Slow Loop

Episodes 6-7

Episode 6, “Difficult Is Fun” may not immediately feel fresh, but as the middle of this cour, it hits just right. We're soundly in summer with Hiyori and Koharu, which means sweltering heat and… more fishing! I mean, what else did you expect? Still, I remember how brutal Japan's high humidity summers were, so my heart goes out to these step-sisters as they look towards their next catch: that being the tropical Dorado, or the Dolphin Fish or… Mahi-Mahi. But really, that's not what this episode is actually about. It's really an episode revisiting grief and memories while also getting some real big fish.

It all starts when Koi's father gives Hiyori a fishing rod meant for her dad. It's a small thing, to a degree: it's an unused rod that never got to get a kiss of the sea, and now… now it'll catch some mahi-mahi. It's a small, sweet, poignant moment: while Hiyori has largely grieved the absence of her father in previous episodes -and prior to the series even- there's a lot of emotion packed in her using her fathers rod.

Of course, this isn't the sum total of the episode: most of episode 6 is cute girls fishing, which is exactly what I like about Slow Loop. Oh, and flying fish, which are beautifully animated, but terrify me nonetheless. Still, this isn't everything because well… grief is funny like that. You might be weeping over the ghost of a smell one moment, and laughing about using a fishing rod the next: this episode is soundly a laughing episode, giving Hiyori the space to breathe while she reels in a haul. (Or…doesn't. But that's okay.)

All of this melds together into a really good episode that dovetails well into episode 7, “Wedding”, an episode that shifts back to Futaba for yet another moment of introspection. It's also a summer vacation episode, which feels fitting in a laid back series like this. It's funny right from the start, building up to the real meat of this episode: Futaba's ongoing struggle with liking fishing but being a girl.

Girlhood is… hard. As someone raised feminine, I distinctly remember hitting a wall where liking what I liked—at Futaba's age, Hot Wheels and books—marked me as non-feminine. It was the same time when playing with boys became taboo: I was covered in cooties, was filled with femininity and that meant I needed to get in line and express myself properly. Granted, I now identify as a non-binary butch feminist, so… I mean, turns out I wasn't a woman nor feminine, but when it mattered it hurt to stand out and not know where I stood with my friends. I think that's why Futaba's arc to express her love of fishing to best friend Ichika aiko hits so hard and feels really good.

It's not grandiose: a lot of Futaba's arc is her just spending time with Ichika and helping her understand fishing. It's her using her knowledge of how to fish to help Ichika catch her first fish. It's especially Futaba being incredibly patient with aiko when she gets icked out by the fish flip-flopping all around. And it's definitely aiko reassuring Futaba that she can do whatever she wants, including things that aiko doesn't like, and that it won't do anything to their friendship.

And just like episode 6, there's a lot of things I'm not talking about: namely that this episode isn't about an actual wedding, but about Hiyori and Koharu's parent's not having a wedding and them wanting to celebrate two people they love. It's brief, sweet, and wraps up the episode with the pleasant reminder that for all intents and purposes, Hiyori and Koharu skipped any sister strife and are just really happy as step sisters who love their parents.

Slow Loop's bread and butter are moments like this: moments of grieving a memory, moments of breaking bread (or fileting fish), and certainly moments of joy. It's what elevates an otherwise B-ish show to being in A-territory. I really hope that this is what we get treated to now that Slow Loop is soundly in the back half of its cour: lots of little moments and eventually… Hiyori catching a tuna, maybe even with her father's fishing rod.

There's something so breathtakingly lovely about Slow Loop. By and large, it's… rather ordinary: this is just a peek into the lives of a bunch of girls in the countryside. And yet week to week, I can't stop thinking about it. Episode 6 and 7 really exemplify just what makes it unforgettable: little moments that feel intimately human and celebrate the mundane things in life, making even the small moments feel magnificently larger than life in all the right ways.

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Slow Loop is currently streaming on Funimation.

Mercedez is a JP-EN translation and localization Editor & Proofreader/QA, pop culture critic, and a journalist who, when not writing for ANN, writes for Anime Feminist, where she's a staff editor. She's also a frequent cohost on the Anime Feminist Podcast, Chatty AF. This season, she's reflecting on her youth with Akebi's Sailor Uniform. When she's not writing and reviewing, you can find her on her Twitter or on her Instagram where she's always up to something.