YMMV / WorldEnd: What Do You Do at the End of the World? Are You Busy? Will You Save Us?

• Accidental Innuendo: Chtholly gives one in the eighth episode when she scolds William for the fact that he "slept with Nephren". It becomes even more strange when he answers along the lines of "What's wrong with children sleeping with their parents?".
  • His statement actually makes some sense when you consider the time period he came from. Up until the 19th century most families slept in the same bed together. Separate bedrooms were something only the wealthy could afford. Willem grew up in their world’s equivalent of the Middle Ages, so naturally he hasn’t quite caught up with modern social norms.
• Adorkable:
  • Whenever Ctholly tries her hardest to catch Willem's eye only to fall short nearly every time.
  • Also, her hidden sweet tooth. Willem points out that Chtholly not wanting her sisters (especially the younger ones) to see her enjoy sweets only makes her look more childish than she wanted.
  • Underneath Rhan's cool exterior lies an awkward dork whose internal thoughts are unbecoming of someone of her demeanor. Most prominent in volume 5 where the readers get to see things from her point of view.
  • This is usually the result whenever Tiat geeks out over movie trivia. It even applies in-universe when she sees a sign at the Lovers' Staircase that read "No Rolling!", and she screams like she reached her Despair Event Horizon. Nearby onlookers are amused by her reaction.
• And You Thought It Would Fail: The anime was initially dismissed as just another light novel adaptation in a season full of sequels and big name brands. It quickly became the most talked about anime of the season and garnered enough attention for the light novel to receive an official English release.
• Awesome Music: The anime's soundtrack is topnotch, with most of the songs reflecting the melancholic atmosphere the original light novel is well-regarded for. Some of them include:
  • Always in My Heart by Tamaru Yamada, played during the Cold Open scene from the first episode and played again in the exact same scene near the ending before Chtholly dies, in an appropriately timed Tearjerker of a moment.
  • Scarborough Fair, also by Tamaru Yamada, which reflects the fantastical and medieval aspects of the story, as well as Chtholly's feelings towards Willem in general, played during the montage where Chtholly and Willem tour the island's festival shortly after they met and played again during Chtholly's very last fight scene with the Timere before her final goodbye to Willem.
• Broken Aesop: The anime gets this from a Gainax Ending. It is implied that the work has a positive attitude towards Heroic Sacrifice, but it seems that Chtholly could not save William and Nephren and they all died.
• Broken Base:
  • Although the original novel and anime were generally accepted positively, some of the audience was dissatisfied with the notable reductions in the plot in the adaptation and the slightly strange Sequel Hook ending, which in a troll manner keeps silent about the fates of William and Nephren so that the fans might want to read the novel or see a theoretical second season.
  • Some people believed that replacing people with zoo people in work was a rather dubious idea, which in the end strongly hampered the author to create a more dramatic and tragic story.
• Didn't See That Coming: Not many fans were expecting Willem to be the final antagonist of the series.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Nygglatho and Ithea received quite a lot of sympathy from the audience because of their optimistic mood, a lot of ridiculous antics and very important psychological help to the main couple.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • The reveal that the Visitors are space travellers from another world invites no end of speculation about their true origins.
  • The Elpis Mercantile Federation’s plot to take over the Warehouse leaves a number of interesting threads hanging. Most notable there are the hints that higher powers were at work behind the scenes.
  • Anything involving Nils Foreigner. He is undoubtedly the most mysterious character in the series. Little is known about the past and motivations of this Visitor. The fact that he decides to show up at the exact spot where the airship carrying Willem and Elq crashes in volume 5 seems a bit too convenient. He’s also not the least bit surprised when he sees Willem 500 years in the future, suggesting that he was expecting to run into him at that exact moment.
  • The second curse found on Jade Nail’s corpse opens up some interesting speculation. The first curse, the one that killed him, obviously came from Mournen. However, it appears that someone else came along at some point afterwards and placed a second curse on the body. This curse was used to seal away a dormant Beast, which would be released if anyone ever attempted to revive Jade Nail. The mystery only deepens when it’s revealed that the curse was a special world altering spell used only by Visitors. The only Visitor known to be active during that time was Nils Foreigner and even he was supposedly indisposed when the curse was placed. This means that an unknown Visitor is currently at large in the world. It is unclear what their motives are or why they would target Island 2 with their Trojan Horse Beast.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The anime adaptation has received notable attention in Russia and several other countries, since, although the source was little known in those countries, the abbreviated name was consonant with the russian analogue of a certain cuss word that was famously used in a certain competitive game.
  • In the future, the series became one of the most discussed adaptations in several anime fandoms, Russian included, in this season thanks to the rapid and emotional development of relations between the central couple.
  • The light novel has also become something of a cult classic in the western anime community. Many western fans consider it to be one of the best light novels of all time. That fan base will likely continue to grow now that the series has been licensed for English distribution.
• Growing the Beard: The story really took off following Chtholly’s death at the end of volume 3. Volume 4 saw the series take a major Genre Shift as it delved more deeply into the underlying lore. The Downer Ending of the arc was enough for most readers to realize that this was not your typical light novel.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The series was originally going to to be cancelled after two volumes, meaning that the end of volume 2 was likely going to be the original conclusion. Fortunately it got renewed following positive critical reception. However, this also resulted in a MASSIVE Happy Ending Override. Volume 2 implied a possible happy ending for Willem and Chtholly, which gets tragically shot down in subsequent volumes.
  • Tiat’s Big Sister Worship towards Chtholly takes a much darker tone in light of Chtholly’s death and Tiat becoming the main heroine of the sequel. Aspiring to be just like someone isn’t so great when that person ended up being a Doomed Protagonist.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Much of the ill will towards disfeatured on Island 28 is due to its previous mayor being a particularly corrupt Imp. Willem isn’t too surprised by this considering Imps were known for leading humans into depraved behavior back in his day. He therefore would likely be horrified to learn that an Imp was assigned to supervise the fairies stationed on Island 38. Something tells me Willem wouldn’t want Feodor within a mile of his now teenaged “daughters”.
  • Related to the above example. In his past life Willem had to put up with an annoying adventurer called Theodore Brickroad, who often hung around the orphanage in a futile effort to woo Almaria. Willem couldn’t stand Ted, who not so secretly envied Willem’s position at the orphanage. While Ted never got the chance to take over Willem’s job, due to having his soul trapped in Shiantor’s barrier world, he still in a way got the last laugh via proxy. As it turns out Feodor is the Russian spelling of Theodore. Willem’s fears about Ted were apparently 500 years premature.
  • (spoiler for Dead Island 2)Coincidence or not, the plot point of Beasts being mutated from humans and all humans are doomed to become beasts are eerily similar to the plot point of Dead Island 2, only replace "beasts" with "zombies"
• Iron Woobie: Willem. Let's see, first, despite all his hard work and skills, he couldn't become a Regal Brave in the past just like he's always wanted. Second, after his climactic fight with Ebon Candle where his extreme injuries and accumulated curses ensure that he wouldn't be able to fight as well as before in the present day, he gets petrified in stone for more than 500 years, never to see his family from his orphanage ever again despite promising Almaria he would return, waking up in a world where his race has now gone extinct. Then, while he gets a second chance to form a family to protect again with the Leprechauns from the Warehouse, forming an eventual romantic relationship with Chtholly, he learns that they're living on borrowed time and all have the likely chance to die in the battlefield against the 17 Beasts before they even reach adulthood with his brief romance with Chtholly coming to an end after she saves him and Nephren at the cost of her life. And even before that, he learns that the humans were the Beasts they were fighting, and in the last episode he imagines every person he's met in his past life as the Beasts he was fighting before apologizing and killing them. Poor guy has tragedy following him all through his life but still struggles on regardless.
• It Was His Sled: Due to the fact that the original work was known as "one of the saddest light novels" and the series was widely discussed in the context of "tragic love", many people very quickly guessed that Chtholly dies or that series ends with heroic sacrifice and the end became evident for many even without spoilers.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships:
  • While most of the focus is on Willem’s relationship with Chtholly he has many instances of Ship Tease with other female characters. Examples include Nygglatho, the other teenaged Leprechauns, and any girl from his past. With Chtholly’s unfortunate death, it was anyone’s guess as to who the next best girl would be. The ending only led to even more rampant speculation and shipping.
  • Feodor Jessman is another example, due to him often being shipped with members of the second generation of Leprechauns in the sequel.
• Les Yay:
  • Playing for laughs several times, when Ithea trolls Chtholly. Nevertheless, it seems that the end of their conversation in the ninth episode acquires a similar "natural" overtone.
  • Rhantolk looks very angry when she perceives Nopth's massage with William as Ship Tease, after which, almost to the end of the show, she is very wary and jealous of him.
• Memetic Badass: Willem and especially Chtholly become such in the last couple of episodes. Lord, he crushes monsters with his bare hands all while having a big wound in his stomach!
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Rhan’s face during the infamous massage scene has become a popular reaction image.
  • BibleThump HAPPIEST BibleThump GIRL BibleThump IN BibleThump THE BibleThump WORLD BibleThump ^{Explanation (Spoilers!)}  Before her death at the end of the anime, which she was also heard saying in the anime's prologue, Chtholly declares herself as "The happiest girl in the world" for having met Willem and for being grateful at the life she lived in spite of her inevitable tragic fate. Because of how big of a tearjerker the scene of her death was at the end of the anime and how beloved Chtholly is among the fandom, the fans have taken to chanting this phrase whenever Chtholly herself is being referred to or when the subject of Suka Suka is brought up in circles.
• Moe: Leprechauns, especially during their relationship with Willem as daughters and father, are one great example of this.
• Moment of Awesome:
  • Chtholly’s epic Last Stand against the Timere is as awesome as it is depressing. Not only did she kill hundreds of the creatures, she also still managed to find the strength to say goodbye to Willem before dying. Furthermore it’s later revealed that she did enough damage to ensure that they wouldn’t be able to attack the islands for the foreseeable future.
  • Willem proves himself worthy of the title of Regal Brave when he ruins Elpis’s carefully crafted plan in volume 5. Not even the most advanced military technology stands a chance against a pissed off brave with the powers of the Lamenting First Beast. Even though he knows that he’s only got five minutes before he succcumbs to his Beast instincts; he makes that time count.
• Popular with Furries:
  • Not so much as Grimoire of Zero in the same season, but it clearly attracts attention due to the setting, where almost all the characters except the main character and the leprechauns are reasonable animals.
  • The sequel has a bonafide Cat Girl as one of the main character’s Love Interests. The fact that he’s clearly in love with her in spite of her Little Bit Beastly traits makes it pretty heartwarming.
• Signature Scene:
  • The montage of Chtholly and Willem walking together around Market Medlei while Scarborough Fair plays in the background in the first episode is currently the most iconic scene of the anime adaptation.
  • Chtholly's death in the final episode and at the end of the light novel's third volume is also very well-known as well.
• Sleeper Hit: Was a relatively unknown light novel on the verge of being cancelled till positive critical reception pushed it to the top of the charts. Since then it has garnered a lot of attention, especially in the West, due to its excellent writing and avoidance of common light novel conventions.
• Spiritual Adaptation: A light novel in style of Yoko Taro without actually being written by him.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: It happens quickly when you find out that this work has a reputation for "one of the most tragic light novels". It is difficult to perceive it also because the majority of victims should be young girls with a sweet and innocent character. You might even consider dropping the light novels for good for getting so damn depressing.
• Values Dissonance: Heroic Sacrifice of Chtholly was much more easily and positively received in Japan than in the West, since Japanese culture not only positively treats this, but even romanticizes both death for ideals and tragic love in general. At the same time, some western audiences found the ending of the anime unnecessarily depressing and angsty for the sake of angst.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: The series may have plenty of adorable children, but that’s just about it in terms of kid friendliness. There’s a good reason why this series is considered one of the darkest light novels out there.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Shiantor the Lamenting First Beast is a Walking Wasteland whose mere presence is enough to kill anyone in the vicinity. It is a swirling mass of destructive impulses and hatred against all life. It is also horribly alone. There is only one Shiantor in existence and it is isolated even from its fellow Beasts. On top of that it has retained memories from when it was still human, meaning that it’s constantly torn between the memories of its former life and its present-day Beast impulses. It’s rather telling that Willem, whose entire life was ruined by the Beasts, eventually comes to sympathize with its plight. He’s likely the first person who ever saw it as more than just a monster.

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