Wait, was that… hope?
It’s funny. Hidarikiki no Eren is a show about a bunch of annoying characters, focusing mainly on an industry that’s of relatively little interest to me. Yet I still feel connected to it, and at times it’s strangely compelling. I guess that’s a sign of good writing, being able to make you care under those circumstances. The bar is a lot lower with a show about wine, for example, or baseball. But advertising? I mean honestly, it’s just not something I ever think about even though – like everyone else in the first world – I’m inundated by it every day.
Let’s be clear, though, there are shadings among the cast and themes here. For all his exasperating qualities Kouichi is still an order of magnitude easier to take than any of the other principals here. He’s also somewhat sympathetic, because his lot in life is one non-geniuses can identify with pretty easily. Getting back to him is good, then, even if his life on-screen has been a living hell the past few episodes he’s starred in. I almost don’t want to allow myself to believe things could be looking up for him – part of me thinks this is all a feint – but we got our first faint glimmer of positivity for ages this week.
First off he seems to have told Akari to go eff herself when she asked him for an interview in her typically condescending fashion. We don’t actually see that though, so we can’t be sure. It also appears he’s planning to quit Meguro – he has a letter of resignation on his desk, anyway. At this point a big game of “who are these people?” kicks in. Rukawa-san was treated as if he were someone we should know well, but honestly I have no memory of him. It seems Kamiya (yeah, he can go fuck himself) Kamiya asked Rukawa to “look after” Kouichi when he abandoned him.
When Sonomiya Pharmaceuticals brings in a re-branding project, asking for a young creator, Rukawa goes for Kouichi given his recent spell of fame. He knows the plan was to quit (he saw the letter) but drags Kouichi into the assignment anyway. I also had no idea who this Sonomiya Chiaki was, and she waltzed into the narrative too. Or stumbled into more likely, given she’s a full-on dojikko. She took a nepo gig as head of advertising for Sonomiya – her dad is president – after putting in a couple of years at a rival agency. Her royal screw-up three years earlier almost cost Rukawa dearly, but she took the fall for it and it seems they remained on affable terms.
As it happens, the re-branding gig is for a line of cosmetics Akari is the spokesmodel for. But no one has any idea what the actual product or company is (the “vampire effect”). The briefing meeting is a royal clusterfrick – Chiaki’s father barges in and tramples all over her (already non-existent) authority. But Kouichi takes charge of the room, and manages to coax out Chiaki’s ideas – which actually make a lot of sense. There’s a moment of actual connection there – she’s grateful to have someone interested in listening to her. And it almost seems as if we’re seeing Kouichi finally discover what his own superpower is (being the catalyst).
Again, I don’t want to assume anything good can happen for Kouichi – it would pretty much be a first. But he certainly needs to stop defining himself by how he compares to people whose talents he can’t compete with. He also can’t compete with them for arrogance and pretentiousness, and he has an ability to function as part of a team they’ll never have. If there is any sort of redemption path for Kouichi (and if Eren the Southpaw is as autobiographical as it sometimes seems, there should be) these seem like the logical first steps.
