NegaPosi Angler – Episode 01

Episode Synopsys:

College student Sasaki is having a rough time.  Diagnosed with something that will kill him in two years if untreated, he spends his days mindlessly playing pachinko and flirting with suicide – when he’s not trying to evade loan sharks.  But a chance encounter with a group of anglers might be just what he needs to find a new perspective on life.

Episode Review:

For a show with angler in the title, there’s a surprising amount going on in this show besides the fishing. The first episode covers a LOT of ground, but to its credit I didn’t feel much in the way of whiplash.  Which is impressive, given that very nearly the first thing we see is Sasaki trying to hang himself in his apartment as we flash back to his diagnosis.

Right after that, he’s in the pachinko parlor, noting that this is how he spent his time even before the diagnosis, when these three show up.

These are the loan sharks that he’s borrowed from to play pachinko every day, but what follows is not what I was expecting.  Sasaki bolts and so begins a lengthy foot chase, with the surprisingly athletic kid outrunning the three of them for quite a while.  When they catch up with him at last, they’re barely able to talk from exhaustion, and the leader collapses shortly after.

This kicks off another chase as Sasaki runs for it again, already setting these guys up as the Team Rocket of loan sharks, more endearing than dangerous.  As they corner him again and he starts to climb to dangerous heights, what sealed the deal was the three of them legitimately worried for his safety.

I like them already, and the show had moved from a very serious start to pretty funny without it feeling dissonant.  In the second half, Sasaki is pulled from the water by the group of anglers from the top image, led by this guy.

“Ragtag” is the perfect way to describe them, even though we only meet a couple of them this episode.  I’m certainly impressed that most of them seem to be drawn in a completely different style; one of them wouldn’t be out of place as a Leiji Matsumoto side character, another must be blowing off steam after a tough day as a magical girl.

With nowhere to go (the anglers are out on a breakwater) and a very energetic proponent of fishing coaxing him, Sasaki eventually, grudgingly, gives fishing a try.

As might be expected from a show about fishing, he does warm to it eventually, though not as much as I had thought he would.  It’s going to be a slow journey to enjoying fishing for him, but given how slow the journey of fishing itself is, maybe that’s just the tone they’re trying to set.

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