Anime original by Studio NUT
Streaming on Crunchyroll

Premise

Tsunehiro’s life has fallen apart, culminating in news from his doctor that he only has two years left to live. After accidentally falling off a bridge, he is rescued by a group of rogue fishermen (gender neutral) who force him to chill and try some fishing.

Jel’s verdict: Disappointing Catch

The main problem with this first episode is that it failed to get me to care about the main character. It is revealed Tsunehiro (or just Hiro as they later call him) was already in debt and miserable BEFORE he found out he was dying, and we are given no further explanation or context for how he got here. From what we DO see, it appears Hiro ruined his own life by laying around playing pachinko, wallowing in self pity, and blaming his problems on everyone else but himself. That’s a hard character root for. I suspect we will get more of his backstory revealed which may make him more sympathetic, but until that happens, I don’t like this guy.

Then we get to his involvement with the fishing group, which just felt… weird, maybe forced? They just pluck him out of the water and hey, we’re fishing now, doesn’t this soothe your soul? It all feels random and maybe too silly to the point where none of the emotional beats land. Throw in the cartoonish debt collectors who are just as improbable as a convenience store fishing commune, and it’s hard to take any of it seriously. It would work better if this was a straight up comedy, but it’s clearly meant to have some emotional weight to it. I wasn’t getting any of that in this episode.

For some context that may help explain what I’m talking about, the director of Negative Positive Angler started his career at GAINAX and directed two of the FLCL sequels. It definitely shows. I couldn’t help but think the directing was trying to emulate the style of GAINAX-era Kazuya Tsurumaki. Tsurumaki is a master of this blend of absurdity and emotional weight they seem to be going for. However, like the FLCL sequels, they only have the visual alphabet of Tsurumaki and don’t know how to form the words and grammar. It’s hard to explain in writing, just watch it and you’ll feel what I’m talking about.

I’m disappointed with this first episode because the premise has a lot of potential and there is an impressive amount of technical skill behind it. But, at least for now, it seems the writing and directing have failed to put it all together. Learning more about Hiro and seeing him heal and grow as a person could go a long way to fix my issues, IF done correctly. And so despite all the negative things I said, I do think there’s a chance they could pull it together. It’s a slim chance, but enough I might be willing to give it the ol’ three episode test and see what happens.