Hello everyone, and welcome back to Mistake Every Time. Today, I look out onto a gloomy late spring day and wonder whether my plans for an afternoon jog will fit into my currently rain-soaked neighborhood. So my thirst for community connection can only be satisfied in one way: through a new episode of City Animation, where the sun is always shining and the streets are always bustling with meaningless activities.
Our final episode proved to be another highlight of this remarkable season, dedicated entirely to Community’s downtown race and culminating in a ridiculously extended montage that took us from the last contender all the way to Matsuri and Eri’s dramatic victory. We also spent some time advancing our key personal narratives, exploring middle schoolers’ feelings about their impending separation, as well as Arakura’s evolving feelings for her one-time idol Nagumo. This is the last thread I’m most interested in seeing explored further; it seems like Arikura gives Nagumo an importance that Nagumo can’t really sustain on his own, and I’m curious to see how Arikura ultimately deals with the fact that Nagumo is clearly as lost in adulthood as she is. Anyway, I’m sure all kinds of unexpected fun are waiting, so let’s get back to the city right away!
Episode 10
We drove down the street, looking directly at Western Makabe, next to neighboring buildings and the presumed family home above. I know it’s become a meme now, but seriously, this kind of mixed-use urban design is one of the best ways to make a downtown feel like a real community. Japan’s overarching policy of allowing apartment owners to run businesses on the ground floor naturally blends the boundaries of public and private space, while also facilitating a large number of small businesses that would otherwise not be economically viable. There’s no magic secret to creating such communities, we just don’t have the political will to do so
Of course, it also helps not to live in a car-based society, where everyone is so isolated and traveling on foot is so inconvenient that there’s no real incentive to combine private and public spaces like this. America has successfully designed society to promote maximum isolation and distrust
As patrons were listening to a summer baseball tournament, we chimed in and an old man lamented that he couldn’t relive the action-packed summer vacations he experienced as a kid.
I love that his reverie’s background art design is actually more detailed than the show’s usual aesthetic, emphasizing that the world feels richer and more inviting in memory (life was also in 3:4 at the time)
“When the world was big, there was only the present and the future.” As he reflected on his summer experience, some of the serendipitous moments were painfully observed. It’s a powerful attraction that’s well reflected in animated productions such as Strictly Come Dancing and Rainbow Fireflies
“Let’s reminisce about these memories now! We’re closed for the summer!” Makabe Senior is of course always up for any adventure
Our middle school duo stopped by, prompting Makabe to propose a summer challenge. You can’t force yourself to have valuable summer experiences, they have to happen naturally! At least, I’m pretty sure that’s what Endless Eight is about
We cut back to Nagumo’s place, and not surprisingly, she’s hanging out there after Makabe was closed for the summer
The pretty and resilient character who plays Arakura urges her to make money through the video series
The small, somewhat muffled details in the sound design when Nagumo speaks into their shoddy camera are welcome. KyoAni is truly an expert at creating film-within-a-film sequences that intentionally look amateurish, as evidenced emphatically in both Hyouka and Haruhi.
“Today I’m going to let my right and left hands play rock, paper, scissors to see which hand of mine is stronger.” Top-notch content that anyone is willing to pay for
“We won’t make money from crappy videos like this”
Arikura seems to have essentially taken it upon herself to provide all the zest for life she once found in Nagumo
My lord, this is a ridiculous “transformation sequence” where Arakura dresses Nagumo in a skirt, an inner tube, and a fox costume. You might be creating a product that only you will buy, Niikura
What I love is that even with all these silly gimmicks they added, they still made sure the core concept of “my hands play rock paper scissors against each other” is dynamite
Later, Nagumo is drafted to deliver soba noodles at Arakura’s request, still wearing her fox costume. A perfect variation on the classic “scramble so fast you just spin your legs into position” cartoon hilarity, here it’s shot from the front instead of the side, which actually creates an incredibly fluid feat of animation. Count on this team to transform what was once used as comic animation shorthand into luxurious animated scenes
The soba tempura was stolen by the rabbit cat, and the rabbit was snatched by the thief. I wonder what set up this trusty thief design, with one sheet tied to cover the face and another over the shoulder used as a pouch for stolen goods? You can see it everywhere in anime
We then headed to the theater to watch another show by the Tekaridake troupe, this one apparently centered around a sulking echidna
The performance ultimately echoes the episode’s obvious focus – Nagumo’s quest for any money she can find after Makabe’s restaurant closes
In classic everyday form, the entire show is a long build-up to a silly anti-climax, with the title “Self-Esteem” actually being the name of a character (who, of course, doesn’t appear until after intermission)
Oh my god, our love-struck Makabe brother is still walking around in the same hideous haute couture outfit he wore when dating Izumi
He’s accosted by an old man named Soun Arashima, who is apparently the second member of Izumi’s fan club
Makabe asked a passing policeman for help, but learned that the policeman was actually the third member of Izumi Fan Club.
Of course, he was soon challenged by fan club member number four, the paint shop’s Stone Hammer. Did you think it would be that easy, Mabe! ?
All this crap pays off nicely, with a dramatic deep amplification of Izumi, ending with the anti-climax of her quickly denying his feelings. A common and effective KyoAni trick: applying incredibly ambitious feats of animation to the simplest of gags, creating an extra sense of surreal comedy through the mismatch of form and content. Poor Makabe’s voice acting is also great, not only does he respond with a hilarious breakdown, but he actually seems to be breaking down so badly that he’s actively digging into the ground, complete with weird foaming at the mouth sounds
“Does being rejected… count as Guinness!?” I love Keiichi Arawi’s hilarious style of emphasizing esoteric concepts (like the best band names or the meaning of bread or whatnot) to the point where they no longer seem to have any stable, coherent meaning. He’s very good at starting with a mundane subject, building it into absurdism, and then taking the resulting ridiculous setup extremely seriously – like the frame of “Hospitality” in the Manor episode
I love the silent joke that “genius” Adatra is also stuck here doing her makeup exam. I think they are all paying the price for trying Izumi’s defense during the last exam
“Guinness World Records are not snacks!” See, this sentence just keeps getting divorced from its origins until it acquires its own sketchy meaning.
The scene is a rather unique anti-climax, as their quest for a catchphrase worth recording ends with a whimper, and we learn that the baseball team won Koshien at the same time. But hey, it’s the nature of summer to feel like you’re missing out on someone else’s iconic summer vacation!
Oh, very nice simulated sunshine as we checked out our senior trio one last time
As they try to fight off the typhoon to enjoy the beach, they suffer a series of horrific failures. I especially love the enthusiastic animation of their beards shaking in the storm
We end with an incredible next episode of extended comedy, with Tachibuki taking us on an entire bonus season adventure with him and Izumi
Finish
Ah, the joys of summer and youth! While we’re treated to a variety of skits this episode, the continued emphasis on the fleeting, irreplaceable treasures of summer vacation creates a solid emotional thread, a sense of nostalgia and a desire to live in the present that actually seems to characterize CITY more generally, as expressed by its cult OP and summer-inducing ED. The most beautiful things in life are often fleeting, but as The City’s various heroes prove, as long as we keep getting out and connecting with the world around us, we can find new sources of joy and new forms of companionship at any stage of life. We can’t all live in an idyllic city center like here, but we can all enjoy the sunshine, share waves of goodwill with our neighbors, and generally seek the good in the world.
This article is crazyReader support is possible. Thank you everyone for everything.