Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou
Girls' Last Tour

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Girls’ Last Tour – Spoiler Free – Recommended

TLDR
Story – 6,5/10 – 6,5 x 0.275 = 1,7875
Art – 8,5/10 – 8,5 x 0.2 = 1,7
Characters – 6/10 – 6 x 0.225 = 1,35
Enjoyment – 8/10 – 8 x 0.3 = 2,4
Total: 7,2375 -> 7

Story – 6,5/10
Girls’ Last Tour doesn't necessarily have a story, as it is a string of events that happen to the protagonists – Yuuri and Chito – almost in a post-apocalyptic slice-of-life episodic kind of way. It all connects through their pure innocence as they explore a world ravaged by war and their reflections and incomprehension of the grim world they inherited. ... It has no plot, no objective, no archnemesis: just reflections on a dead world. It is, by nature, quite bleak. It is, however, a “Cute Girls Doing Cute Things” manga, but it is able to stay afloat and be more than a simple CGDCT story.
Their innocence is what comes most to the fore, as they aren’t able to understand, at first, what a cemetery is, or why would humanity kill each other. They are just trying to survive in what remains of the world.
The ending is open-ended, leaving the reader to guess what happened next, as though there is a serious chance that things took a turn for the worse.
There is also a constant tension between the living world and the dead world, between what is and what was: in a sense, between those who want to survive and strive and want to understand the world surrounding them and those who merely want to keep their state of affairs.

Art – 8.5/10
Girls’ Last Tour art style is unique. Being a simple story, it would only make sense that the art style would also be relatively simple, and this is exactly what we have in this manga. The character design is similar to that of a “Cute Girls Doing Cute Things” manga, and the cadence of the panels and the page flow are very well done. Moreover, the landscapes have a perfect mixture of sketchish nature and details.

Characters – 6/10
Aside from some minor characters that Yuuri and Chito find on their trips, that are, in general, unimportant, there are only two characters worth mentioning: the main ones (Yuuri and Chito). What we mostly have access to is not to the inner workings of their psychology but instead their innocence. They are, in essence, very simple and straightforward characters, as it was necessary to fit the overall atmosphere of the manga.

Enjoyment – 8/10
Girls’ Last Tour is a slice-of-life in a post-apocalyptic setting that delves into the innocence of two children as they explore their old world. There's also the sense of calmness throughout the manga: there is no action, no adrenaline-fueled things, just the calmness of someone who has all the time they want to explore. This manga is also six volumes long, but it easily reads as much shorter as there isn’t that much dialogue to begin with. It is a quick read and a very pleasant one at that, and, both for the uniqueness of its concepts and execution, it deserves a recommendation.

I feel like this manga needs a certain mindset in order to read.
I read through the first 20-30 chapters of this manga on complete autopilot, because that's what I thought the manga wanted me to do.
I was supremely bored.

It wasn't until I started treating it differently to other SoL manga that I really became invested. Instead of passively reading and expecting it to entertain me, I started paying attention to the scenery and masterful art, and I started appreciating the manga more for what it actually was - A Journey.

One thing that really stood out to me above everything else was the juxtaposition between ... the genre’s. I can’t imagine anyone expected moe, epsisodic SoL to work well in a post-apocalyptic setting, but the writer and artist absolutely harness these elements so well that it emphasises both: The harsh, unforgiving setting highlights how young, inexperienced and innocent our main characters, and on the flips side, our cutsey, moe characters emphasise the dreadful nature of the post-apocalyptic world, despite how much they try to conceal it.

This manga has probably one of my favourite endings I’ve ever seen, it’s absolutely perfect and an incredible bitter-sweet ending to the manga, suiting the aforementioned clashing genre’s. It also serves as a perfect conclusion to the manga’s more philosophical commentary on the meaning of life, summarizing their conclusion of it all perfectly.
To avoid spoilers I’ll just leave you with a quote that actually made me cry for one of the only times reading a manga:

“Living was the best, wasn’t it?”

<3

Welcome to another episode of manga reviews, I am your host Pokyqu!

This manga in one word, charming. Although the premise and characters arent really unique the author made it unique with its direction. Instead of explaining the past and have more world building elements and more characters it seems that the author intentionally made this just a story of our two protagonists move on towards the top aimlessly almost saying that no matter the struggle, we must move forward even if our actions are insignificant or result in nothing, we just have to continue trodding on and enjoy life and the simple things it offers. ... The art is kinda childish and seemingly unfinished but it really gives the manga character imo.

However, It is incredibly slow, and a majority of it is just straight up boring and I had to stop reading a couple times. Definitely not something to binge read. So much more cud have been achieved with this in regards to plot, story, and characters but it wasnt done and like I mentioned above seemed to be what the author was going for.

Overall its an ok read. Its pleasant yet very boring for me. I probably wud only recommend if u want to read something on the side casually, other than that dont read it if u want something interesting plot/character wise. Its just something to relax to. A few funny moments and a few really great chapters but Id recommend only based on what ur looking for.