Girls' Last Tour

[StLOrca]

Unbelievably good art and writing. I think I’ll pair it with that sparkling comedy, Grave of the Fireflies. /s

 

[Mast_Chacha]

I believe this is not the end for them. The black stone is some sort of machine. When Yu asks "What's that?", Chi says "Seems like some black stone." and then Yu replies with "Is it just a stone, or....". I think the author is implying that the black stone is not exactly what it seems. Even in the last panel you can see to left strange markings starts to appear on the black surface similar to machine code. The extra chapter takes place right after this as you can see Chi and Yu sleeping and the shadows are at exactly the same place. Notice not much of the black stone is revealed currently. Then the camera pans out, we some other parts of the city and then when we come back, a large part of the stone is uncovered and a machine code pattern is glowing. THEY ARE STILL ALIVE.

none of that "they never woke up" bs.

i rest my case.

 

[Doctor_Who]

In my opinion they would have done well to follow Kanazawa.

 

[RorqMayajo]

Just started and finished this series in an evening, my god it was good. Such a consistently heavy atmosphere intermixed with moments of joy, tenderness, and discovery. Thoughts on the ending in the spoiler below.

Spoiler

I'm sad the girls didn't get an overtly good ending, but I think the manga was made better by the fact that they didn't. Even if they had survived in the short term all the signs were clearly pointing towards the Earth itself being bound for an imminent death. And while the characters' deaths were sad, there's really no better way to go than falling asleep next to the person you love and not waking back up. I know there's a person in this comments section a few years back who suggested that freezing to death would be agonizing, but from (secondhand) experience it's really one of the most peaceful ways to go, especially if you do so in your sleep. Fall asleep, dream until you stop dreaming, then fail to wake up as your body slowly cools to the level at which you can no longer sustain your brain function. I'd like to think they both dreamed happy dreams before they slipped away.

Anyways, as I'm writing this I feel the twinge in my nose that suggests that waterworks are incoming, so I should probably stop before I get my keyboard wet. 10/10 manga in the strongest sense, highly recommend a read for anyone, though you must be prepared for some heavy stuff.

 

[RorqMayajo]

Spoiler: After Reading Shimeji Simulation...

Hmm. After having just finished the author's more recent manga, Shimeji Simulation, I have to say I think I agree with Mast_Chacha's interpretation of the ending. In Shimeji Simulation, we find out that the world is a virtual simulation stored in a supercomputer floating in space that holds the souls of all humanity after a plague and then a great war. Additionally, in the manga we see Chito and Yuuri in the world. While this could just be a throw-in for fans of Girls' Last Tour, the stories of both of the worlds seem to line up well. The plague and then great war happened, throwing humanity into a death spiral which they escaped by virtualizing their souls and heading off into space, which is why in GLT we don't see any corpses around the world. This would also be supported by the fact that in the GLT chapter with the rocket we see that the third rocket launched by humanity is still out there in space, somewhere far off. Then, at the end of GLT as Chito and Yuuri finally reach the highest point in the city, they come across the mysterious black stone that's mentioned, shown to contain machine code, but never elaborated upon. I would say that's most likely a transmitter, considering it's the only structure so high up. Chito and Yuuri, after waking up from their sleep, decide to investigate what the thing is (as we can see by the fact that in the final frame of the Volume 6 extra chapter there's a good deal of the face of the structure that has been wiped clean of snow), activate it, and have their souls virtualized and sent to the spacecraft, which is why they show up in Shimeji Simulation. I could very well be wrong about this and just hoping that the two girls survive, but at the same time it seems plausible to me that this could be the intended chronology.