Negative Positive Angler

Episode 9

Humans love their routines. Even in the face of Nature's wrath, sheer inertia drives us toward business as usual. There are socioeconomic reasons why I sometimes find myself driving through a snowstorm to get to work, but those are also byproducts of human tendencies. Regardless, it's completely absurd, and Negative Positive Angler lays into those absurdities with its trademark charm in this week's episode.

Machida's wishy-washy response to Hana's inquiry says it all. While there are certainly cost-benefit analyses one could run to mathematically determine whether it's profitable to keep Everymart open during a typhoon, Machida doesn't do that. He doesn't think about it at all. He keeps the store open because that's what he usually does. Consequently, most of the employees get stuck in the back room, Hiro spends his time at the register practicing a fishing knot, and the vast majority of the customers he serves are the Everymart crew buying beer and vittles to sustain themselves. Takaaki, technically on the clock, gets drunk, and his boss joins him.

NegaPosi Angler embraces the silliness of their situation with an ensemble-driven episode full of goofs and good food. We're nine weeks in. We know these characters, and the cast is plenty strong enough to entertain the audience by just farting around. Hana's precociousness and funny faces light up the room. Takaaki's booze-fueled belligerence makes him imitate felines for some reason (not that I'm complaining). Machida shows off his ability to transform into the incredible Mr. Limpet. Ice chibifies herself in real-time. Arua whips up a mean meal utilizing only conbini purchases. Despite effectively being a bottle episode, the narrative doesn't feel stagnant. There's always something amusing happening from scene to scene.

Unfortunately, Hiro misses most of the action. The store is technically open throughout these typhoon-addled escapades, and Hiro draws the proverbial short straw (probably also out of inertia). I like that this isn't presented as a bad thing. You can imagine a version of this episode where Hiro resents being on duty while the rest of his coworkers (and boss!) goof off, but Hiro is pretty okay with the situation. He concentrates on learning his new knot, he isn't bothered by customers and the rest of the Everymart crew stop by to say hi from time to time. Hiro still isn't the super sociable type, so in a way, he gets the best of both worlds here. He's alone but with his friends close by. That's a place of comfort that I can relate to.

When I saw the episode description mention the loan sharks, I thought the show might veer into Hiro's drama again, but nope. They, too, become hot pot buddies. It's great! They even happen to tote along an entire anglerfish, so as not to let the typhoon deprive the anime of its main subject. The grander point is that while they might be goons, they aren't intrinsically bad guys. Under the right circumstances, even Hiro can break bread with them. This is simplistic but effective messaging, especially when taken in the context of the episode as a whole. The typhoon shows the power of a routine and what can happen when that routine is interrupted. Both Hiro and the loan sharks see different sides of each other. The world is always richer and more complicated than we assume.

Hana states the episode's other thesis when she describes the advantage of the FG knot Hiro has been studying. She's talking about fishing lines, but she's really talking about people—we are all stronger when tied together because that allows us to cover each other's weaknesses. It's a salient point, but it feels tacked onto an episode that's 95% shenanigans. Hiro's follow-up confession is more natural; he describes the satisfaction of fishing without putting too fine a point on it. It's not a pithy truism. He connects to the tactile sensations in and around their fishing trips together. These bright spots, in turn, light up the rest of the world around him. Healing isn't a straight and single path. It's a patchwork, and it's often haphazard. The more you keep at, the more those rough edges run into each other and smooth themselves out. It's just like the lure Takaaki shows Hiro. He lost a big catch, but the bite mark proved that he tried and almost got there. And he can try again next time.

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Negative Positive Angler is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Steve is on Bluesky now, and he's okay with that. Fish most certainly do not fear him. You can also catch him chatting about trash and treasure alike on This Week in Anime.