Negative Positive Angler

Episodes 1-3

I've never gone fishing. I haven't even stepped into one of those arcade simulators. It is, naturally, my favorite perennial JRPG pastime, but other than that, I have no experience with or connection to the sport/game/activity/hobby. Despite this, a fishing anime is becoming my favorite show of the season. Negative Positive Angler has me hooked.

One of the best ways to bait my interest is with strong characters, and this story is full of them. Front and center is Tsunehiro, and I love how much of a loser he is. When we meet him he's swamped with debt, avoiding university, throwing away his few funds on pachinko, running from loan sharks, and recently diagnosed with cancer. And it's not like he faces these obstacles with conviction. We meet Hiro in the middle of a failed suicide attempt, and the premiere ends with him being shocked to find his apartment complex demolished. He's given up on life, and life certainly seems to have given up on him as well.

Of course, we can expect Hiro to find a new lease on his remaining morsel of life thanks to his newfound fishing friends, and the show has executed that narrative quite effectively so far. But I think it's important that our protagonist sucks and keeps getting proverbially spat on. He's more compelling that way! Compared to him, I've lived a charmed life, but I can relate to his misery and hopelessness. I recognize his quickness to wallow. He feels like a real guy. The narrative sympathizes with his plight and doesn't shy away from dunking on his patheticness. It might be more accurate to say the narrative treats him with a refreshing neutrality. He's like a protagonist in a Steely Dan song—a loser with a magnetic and layered interiority.

This full portrait of Hiro makes the premiere's opening moments work for me. It's reasonable for audiences to be put off by a jokey take on a suicide attempt, especially one that kicks off an earnest journey toward mental recovery. But taken as part of the big picture, the juxtaposition of cartoony slapstick against a serious subject sets the tone for NegaPosi Angler. It's a precarious tightrope to walk, to be sure, but the writing, acting, and animation all come together to balance the comedy and drama with surprising deftness. I'd encourage sticking through the next two episodes even if you were put off by the premiere. NegaPosi Angler is charming and has a good heart. It's also not afraid to yank your chain (or fishing line).

As far as the fishing part goes, it serves as an evolving metaphor for Hiro's troubles, a means for him to find a community of friends who care about him. It is a concrete subject the story is interested in. I can't help but draw comparisons to the similarly excellent tsuritama. The drowning scene in the first episode is particularly reminiscent of visuals tsuritama used to depict its main character's anxiety. NegaPosi Angler, however, is more grounded in its storytelling (I don't expect to find aliens or sentient ducks here), and that also comes through in its fishing tutorials. Hana and Takaaki's explanations sound accurately catered to newbs, and I think I might be learning stuff. Hiro benefits from the protagonist's luck. In the context of his life, this demonstrates the capriciousness of luck. He has cancer, but he can catch a mean sea bass. That's how the cookie crumbles sometimes.

Additionally, this is a pretty great-looking anime so far. Hiromi Taniguchi's character designs are some of the best of the season; everyone is unique and instantly recognizable, and I love their varied degrees of cartoonishness. They fit the tonal ebb and flow of the series perfectly, as does Yutaka Uemura's direction. I was unsurprised to learn he also directed Punch Line, which I hold to be one of the more underrated (and weird) series from the past decade. The storyboards have been especially nice, smartly using dynamic angles and close-ups to communicate the emotions of these characters. The second episode, for instance, has a fun sequence that homes in on Hana's legs to emphasize her intensity as she stomps up to confront Hiro. Touches like that add a ton of personality and prevent the show from turning into a talking heads drama. I hope the production can keep that up.

If it sounds like I'm gushing, that's because I am. NegaPosi Angler is an anime aimed squarely at my strike zone. It's a down-to-earth story with just enough eccentricity sprinkled to stop it from turning staid. It's an original story. It's directed by someone who knows what they're doing. I like every character, including the loan sharks. I love the guitar-forward soundtrack. I'm excited by the throuple potential between Hiro, Hana, and Takaaki. I want to learn everything about Ice and her style. This is a huge win for sophisticated enjoyers of quirky character dramas. I don't care if I already used the same fishing pun in my opening paragraph—I'm hooked.

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Negative Positive Angler is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Steve is on Twitter while it lasts. Fish most certainly do not fear him. You can also catch him chatting about trash and treasure alike on This Week in Anime.