Congrats to Negaposi Angler for winning the Fall 2024 Patron poll. It was a clear win, though a competitive race. Honesty compels me to admit I might very well have covered it anyway, even airing on the busiest day of the season. And at that, I’m still kind of on the fence about the series that finished second. So I might end up covering both, we’ll see – but Negaposi Angler is definitely in the rotation. I think it’s probably the one I would have voted for myself, though I try to never to anything (apart from my episodic posts) that might put a thumb on the scale.
We’re still solidly in slice of life mode here and ignoring elephants. But that works – fishing is a contemplative exercise anyway. It’s payday at the fishing konbini – Hiro’s first (and maybe his first paycheck, period?). Except it’s not a check at all, but cash. That’s fishy (no pun intended) to begin with (though that’s not played up), but also a terrible idea for a guy like Hiro. He’s easily lured into blowing the whole wad at the local fishing superstore. First by Hana, at whose suggestion he goes, but even more so by Nishimori Kozue – the “other” girl (one of them) at the shop.
Kozue hasn’t gotten much run before now, but she’s very much the spotlight figure this week. She’s charming and feminine and seems very nice. But there’s something slightly ominous in the way she casually leads Hiro into blowing his whole salary on lures and other fishing swag (some of it for her). And later, twice that on an expensive rod and reel. It may be that she’s privately wealthy and doesn’t understand the value of money (though that wouldn’t explain her working at the shop). But honestly she’s not doing Hiro any favors here.
Hiro is also starting to fall for Kozue. That’s innocent enough but she doesn’t pull her punches – she makes it clear she’s fishing because the person she likes is a fisher, and that person is Hana. I thought this was straightforwardly a declaration of romantic love but Hiro doesn’t take it that way at all. So either he or I are misreading the room (I’m pretty sure it’s him). I also see no indication that Hana is aware of this or reciprocates, though she and Kozue are certainly friends.
I absolutely get Hiro’s fascination with fancy equipment (I assume Exceed is a sponsor, as it’s a real gear manufacturer) – I totally get that way at the start of a new hobby. But Hiro is out of his mind dropping ¥130000 on a rod and reel (again, thanks Kozue). Takaaki is as always a model of understanding, but he has every right to be this irritated and a whole lot more. If indeed he’s serious about confiscating Hiro’s future pay packets I wouldn’t blame him a bit. For obvious reasons Hiro isn’t thinking much about his long-term responsibilities, but he has short-term ones with Takaaki – and he’s done more than enough to earn having them taken seriously by Hiro.
In addition to the usual wealth of fishing minutiae (nope, never heard of this “sabiki” method even in English) we got a very interesting conversation about fishing between the two guys. Takaaki’s comment about his current love for fishing being an indication that he was being true to himself was the sort of philosophical discourse I would expect in a fishing show. At some point we’re going to drift into into the more serious waters the plot has so far skirted around, and I think this sort of conversation inches us closer to that development.
Panino Manino
November 3, 2024 at 12:59 amKozue made Hiro expend his money on purpose.
Is she evil?
Guardian Enzo
November 3, 2024 at 1:01 amIt kinda seemed that way to me. But more really irresponsible than evil I would say.
Simone
November 3, 2024 at 2:21 amCurious, what was the second series in the poll?
Guardian Enzo
November 3, 2024 at 9:18 amStay tuned…
Nicc
November 5, 2024 at 8:40 amFirst, congrats on “Negaposi Angler” on winning the patron pick. It’ll be a good one to spend some time with. Right, the show is still in SoL mode and it starts with Hiro getting his first paycheck from working at the convenience store. Yep, he gets paid in cold, hard cash. It seems that he was contemplating hitting the pachinko parlor again, but then gets some other ideas from Hana and then Kozue. We haven’t seen much from her so far and she’s the featured character in this episode. With the cash in hand from payday, the two of them drag him to the fishing superstore.
Incidentally, I was doing some shopping at a Daiso on Saturday and I remember that it has a fishing section. I pay any attention to it until now. It’s just a small section of the store and with most of the stuff starting at $1.75 USD, which is likely a far cry from the stuff in the fishing superstore. Hana is off on her own and to buy her own stuff and so it’s Hiro and Kozue together. She’s friendly and vivacious and it doesn’t take long before he succumbs to her charms. She does get him to buy a whole lot of stuff and that cash quickly disappears. I don’t necessarily think that she snookered him into buying all of that stuff, but it didn’t help his lack of responsibility when it comes to money.
Takaaki tried to be the metaphorical voice of reason, but Hiro drowned him out. The actual Takaaki isn’t so forgiving and unfortunately Hiro isn’t quite finished yet at the fishing superstore. There is also some fishing too as Hiro learns how to fish using live bait and the implications of using something that’s alive to catch fish rather than a lure. On that same trip, Takaaki shares his story about how he got into fishing. It doesn’t quite explain the change in hair color, but that might be a different fish story. Right, Kozue does share with Hiro that the person she’s interested in is Hana. Indeed, she doesn’t seem to reciprocate, but they are friends.
Hiro fantasizes about the fancy, expensive reel that he saw in the shop earlier and decides to go pick it up, egged on by Kozue. Oh yeah, and an expensive reel needs and expensive rod to go with it. Yep, it will be a good idea to hold on to his future paychecks. I suppose this is a bit better than blowing all of that cash at the pachinko parlor. With all of that top-shelf equipment, he better be serious about fishing now. Or, he’s going to sell that stuff to a pawn shop in the next episode to get some of that money back. Things still haven’t gotten serious yet, but I also do think that we’ll be wading into those waters soon.