Patron Pick Fall 2024: Negaposi Angler (Negative Positive Angler) – 10

It’s sort of ironic that an episode about a typhoon was the calm before the storm. But of course that’s exactly how it’s playing out with Negaposi Angler. Now that Pandora’s box has been opened there’s really no way to restore the old order. We know exactly what these last couple of eps will be about, but then we’ve probably known since the very beginning. It may have taken a bit longer to get here than I expected but get here it was always going to.

Now comes the hard part. This is a crucible for pretty much every one-cour slice of life series. They switch to plot mode in the last couple of episodes, with varying degrees of success. I have a pretty high confidence level with Negaposi though, as it’s already shown a very deft hand with serious emotional matters. It’s also working with a premise that it’s been building towards from the very start, so nothing is being pulled out of left field here. It’s all going to come down to execution but based on this episode (and the ones before it) I’m expecting it to stick the landing.

The catalyst for this is Machida-san going into the hospital after falling off a skateboard. I love the fact that this is the only thing anyone comments on, not the fact that it was Fujishiro-san’s skateboard he fell off of. In any event it naturally happens to be the same hospital where Tsunehiro got his grim prognosis, which sets off a bout of understandable PTSD. He bolts while the others visit Machida (he’s fine), and makes up an excuse about urgent personal business when Takaaki arrives home.

Some things become clear pretty quickly. Hiro is torn between fatalism and denial. He feels fine, so he tells himself that his diagnosis (we’re still not told exactly what it was) was a mistake. But not surprisingly he starts to feel distinctly ill now that the whole thing has been dredged up in this fashion. He has stomach pains – due to food poisoning from Spanish mackerel (probably) but he’s looking up something else on his phone, which Takaaki sees when he runs to the bathroom. And the next day – with Hiro taking a sick day – Ice mentions Hiro’s odd comment about having only two years to live to Takaaki.

Takaaki’s devotion to helping Tsunehiro has really been remarkable. Do the revelations about his past change my outlook on that in any way? If one wants to look through cynical glasses you could say he’s using Hiro as a substitute for his departed younger brother (Sakakihara Yuki) – even trying to assuage (probably misplaced) guilt over his death. We learn of this when Takaaki’s uncle visits the konbini while Hiro is on duty. There may well be more to this story but I suspect we’ve heard the truth of it. Takaaki disappeared on his family after his brother died, not even answering his phone. That’s certainly not okay, absent any extenuating circumstances (which there certainly could be).

But based on what I know now, I still see Takaaki as very much a good guy here. If he’s nagging Hiro to book a checkup at the hospital because of what happened to his brother, well – so what? It’s still the right thing to do. Likewise I hold both these guys pretty blameless for the dust-up between them. Each had reason to be upset, and even to take it out on the other. It wasn’t personal really – just a natural reaction to being pushed about something neither wanted to be pushed on.

That Hiro’s reaction to his diagnosis was effectively to run away is totally consistent with his behavior from the start of the series. And to be fair, that’s a tough thing for anybody to hear – and when one is a college student at the peak of perceived immortality, it has to seem like a bad dream. He’s a mess to be sure – if he truly has no idea where his insurance card is that means he’s been in complete denial about his health. Takaaki’s decision to run away, by contrast, is in complete conflict with his pattern of behavior. I don’t doubt that these two are going to help each other heal emotionally, but the larger question of whether Hiro can heal physically still hangs over Negaposi Angler like a dark cloud.

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5 comments

  1. T

    I had a feeling the typhoon episode would be the last bit of respite before the show started getting into Hiro’s personal issues. I feel more and more sure each week that Hiro’s illness is not as it seems. Really stellar episode all around.

  2. C

    I don’t think we’ve got all of Takaaki’s backstory yet. All of those shots of the two kids in this episode, running into traffic without looking where they were going… I am afraid that we’re going to find out that Sakaaki’s brother died in an accident, not due to his illness, and that Sakaaki has a very specific reason to blame himself.

    The blow-up between Takaaki and Tsunehiro makes sense, in an awful way. Takaaki has treated Tsunehiro as a little brother since the day they met, and Hiro let him do it until Sakaaki tried to make him go back to the hospital. Hiro hasn’t had a lot of support from his family in the past, even when he needed it, and it was pretty mature of him just to accept the help that was offered. But he’s got that ticking clock at the back of his mind, and he’s already lost half a year of whatever time he’s got left, and he was going to lash out at anyone who forced him to think about that.

    From the start I’ve seen this as a show about addiction and recovery (although it’s about other things too). Hiro replaced pachinko with fishing, he replaced the loan sharks with his coworkers, and on balance he’s a lot healthier than he used to be, but he hasn’t spent any time thinking about *why* he gets so obsessed with his hobbies. He was a gambler before he got his medical diagnosis and he’ll be one for the rest of his life, whether that’s a short or long time. I think Takaaki sees this in him but he won’t shove Hiro’s face in it; that’s not as important as making him go back to the hospital for treatment.

    Last thing I’ll say is that it’s sort of astonishing to see a show that takes food poisoning as something truly awful and debilitating, and not just the setup for a lot of jokes. Food poisoning really does make you reconsider your life choices sometimes.

  3. Yeah, food poisoning is really horrific (worse than it was made out to be here).

    Interesting take on the addiction side, have discussed that a bit. It’s certainly possible there’s another shoe to drop with Takaaki and his brother.

  4. N

    Yep, there it is. With only 12 episodes, it had to happen now. The episode started out innocently enough. Bossman got injured after falling off a skateboard. We don’t get much of an explanation there, but he’s at the hospital to get checked out. Hiro, Takaaki, Hana and Kozue decide to pay him a visit. As they get closer, Hiro finds out that it’s the same hospital where he got his diagnosis. We’re still in the dark when it comes to what exactly is ailing him, but Hiro knows that he doesn’t want to be there and bolts when they arrive. It turns out that Machida is fine. As for Hiro, it brings back unpleasant memories for him and now it seems that there’s something up with him. It’s probably due to food poisoning from the sashimi he was eating earlier. He decides to take a sick day, but not before Takaaki gets a glimpse on what Hiro was looking at in his phone.

    I think we figured that conversation between Ice and Hiro from the sea bream episode would be brought up again and that’s how Takaaki learns about the two years thing when he’s talking with Ice. During the next fishing outing with the trio, Takaaki takes the opportunity to bring this up with Hiro. Hiro insists it’s nothing, but Takaaki still wants Hiro to get checked out the hospital. He’s quite insistent on that too. Then, somebody from Takaaki’s family drops by at the convenience store and is looking for him. It seems that Takaaki just disappeared when his younger brother died and nobody has heard head or tails from him since then. That was three years ago.

    Hiro doesn’t take it so well when he learns that Takaaki is running away from something too, which eventually turns into a fight between the two. I agree that both had their own reasons to be upset and about something that neither one wants to confront. It’s a good question about where they go from there and after that dust-up. We’ll have to see how the rest of the cast plays into this as well. There’s certainly a lot we don’t know about Takaaki’s side of the story too. In that same sea bream episode, it was briefly talked about that he used to work at a host club and then it was brushed aside. It looks like there are still more details to be fished out.

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