I preface this review with the following. If you are prone to heart attacks, I’m not certain if should read any further. You do so at your own risk. You have been warned.
All right. Here goes. I LIKED this episode. Cue heart attacks now. And even further, it didn’t even have Shizuka in the episode! I know right?Okay, well let’s discuss. WHY did I like it? Well let me recap what happened.
So the blonde girl comes back from her dad being sick and basically tells Miyamori to relax and she’ll find a director for episode five.She goes off and finds a guy who used to work a lot in anime but now fishes a lot.
Meanwhile, the part of why I like this episode so much starts up. the president of the company sees Miyamori a bit stressed out and decides to take her on a field trip. He ends up taking her to his old animation company he used to work for which had since gone out of business.
It is from then, that we jump into a flashback. We see that the president used to be production desk for Andes Chucky, that show we keep hearing about.
We get a look back at the president when he was young
And honestly, this is a really cool scene. It shows how even back then they were worried bout things like time constraints and last minute changes. But also, there’s a camaraderie between them that, even though I only see them for a few minutes, I actually feel even more than the regular cast. We find out that the all important blizzard scene of Andes Chucky was actually his idea. What a twist! (Channels inner M Night Shyamalan)
With renewed vigor, Miyamori goes back to work and everything continues to move forward. and that’s basically the end of the episode.
Now here’s the thing. There are several reasons why this episode is good.
First off, the message that this episode portrayed. We see the old guys when they were young, and we see them now. And one line really got to me.
This may seem like a simple thing but I thought it a little deeper. When you get a job you like, when you find what it is you want to do with your life, that life just blows by. Life is so short, but when it’s doing what you love, it’s not wasted, it’s lived. That is the kind of job I want. The kind of job I can say “wow. I’ve been doing this for forty years” and smile. not go “oh shit. i’ve been doing this for forty years. i’ve wasted my life.” If I can do the former, and enjoy my life as these characters have, I will have no regrets.
This stayed with me after the episode ended and probably won’t leave me. That’s the kind of thing that made me interested in seeing this show in the first place, and went beyond the characters.
It was strange. This episode almost felt as if Miyamori was almost used as a framing device. As a way for you to insert yourself in her shoes, to see these people’s lives through your own eyes sort of like the way Satoshi did it in “Millenium Actress” (Awesome movie btw)
The other thing I really enjoyed was the back and forth between the blonde chick and the white haired guy who doesn’t seem to care.
I really liked a two line back and forth they had.
She says “I envy people who can keep being excited about working in this field” and he responds “I hate people like that” It really speaks about these people and their motivations and their experiences.
All in all, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like this episode. It really did give me a push in the right direction to follow my dream. If you don’t enjoy what you do for a living, don’t do it. I’ve done my best to take that to heart, and I won’t stop.
Episode 8.5/10
-Hideki