"Cozy vibes in the post-apocalypse" is such a strange concept on a fundamental level, yet there are a surprising number of anime/manga with this premise. My favorite in the subgenre is Girls' Last Tour, a series about two girls travelling together through a post-apocalyptic world and finding moments of happiness despite their circumstances. Last season, Touring After the Apocalypse aired, a series about two girls travelling together through a post-apocalyptic world and finding moments of happiness despite their circumstances. Fundamentally, these shows have very similar plots, so you might think that they would be very similar thematically as well, but that couldn't be further from the case. Girls' Last Tour is a melancholy show, understanding the gravity of the situation the girls find themselves in, while Touring After the Apocalypse doesn't seem to care at all that most of humanity is dead, and if not for the ruined architecture, you could be convinced this was a bog-standard slice of life. Yet, in my opinion, both shows succeed with what they are aiming to do, and Touring After the Apocalypse may even be the more unsettling of the two.
Girls' Last Tour is, at its heart, a nihilistic series. Things often don't work out for our main characters, and the situation becomes increasingly dire as the series progresses. The characters continue to journey, but what awaits at the destination is unknown, and you get the feeling that whatever it is at the end has to be pretty crazy to have any chance of fixing, well, anything. But that's not the point. The main characters recognize that their journey will likely be pointless. They know what likely awaits at the end. They know that it's hopeless. But, midway through the anime, Yuuri (the more airheaded of the two) makes a declaration: "Let's get along with the feeling of hopelessness". Even if their is no hope in their lives, even if everything around them is bleak and dying, that doesn't mean that the two of them have to be miserable. Even if the world is terrible, life is still a gift, and the two of them choose to find whatever small joys they can while they still have time. It's a series with plenty of unsettling moments, but its overall outlook is a positive one. Life doesn't have to have some grander purpose, so long as you're happy living.
In sharp contrast, Touring After the Apocalypse intentionally looks away from the uncomfortable truths of its world. Our two main characters seem to be having the time of their lives as they venture through the ruins of Japan on their solar-powered dirt bike, taking selfies, laughing, and singing (frequently) as they pass by empty cities, crumbling buildings, and abandoned cars. But that doesn't mean that nothing goes wrong for our characters, or that there's no sense of impending dread. But any time there is, the show and its characters quickly brush it off and move on to the next thing. There's plenty of mystery to this show, plenty of hints of there being more than the eye can see, but the characters don't care to investigate. At multiple points, Yoko (the older looking of the two and the main character) sees something disturbing, but instead of acknowledging it, walks away and makes sure Airi (the younger looking one, also an android) doesn't see. The supernatural is shrugged off and blantantly ignored, leaving the viewer saying "Wait, no, go back! What was that?" And that's what I think is so fascinating about it. The story the viewer sees and the story the characters choose to experience are radically different. I don't know if the manga has any intention of ever answering any of those questions, but assuming that the anime isn't getting a second season, then anime-only viewers are left to form their own conclusions.
Girls' Last Tour is a series about facing the end of the world with a smile, while Touring After the Apocalypse is about appreciating the beauty of a world that has ended while brushing aside the ugly parts you don't want to look at. The world of Girls' Last Tour is broken beyond repair, but the viewer and the characters find comfort in the small things. The world of Touring After the Apocalypse looks far more familiar to us, far more beautiful. But it's the unanswered questions, the who, what, when, where, why, and how of it all, that leave the viewer feeling unnerved, even as the characters travel without a care in the world. Girls' Last Tour finds realistic optimism while maintaining a nihilistic worldview, while Touring After the Apocalypse forces optimism by intentionally ignoring anything that may question that worldview. And that's what makes it so much more unsettling in my opinion.
As anime, I still prefer Girls' Last Tour. The characters are more fun, and the artstyle is more interesting, and its message has stuck with me through the years and has changed the way I view the world and my own place in it. Touring After the Apocalypse wasn't even my favorite comfy post-apocalyptic show of 2025 (that'd be Apocalypse Hotel). But Touring After the Apocalypse is going to be a show I think about for a long time. It's a series that makes its viewers uncomfortable and worried for the characters, only to gaslight them by saying they were overreacting and shouldn't have been concerned. And until the manga gives us answers (or ends and doesn't), it will continue to be a series where you're just always waiting for the other shoe to drop. And that's what I love about it.
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