Sekai no Owari ni Shiba Inu to

krofire Apr 6, 2023

8

Wow. What can we say about DLE’s 2022/23 instant-classic? Derived from the Twitter web 4-koma manga by Yū Isihara the set-up is quite simple: a High School girl wanders around a depopulated post-apocalyptic world enjoying conversations with various animals. Her principal companion is a Shiba Inu dog called Haru but the cast includes a whole lot of different dogs, birds, water sprites, magical creatures and, err, aliens. It sprawled over 72 episodes weighing in at just two minutes each. Each played out to the sound of Shinra-Bansho performing “Kimito Sekaino Owarini” which we believe comes from their album entitled (appropriately) “At the End of the World with you”. The dialogue delivery is rapid fire and it wasn’t so much animated as presented in a series of stills with the dialogue appearing in speech bubbles. (When it got moved over to HiDive it had the strange effect of switching off our subtitles every time we watched the show!) So, what does a dog and a teenage girl talk about at the end of the world? Well, everything and anything. It is all here from boyfriends to philosophy. We get very little information about the girl’s backstory and we learn nothing about how she survived to the end of the world. She seems untroubled and strangely comfortable about her predicament. Not for her the daily struggle for survival. She just wanders around in her pristine school-uniform. It is literally the uniform for every teen school-girl in every anime ever isn’t it? Even when it makes no sense whatsoever. An enjoyable little show. If you can keep up with its rapid-fast delivery it is also highly entertaining. Very original and suitably watchable. Recommended.