Eps 9
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This series has been getting progressively better, but it is definitely a slow burn. Even as it stands, it feels like one of PA Works most natural feeling series to date. There's less forced interpersonal drama than Hanasaku Iroha, it has a feel that you've gotten to know the characters and how they react in a subdued (for anime) manner that feels more like real people act around each other.

The conflict evolve in a very natural way, and though there's desperation for the main problem of Gama Gama closing at the end of the summer, nothing ever feels set up. It bubbles up the way normal life problems simply do.

So there's less of the staged feel across time that both Shirobako and Sakura Quest had. Things happened, but they happened because the series needed a low-stage crisis. Shirobako could hide it in the framework of anime productions having issues, but it was a bit of a damper on the "countryside tourism" central issue with Sakura Quest.

Haebaru showing up was a good example of how Aquatope has been doing it differently, more in line with Nagi no Asukara. It's been set up for some time that another aquarium, fancy and new, is opening in the city. So naturally, they want to train their employees at other aquariums. Enter Haebaru. Ambitious, hungry for experience, and gets shoved to the failing aquarium and is of course in immediately conflict with Kukuru. She adds a low-key antagonist for Kukuru to have a deep personality clash with, and both should grow from the eventual de-escalation, probably with Fuuka as a mediator, who also happens to have another personal issue that she's been avoiding for days now.

That visible clash pushes Fuuka to actually answer the phone, because she just saw a conflict brew from trying to avoid each other between Kukuru and Haebaru.

It all feels really natural and keeps me engaged because it feels realistic, even with the occasional supernatural shit happening alongside the character development.

Bonus seeing Ishikawa Yui playing an honest to goodness snarky bitch, and not an eternal saint or controlled cold stoic who occasionally cracks with rage.