Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou is, in a nutshell, a story about two chibi’d young women who are struggling to survive in an unknown apocalyptic world. It seems like each episode will be split into two shorts, each with its own title and theme.
The first half of this premiere episode of SSR involves our two main characters, Chito and Yuuri, traveling on their Kettenkrad-like machine through the ruins of what could be an old sewer system, some kind of utility plant, or maybe an old factory. They haven’t seen light in a few days and they’re running out of food. 
Chito is driving the Kettenkrad while Yuuri slacks off and whines in the backseat. Eventually they both go to sleep.
Chito wakes up with her hand in Yuuri’s mouth, as the latter has been having food-related dreams. When Chito pulls her wet hand out of Yuuri’s mouth she realizes she can feel a breeze, meaning an exit is not far off.
The two girls eventually escape the underground maze and emerge to an evening sky full of stars. Both girls remark on how beautiful and bright the sight is. They share their last can of soup together to celebrate their escape.
In the second half of the episode, the girls make some time for target practice. Well really Yuuri is the only one practicing – Chito doesn’t see the need for a gun. She seems to be more mechanically-inclined, whereas Yuuri is the one who gets excited about finding and using new guns and weapons.
Later the girls explore their surroundings and come across some very old, very decrepit-looking wartime machinery. Not just the small stuff like weapons and bombs, but also some very large machines – think tanks and planes. The girls explore a plane and find a crate full of rations, and they share a package together. However a momentary territorial dispute from Yuuri turns into a roughhousing match, though it’s never serious enough that Yuuri loses her laidback personality, and no one is injured in the fight either.
After the pack of rations has been consumed, the girls relax atop the plane while snow falls down all around them. The two young women start playfighting again, which only makes them hungry once more. Oops? ^^;;
My thoughts: This was a cute start to what I thought might be a serious series. Well until I saw Chito anyways, at which point I remembered some of the promotional content and had to mentally rewrite my expectations for this title.
Chito and Yuuri live in a world that once had humans, but the present date is not specified. It’s also not revealed what destroyed the human civilization they are once exploring. And why don’t they know what chocolate is?
There is a dream/flashback to Chito and Yuuri riding their Kettengrad away from a man waving at them, and it looks like a war is going on, but it’s never explained in more detail so it’s hard to know whether there’s any truth to it or whether it’s just an odd dream. Was it a huge world war that destroyed the land they are now exploring?
My main complaint about this episode is that I just wanted more. More information, more action, more characters, more details about their current situation. I hope that these things are shown in subsequent episodes, because as much as I can tolerate the cutesy character designs, watching a boring show will make me drop this title like a hot potato.
In the plus column, I did recognize Chito’s seiyuu (Inori Minase – aka Meteora from Re:CREATORS, which I just finished covering last season), and checking Wikipedia revealed that I also know Yuuri’s seiyuu (Yurika Kubo) as Philuffy from Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut. So that revelation was a nice little surprise for me. ^_^b
All in all I’m not super sold on SSR yet, but I will give it the three episode rule.
Possibility of Watching: Only if I’m covering it
Possibility of Blogging: Medium