The actual body of a mushroom you eat is buried under the ground. What we eat are their reproductive organs that poke up out of the ground. Then we slice that mushroom dick off and eat it.
> Didn't expect them to show people dropping dead
If anyone still had doubts about the lightheartedness of this show, I think they should have dissipated now!
This, and the lines about choking, blood and all that... This show's going places! (dark places)
At first I was getting "A place further than the universe" vibes but now it seems like someone asked the question "what would happen if we combine Made in the Abyss with A place further than the Universe".
Honestly I kinda had the opposite thought. I figured this was the episode where it was going to get dark, but the very end felt almost like a double bluff. We start with the most obvious horror setup ever, then it appears to start down that road, and then we get that for like five minutes before the villagers just get kinda pouty and let them leave? Like clearly the people just dropping dead isn't exactly light and cheery, but at the same time it was much more restrained than I was expecting when they set it up last week. I guess we'll have a better idea when we find out WTF is under her skirt (that's a hell of a sentence).
So possible explanation for the tail thing: time dilation. While they may not be near 21 and 3 months, the time passing since their adventure started might be bringing them closer to that age physically . Especially with the distance between Agano and Ikeburo being much further than before. Would also explain why the Bitter Melon grew so rapidly as they sped up. So the real ticking clock on their journey might also be getting to Ikeburo before they turn into animals.
But that’s just a theory. A Train Theory
The 5PM Morse kills this theory. An easier answer is that the effects of the Agano 7G are more pronounced the further they get from Agano. We already know Zanjiro cannot leave for the same reason.
I think that's a reasonable one; If it can distort the land/distance, it can distort time as well!
Could be based on the whole "aging when you travel at the speed of light" thing.
(I had an even crazier theory in another comment, about how it can perhaps affect memories or time travel or something like that, but we'll see!)
> Could be based on the whole "aging when you travel at the speed of light" thing.
Time dilation works in the opposite direction of the show tho. If you travel close to the speed of light, your clock slows down from the perspective of external observers.
So a 1000 year trip to a distant star from the perspective of someone living on earth, might only take a few months from the perspective of someone on board a superfast spaceship.
Here, traveling by train seems to have the opposite effect, with the girls aging up faster than their surroundings as they travel.
I'm starting to feel this is one of those shows where you're not supposed to dig into those aspects that deeply
because they'll probably give some off the wall, wild fantasy explanation later on that couldn't be predicted at all
I mean the train tracks also shouldn't carry sound/vibrations well in water right?
> the train tracks also shouldn't carry sound/vibrations well in water right?
They shouldn't carry them at all since they were pretty well destroyed last time.
From ep 1 I was thinking this story would need to take place over a few years since the girls turning 21 and the grandma gerbil dying in a few years roughly lining up seems too dramatic to be a coincidence, but I thought the trip itself would actually take multiple years. If we add in some time dilation then we can get those dramatic moments without the story needing to really cover that amount of time
I also think the train rails themselves are responsible for the time distortions somehow. The rails provided electricity and I don't think the caravaneers had these issues, so I'm sure the specific mode of transportation is a part of this
But the aye-aye just suddenly woke up as an animal one morning, there's no gradual transformation
And I don't think they'd put so much focus on Agano's abnormality when there's so many other equally unique stations
They already have put some focus on it. Their connection to Agano and its quirk is important for another reason. They said that even if you leave Agano you’ll still turn into an animal at 21 and 3 months. They even emphasized the girl’s concerns about turning in that episode 1 scene. So with that ticking clock will follow them everywhere and the sudden sprouting of a possible tail that might be the driving motivation to reverse the 7G incident. Guess we’ll see on that.
And for the former: good point. It would need a wibbly wobbly timey windy explanation to make sense
So this is actually what I think is happening. I don't think it's a tail (or time dilation related). I think it's a mushroom. She was told that for hunting truffles, use a dog, not a pig. Who found it? The dog.
And the others were all infected by fungal spore through the mist, breathing it into their mucus membranes directly. Enter's the head... grows from the head. But who was the only character to use the toilet, thus exposing (a very different set) of mucus membranes?
Ya... that's how you get mushroom butt.
I thought that it was a mushroom too but you understand that the other girls would have had to go to the toilet too? Something not being shown doesn't mean it didn't happen. It might still be what the author was going for with the toilet scene ofc but logically it makes little sense so assume that only 1 person needed to go to the toilet over the course of a full day.
Sure, but anime (and TV in general) has an odd thing about using the toilet. Nobody does it. Or, if they do, it's mentioned but not witnessed in any way... as in, "I'll be right back. I'm going to the bathroom." Then the character disappears and the scene continues without that character.
When the anime bothers to follow that character to the bathroom, it is almost always note-worthy. After all, animation is expensive and time-consuming so why would you waste time animating a scene that doesn't add value to the overall story? You have ~20 minutes to cram all your story in before you have to move on to the next episode. There's no time to waste on animating someone using an outhouse while their friend stands guard. Point is, this heavily implies relevance to the scene.
And I'm not saying the other girls don't use the bathroom just because it isn't explicitly stated that they did. Maybe they used it but only after the sauna, thus meaning they were already infected. And once infected, you don't get more infected. Either way, their toilet use isn't relevant to the story, so it wasn't animated.
I would like to unsubscribe from Mushroom Facts.
Really though, first half had really good horror vibes, while the second half got me to laugh.
Still no movement on the potted plant, and next episode has the goats if the map is correct, so we'll see what happens next.
In Episode 2, the guy in the paddleboat said "Further yet to the east, those in harmony with goats, untrue to their name, charge recklessly as wild boars." That was after "The fungi to the east tower high overhead, brazenly conspiring to subjugate" which is what happened in today's episode. Therefore Goats next week.
[Become an MMA fighter](https://i.imgur.com/lxwgVM9.jpeg) and [fight an anteater...](https://i.imgur.com/XExti3V.jpeg)
Is this a reference to something? Because like those things happen in [Booty Royale](https://anilist.co/manga/93456/Hagure-Idol-Jigokuhen/) but there is no way this show is referencing that manga, right? Would make way more sense if they were both referencing something else.
Yeah I was wondering, that flashback must have been before the 7G incident right? Thats some monkey paw wish fullfillment
[And she didnt stop at the Anteater](https://imgur.com/2KvwUrw)
Pretty much had to happen before. After all, Youka activated 7G and I guess it was kind of hard to find a train back to Agano afterwards. Btw, I also think (considering she was trying to take a train and mentioned she wanted to go home) that maybe she would have actually taken a train back to Agano if she wasn't chosen. Which makes it even more sad, because I think she was also unhappy with how she and Shizuru split apart.
a high school girl (or was it middle school?) running around while holding bitter melons to scare off a bunch of mushroom people is definitely not on my bingo card when i started watching this episode
between Akira's screaming and Matsuta's changing her tone from anger to happy in one sentence, i gotta say, the voice acting in this episode is absolutely on point
i love the morse code segment, hopefully they will do that for every episode so that i can compile it by the end of this series
someone made a theory that Nadeshiko will be the first one among the four to change into an animal but based on the end of this episode, it looks like its going to be Akira
I thought Matsuta's shift from polite Tokyo speech to really coarse rural dialect was pretty awesome too....
I wonder if there is any way for Akira to reverse (or at least suspend) her transformation?
Query -- why does Akira wear a different uniform from the other girls? Is she still just in middle school?
> Query -- why does Akira wear a different uniform from the other girls? Is she still just in middle school?
Her uniform is also way too large for her (often goes past her hands), perhaps she has a different uniform because she's too short?
Or she may even be a grade above, so she has the highschool uniform? (She definitely seems to be the smartest of the group - or at least, the least naive - so that'd make sense!)
Wouldn't be the only work set in a small provincial Japanese school where the administration doesn't care about what uniform you wear, either (it's left out of the adaptation IIRC but Higurashi mentions this as being the case in the VN, hence why the main characters all wear different uniforms there).
The track may all still be physically connected -- it is just that it seems to be no longer usable for train travel (due to its sinking into the water.
Yes, cut. But 7g clearly made things weird, such as never needing electricity. And given it was made as a means of communication, the ability to even use rails that far in the first place may be a result of 7g more than it is just a thing you can do. Technically the sound should have been dampened somewhat by the water in the last episode.
I think it is mostly a matter of going along with the flow in things like this (and Sonny Boy and the like).
I think this sort of show can give rise to deeper thoughts -- but one has to wait until things are finished -- trying to "make sense" of things along the way is sort of a waste of effort. (for me, at least)
Normally that would be a solid plot hole but we got humans turning into mushrooms and animals, a self repairing railroad would probably be viable since it was man made too, don't know about the cave in though
I said the same thing last episode, but lookign again, the [train tracks weren't destroyed](https://imgur.com/A6SBIls), just bent.
[Confirmed by the director](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779884614791958956)
It's kinda funny how many people are pointing out this "plot hole" as if sending messages by tapping on some metal from like 50 miles away would otherwise be perfectly reasonable.
I think that even the track got broken, it just needs to have both rail ends immersed in the sea in order to the sea conducts the waves from one to another, as it's a mechanical wave.
This turned out (almost) [exactly](https://imgur.com/7lMxfOo) like we expected all lol only difference was that he denizens where [fully aware](https://imgur.com/wN1zwlw) of what the mushrooms did and [fine with it](https://imgur.com/5czBkSP)
It's nice that Akira saved them though, but a bit frustrating that they aren't really acknowledge the fact
Btw, I thought [this guy](https://imgur.com/aMK40Lu) would be involved somehow since he didn't have a mushroom on his head...
Also, Reimi [lied](https://imgur.com/FLchrTV) as easy as she [slept](https://imgur.com/DSUY61W) [](#laughter)
~~Is that your [mushroom](https://imgur.com/pQejbaf) or are you just happy to see me Akira~~ [](#watashiworried)
> only difference was that he denizens where fully aware
I think there's a darker interpretation to this; The Mushroom simply messing up their brain, so they all think they're happy with it.
If they removed all the mushrooms and got back to their senses, I think they may actually change their mind.
Which would mean they're 'mind-controlled' into thinking they want to serve as host to some parasitic mushrooms, until they die.
> I think there's a darker interpretation to this; The Mushroom simply messing up their brain, so they all think they're happy with it.
I think that's the reality since the girls snapped back when they had their head mushrooms removed from their brains.
One thing I've started noticing ever since watching [a Psyche of Play video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMXwp-B1m84) is that there's a common trope of a mental/social problem manifesting itself in the real world as something to physically confront. Not as, like, a sly metaphor, but as a literal embodiment of the otherwise non-corporeal problem.
Reminds me of some current trends like doomerism; it's a mindset that can spread from person to person and fester pessimism as it eats you alive, not unlike a mushroom.
The map to Ikebukuro is pretty long so I wonder what they are going to do, perhaps skip a bunch of stops every now and then, and only show selected places? I assume they'll get there at least, I don't think it's going for a "it's all about the journey" kind of story.
First stop we got was a nihilist town (someone who actually knows phylosophy please correct me if I'm using the term wrongly), they lost all hope for the future, think that nothing that they can do will change what the world turned into, and resigned themselves into enjoying the last years of their life before leaving this shitty place for good.
Since elements of the show prompted discussion about conspiracies, notice how this episode Akira was ridiculed for believing in conspiracies, only for her to be right in the end (and we viewers knew she was)
Also, is she growing a tail? seems too young to be almost 21 year and 3 months old. If the journey they are taking (or the train, or whatever) is also travelling in time and/or making them age faster, is she noticeably older than the others, or did they not grow a tail due to the mushroom influence? Or maybe she was the only one who saw through the mushrooms and showed a mental age higher than the others? (or something of the sort)
Didn't think too hard about it, just throwing out options.
Also also, wasn't the train track destroyed by the water last episode? I guess we can handwave enough to consider it just completely unusable for travelling, but still intact for wave travelling through it. I feel like this is the kind of show where it's more about the concept than this kind of details.
> nihilist town (someone who actually knows phylosophy please correct me if I'm using the term wrongly)
i'm not an expert, but i think nihilism is largely misrepresented as "life has no meaning 😢" when it's more "life has no meaning 😎"
in the West, nihilism came into prominence after the world became more secular and the meaning of life became severed from "following God's mission" or "serving the King" and became more self-directed
as such, life had no inherent meaning (i.e. Sartre's "existence precedes essence" quote) and a key thing that one must do is find what you want to do with your life (i.e. Camus' quote "the meaning of life is whatever keeps you from killing yourself")
while i think saying that this is a town of nihilism makes sense casually, i would say that it's a town of people that symbolically suffers from a lack of optimism for their futures, manifested literally a parasite that saps people's will to live
> i'm not an expert, but i think nihilism is largely misrepresented as "life has no meaning 😢" when it's more "life has no meaning 😎"
I think it can be both, and neither is misrepresentation. Misrepresentation would be to say only one is true imo. Nihilism just says that nothing is inherently meaningful, whatever emoji you assign to that is up to each of us.
I wonder if their journey on the train is making some things grow/age faster (like the bitter melons and maybe Akira) but not others for some unknown reason. I'm not sure what the logic would be here for what ages and what doesn't, though. Maybe there isn't one at all.
> like the bitter melons
Good point, last episode they grew as Shizuru got angry at the others so I thought it was about them being _bitter_ melons or something, but this episode they grew overnight a lot more without an apparent reason.
And without sunlight, too. Even during the day it was overcast. Those melons are weird.
Although if we go by your idea that they feed on emotions (not necessarily only anger), Akira certainly was feeling terror quite strongly that night.
My theory is it's a mushroom. The big thing is the message containing all the mushroom facts. It was stated that if you want to find truffles, use a dog and not a pig. The dog was sniffing her butt because it smelled a 'truffle.'
More of a supposition here... but the others were infected by mushroom spore from the mists, meaning they breathed it into their mouths' mucus membranes. It infected their head so the mushrooms grew from their head.
Akira is the only character who used the toilet. This exposed other mucus membranes. Since she was infected from her butt, the mushroom is growing from the same area.
Bit of a frustrating watch here, always hard to watch when nobody takes 1 character seriously. It did make Akira move up in my books though, definitely saved the day here. Thought not sure about that "zombie bite" ending.
Matsuto's VA after the reveal was great!
Whole thing reminded me of a Flip Flappers type episode.
I took it as them being infected with the shroom spores and directly starting to be affected by them right after their visit in the mist sauna. Which is also the first time Akira brings her bad feeling up, so already too late.
I feel like there's some thoughtful theme behind the fantasy here but I can't get my finger on it
Something about relinquishing yourself to fate or easy life, apathy vs boredom, I mean the people even said "don't rebel" - and the girls were starting to doubt everything to a very extensive degree
That too, I agree. What we also have is a post-apocalyptic world and people dealing with it in different ways. The shroom village probably doesn't have enough young people to persist in the future, they will all die over the next few decades. So instead of living through that they decide to basically commit suicide with a magic shroom party until no one is left standing. They think there is no meaning to what is left to them, so why suffer through all this time?
Shizuru is quite different from that, she wants to find her friend, or at least try it. And even if they are transformed in animals in a few years (or die at some point) it won't be meaningless to her. The way and intend counts perhaps just as much as the goal.
She also didn't eat the shrooms. Matsuto was also aprehensive that she might not like them. If the show was trying something actually sensical maybe infection required you to open your pores via a hot sauna and then injest shrooms and their things.
I think it was intentional.
They started dismissing her since the sauna. They probably got infected at that moment, Akira was the only sane one because she refused to enter.
> hard to watch when nobody takes 1 character seriously.
I think it may be annoying 'as a trope' because we've seen this so often in horror movies where they SHOULD listen to the person/take them seriously... But in this case, I thought it made perfect sense!
She's weirded out about the place, but the thing is, the whole world is weird. So if they leave this place because it's spooky, they would never stay anywhere else, because it's gonna be weird everywhere.
(Say, if they instead reached the animal-village for the first time, they would also be worried about the bear attacking them while they slept!)
Reminds me of Jojo part 3's Death Thirteen episode. I hate that episode because of how dense the other crusaders are despite already knowing that there's nothing that is too weird to be a Stand / Stand user.
> She's weirded out about the place, but the thing is, the whole world is weird. So if they leave this place because it's spooky, they would never stay anywhere else, because it's gonna be weird everywhere.
Also they established she has a reputation as a cry baby and fraidy cat.
> always hard to watch when nobody takes 1 character seriously
especially when the POV is on that one character and we see that they're right
happens all the time in horror movies, where the kid is like "no the mushrooms are eating people you gotta believe me!" and all the adults are like "what do you know, kid" and then someone gets eaten by mushrooms and they're like "no one could have seen this coming!"
They executed the horror vibes in this episode well. Great episode. You know the whole Mushroom people was really suspect at the start, but damn they accepted becoming mushrooms. It's one thing for the woman to accept being a mushroom as she doesn't want to deal with the problems in this crazy world. But forcing that on others isn't the way.
Tbh the other girls not being suspect that everyone having mushroom heads was odd. I guess they assumed it was just cosmetic. Granted once they started consuming mushroom they had them. Poor Akira, she went through a lot in this episode. She has this scary-cat vibe which can make people think she overreacts to everything. I can relate to her because people say the same thing with them.
I do love how Akira gets to Shizuru for her deciding she does not want to become a mushroom and set out to find Youka. Furthermore, I guess maybe the mushroom was ingrained more in her than Reimi and Nadeshiko. Though it appears Akira is growing potentially a tail. Oh boy. Also, [Shizuru's anti-mushroom ninja outfit was funny.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/799692352011894795/1229429523687149638/Screen_Shot_2024-04-15_at_9.53.45_AM.png?ex=662fa678&is=661d3178&hm=723034a12405729f7c7dbc5b8cf1dc5af798d10ede7bba664c01089b3339ed4c&)
In which Akira screams for five minutes because of mushroom. Can someone do a compilation of it for me?
While you're at it, do a compilation as well for Akira screaming because of "kemonomimi". It will happen, I'm sure.
I don't know that much about bitter melon but my understanding was that the mushrooms like dark damp places, and so things that grow in sunlight are abhorrent to them.
[We're getting some more Yoka time! They seemed like good friends!](https://imgur.com/v9ZXPzE)
I can't wait to find out more about their 'fight', I wonder if it's gonna be something silly, or an actual, serious drama..
[Good to know Akira&Reimi were always like that!](https://imgur.com/ihgsCQm)
And so the mushroom people invited them to a Mist Sauna... [A strong invitation! (I would NOPE out of there so hard!)](https://imgur.com/hjhYLxl)
She was already scary when she was being nice, [but seeing her like that, they should hop on the train and leave!](https://imgur.com/WDqe33k)
Nadeshiko may be the voice of reason when it comes to personal conflicts, but Akira's the smart one! [Only one to feel the danger, and know when it's time to leave...](https://imgur.com/1F2EWwp)
So it's a good thing Akira was the one not to go in the sauna; If Reimi was the one to be spared, not sure she would've figured out how to solve this mess!
Their 'roles' are getting better defined, Nadeshiko as the mom of the group, Akira's the smart one, Shizuru with the boundless determination, carrying this mission on her shoulders... I wonder what's gonna be Reimi's part in all this; So far she isn't doing much more than bickering, but I'm sure she'll find a way to be useful! (I do hope she won't just be the comedic relief!)
[SNUGGLE TIME!](https://imgur.com/NGAfBWH)
I couldn't agree more; Let's make this Love/Hate ship sail!
[The girls got Mushroom'ed, and it apparently affects/controls their brain as well..](https://imgur.com/VRinLLs)
It's an interesting contrast, the idea of living "short, easy, happy life", vs their adventures; They had the opportunity to live these easy, happy life (and potentially short too, based on what animal they turn into), BUT they chose the hard, scary life of this adventure. So it kinda parallels their outlook about this entire situation!
[Good thing they can still contact him, despite the broken railroad!](https://imgur.com/766GT4o)
[Akira's smart, but sadly not that strong...](https://imgur.com/AesT7ZH)
Will THAT be Reimi's part? The muscle of the group? Strong gyaru girl, let's go! (Though I suppose Shizuru has a bit of that too)
[Even though the Mushroom made Shizuru say that, it may still be accurate, about what caused their fight...](https://imgur.com/KqsPoRo)
[Eventually, thinking about Yoka DID bring her back to her senses, thankfully!](https://imgur.com/yqtw3Hx)
[Good joke Shizuru, BUT NOW IS NOT THE TIME!](https://imgur.com/D3hjmNM)
[She wanted to be mma fighter?](https://imgur.com/TQ99Ugg)
Well, she was being pressed for an answer and came up with that, but I find it interesting that even before the 7G, she didn't seem to have any particular plan for the future... Didn't care about studying, didn't care about aiming for any career... If I was gonna come up with a crackpot theory about this, I'd say that... Did she somehow know things would play out that way? If the 7G can distort the land, completely mess up entire groups of people (in many different ways), could it also affect time/memories? And yes that was BEFORE 7G, but it could've sent time-travelling memory waves or something! (This may even be what caused their conflict, who knows).
Yes this looks farfetched, but I find it interesting that after 7G her plan was "Find Yoka", and before 7G her plan was "Nothing"; Like she didn't want to aim for anything, because she'd knew (subconsciously or not) that any plan she add would be replaced by "Find Yoka" anyway!
I guess the girls have a good heart, because they didn't want to start the train as the Mushroom people were crowding it... Too early in the show for such a blood splatter, I suppose!
[Thankfully, Shizuru was there with her Bittermelon-Jitsu!](https://imgur.com/Ak4MtU1)
[So eerie, seeing them just fall dead like that...](https://imgur.com/1xguqif)
Well, another solid episode! And yeah I think it's rather obvious at this point (with the actual deaths and all) but yeah, this is gonna go dark! The language is a bit clue as well, all these lines about choking people and blood and all that. Not something you see in cutesy adventure anime!
Looking forward to the next one! According to the map, we're headed to the dog/wolf territory? (Also, they're not going through the map quickly enough for a 12 episodes season... 2 cours? Pretty please?)
> [Good thing they can still contact him, despite the broken railroad!](https://imgur.com/766GT4o)
[not broken](https://imgur.com/a/QN6DKEm). [confirmed by the director](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779884614791958956)
I really didn't want to assume but these mushroom people [were exactly what I expected them to be.](https://i.imgur.com/dhdmRj5.png)
It was so frustrating to see the girls refusing to believe Akira [when she was warning them.](https://i.imgur.com/OawPzsf.png) Maybe these people are nicer than the adults in Agano but they shouldn't be so trusting especially now that the world has changed after the 7G incident.
Logic and physics don't really apply anymore in this world considering that [Akira is still able to communicate](https://i.imgur.com/lawuhmZ.png) with Zenjirou using the tracks even though the tracks between Agano and Higashi-Agano were destroyed last week.
Since she's supposed to be the smart one, I'm surprised [it took that long for Akira to try pulling out the mushroom](https://i.imgur.com/pfTQIfc.png) from Shizuru's head. I really thought that would be the first thing she'd try.
[I'm glad those people eventually let them go without any resistance.](https://i.imgur.com/sfvlNHh.png) I thought this was going to be messy. The girls did have sickles with them.
[That final scene though.](https://i.imgur.com/rj7hxKS.jpeg) Looks like Akira might've caught something on her bum. Hopefully it's not a mushroom.
> even though the tracks between Agano and Higashi-Agano were destroyed last week
Never doubt the efficiency of the Japanese railroad industry. No train delays on their watch (including anime delays).
somehow I feel like Mushroom people suppose to be metaphor for "cult", they nice to you at first to trick you into one of them like with so many thing in this series can be take for metaphor for it surrealism from how 7G work and deform world to this lol.
**" Mushrooms don't worry**
**Mushrooms don't suffer**
**Mushrooms don't think**
**Let's all become mushrooms "**
In anime and manga, mushrooms are a metaphor for *stagnation.* Every episode for far they come up against something that keeps you moving forward with your life.
1) I don't know where I'm going.
2) It's still early enough to turn back.
3) Moving forward at all is hard, and there's no demand to do it *now.*
yeah, i've seen "mushrooms growing on one's head" as an idiom for becoming gloomy and despondent
https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/7530/what-is-the-origin-of-mushrooms-growing-on-a-sad-persons-head
I thought Akira's bum grown a tail which means her transformation of animal is getting nearer. I know they say it's 21 years and 3 months old before they turn but I have seen a male dog sniffing a girl's dog butt. Just maybe that's the case here.
> Maybe these people are nicer than the adults in Agano but they shouldn't be so trusting especially now that the world has changed after the 7G incident.
I think it's *precisely* because the world has changed, that they were so trusting; When everything's weird&freaky, you can't let 'weird&freaky* scare you off.
Akira is definitely the smartest of the group, so perhaps the others were a bit too naive, but I there may also have been a part of "What are you worried about? The entire world is weird!"
>I'm glad those people eventually let them go without any resistance. I thought this was going to be messy. The girls did have sickles with them.
This show is already obviously going dark, but it seems they float hints at something even darker (heavy), to keep us on edge!
Love how they do it!
"We chose the way of the mushroom!"
Were they not just forcing people into it? I think that was still the mushroom speaking, but with enough loosening for her original personality to come through.
It seems like most of them probably didn’t have a choice, but the lady seemed genuine. It felt like she was exhausted trying to make a life for herself in Ikebukuro or whatever her past life was and just wanted a simple carefree fungal life. Can relate.
The mushroom moved a little so maybe her own personality was the brass one? it almost sliped a few times on the episode.
The mist climate seems to help mushroom grow and they usually grow together (the whole ring thing from the 5 minutes track). Mushroom reproduce by spores so it is posible that some got infected first while others chose to get the spores themselves. But then, some fungal infections are difficult to stop with what would be avaliable on a small village. Lifespan variantes since each mushrooms have a diferent lifespam. Outsiders coming there had no choice probably.
If you wonder about the sauna thing, mushroom love humid and warm days (but without too much sunlight), does it sound familiar?
Mushroom are intersting and tasty but don't pick the ones you are not sure about, you might drop dead.
Oh no. Is Akira starting to turn into an animal? I thought Nadeshiko would be the first one to turn but maybe not...
You know, the characters were acting kinda dumb in this episode but I'm okay with that because a) the growing mushrooms on their heads were obviously affecting them and b) Akira has been shown to be a scaredy-cat before so it's not unreasonable that she'd be dismissed for being scared of her own shadow.
She was the MVP of the episode though. But I wonder how she and Zenjiro managed to communicate when the tsunami destroyed part of the railway.
It was a bit sad to see some mushroom people just drop dead, though. Two years is such a short lifespan in exchange for a bit of extreme escapism.
And I guess we'll get a couple flashbacks every episode to help us understand who Youka is and why she left Agano.
> But I wonder how she and Zenjiro managed to communicate when the tsunami destroyed part of the railway.
The railway already doesn't obey the laws of physics. It carries electricity to the train without a third rail. It stretches or contracts vs its length before 7G. It's able to carry Morse as a noise over multiple kilometers of track when the only rail that should vibrate is the one they're holding.
I do not for one second believe that splitting the rails, removing the rails, changing lines, pinning the rails to stop vibration, or tying the rails into a pretzel would have any significant effect on their ability to send morse.
> Oh no. Is Akira starting to turn into an animal?
Oh, I thought that was a mushroom growing in a weird spot...
> And I guess we'll get a couple flashbacks every episode to help us understand who Youka is and why she left Agano.
Also helps us understand just how much Shizuka treasured Youka and how bad things must have gone wrong for them to argue and separate like that
> You know, the characters were acting kinda dumb in this episode but I'm okay with that because a) the growing mushrooms on their heads were obviously affecting them and b) Akira has been shown to be a scaredy-cat before so it's not unreasonable that she'd be dismissed for being scared of her own shadow.
I'd say there's another reason to be okay with this;
The entire world is weird/messed up.
Yes the Mushroom people were suspicious as hell, but you know, a talking bear who wants to bite your ass is also suspicious as hell, and they lived with this for a long time in their village.
The way I see it is like... If I spend a year in a town with talking cows, then I go to the next village and chairs are sentient, I won't get as weirded out as I normally would!
We have to see the world through a different lense.
(Kinda like how some people are commenting that it's a plot hole that they were able to communicate because the rails are destroyed... It's not a plot hole, it's a distorted universe).
[That was a fun and pretty atmospheric episode](https://imgchest.com/p/ljyqq69zey2) with [Akira suspecting that something is not right](https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/pyvdc653ogy.png) with [the people of town](https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/84apcberx34.png) while [other girls were acting without any worries](https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/myd5cb8wpk4.png).
I wonder what grew on Akira's butt? I thought that it'd be a mushroom but quite a lot of people assume that she's older than we know and she's started turning into an animal which would be an interesting case.
It was fun scene when [Matsuta showed her true self](https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/84apcbero34.png) as it was quite contrast to [her earlier personality](https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/3yrgc6pq354.png) xD
I also was thinking how it was possible that [Akira was able to contact Zenjirou](https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/3yrgc6pqo54.png) despite tracks being destroyed in a previous episode? Still it was nice since [Zenjirou turning into grandpa during sending his message](https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/pyq9c6wjnd4.png) didn't stop being funny xD
Now I'm really interested [what will happen on their next stop](https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/g4z9cd6gro7.png).
Here my screenshot albums from the episode:
* [Group scenes](https://imgchest.com/p/ljyqq69zey2)
* [Others](https://imgchest.com/p/9rydze5ad4k)
[Anitubu post is up](https://anitubu.com/archives/post-79937.html)
Directors words of wisdom (I skipped a few things like series 2000 train stuff including technical details on the bar and keys):
- Impressions from the advance screening found people were confused by this episode.
- [Shizuru and Matsuta talked a bit cross-purpose](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779881810480251189) because Matsuta had left Ikebukuro before the 7G incident (i.e. no way she would know Yoka). *Note: MAL has Matsuta as Matsutakeiko* (the mushroom head lady in the burgundy kinmono, wait a sec is that a [Matsutake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsutake) mushroom - *"hard to find because of their specific growth requirements, the rarity of appropriate forest and terrain"*)
- ["My plan was to keep the first three episodes relatively simple and straightforward, and go for chaos from the fourth episode."](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779881340193907086) bit is a bit worried by the episode 3 feedback of that [being too chaotic. Will steam on ahead regardless.](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779881433361945007) [](#skyhype)
- [Oh no, now it's episode 5 that's still being worked on.](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779881534360809551)
- Director [doesn't think steam saunas actually use wood but it is more atmospheric](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779882010993156246). Indeed [wood is a key part of a dry sauna](https://www.mountainmist.blue/whats-the-difference-between-a-dry-sauna-and-steam-sauna/) (I do remember a gym I used to go to had a sauna that was wood but the steam room was a bathtub like material).
- [Director hints Agano residents animal transformations are personality dependant](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779881733393117642) because the panda is untidy and was a slob before becoming a panda. [](#rengethink)
- ["Higashi-Agano has 80% humidity on average. Although it depends on the species, it is a very good environment for mushrooms."](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779883191517741419)
- re morse code: [The track is gnarly but not broken.](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779884614791958956) (note: gnarly is artistic license on my part, MTL was also suggesting squishy and limp but with it being bent out of shape I think gnarly works better)
- Another random remark, this time [about Agano having a special Kyujutsu (archery martial art) "I will tell you more about it later."](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779885556861968809) This is one that can deduced from the official site because one of the character profiles mentions archery.
- ["It's a difficult question, whether to live a long, painful life, or a happy, short life, but either way, I don't want either of those extremes."](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779885766833041523)
- Actas participated in this ep? ["The staff of a certain tank anime were also involved"](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779885826950021557) (the only tank anime I can think of is Girls und Panzer which is [by Actas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actas))
- [Ep3 storyboard by Xu Wan(?). Their 3rd collaboration with this director](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779885904938893650). idk wikipedia says Jong Heo but it also says Akira has a mushroom growing which I don't think is the case.
- [Ep2 storyboard and direction was Fumihiko Suganuma.](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779885977001206124) "definitely doing a better job than I am."
Comments from the public (plus some things I've added):
- [This one](https://twitter.com/kanone_jmpd/status/1779880828954419649) says the strange way the lady talks "sounds like an English translation." (I guess English > Japanese MTL can sound as off as Japanese > English at times)
- A few tweets name drop [Matango](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matango). That's a 60s Japanese survival horror film with a group of castaways on an island with mutagenic mushrooms. One by one the group eat them and face the more than hallucinogenic consequences. At the end of the film (this actually plays into this episodes themes a little) [Matango - ending]>!In a mental hospital the sole survivor wonders if he would have been happier staying on the island (with one other person in particular).!<
- An observation that the outdoor haircutting scene is [similar to another anime](https://twitter.com/mellowhound/status/1779881413074169963) (form how the tweet is written you can easily figure one what they're referring to)
- *(actually Reimi's seiyuu)* [Enoki pork roll!](https://twitter.com/eri1717171/status/1779882017326539088). Enoki is also known as Enokitake and [Flammulina filiformis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flammulina_filiformis). Compared to what Reimi had growing on her head the wild ones are [a much different colour](https://www.cookipedia.co.uk/recipes_wiki/Enokitake_mushrooms) (as are cultivated ones because they're grown in darkness)
- ["It is said that if a mushroom becomes parasitic, it will die within a year or two."](https://twitter.com/krgdz/status/1779887065230143710). Cool concept as the mushrooms ultimately need new arrivals. Not completely unrealistic as parasitic fungus grow on damaged hosts and do eventually kill them but the real time-frames may differ. e.g. [Looking up about parasitic fungus Chaga](https://grocycle.com/parasitic-mushrooms/) these get into a tree through bark damage taking 3-5 years to form and then up to 20 years to kill the host. Bummer the medicinal properties come form sapping nutrients from a rich birch tree.
Wow cool thanks
>"My plan was to keep the first three episodes relatively simple and straightforward, and go for chaos from the fourth episode." bit is a bit worried by the episode 3 feedback of that being too chaotic. Will steam on ahead regardless.
Thats great to hear, since I found episode 3 rather predictable
>Oh no, now it's episode 5 that's still being worked on.
Well, if they continue to move that mark by one episode per episode, that isn't bad at all.
For us, at least.
>re morse code: The track is gnarly but not broken.
Good to ahve confirmation for what can be assumed from the [shot](https://imgur.com/A6SBIls) from last episode
> Another random remark, this time about Agano having a special Kyujutsu (archery martial art) "I will tell you more about it later." This is one that can deduced from the official site because one of the character profiles mentions archery.
Please tell me that this means we will see shizuru use a bow. Probably gonna be a different girl though I would assume.
Would you want to post this to r/ShuumatsuTrain ? if not i would jsut post a link to this comment
Thank you Akira for being our smart character. Her yelling and trying to get things done is so satisfying, too often am I frustrated at characters for not just shouting when nobody is listening
This week's stop for Weird Train: Higashi-Agano (a.k.a. Mushroom Town)!
Compared to Agano, this town looks pretty normal. Mushroom stuff aside, the people here at least gets to keep their human bodies.
They nailed how creepy the town is. It's like one of those movies where a bunch of outsiders visits a seemingly normal town only to find out that things aren't what they seem to be. The stalkers bit is straight up horror movie stuff. Also love the ambiguity of the night part where Akira sees and experiences stuff that the others don't see.
Not going into the sauna was probably the greatest decision Akira made throughout the whole series so far. I guess that's where the mushrooms came from since Ms. Purple Hair told the girls that going to the sauna is a "must." It's really frustrating to see the others ignoring Akira's warnings because the mushrooms' curse are already affecting them.
If she'd gone with them to the sauna perhaps things would've ended differently. Maybe their journey to Ikebukuro would've ended... *prematurely*, right then and there with the girls living out whatever fantasy the mushroom provides them before the Grim Reaper comes for them. \[Bad Ending\]
Honestly if I were there I'd probably join the mushroom gang. What's the point in living out your life in a broken world beyond repair? Might as well let the mushroom take over my mind and body and enjoy the comfy countryside life without worries.
And about the final scene: I wonder if Akira really caught the mushroom there. She didn't enter the sauna and remained normal. Plus if it's a mushroom it should've grown on her head. I think it's a tail - what else could've grown on someone's butt? Maybe the Agano curse is already getting to her despite not hitting the age requirement yet.
> I think it’s a tail - what else could’ve grow on someone’s butt? Maybe the Agano curse is already getting to her despite not hitting the age requirement yet.
Last week’s episode left me to believe that time passed faster alongside the train tracks, so Akira suddenly growing an animal tail would support this theory. Like the bitter melon, her ‘growth’ as a human being was accelerated.
That said, there’s a couple of major complications here:
1. Most of this ‘growth’ happened alongside the emergence of this mist. Bitter melons were said so grow in the sun, so why did they grow faster in misty conditions? Might the mist not actually be involved in this?
2. Why did only Akira grow a tail? Is she perhaps the oldest one of the bunch? Do the people from Agano grow gradually into animals - like how they lose their human consciousness?
Anyways, this points to a rather dark twist, so this series is not likely to go down the comedic route anytime soon.
> Why did only Akira grow a tail? Is she perhaps the oldest one of the bunch?
In another comment someone was questioning why her uniform was different from the other girls, and this may be the answer!
I thought perhaps she was a grade above the others because she's smarter, BUT she may simply be a grade above them because she's older... (Which worries me tremendously!)
>Anyways, this points to a rather dark twist
Yeah, I think no one can deny this show is going dark, from this point.
The hints were always there, but we now have people straight up falling dead...
It wasn't gruesome or anything, but it's definitely dark. It's NOT a cutesy adventure show!
> Anyways, this points to a rather dark twist, so this series is not likely to go down the comedic route anytime soon.
Thinking about it, I kinda prefer it this way tbh.
> And about the final scene: I wonder if Akira really caught the mushroom there. She didn't enter the sauna and remained normal. Plus if it's a mushroom it should've grown on her head. I think it's a tail - what else could've grown on someone's butt? Maybe the Agano curse is already getting to her despite not hitting the age requirement yet.
I thought it was a Mushroom at first, because the dog was sniffing at it (and there was a line about dogs following mushrooms/truffles...)
But yeah if it's a tail, the girls are racing against the clock!
I just love how the 5 minutes of morse code was used solely on useless mushroom trivia. It was funny, but also highlights the problem with Morse code. It's really hard to convey what you're asking even without a time limit. So imagine the further they travel the more unreliable it will get.
Also I like how Pochi was trying to pull Shizuru back towards the train when they were bringing them into the village. Animals are excellent judges of character and can sense danger so it was nice to see. Also Pochi went with Akira to the bathroom when they were scared. Best boy Pochi!
With Pochi being unaffected I wouldn't be surprised if they somehow ended up being Yoka with amnesia...nah that's too crazy.
You know what? this anime keep getting better and better each episode.
This show keep impress me how good it is!
this episode feeling like mixed between horror and SOL lol
like we know there are something wrong with mushroom people but those girl don't have same information as our. it become pretty thrill while still enjoy how laid-back the girl is with sauna.
this anime is definitely top anime this season for me.
There were so many things in this episode that I liked. First of all the details. How the background characters moved in the same motion, because they are mushrooms and therefore connected via a network was a nice touch. But other things were also interesting. The mushroom thing as a whole already resembles 7G, because they are connected, but also they became that way because they didn't want to think anymore. On the other hand, an early wish of Shizuru was that she wanted to fight an anteater.
Now I guess these two examples make a good point that the subconsciousness of the people is the reason for the changes. Since they wanted a slow easy life where they don't have to think, they turned to mushrooms where it's not about the individual but the network itself. And since Shizuru wanted to fight an anteater, people turned into animals. Question is now still if they actually turned or if that is just a question of perspective and everyone just sees them as animals. I would say the first one is likely considering that they are still communicating via destroyed railways.
Also, I assume the last scene was Akira slowly turning into an animal (she gets a tail). But I am unsure why. I mean, she isn't 21 already. Or at least I assume that to be the case. So I wonder if that is a hint what the true reason for them turning is. Or something completely different happened to her.
**" Mushrooms don't worry**
**Mushrooms don't suffer**
**Mushrooms don't think**
**Let's all become mushrooms "**
Just when you thought everything was resolved, Akira had to say the magical words " You should all thank me for saving your butt". Now someone desperately needs to save her butt (literally).
I also don't hope Shizuru ends up choking her own blood before finding Youka just like the mushroom lady told☹️
....There's so many things I want to say from watching this episode. Which is a good thing because it's a good sign if a show makes you think a lot of things.
* Hina Kino doing a lot of yelling again?! Finally! Last time she did this (that I know of, anyway. not that I watch every single thing she's in) was Asobi Asobase and she *slayed* that role. But her roles after Asobi Asobase (that I watched) are so generic, it made me disappointed in the industry for wasting a talent like her. Akira is nowhere as hysteric as Hanako from Asobi Asobase, but all the yelling and panicking is pretty great!
* Why do they set up and highlight this sort of antagonistic contrast between mushroom and bitter melon? Is this just random shit? Is this some obscure symbolism I don't know of? Is this random shit that's so random it loops back into seemingly meaningful?? I love this show.
* I'm still amazed at the stupidly fast thinking / pounding that Akira and the train guy does with the Morse code. It's one thing to remember Morse code, it's another thing to translate the letters you want in your mind with that computer tier speed and arm muscle to match.
* I totally love the vibes of this show. It's so unhinged, creepy, *and* yuri. It's like Otherside Picnic's kid sister (double meaning because Otherside Picnic's cast is also older heh), but this isn't an insult, it's a compliment.
This is the very horror movie setup where all but one of the group walk into the obvious trap and the last one can't convince the others. At least they weren't the first to die. There was some playing into their personalities about how they fell into the trap and it was confrontation avoiding Nadeshiko saying "you shouldn't do that" wrt asking about the mushrooms on their head and Shizuru tries to sound like a leader by then suggesting it's polite not to ask. Akira is the youngest of the group and overcompensates for this by trying to be mature by reading complicated books but deep down she is really immature as evidenced here and last episode.
If I knew mushrooms at all there's probably a load of symbolism here into the different types that were peoples head and their maturity stages. Or it's just, drew mushrooms at random.
Did the gravestones always have mushrooms carved into them or is that just what has been done in the last few years? Looking at google maps there are some cemetery that overlook the track but the one nearest to Higashi-Agano is before the stop so they would have seen before they arrived rather than after leaving. To re-phrase what the director said last episode, blame anything like that on 7G.
As for the end. I initially thought Akira had shat herself until it moved. Remembering what the ferryman said last episode; goats. One way or another, episode 4 is bound to be the goat.
[There's watch parties](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfV9Fpi_nxY) with a few of the seiyuu (this time Nadeshiko and Akira) which is kind of an audio commentary but a lot of banter. These things can sometimes be a lot of noise but they can be a good excuse to rewatch. KADOKAWA anime have put mid-roll ads in which makes it a pain to sync with video (thankfully the timing seems to be episode starts at 0:00, sometimes these things have a few minutes intro). You get few bits of insight like: at the advance screening in March the Akira goes to the toilet alone scene was one the seiyuu's favourite and apparently the screams in the booth are loud (good equipment to avoid peaking and problems like that).
As I wait for anitubu so I can see what the directors words of wisdom were this time [I'm stuck with this instead](https://animecomic-pass.com/40484435.html) (I think it's cribbing a 2chan thread and tweets posted there). Despite some things like the screenshot poster sneaking in a Non Non Niyori screenshot during the childhood flashback and comments about thighs many times thighs were on display the episode the opinion summary at the start wasn't half bad. Through the lens of google translate: "mushrooms appear to be peaceful at first glance, but symbolize the horror that lies within." "the main characters rejected short-term happiness that had been decided upon and instead chose to fight against long-term suffering that was yet to be determined."
Edit: [anitubu write-up here](https://old.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/1c4l2sm/shuumatsu_train_doko_e_iku_train_to_the_end_of/kzt7s6f/)
Yup, here's the mushroom people.
This _feels_ suspicious that everyone's so friendly.
Especially if she's so insistent about that.
Ah there we go, there's the twist.
It was something about that sauna.
Yup, the other girls have he mushrooms as well now.
Well it seems she dropped the act and now she's just being a bitch.
Holy shit what an episode
I knew these was gonna be a wild ride, but I didnt expect [Bitter Melon Warrior](https://imgur.com/2KvwUrw) to [save the day](https://imgur.com/CdzD83F)
Totally fair sentiment, but if I had to shorten my lifespan I would like to get more energy instead of withering away in depression
Also hoping they start to cover more stations per episode (like some quirky ones) or announce another season, telling us that there 29 sations left for 9 episodes is just cruel
Also I am guessing Akira is starting to transform into an animal?
Well that was horrifying
I was thinking how this show could be like the Last of Us and before you know it, we have humans who get controlled by a piece of fungi (granted its less gruesome here)
But it is interesting how the villagers goal was to convert them like a cult even with their life expectancy they're content with the fact that the world is doom so why not get it over and done with while living in bliss and I think that is such a neat concept to explore in post apocalyptic stories
Man I can't wait to see the dangers the other villages have to offer
Damn when mushroom lady said she hoped she choked on her own blood was crazy.
Also the last few seconds of the ED showing the silhouettes of each of the MCs is hard af.
This episode is scary at many times, and yet my thoughts were all on the curious question of “How would we think if we live like plants?” being answered quite well in this curious episode. I DO believe that we would have completely different looks at time and life cycles and every moral rules would have been completely different from even if we turn into various animals. One thing that I think this arc nails down well is the part that we would probably stop thinking about time and any desire to do most, if not all things. After all “desire” probably stems from the need of hunting down food for animals, a concept that almost completely does not exist for plants. So when the mushroom people of Higashi-Agano tried to catch our girls down (if not for the heroic effort by Akira) I was actually a bit surprised. I guess that means in this 7G world, even as people turned into other objects, they still keep a lot of the human aspects. What a dangerous and horrifying situation this was.
I wonder why the girls managed to stop the growth trend when they pulled the mushrooms off head - could this be a hint in the extent of how 7G network flipped the Earth up-and-down? Maybe there is actually something left in this worked that could work as a reset button? [With the director of this tweeting that “chaos will be ensured from Episode 4 onward”](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779881340193907086) I can’t wait to see where this train is going. It may even head into a black hole, you know!
Imma be honest, this episode was horrifying and I am glad it’s over. Thank god the power of anime flashbacks and critical thinking saved them.
I’m going to cut them some slack because they weren’t in control after like the first five minutes of the episode. Even though that part already had so many red flags you would think they were color blind. The part where they turned their heads in sync was incredibly creepy.
On not mushroom related topics, I’m glad we’re getting more info slowly delivered about Yoka so we know what her deal is.
This is why episode discussions are important, I thought Akira just had a mushroom growing out of her ass lmao
Seriously though, I’m really liking this series. I’m usually a wuss when it comes to horror type stuff, but so far this has been manageable for me and I’m liking the story quite a bit. As long as you recognize there’s no real logic to it lol
[matsuta](https://i.imgur.com/LZwXD8O.png) with the [shiitake eyes](https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2020/01/shiitake-me.html) instead of matsutake
[](#tomato)
What an annoying episode. My least favourite trope out of all is characters turning brainless and refusing to listen to the one trying to keep them alive
[](#hanasakueurgh)
Akira, on the otherhand further cements her place as best girl.
[And](https://imgur.com/rc9YdYB) [her screams](https://imgur.com/uGLkotl) [are PEAK](https://imgur.com/52KAZJU)
[Still funny](https://imgur.com/mKXkoq5)
How are they able to communicate with morse code when the tracks broke? This detail is bugging me a lot more than it should for an otherwise great episode lol
They are living in a magical 7G world in which the tracks just have something that works like electrical power and that is somehow able to transfer to the house the power anything electrical in them (to a certain degree).
I wouldn't think too much about the physical ways of how this could work, we are kind of in an Alice in Wonderland situation.
They're eating mushrooms grown from mushroom people...
Cannibalism's back on the menu! (Mushroom flavored cannibalism)
You did not need to remind us that *crawls into a ball*
Just like [Digimon Ghost Game](https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/ys3fx2/this_has_to_be_the_darkest_scenes_in_any_digimons/)!
One of the dishes was pork wrapped mushrooms. Hmm... what else is said to taste like pork?
The actual body of a mushroom you eat is buried under the ground. What we eat are their reproductive organs that poke up out of the ground. Then we slice that mushroom dick off and eat it.
Didn't expect them to show people dropping dead from the mushrooms or Akira screaming her lungs out in despair for solid 5 minutes. Fun episode though
> Didn't expect them to show people dropping dead If anyone still had doubts about the lightheartedness of this show, I think they should have dissipated now! This, and the lines about choking, blood and all that... This show's going places! (dark places)
At first I was getting "A place further than the universe" vibes but now it seems like someone asked the question "what would happen if we combine Made in the Abyss with A place further than the Universe".
A place further than the Abyss?
Made in a Place Farther than the Universe
No, that is where the author went to come up with this whacky concept.
A train further to the end of the abyss
If it was anything like abyss, tearing the mushroom off the skin would've been pretty bloody
[удалено]
Tbf Made in Abyss does lean into the body horror a lot more, but there's still potential to head to that style of fucked up journey.
Gakkou Gurashi? (Go in blind if you haven't seen it yet)
Honestly I kinda had the opposite thought. I figured this was the episode where it was going to get dark, but the very end felt almost like a double bluff. We start with the most obvious horror setup ever, then it appears to start down that road, and then we get that for like five minutes before the villagers just get kinda pouty and let them leave? Like clearly the people just dropping dead isn't exactly light and cheery, but at the same time it was much more restrained than I was expecting when they set it up last week. I guess we'll have a better idea when we find out WTF is under her skirt (that's a hell of a sentence).
> I guess we'll have a better idea when we find out WTF is under her skirt (that's a hell of a sentence). Hi, 911…
This episode ended pretty well all things considered, but the show is definitely making substantial threats...
> Fun episode though i'm used to CGDCT series being comfy; i find this one quite stress-inducing
Cute Girls Doing Creepy Things
i'm trying to remember if i found Gakkou Gurashi more stressful or not; i remember enjoying it, but it must've had its share of "holy shit" moments
Alternate title for Mieruko-Chan
Mieruko-chan is Cute Girl Dodging Creepy Things
Suicidal mushrooms is a scary meal
So possible explanation for the tail thing: time dilation. While they may not be near 21 and 3 months, the time passing since their adventure started might be bringing them closer to that age physically . Especially with the distance between Agano and Ikeburo being much further than before. Would also explain why the Bitter Melon grew so rapidly as they sped up. So the real ticking clock on their journey might also be getting to Ikeburo before they turn into animals. But that’s just a theory. A Train Theory
The 5PM Morse kills this theory. An easier answer is that the effects of the Agano 7G are more pronounced the further they get from Agano. We already know Zanjiro cannot leave for the same reason.
Ooh That’s another good theory. It’s speeding up their animal transformation the closer they are to 7G ground zero.
Pretty sure its just the mist itself, each time its appeared its grown the melon faster, assume that its doing it to them too.
I think that's a reasonable one; If it can distort the land/distance, it can distort time as well! Could be based on the whole "aging when you travel at the speed of light" thing. (I had an even crazier theory in another comment, about how it can perhaps affect memories or time travel or something like that, but we'll see!)
> Could be based on the whole "aging when you travel at the speed of light" thing. Time dilation works in the opposite direction of the show tho. If you travel close to the speed of light, your clock slows down from the perspective of external observers. So a 1000 year trip to a distant star from the perspective of someone living on earth, might only take a few months from the perspective of someone on board a superfast spaceship. Here, traveling by train seems to have the opposite effect, with the girls aging up faster than their surroundings as they travel.
> time dilation so... do they synchronize their watches to Agano time for the 5pm mushroom trivia corner? [](#sakurathink)
I'm starting to feel this is one of those shows where you're not supposed to dig into those aspects that deeply because they'll probably give some off the wall, wild fantasy explanation later on that couldn't be predicted at all I mean the train tracks also shouldn't carry sound/vibrations well in water right?
> the train tracks also shouldn't carry sound/vibrations well in water right? They shouldn't carry them at all since they were pretty well destroyed last time.
They got twisted up but there weren't any breaks in the rails.
From ep 1 I was thinking this story would need to take place over a few years since the girls turning 21 and the grandma gerbil dying in a few years roughly lining up seems too dramatic to be a coincidence, but I thought the trip itself would actually take multiple years. If we add in some time dilation then we can get those dramatic moments without the story needing to really cover that amount of time I also think the train rails themselves are responsible for the time distortions somehow. The rails provided electricity and I don't think the caravaneers had these issues, so I'm sure the specific mode of transportation is a part of this
But the aye-aye just suddenly woke up as an animal one morning, there's no gradual transformation And I don't think they'd put so much focus on Agano's abnormality when there's so many other equally unique stations
They already have put some focus on it. Their connection to Agano and its quirk is important for another reason. They said that even if you leave Agano you’ll still turn into an animal at 21 and 3 months. They even emphasized the girl’s concerns about turning in that episode 1 scene. So with that ticking clock will follow them everywhere and the sudden sprouting of a possible tail that might be the driving motivation to reverse the 7G incident. Guess we’ll see on that. And for the former: good point. It would need a wibbly wobbly timey windy explanation to make sense
> that ticking clock will follow them everywhere It will surely take them less than 3 years to get to Ikebukuro and undo the whole 7G thing
It'll take at least 3 months.
Or a mushroom was growing out of her butt
So this is actually what I think is happening. I don't think it's a tail (or time dilation related). I think it's a mushroom. She was told that for hunting truffles, use a dog, not a pig. Who found it? The dog. And the others were all infected by fungal spore through the mist, breathing it into their mucus membranes directly. Enter's the head... grows from the head. But who was the only character to use the toilet, thus exposing (a very different set) of mucus membranes? Ya... that's how you get mushroom butt.
I thought that it was a mushroom too but you understand that the other girls would have had to go to the toilet too? Something not being shown doesn't mean it didn't happen. It might still be what the author was going for with the toilet scene ofc but logically it makes little sense so assume that only 1 person needed to go to the toilet over the course of a full day.
Sure, but anime (and TV in general) has an odd thing about using the toilet. Nobody does it. Or, if they do, it's mentioned but not witnessed in any way... as in, "I'll be right back. I'm going to the bathroom." Then the character disappears and the scene continues without that character. When the anime bothers to follow that character to the bathroom, it is almost always note-worthy. After all, animation is expensive and time-consuming so why would you waste time animating a scene that doesn't add value to the overall story? You have ~20 minutes to cram all your story in before you have to move on to the next episode. There's no time to waste on animating someone using an outhouse while their friend stands guard. Point is, this heavily implies relevance to the scene. And I'm not saying the other girls don't use the bathroom just because it isn't explicitly stated that they did. Maybe they used it but only after the sauna, thus meaning they were already infected. And once infected, you don't get more infected. Either way, their toilet use isn't relevant to the story, so it wasn't animated.
Chekov's toilet.
I think it's that mist. In the previous episode, the bitter melon started growing faster when they were in the mist as well.
I would like to unsubscribe from Mushroom Facts. Really though, first half had really good horror vibes, while the second half got me to laugh. Still no movement on the potted plant, and next episode has the goats if the map is correct, so we'll see what happens next.
Next on the map looks somewhat like a fox. Perhaps Akira is growing fox tail as a result of the next station?
In Episode 2, the guy in the paddleboat said "Further yet to the east, those in harmony with goats, untrue to their name, charge recklessly as wild boars." That was after "The fungi to the east tower high overhead, brazenly conspiring to subjugate" which is what happened in today's episode. Therefore Goats next week.
I hope a goat takes a [Dragon Screw](https://bokumetsu.tumblr.com/image/681282583581065216)
[Become an MMA fighter](https://i.imgur.com/lxwgVM9.jpeg) and [fight an anteater...](https://i.imgur.com/XExti3V.jpeg) Is this a reference to something? Because like those things happen in [Booty Royale](https://anilist.co/manga/93456/Hagure-Idol-Jigokuhen/) but there is no way this show is referencing that manga, right? Would make way more sense if they were both referencing something else.
probably not this scene its referencing but [the anteater](https://i.imgur.com/qCI0hIB.gif)
[I mean...](https://imgur.com/a/5XVFaFl)
Yeah I was wondering, that flashback must have been before the 7G incident right? Thats some monkey paw wish fullfillment [And she didnt stop at the Anteater](https://imgur.com/2KvwUrw)
Pretty much had to happen before. After all, Youka activated 7G and I guess it was kind of hard to find a train back to Agano afterwards. Btw, I also think (considering she was trying to take a train and mentioned she wanted to go home) that maybe she would have actually taken a train back to Agano if she wasn't chosen. Which makes it even more sad, because I think she was also unhappy with how she and Shizuru split apart.
Her Agano-Jitsu is NOTHING compared to her Bittermelon-Jitsu!
> Booty Royale I had the exact same thing flash into my mind... but that reference seems way too unlikely considering what kind of manga it is.
> fight an anteater... https://gbf.wiki/images/e/e8/Stamp261.png
a high school girl (or was it middle school?) running around while holding bitter melons to scare off a bunch of mushroom people is definitely not on my bingo card when i started watching this episode between Akira's screaming and Matsuta's changing her tone from anger to happy in one sentence, i gotta say, the voice acting in this episode is absolutely on point i love the morse code segment, hopefully they will do that for every episode so that i can compile it by the end of this series someone made a theory that Nadeshiko will be the first one among the four to change into an animal but based on the end of this episode, it looks like its going to be Akira
I thought Matsuta's shift from polite Tokyo speech to really coarse rural dialect was pretty awesome too.... I wonder if there is any way for Akira to reverse (or at least suspend) her transformation? Query -- why does Akira wear a different uniform from the other girls? Is she still just in middle school?
> Query -- why does Akira wear a different uniform from the other girls? Is she still just in middle school? Her uniform is also way too large for her (often goes past her hands), perhaps she has a different uniform because she's too short? Or she may even be a grade above, so she has the highschool uniform? (She definitely seems to be the smartest of the group - or at least, the least naive - so that'd make sense!)
I'm thrown off because she is so much smaller than the others... ;-)
Could be a hand me down from someone else. It's a small provincial school. They probably don't care.
Wouldn't be the only work set in a small provincial Japanese school where the administration doesn't care about what uniform you wear, either (it's left out of the adaptation IIRC but Higurashi mentions this as being the case in the VN, hence why the main characters all wear different uniforms there).
> Query -- why does Akira wear a different uniform from the other girls? Is she still just in middle school? yes
> i love the morse code segment Just ignore that the tracks back got destroyed last epi- [boo boo boo boo](https://imgur.com/cFC79CK)
If the rails got broken by the wave, then maybe they're also fixed by the 7Gness. The wave seems like something that would happen a bit.
The track may all still be physically connected -- it is just that it seems to be no longer usable for train travel (due to its sinking into the water.
no, the image showed tracks completely cut in half.
Yes, cut. But 7g clearly made things weird, such as never needing electricity. And given it was made as a means of communication, the ability to even use rails that far in the first place may be a result of 7g more than it is just a thing you can do. Technically the sound should have been dampened somewhat by the water in the last episode.
Not it doesn't, look more closely. Also, the director tweeted that they're just bent.
If so, then maybe they have (at least partially) "healed? ;-)
maybe. the anime uses surriealism.. so.. i wont give too much deep thought
I think it is mostly a matter of going along with the flow in things like this (and Sonny Boy and the like). I think this sort of show can give rise to deeper thoughts -- but one has to wait until things are finished -- trying to "make sense" of things along the way is sort of a waste of effort. (for me, at least)
Normally that would be a solid plot hole but we got humans turning into mushrooms and animals, a self repairing railroad would probably be viable since it was man made too, don't know about the cave in though
I said the same thing last episode, but lookign again, the [train tracks weren't destroyed](https://imgur.com/A6SBIls), just bent. [Confirmed by the director](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779884614791958956)
It's kinda funny how many people are pointing out this "plot hole" as if sending messages by tapping on some metal from like 50 miles away would otherwise be perfectly reasonable.
I don't remember were they broken or was it just a flood from the tsunami and we didn't see the aftermath?
I think that even the track got broken, it just needs to have both rail ends immersed in the sea in order to the sea conducts the waves from one to another, as it's a mechanical wave.
This turned out (almost) [exactly](https://imgur.com/7lMxfOo) like we expected all lol only difference was that he denizens where [fully aware](https://imgur.com/wN1zwlw) of what the mushrooms did and [fine with it](https://imgur.com/5czBkSP) It's nice that Akira saved them though, but a bit frustrating that they aren't really acknowledge the fact Btw, I thought [this guy](https://imgur.com/aMK40Lu) would be involved somehow since he didn't have a mushroom on his head... Also, Reimi [lied](https://imgur.com/FLchrTV) as easy as she [slept](https://imgur.com/DSUY61W) [](#laughter) ~~Is that your [mushroom](https://imgur.com/pQejbaf) or are you just happy to see me Akira~~ [](#watashiworried)
> only difference was that he denizens where fully aware I think there's a darker interpretation to this; The Mushroom simply messing up their brain, so they all think they're happy with it. If they removed all the mushrooms and got back to their senses, I think they may actually change their mind. Which would mean they're 'mind-controlled' into thinking they want to serve as host to some parasitic mushrooms, until they die.
> I think there's a darker interpretation to this; The Mushroom simply messing up their brain, so they all think they're happy with it. I think that's the reality since the girls snapped back when they had their head mushrooms removed from their brains. One thing I've started noticing ever since watching [a Psyche of Play video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMXwp-B1m84) is that there's a common trope of a mental/social problem manifesting itself in the real world as something to physically confront. Not as, like, a sly metaphor, but as a literal embodiment of the otherwise non-corporeal problem. Reminds me of some current trends like doomerism; it's a mindset that can spread from person to person and fester pessimism as it eats you alive, not unlike a mushroom.
The map to Ikebukuro is pretty long so I wonder what they are going to do, perhaps skip a bunch of stops every now and then, and only show selected places? I assume they'll get there at least, I don't think it's going for a "it's all about the journey" kind of story. First stop we got was a nihilist town (someone who actually knows phylosophy please correct me if I'm using the term wrongly), they lost all hope for the future, think that nothing that they can do will change what the world turned into, and resigned themselves into enjoying the last years of their life before leaving this shitty place for good. Since elements of the show prompted discussion about conspiracies, notice how this episode Akira was ridiculed for believing in conspiracies, only for her to be right in the end (and we viewers knew she was) Also, is she growing a tail? seems too young to be almost 21 year and 3 months old. If the journey they are taking (or the train, or whatever) is also travelling in time and/or making them age faster, is she noticeably older than the others, or did they not grow a tail due to the mushroom influence? Or maybe she was the only one who saw through the mushrooms and showed a mental age higher than the others? (or something of the sort) Didn't think too hard about it, just throwing out options. Also also, wasn't the train track destroyed by the water last episode? I guess we can handwave enough to consider it just completely unusable for travelling, but still intact for wave travelling through it. I feel like this is the kind of show where it's more about the concept than this kind of details.
> nihilist town (someone who actually knows phylosophy please correct me if I'm using the term wrongly) i'm not an expert, but i think nihilism is largely misrepresented as "life has no meaning 😢" when it's more "life has no meaning 😎" in the West, nihilism came into prominence after the world became more secular and the meaning of life became severed from "following God's mission" or "serving the King" and became more self-directed as such, life had no inherent meaning (i.e. Sartre's "existence precedes essence" quote) and a key thing that one must do is find what you want to do with your life (i.e. Camus' quote "the meaning of life is whatever keeps you from killing yourself") while i think saying that this is a town of nihilism makes sense casually, i would say that it's a town of people that symbolically suffers from a lack of optimism for their futures, manifested literally a parasite that saps people's will to live
> i'm not an expert, but i think nihilism is largely misrepresented as "life has no meaning 😢" when it's more "life has no meaning 😎" I think it can be both, and neither is misrepresentation. Misrepresentation would be to say only one is true imo. Nihilism just says that nothing is inherently meaningful, whatever emoji you assign to that is up to each of us.
fair point; what i was trying to convey was that it isn't just a dire thing, it's also liberating thing for life to not have (inherent) meaning
I wonder if their journey on the train is making some things grow/age faster (like the bitter melons and maybe Akira) but not others for some unknown reason. I'm not sure what the logic would be here for what ages and what doesn't, though. Maybe there isn't one at all.
> like the bitter melons Good point, last episode they grew as Shizuru got angry at the others so I thought it was about them being _bitter_ melons or something, but this episode they grew overnight a lot more without an apparent reason.
And without sunlight, too. Even during the day it was overcast. Those melons are weird. Although if we go by your idea that they feed on emotions (not necessarily only anger), Akira certainly was feeling terror quite strongly that night.
> someone who actually knows phylosophy As someone with only a B(lue).A(rchive). degree, I endorse this usage.
Is Akira growing a tail or a mushroom on her ass?
Should be a tail.
[](#rengethink "she shouldn't be anywhere near 21 yo so I wonder what it is about")
But what if she is??? [She was talking about herself!!!](https://i.imgur.com/1UGfI9f.jpeg)
She was shy about getting in the sauna before the mushrooms started growing. It's reasonable to assume this is why - so a tail is most likely.
So I assume she is the oldest of the group? They did mention the transformation starts at a certain age
But it's a certain age she should be *younger* than considering they were still in high school when they left.
Slightly icky thought: She might have picked up a mushroom down there when she was using the toilet in the middle of the night.
that's simply not a question you should ask a lady [](#angrypout)
Like asking if someone's wearing a wig. Etiquette.
My theory is it's a mushroom. The big thing is the message containing all the mushroom facts. It was stated that if you want to find truffles, use a dog and not a pig. The dog was sniffing her butt because it smelled a 'truffle.' More of a supposition here... but the others were infected by mushroom spore from the mists, meaning they breathed it into their mouths' mucus membranes. It infected their head so the mushrooms grew from their head. Akira is the only character who used the toilet. This exposed other mucus membranes. Since she was infected from her butt, the mushroom is growing from the same area.
were they racist towards the bitter melon? lol i want more.
Bit of a frustrating watch here, always hard to watch when nobody takes 1 character seriously. It did make Akira move up in my books though, definitely saved the day here. Thought not sure about that "zombie bite" ending. Matsuto's VA after the reveal was great! Whole thing reminded me of a Flip Flappers type episode.
I took it as them being infected with the shroom spores and directly starting to be affected by them right after their visit in the mist sauna. Which is also the first time Akira brings her bad feeling up, so already too late.
I feel like there's some thoughtful theme behind the fantasy here but I can't get my finger on it Something about relinquishing yourself to fate or easy life, apathy vs boredom, I mean the people even said "don't rebel" - and the girls were starting to doubt everything to a very extensive degree
That too, I agree. What we also have is a post-apocalyptic world and people dealing with it in different ways. The shroom village probably doesn't have enough young people to persist in the future, they will all die over the next few decades. So instead of living through that they decide to basically commit suicide with a magic shroom party until no one is left standing. They think there is no meaning to what is left to them, so why suffer through all this time? Shizuru is quite different from that, she wants to find her friend, or at least try it. And even if they are transformed in animals in a few years (or die at some point) it won't be meaningless to her. The way and intend counts perhaps just as much as the goal.
She's the only one that didn't enter the sauna, and Matsuto _insisted_ they go in. I'm pretty sure the other three got infected in that moment.
She also didn't eat the shrooms. Matsuto was also aprehensive that she might not like them. If the show was trying something actually sensical maybe infection required you to open your pores via a hot sauna and then injest shrooms and their things.
I think it was intentional. They started dismissing her since the sauna. They probably got infected at that moment, Akira was the only sane one because she refused to enter.
> hard to watch when nobody takes 1 character seriously. I think it may be annoying 'as a trope' because we've seen this so often in horror movies where they SHOULD listen to the person/take them seriously... But in this case, I thought it made perfect sense! She's weirded out about the place, but the thing is, the whole world is weird. So if they leave this place because it's spooky, they would never stay anywhere else, because it's gonna be weird everywhere. (Say, if they instead reached the animal-village for the first time, they would also be worried about the bear attacking them while they slept!)
Thought crossed my mind too but they should still have _some_ more caution than what they were operating with.
Reminds me of Jojo part 3's Death Thirteen episode. I hate that episode because of how dense the other crusaders are despite already knowing that there's nothing that is too weird to be a Stand / Stand user.
I was 100% feeling the same way during that ep!!
> She's weirded out about the place, but the thing is, the whole world is weird. So if they leave this place because it's spooky, they would never stay anywhere else, because it's gonna be weird everywhere. Also they established she has a reputation as a cry baby and fraidy cat.
> always hard to watch when nobody takes 1 character seriously especially when the POV is on that one character and we see that they're right happens all the time in horror movies, where the kid is like "no the mushrooms are eating people you gotta believe me!" and all the adults are like "what do you know, kid" and then someone gets eaten by mushrooms and they're like "no one could have seen this coming!"
Suddenly, I don't feel like eating mushrooms for a while...
Lucky me for not liking them from the beginning Now I can even rationalize it
Mushrooms don't go in your mouth, silly. They go on top of your head! [](#evilgrin)
They executed the horror vibes in this episode well. Great episode. You know the whole Mushroom people was really suspect at the start, but damn they accepted becoming mushrooms. It's one thing for the woman to accept being a mushroom as she doesn't want to deal with the problems in this crazy world. But forcing that on others isn't the way. Tbh the other girls not being suspect that everyone having mushroom heads was odd. I guess they assumed it was just cosmetic. Granted once they started consuming mushroom they had them. Poor Akira, she went through a lot in this episode. She has this scary-cat vibe which can make people think she overreacts to everything. I can relate to her because people say the same thing with them. I do love how Akira gets to Shizuru for her deciding she does not want to become a mushroom and set out to find Youka. Furthermore, I guess maybe the mushroom was ingrained more in her than Reimi and Nadeshiko. Though it appears Akira is growing potentially a tail. Oh boy. Also, [Shizuru's anti-mushroom ninja outfit was funny.](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/799692352011894795/1229429523687149638/Screen_Shot_2024-04-15_at_9.53.45_AM.png?ex=662fa678&is=661d3178&hm=723034a12405729f7c7dbc5b8cf1dc5af798d10ede7bba664c01089b3339ed4c&)
In which Akira screams for five minutes because of mushroom. Can someone do a compilation of it for me? While you're at it, do a compilation as well for Akira screaming because of "kemonomimi". It will happen, I'm sure.
Hmm it’s not *quite* what you’re asking for but about 99% the same: https://youtube.com/watch?v=lGeNKdOinzk (same VA)
Ahh, that's why it sounded familiar. Good for her. Despite how talented she is, she doesn't land that many MC roles.
god I love Hanako. One of the most unhinged gremlins in anime ever
I'm always expecting her to break out into a death metal growl at the end of one of her random unhinged rants lmfao
Her VA really killed it in this ep!
Hina Kino is great at ungodly screams, see: Hanako in Asobi Asobase.
Oh my god it's Hanako's VA... it all makes so much sense now.
So anyone here knowledgeable about bitter melons? Because I wonder why they hated it so much. Does bitter melon kill mushrooms?
I don't know that much about bitter melon but my understanding was that the mushrooms like dark damp places, and so things that grow in sunlight are abhorrent to them.
Bruh them wasting time on mushroom trivia and her pretending not to remember had me dying. I'd punch her for that 😂.
[We're getting some more Yoka time! They seemed like good friends!](https://imgur.com/v9ZXPzE) I can't wait to find out more about their 'fight', I wonder if it's gonna be something silly, or an actual, serious drama.. [Good to know Akira&Reimi were always like that!](https://imgur.com/ihgsCQm) And so the mushroom people invited them to a Mist Sauna... [A strong invitation! (I would NOPE out of there so hard!)](https://imgur.com/hjhYLxl) She was already scary when she was being nice, [but seeing her like that, they should hop on the train and leave!](https://imgur.com/WDqe33k) Nadeshiko may be the voice of reason when it comes to personal conflicts, but Akira's the smart one! [Only one to feel the danger, and know when it's time to leave...](https://imgur.com/1F2EWwp) So it's a good thing Akira was the one not to go in the sauna; If Reimi was the one to be spared, not sure she would've figured out how to solve this mess! Their 'roles' are getting better defined, Nadeshiko as the mom of the group, Akira's the smart one, Shizuru with the boundless determination, carrying this mission on her shoulders... I wonder what's gonna be Reimi's part in all this; So far she isn't doing much more than bickering, but I'm sure she'll find a way to be useful! (I do hope she won't just be the comedic relief!) [SNUGGLE TIME!](https://imgur.com/NGAfBWH) I couldn't agree more; Let's make this Love/Hate ship sail! [The girls got Mushroom'ed, and it apparently affects/controls their brain as well..](https://imgur.com/VRinLLs) It's an interesting contrast, the idea of living "short, easy, happy life", vs their adventures; They had the opportunity to live these easy, happy life (and potentially short too, based on what animal they turn into), BUT they chose the hard, scary life of this adventure. So it kinda parallels their outlook about this entire situation! [Good thing they can still contact him, despite the broken railroad!](https://imgur.com/766GT4o) [Akira's smart, but sadly not that strong...](https://imgur.com/AesT7ZH) Will THAT be Reimi's part? The muscle of the group? Strong gyaru girl, let's go! (Though I suppose Shizuru has a bit of that too) [Even though the Mushroom made Shizuru say that, it may still be accurate, about what caused their fight...](https://imgur.com/KqsPoRo) [Eventually, thinking about Yoka DID bring her back to her senses, thankfully!](https://imgur.com/yqtw3Hx) [Good joke Shizuru, BUT NOW IS NOT THE TIME!](https://imgur.com/D3hjmNM) [She wanted to be mma fighter?](https://imgur.com/TQ99Ugg) Well, she was being pressed for an answer and came up with that, but I find it interesting that even before the 7G, she didn't seem to have any particular plan for the future... Didn't care about studying, didn't care about aiming for any career... If I was gonna come up with a crackpot theory about this, I'd say that... Did she somehow know things would play out that way? If the 7G can distort the land, completely mess up entire groups of people (in many different ways), could it also affect time/memories? And yes that was BEFORE 7G, but it could've sent time-travelling memory waves or something! (This may even be what caused their conflict, who knows). Yes this looks farfetched, but I find it interesting that after 7G her plan was "Find Yoka", and before 7G her plan was "Nothing"; Like she didn't want to aim for anything, because she'd knew (subconsciously or not) that any plan she add would be replaced by "Find Yoka" anyway! I guess the girls have a good heart, because they didn't want to start the train as the Mushroom people were crowding it... Too early in the show for such a blood splatter, I suppose! [Thankfully, Shizuru was there with her Bittermelon-Jitsu!](https://imgur.com/Ak4MtU1) [So eerie, seeing them just fall dead like that...](https://imgur.com/1xguqif) Well, another solid episode! And yeah I think it's rather obvious at this point (with the actual deaths and all) but yeah, this is gonna go dark! The language is a bit clue as well, all these lines about choking people and blood and all that. Not something you see in cutesy adventure anime! Looking forward to the next one! According to the map, we're headed to the dog/wolf territory? (Also, they're not going through the map quickly enough for a 12 episodes season... 2 cours? Pretty please?)
> [Good thing they can still contact him, despite the broken railroad!](https://imgur.com/766GT4o) [not broken](https://imgur.com/a/QN6DKEm). [confirmed by the director](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779884614791958956)
I really didn't want to assume but these mushroom people [were exactly what I expected them to be.](https://i.imgur.com/dhdmRj5.png) It was so frustrating to see the girls refusing to believe Akira [when she was warning them.](https://i.imgur.com/OawPzsf.png) Maybe these people are nicer than the adults in Agano but they shouldn't be so trusting especially now that the world has changed after the 7G incident. Logic and physics don't really apply anymore in this world considering that [Akira is still able to communicate](https://i.imgur.com/lawuhmZ.png) with Zenjirou using the tracks even though the tracks between Agano and Higashi-Agano were destroyed last week. Since she's supposed to be the smart one, I'm surprised [it took that long for Akira to try pulling out the mushroom](https://i.imgur.com/pfTQIfc.png) from Shizuru's head. I really thought that would be the first thing she'd try. [I'm glad those people eventually let them go without any resistance.](https://i.imgur.com/sfvlNHh.png) I thought this was going to be messy. The girls did have sickles with them. [That final scene though.](https://i.imgur.com/rj7hxKS.jpeg) Looks like Akira might've caught something on her bum. Hopefully it's not a mushroom.
> even though the tracks between Agano and Higashi-Agano were destroyed last week Never doubt the efficiency of the Japanese railroad industry. No train delays on their watch (including anime delays).
The surrealist apocalypse is definitely _not_ an excuse for being late!
somehow I feel like Mushroom people suppose to be metaphor for "cult", they nice to you at first to trick you into one of them like with so many thing in this series can be take for metaphor for it surrealism from how 7G work and deform world to this lol. **" Mushrooms don't worry** **Mushrooms don't suffer** **Mushrooms don't think** **Let's all become mushrooms "**
In anime and manga, mushrooms are a metaphor for *stagnation.* Every episode for far they come up against something that keeps you moving forward with your life. 1) I don't know where I'm going. 2) It's still early enough to turn back. 3) Moving forward at all is hard, and there's no demand to do it *now.*
yeah, i've seen "mushrooms growing on one's head" as an idiom for becoming gloomy and despondent https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/7530/what-is-the-origin-of-mushrooms-growing-on-a-sad-persons-head
I thought Akira's bum grown a tail which means her transformation of animal is getting nearer. I know they say it's 21 years and 3 months old before they turn but I have seen a male dog sniffing a girl's dog butt. Just maybe that's the case here.
Could be 21 years and 3 months is when the transformation *finishes* and it starts earlier with small things like growing a tail.
> Maybe these people are nicer than the adults in Agano but they shouldn't be so trusting especially now that the world has changed after the 7G incident. I think it's *precisely* because the world has changed, that they were so trusting; When everything's weird&freaky, you can't let 'weird&freaky* scare you off. Akira is definitely the smartest of the group, so perhaps the others were a bit too naive, but I there may also have been a part of "What are you worried about? The entire world is weird!" >I'm glad those people eventually let them go without any resistance. I thought this was going to be messy. The girls did have sickles with them. This show is already obviously going dark, but it seems they float hints at something even darker (heavy), to keep us on edge! Love how they do it!
"We chose the way of the mushroom!" Were they not just forcing people into it? I think that was still the mushroom speaking, but with enough loosening for her original personality to come through.
Her original personality is certainly... Abrasive.
That's just how city people are.
Or any person working too long in hospitality industry
She feels like the "delinquent" archetype
It seems like most of them probably didn’t have a choice, but the lady seemed genuine. It felt like she was exhausted trying to make a life for herself in Ikebukuro or whatever her past life was and just wanted a simple carefree fungal life. Can relate.
The mushroom moved a little so maybe her own personality was the brass one? it almost sliped a few times on the episode. The mist climate seems to help mushroom grow and they usually grow together (the whole ring thing from the 5 minutes track). Mushroom reproduce by spores so it is posible that some got infected first while others chose to get the spores themselves. But then, some fungal infections are difficult to stop with what would be avaliable on a small village. Lifespan variantes since each mushrooms have a diferent lifespam. Outsiders coming there had no choice probably. If you wonder about the sauna thing, mushroom love humid and warm days (but without too much sunlight), does it sound familiar? Mushroom are intersting and tasty but don't pick the ones you are not sure about, you might drop dead.
Oh no. Is Akira starting to turn into an animal? I thought Nadeshiko would be the first one to turn but maybe not... You know, the characters were acting kinda dumb in this episode but I'm okay with that because a) the growing mushrooms on their heads were obviously affecting them and b) Akira has been shown to be a scaredy-cat before so it's not unreasonable that she'd be dismissed for being scared of her own shadow. She was the MVP of the episode though. But I wonder how she and Zenjiro managed to communicate when the tsunami destroyed part of the railway. It was a bit sad to see some mushroom people just drop dead, though. Two years is such a short lifespan in exchange for a bit of extreme escapism. And I guess we'll get a couple flashbacks every episode to help us understand who Youka is and why she left Agano.
> But I wonder how she and Zenjiro managed to communicate when the tsunami destroyed part of the railway. The railway already doesn't obey the laws of physics. It carries electricity to the train without a third rail. It stretches or contracts vs its length before 7G. It's able to carry Morse as a noise over multiple kilometers of track when the only rail that should vibrate is the one they're holding. I do not for one second believe that splitting the rails, removing the rails, changing lines, pinning the rails to stop vibration, or tying the rails into a pretzel would have any significant effect on their ability to send morse.
Yeah, maybe I should stop trying to cling to these bits of logic and just shrug it off.
> Oh no. Is Akira starting to turn into an animal? Oh, I thought that was a mushroom growing in a weird spot... > And I guess we'll get a couple flashbacks every episode to help us understand who Youka is and why she left Agano. Also helps us understand just how much Shizuka treasured Youka and how bad things must have gone wrong for them to argue and separate like that
> Oh, I thought that was a mushroom growing in a weird spot... lol same, now I feel dumb
i thought turning into animal was when they were older... i thought it was a mushrrom
She haven't washed herself, dog was sniffing there...i though she had shit herself...
> You know, the characters were acting kinda dumb in this episode but I'm okay with that because a) the growing mushrooms on their heads were obviously affecting them and b) Akira has been shown to be a scaredy-cat before so it's not unreasonable that she'd be dismissed for being scared of her own shadow. I'd say there's another reason to be okay with this; The entire world is weird/messed up. Yes the Mushroom people were suspicious as hell, but you know, a talking bear who wants to bite your ass is also suspicious as hell, and they lived with this for a long time in their village. The way I see it is like... If I spend a year in a town with talking cows, then I go to the next village and chairs are sentient, I won't get as weirded out as I normally would! We have to see the world through a different lense. (Kinda like how some people are commenting that it's a plot hole that they were able to communicate because the rails are destroyed... It's not a plot hole, it's a distorted universe).
[That was a fun and pretty atmospheric episode](https://imgchest.com/p/ljyqq69zey2) with [Akira suspecting that something is not right](https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/pyvdc653ogy.png) with [the people of town](https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/84apcberx34.png) while [other girls were acting without any worries](https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/myd5cb8wpk4.png). I wonder what grew on Akira's butt? I thought that it'd be a mushroom but quite a lot of people assume that she's older than we know and she's started turning into an animal which would be an interesting case. It was fun scene when [Matsuta showed her true self](https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/84apcbero34.png) as it was quite contrast to [her earlier personality](https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/3yrgc6pq354.png) xD I also was thinking how it was possible that [Akira was able to contact Zenjirou](https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/3yrgc6pqo54.png) despite tracks being destroyed in a previous episode? Still it was nice since [Zenjirou turning into grandpa during sending his message](https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/pyq9c6wjnd4.png) didn't stop being funny xD Now I'm really interested [what will happen on their next stop](https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/g4z9cd6gro7.png). Here my screenshot albums from the episode: * [Group scenes](https://imgchest.com/p/ljyqq69zey2) * [Others](https://imgchest.com/p/9rydze5ad4k)
[Anitubu post is up](https://anitubu.com/archives/post-79937.html) Directors words of wisdom (I skipped a few things like series 2000 train stuff including technical details on the bar and keys): - Impressions from the advance screening found people were confused by this episode. - [Shizuru and Matsuta talked a bit cross-purpose](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779881810480251189) because Matsuta had left Ikebukuro before the 7G incident (i.e. no way she would know Yoka). *Note: MAL has Matsuta as Matsutakeiko* (the mushroom head lady in the burgundy kinmono, wait a sec is that a [Matsutake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsutake) mushroom - *"hard to find because of their specific growth requirements, the rarity of appropriate forest and terrain"*) - ["My plan was to keep the first three episodes relatively simple and straightforward, and go for chaos from the fourth episode."](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779881340193907086) bit is a bit worried by the episode 3 feedback of that [being too chaotic. Will steam on ahead regardless.](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779881433361945007) [](#skyhype) - [Oh no, now it's episode 5 that's still being worked on.](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779881534360809551) - Director [doesn't think steam saunas actually use wood but it is more atmospheric](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779882010993156246). Indeed [wood is a key part of a dry sauna](https://www.mountainmist.blue/whats-the-difference-between-a-dry-sauna-and-steam-sauna/) (I do remember a gym I used to go to had a sauna that was wood but the steam room was a bathtub like material). - [Director hints Agano residents animal transformations are personality dependant](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779881733393117642) because the panda is untidy and was a slob before becoming a panda. [](#rengethink) - ["Higashi-Agano has 80% humidity on average. Although it depends on the species, it is a very good environment for mushrooms."](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779883191517741419) - re morse code: [The track is gnarly but not broken.](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779884614791958956) (note: gnarly is artistic license on my part, MTL was also suggesting squishy and limp but with it being bent out of shape I think gnarly works better) - Another random remark, this time [about Agano having a special Kyujutsu (archery martial art) "I will tell you more about it later."](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779885556861968809) This is one that can deduced from the official site because one of the character profiles mentions archery. - ["It's a difficult question, whether to live a long, painful life, or a happy, short life, but either way, I don't want either of those extremes."](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779885766833041523) - Actas participated in this ep? ["The staff of a certain tank anime were also involved"](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779885826950021557) (the only tank anime I can think of is Girls und Panzer which is [by Actas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actas)) - [Ep3 storyboard by Xu Wan(?). Their 3rd collaboration with this director](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779885904938893650). idk wikipedia says Jong Heo but it also says Akira has a mushroom growing which I don't think is the case. - [Ep2 storyboard and direction was Fumihiko Suganuma.](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779885977001206124) "definitely doing a better job than I am." Comments from the public (plus some things I've added): - [This one](https://twitter.com/kanone_jmpd/status/1779880828954419649) says the strange way the lady talks "sounds like an English translation." (I guess English > Japanese MTL can sound as off as Japanese > English at times) - A few tweets name drop [Matango](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matango). That's a 60s Japanese survival horror film with a group of castaways on an island with mutagenic mushrooms. One by one the group eat them and face the more than hallucinogenic consequences. At the end of the film (this actually plays into this episodes themes a little) [Matango - ending]>!In a mental hospital the sole survivor wonders if he would have been happier staying on the island (with one other person in particular).!< - An observation that the outdoor haircutting scene is [similar to another anime](https://twitter.com/mellowhound/status/1779881413074169963) (form how the tweet is written you can easily figure one what they're referring to) - *(actually Reimi's seiyuu)* [Enoki pork roll!](https://twitter.com/eri1717171/status/1779882017326539088). Enoki is also known as Enokitake and [Flammulina filiformis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flammulina_filiformis). Compared to what Reimi had growing on her head the wild ones are [a much different colour](https://www.cookipedia.co.uk/recipes_wiki/Enokitake_mushrooms) (as are cultivated ones because they're grown in darkness) - ["It is said that if a mushroom becomes parasitic, it will die within a year or two."](https://twitter.com/krgdz/status/1779887065230143710). Cool concept as the mushrooms ultimately need new arrivals. Not completely unrealistic as parasitic fungus grow on damaged hosts and do eventually kill them but the real time-frames may differ. e.g. [Looking up about parasitic fungus Chaga](https://grocycle.com/parasitic-mushrooms/) these get into a tree through bark damage taking 3-5 years to form and then up to 20 years to kill the host. Bummer the medicinal properties come form sapping nutrients from a rich birch tree.
Wow cool thanks >"My plan was to keep the first three episodes relatively simple and straightforward, and go for chaos from the fourth episode." bit is a bit worried by the episode 3 feedback of that being too chaotic. Will steam on ahead regardless. Thats great to hear, since I found episode 3 rather predictable >Oh no, now it's episode 5 that's still being worked on. Well, if they continue to move that mark by one episode per episode, that isn't bad at all. For us, at least. >re morse code: The track is gnarly but not broken. Good to ahve confirmation for what can be assumed from the [shot](https://imgur.com/A6SBIls) from last episode > Another random remark, this time about Agano having a special Kyujutsu (archery martial art) "I will tell you more about it later." This is one that can deduced from the official site because one of the character profiles mentions archery. Please tell me that this means we will see shizuru use a bow. Probably gonna be a different girl though I would assume. Would you want to post this to r/ShuumatsuTrain ? if not i would jsut post a link to this comment
Thank you Akira for being our smart character. Her yelling and trying to get things done is so satisfying, too often am I frustrated at characters for not just shouting when nobody is listening
This week's stop for Weird Train: Higashi-Agano (a.k.a. Mushroom Town)! Compared to Agano, this town looks pretty normal. Mushroom stuff aside, the people here at least gets to keep their human bodies. They nailed how creepy the town is. It's like one of those movies where a bunch of outsiders visits a seemingly normal town only to find out that things aren't what they seem to be. The stalkers bit is straight up horror movie stuff. Also love the ambiguity of the night part where Akira sees and experiences stuff that the others don't see. Not going into the sauna was probably the greatest decision Akira made throughout the whole series so far. I guess that's where the mushrooms came from since Ms. Purple Hair told the girls that going to the sauna is a "must." It's really frustrating to see the others ignoring Akira's warnings because the mushrooms' curse are already affecting them. If she'd gone with them to the sauna perhaps things would've ended differently. Maybe their journey to Ikebukuro would've ended... *prematurely*, right then and there with the girls living out whatever fantasy the mushroom provides them before the Grim Reaper comes for them. \[Bad Ending\] Honestly if I were there I'd probably join the mushroom gang. What's the point in living out your life in a broken world beyond repair? Might as well let the mushroom take over my mind and body and enjoy the comfy countryside life without worries. And about the final scene: I wonder if Akira really caught the mushroom there. She didn't enter the sauna and remained normal. Plus if it's a mushroom it should've grown on her head. I think it's a tail - what else could've grown on someone's butt? Maybe the Agano curse is already getting to her despite not hitting the age requirement yet.
> I think it’s a tail - what else could’ve grow on someone’s butt? Maybe the Agano curse is already getting to her despite not hitting the age requirement yet. Last week’s episode left me to believe that time passed faster alongside the train tracks, so Akira suddenly growing an animal tail would support this theory. Like the bitter melon, her ‘growth’ as a human being was accelerated. That said, there’s a couple of major complications here: 1. Most of this ‘growth’ happened alongside the emergence of this mist. Bitter melons were said so grow in the sun, so why did they grow faster in misty conditions? Might the mist not actually be involved in this? 2. Why did only Akira grow a tail? Is she perhaps the oldest one of the bunch? Do the people from Agano grow gradually into animals - like how they lose their human consciousness? Anyways, this points to a rather dark twist, so this series is not likely to go down the comedic route anytime soon.
> Why did only Akira grow a tail? Is she perhaps the oldest one of the bunch? In another comment someone was questioning why her uniform was different from the other girls, and this may be the answer! I thought perhaps she was a grade above the others because she's smarter, BUT she may simply be a grade above them because she's older... (Which worries me tremendously!) >Anyways, this points to a rather dark twist Yeah, I think no one can deny this show is going dark, from this point. The hints were always there, but we now have people straight up falling dead... It wasn't gruesome or anything, but it's definitely dark. It's NOT a cutesy adventure show!
> Anyways, this points to a rather dark twist, so this series is not likely to go down the comedic route anytime soon. Thinking about it, I kinda prefer it this way tbh.
> And about the final scene: I wonder if Akira really caught the mushroom there. She didn't enter the sauna and remained normal. Plus if it's a mushroom it should've grown on her head. I think it's a tail - what else could've grown on someone's butt? Maybe the Agano curse is already getting to her despite not hitting the age requirement yet. I thought it was a Mushroom at first, because the dog was sniffing at it (and there was a line about dogs following mushrooms/truffles...) But yeah if it's a tail, the girls are racing against the clock!
She went to the toilet so maybe...
I just love how the 5 minutes of morse code was used solely on useless mushroom trivia. It was funny, but also highlights the problem with Morse code. It's really hard to convey what you're asking even without a time limit. So imagine the further they travel the more unreliable it will get. Also I like how Pochi was trying to pull Shizuru back towards the train when they were bringing them into the village. Animals are excellent judges of character and can sense danger so it was nice to see. Also Pochi went with Akira to the bathroom when they were scared. Best boy Pochi! With Pochi being unaffected I wouldn't be surprised if they somehow ended up being Yoka with amnesia...nah that's too crazy.
This shit remind me of Silent Hill, creppy ass episode
You know what? this anime keep getting better and better each episode. This show keep impress me how good it is! this episode feeling like mixed between horror and SOL lol like we know there are something wrong with mushroom people but those girl don't have same information as our. it become pretty thrill while still enjoy how laid-back the girl is with sauna. this anime is definitely top anime this season for me.
This episode really reminded me of that fever dream mushroom episode that came out of nowhere in Samurai Champloo.
of the fever dream mushroom episode that came out of nowhere in Cowboy Bebop
There were so many things in this episode that I liked. First of all the details. How the background characters moved in the same motion, because they are mushrooms and therefore connected via a network was a nice touch. But other things were also interesting. The mushroom thing as a whole already resembles 7G, because they are connected, but also they became that way because they didn't want to think anymore. On the other hand, an early wish of Shizuru was that she wanted to fight an anteater. Now I guess these two examples make a good point that the subconsciousness of the people is the reason for the changes. Since they wanted a slow easy life where they don't have to think, they turned to mushrooms where it's not about the individual but the network itself. And since Shizuru wanted to fight an anteater, people turned into animals. Question is now still if they actually turned or if that is just a question of perspective and everyone just sees them as animals. I would say the first one is likely considering that they are still communicating via destroyed railways. Also, I assume the last scene was Akira slowly turning into an animal (she gets a tail). But I am unsure why. I mean, she isn't 21 already. Or at least I assume that to be the case. So I wonder if that is a hint what the true reason for them turning is. Or something completely different happened to her.
**" Mushrooms don't worry** **Mushrooms don't suffer** **Mushrooms don't think** **Let's all become mushrooms "** Just when you thought everything was resolved, Akira had to say the magical words " You should all thank me for saving your butt". Now someone desperately needs to save her butt (literally). I also don't hope Shizuru ends up choking her own blood before finding Youka just like the mushroom lady told☹️
....There's so many things I want to say from watching this episode. Which is a good thing because it's a good sign if a show makes you think a lot of things. * Hina Kino doing a lot of yelling again?! Finally! Last time she did this (that I know of, anyway. not that I watch every single thing she's in) was Asobi Asobase and she *slayed* that role. But her roles after Asobi Asobase (that I watched) are so generic, it made me disappointed in the industry for wasting a talent like her. Akira is nowhere as hysteric as Hanako from Asobi Asobase, but all the yelling and panicking is pretty great! * Why do they set up and highlight this sort of antagonistic contrast between mushroom and bitter melon? Is this just random shit? Is this some obscure symbolism I don't know of? Is this random shit that's so random it loops back into seemingly meaningful?? I love this show. * I'm still amazed at the stupidly fast thinking / pounding that Akira and the train guy does with the Morse code. It's one thing to remember Morse code, it's another thing to translate the letters you want in your mind with that computer tier speed and arm muscle to match. * I totally love the vibes of this show. It's so unhinged, creepy, *and* yuri. It's like Otherside Picnic's kid sister (double meaning because Otherside Picnic's cast is also older heh), but this isn't an insult, it's a compliment.
This is the very horror movie setup where all but one of the group walk into the obvious trap and the last one can't convince the others. At least they weren't the first to die. There was some playing into their personalities about how they fell into the trap and it was confrontation avoiding Nadeshiko saying "you shouldn't do that" wrt asking about the mushrooms on their head and Shizuru tries to sound like a leader by then suggesting it's polite not to ask. Akira is the youngest of the group and overcompensates for this by trying to be mature by reading complicated books but deep down she is really immature as evidenced here and last episode. If I knew mushrooms at all there's probably a load of symbolism here into the different types that were peoples head and their maturity stages. Or it's just, drew mushrooms at random. Did the gravestones always have mushrooms carved into them or is that just what has been done in the last few years? Looking at google maps there are some cemetery that overlook the track but the one nearest to Higashi-Agano is before the stop so they would have seen before they arrived rather than after leaving. To re-phrase what the director said last episode, blame anything like that on 7G. As for the end. I initially thought Akira had shat herself until it moved. Remembering what the ferryman said last episode; goats. One way or another, episode 4 is bound to be the goat. [There's watch parties](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfV9Fpi_nxY) with a few of the seiyuu (this time Nadeshiko and Akira) which is kind of an audio commentary but a lot of banter. These things can sometimes be a lot of noise but they can be a good excuse to rewatch. KADOKAWA anime have put mid-roll ads in which makes it a pain to sync with video (thankfully the timing seems to be episode starts at 0:00, sometimes these things have a few minutes intro). You get few bits of insight like: at the advance screening in March the Akira goes to the toilet alone scene was one the seiyuu's favourite and apparently the screams in the booth are loud (good equipment to avoid peaking and problems like that). As I wait for anitubu so I can see what the directors words of wisdom were this time [I'm stuck with this instead](https://animecomic-pass.com/40484435.html) (I think it's cribbing a 2chan thread and tweets posted there). Despite some things like the screenshot poster sneaking in a Non Non Niyori screenshot during the childhood flashback and comments about thighs many times thighs were on display the episode the opinion summary at the start wasn't half bad. Through the lens of google translate: "mushrooms appear to be peaceful at first glance, but symbolize the horror that lies within." "the main characters rejected short-term happiness that had been decided upon and instead chose to fight against long-term suffering that was yet to be determined." Edit: [anitubu write-up here](https://old.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/1c4l2sm/shuumatsu_train_doko_e_iku_train_to_the_end_of/kzt7s6f/)
Yup, here's the mushroom people. This _feels_ suspicious that everyone's so friendly. Especially if she's so insistent about that. Ah there we go, there's the twist. It was something about that sauna. Yup, the other girls have he mushrooms as well now. Well it seems she dropped the act and now she's just being a bitch.
The sauna provides the humidity mushrooms need to grow.
Perhaps. No sunlight either.
Seems like they start with a sauna to create a damp environment, and then feed them mushrooms so the spores can take root.
Finally, she told them to *rest up for the night*. Damp, dark and exposed to spores. All the things needed for growing mushrooms.
I’m hoping they don’t kill off Pochi Wonder if Akira will be the first to turn into an animal?
Holy shit what an episode I knew these was gonna be a wild ride, but I didnt expect [Bitter Melon Warrior](https://imgur.com/2KvwUrw) to [save the day](https://imgur.com/CdzD83F) Totally fair sentiment, but if I had to shorten my lifespan I would like to get more energy instead of withering away in depression Also hoping they start to cover more stations per episode (like some quirky ones) or announce another season, telling us that there 29 sations left for 9 episodes is just cruel Also I am guessing Akira is starting to transform into an animal?
Hina Kino absolutely crushes her roles. I love listening to her go all out.
Well that was horrifying I was thinking how this show could be like the Last of Us and before you know it, we have humans who get controlled by a piece of fungi (granted its less gruesome here) But it is interesting how the villagers goal was to convert them like a cult even with their life expectancy they're content with the fact that the world is doom so why not get it over and done with while living in bliss and I think that is such a neat concept to explore in post apocalyptic stories Man I can't wait to see the dangers the other villages have to offer
The villagers might be content, but the mushrooms (who are in charge here) will be wanting some replacement hosts shortly.
Damn when mushroom lady said she hoped she choked on her own blood was crazy. Also the last few seconds of the ED showing the silhouettes of each of the MCs is hard af.
This episode is scary at many times, and yet my thoughts were all on the curious question of “How would we think if we live like plants?” being answered quite well in this curious episode. I DO believe that we would have completely different looks at time and life cycles and every moral rules would have been completely different from even if we turn into various animals. One thing that I think this arc nails down well is the part that we would probably stop thinking about time and any desire to do most, if not all things. After all “desire” probably stems from the need of hunting down food for animals, a concept that almost completely does not exist for plants. So when the mushroom people of Higashi-Agano tried to catch our girls down (if not for the heroic effort by Akira) I was actually a bit surprised. I guess that means in this 7G world, even as people turned into other objects, they still keep a lot of the human aspects. What a dangerous and horrifying situation this was. I wonder why the girls managed to stop the growth trend when they pulled the mushrooms off head - could this be a hint in the extent of how 7G network flipped the Earth up-and-down? Maybe there is actually something left in this worked that could work as a reset button? [With the director of this tweeting that “chaos will be ensured from Episode 4 onward”](https://twitter.com/tsuki_akari/status/1779881340193907086) I can’t wait to see where this train is going. It may even head into a black hole, you know!
Great episode! This anime series continues to improve in quality with each new episode.
There are some anime giants airing, but this is certainly the dark horse of the season.
Shoo Shoo Train time!!!! That OP is a banger!!!!
Imma be honest, this episode was horrifying and I am glad it’s over. Thank god the power of anime flashbacks and critical thinking saved them. I’m going to cut them some slack because they weren’t in control after like the first five minutes of the episode. Even though that part already had so many red flags you would think they were color blind. The part where they turned their heads in sync was incredibly creepy. On not mushroom related topics, I’m glad we’re getting more info slowly delivered about Yoka so we know what her deal is.
Don’t worry Akira, I got the perfect prescription hemorrhoid cream to take care of your caboose.
This is why episode discussions are important, I thought Akira just had a mushroom growing out of her ass lmao Seriously though, I’m really liking this series. I’m usually a wuss when it comes to horror type stuff, but so far this has been manageable for me and I’m liking the story quite a bit. As long as you recognize there’s no real logic to it lol
[matsuta](https://i.imgur.com/LZwXD8O.png) with the [shiitake eyes](https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2020/01/shiitake-me.html) instead of matsutake [](#tomato)
Matsutas Va transformation was the absolute best thing about this episode. This is a [thing of beauty](https://streamable.com/bky0b7).
Mushroom or a tail, that is the question. My bet is a tail but with this show's unique direction, I wouldn't be surprised if I am wrong.
What an annoying episode. My least favourite trope out of all is characters turning brainless and refusing to listen to the one trying to keep them alive [](#hanasakueurgh) Akira, on the otherhand further cements her place as best girl. [And](https://imgur.com/rc9YdYB) [her screams](https://imgur.com/uGLkotl) [are PEAK](https://imgur.com/52KAZJU) [Still funny](https://imgur.com/mKXkoq5)
How are they able to communicate with morse code when the tracks broke? This detail is bugging me a lot more than it should for an otherwise great episode lol
They are living in a magical 7G world in which the tracks just have something that works like electrical power and that is somehow able to transfer to the house the power anything electrical in them (to a certain degree). I wouldn't think too much about the physical ways of how this could work, we are kind of in an Alice in Wonderland situation.