 AM
	Poll: Shuumatsu Train Doko e Iku? Episode 7 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - May 13, 2024	79 replies	by Dudola201 »» Apr 22, 10:36 PM
	Poll: Shuumatsu Train Doko e Iku? Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - May 27, 2024	66 replies	by Uguu_Tsukimiya »» Mar 25, 3:29 AM
	Poll: Shuumatsu Train Doko e Iku? Episode 5 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Apr 29, 2024	84 replies	by Cynthesia »» Jan 16, 7:00 AM