Touring After the Apocalypse
Entry updated 19 January 2026. Tagged: TV.
Japanese animated tv series (2025). Nexus. Based on the Manga by Sakae Saito. Directed by Yoshinobu Tokumoto. Written by Kazuyuki Fudeyasu. Voice cast includes Haruka Tomatsu, Konomi Inagaki, Miyu Tomita, Takahiro Sakurai and Yūsuke Kobayashi. Twelve 24 minute episodes. Colour.
Two teenage girls, Yoko (Konomi) and Airi (Miyu), tour Japan on their motorcycle, following the route taken by Yoko's sister in years gone by. The landscape is Pastoral, the man-made infrastructures overgrown with vegetation, abundant in birds and animals; the sea levels have risen, with coastal cities flooded (see Climate Change). When the pair stop to sightsee and search for food they unfold a sheet that absorbs sunlight, charging the battery that powers their motorbike. Yoko is carefree and Airi seemingly younger, more subdued and knowledgable: when they are pursued by a defective AI-controlled tank, she disables it with a Ray built into her arm (see Weapons).
Episode 2 opens with a flashback of Yoko and Airi in an underground bunker, cared for by Yoko's "big sis" (Haruka) who only appears on a screen; we then return to the present, where Airi finds the top half of a Cyborg, Ichiro Suzuki (Yūsuke). They recharge him with the bike's batteries and he reboots; Yoko is delighted, this being the first human she has met, and invites him to join their tour, but Ichiro refuses, mourning his family; after the girls depart he allows his battery to run down and falls into the sea (see Suicide). Later Airi briefly glitches and they receive an e-mail from "big sis" saying there is a Research Facility where she can be repaired: this proves to be located deep underground, where pre-recorded voices give directions for both to receive check-ups. Airi is repaired and Yoko declared healthy. At a technology museum they accidentally reactivate a Robot guide named ISAAQ (Takahiro) (doubtless a nod to Isaac Asimov) who shows them around (at one point Yoko seems to commune with machine souls): later ISAAQ collapses and when Airi examines their workings she remarks they have not been operable for years.
In episode 11 the pair attempt to trace an ultrasonic noise heard by Airi, ending up at the Yoshimi Hundred Caves national monument (thought to date from the seventh century), where Airi is swallowed by a black sphere and Teleported into space, to experience Telepathic contact with Aliens. Having first visited Earth 1500 years ago during the excavation of the artificial caves, they had decided humanity would be civilized by now and returned, only to find us extinct – but say civilization is still evolving, with Airi and Yoko being "one possibility of the future", so they will return again in 100 years (unexplained events in a couple of earlier episodes might have been the aliens' interventions). Episode 12 includes scenes of the pair's life in the bunker, seemingly preparing them for the outside world, to be eventually told they can depart and travel the world; it is suggested their refuge might be running low on resources, but "big sis" also says the world is now safe for them. The season ends with the girls preparing to continue their tour.
There are hints that this Near Future Post-Holocaust world might be the result of nuclear War, with Ichiro being cyborged due to injuries received; there are other oddities, such as a strange object on the Tokyo skyline and a damaged Moon; atop a tower, graffiti reads "We saw the sunset before it ended." A larger than normal orca is explained by Airi as a mutation (see Mutants) arising from "the effects of endocrine disrupters"; at another time she mentions there was a space colony (see Space Habitats), a lunar base (presumably connected to the state of the Moon), and a possible Space Elevator near the equator. Airi seems to be an Android, but has to eat and drink; Yoko's nature is unclear, but she appears to be the last human (see Last Man), though her wounds heal quickly and she does not fall ill. She also has dreams and visions, the former including memories of accompanying her sister on a motorcycle tour of pre-disaster Japan, despite – aside from time issues – the "big sis" we have seen clearly being an AI. Touring After the Apocalypse is very good, a little reminiscent of Girls' Last Tour (2017), and feeling like a "slice of life" series for most of the time (the girls often break into song), but with occasional moments when bleakness or Horror break through the surface. With many questions unanswered, it is to be hoped that a second season of this notable Anime will be commissioned. [SP]
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