Hundred Scenes of AWAJIMA

Episodes 8 and 9

It's time to consult the chart again, because there's a brand new generation of Awajima students on the loose. Kinue is still breaking hearts, this time under her stage name Akira, while her middle school theater paramour Ryouko is married with a niece who could not be more excited about her proximity to the school and its royalty. There's a bittersweet yuri flavor here between both the distance and connection that Kinue and Ryouko share. I also taste the bittersweetness of adulthood, when friendly correspondences are fewer and farther between, yet no less appreciated due to the onslaught of grown-up responsibilities. It's no small feat to keep a relationship going that long, and Kinue and Ryouko seem like they're comfortable where they are.

This and last week's episodes are not about sad adults, however. They're about exuberant youths in their first year at Awajima, and more specifically, they're about how that exuberance brushes against Awajima. The last part of the ninth episode summarizes the situation well, as Wakana muses on the dynamics between underclassmen, between upperclassmen, and between both groups. Well before anybody's individual personalities come into play, the students find themselves beholden to the academy's ingrained norms, which reinforce and are reinforced by the broader cultural norms (i.e., the senpai-kouhai power differential). Sara is the wide-eyed new girl enamored with the Awajima in her head, while Koshimizu is the reserved senior whose years of experience have jaded her. In other words, some roles and players fill them. What could be more familiar to these girls?

Eri adheres to this mindset more than most, as she places particular emphasis on people's names as portents and manifestations of their lives. There's a lot of kanji talk, which I lack the linguistic know-how to fully break down, but the gist is that Japanese has thousands of kanji and far fewer (by multiple orders of magnitude) phonemes, so there are a lot of overlapping pronunciations, especially when you consider that most kanji have multiple possible pronunciations. Thus, two names can sound the same yet be spelled with entirely different kanji. Eri, who feels insecure about herself and abandoned by her friends, can still conjure a connection to them by imagining her name as a combination of theirs. By the same token, however, the existence of stage names implies a degree of self-determination, not only predestination, at play in Awajima. Eri doesn't have to anchor herself to her past. She can choose a new name. She can be somebody else.

Shizuka also finds herself reflecting on new beginnings and people's duplicity. As critical as the show is about Awajima, the narrative does not focus on that to the exclusion of the bigger picture. Shizuka saw plenty of gossip, backstabbing, and other kinds of bullying at her previous school. Kanon's connection to a scriptwriter made her useful to her peers, but that only made their relationship transactional instead of equal. Shizuka, for her part, did not partake in the bullying, yet she did nothing to stop it either. We've seen this same sentiment in previous Awajima generations—”good” people who keep their noses out of unsavory activities. Here, however, we see progress in Shizuka's ultimate decision to step in and speak up. It cost her the social group she had previously “enjoyed,” and it probably didn't stop Kanon's woes, but it forged a lasting bond between the two of them. Shizuka took the more difficult road, and it led her to Awajima, where her fortitude might continue to serve her and others.

The ideas of roads and generational progress pop up again in the ninth episode. Ibuki is still trapped in Awajima, but in a macabre way, her hospital stay is an encouraging reminder that she can exist outside the academy. Her proximity to Awajima also allows her a bird's-eye view of how the academy has changed over the years, as she intimates to Wakana how the younger generations, despite their own unique troubles, are closer-knit than hers at that age. Progress is always slow, yet it is worthwhile nevertheless. Eri doesn't make up with her old friends right away, but that doesn't prevent either party from gradually mending those wounds.

Meanwhile, as an upperclassman, Wakana finds herself paired with Akiho, who seems far more composed and prepared for an actor's education and career. Akiho had believed she enjoyed the privilege of having her path set for her. As the daughter of two successful actors, she was going to follow in their footsteps. They trained her on how to deal with an interviewer. Even now, she thinks of her life in terms of answers and anecdotes she can relay in front of an audience, in a way that will endear them to her. It's a part of her brain she cannot turn off. However, her parents' scandal rips the road out from under her. It forces her to think about her past and future through a more critical lens—one that perceives her parents' loveless marriage and its consequences. It's a scarier way to walk through life, yet it provides Akiho with opportunities too. Wakana helps Akiho see that she can be her own person, as flawed and uncomposed as she might be.

I appreciate that both episodes eight and nine largely focus on the new class. It can be difficult to find Awajima's emotional footholds when it flits from vignette to vignette, so Sara, Eri, and Shizuka provide an anchor for the audience. However, the series' best asset for connecting with its viewers remains the strong group of artists behind the scenes. A rote adaptation of Shimura's adaptation likely would have been fine, but it is made excellent through the extra flair and attention paid to the shapes of these students' stories. Here, Gin-san returns to storyboard the eighth episode, and while it is not the holistic emotional assault that the third episode was, it balances the brightness and darkness of the varying narratives well. Atsuko Ishizuka then makes her comeback in the ninth episode, drawing us into the otherworldly spectacle of a performance in between the grounded dramas around Wakana and Akiho. I am tickled to see Yuniko Ayana continue to contribute as well, since Awajima is clearly in her yuri wheelhouse.

More so than most offerings this season, Awajima demands the full attention of its audience for its muted emotional payoffs. I think that's why it isn't too popular, but I also think that's why it's worth your time.

Episode 8 Rating:

Episode 9 Rating:

Hundred Scenes of AWAJIMA is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Sylvia is on Bluesky for all of your posting needs. In high school, you could catch her in the pit orchestra, but never on stage. You can also catch her chatting about trash and treasure alike on This Week in Anime.