Draw This, Then Die!

Episode 8

This week's episode is all about finding those sparks of creativity. The episode starts with Miss Teshima resigning herself to the idea that she can't come up with any new creative ideas for manga, and it's when that well dried up that she finally decides to get her teaching license. I love the way that the episode both opens and literally bookends with Teshima at the same spot at her desk in front of a blank book. She is at two very different points in her life, yet she is still struggling with the same issue: she doesn't seem to know what to write about, or she doesn't know how to spark the inspiration to create. I'm assuming that there was some time that passed between her declaring that she was going to take Hebichika down and when she made this decision, as it even seems to catch Teramura off guard a little bit, though I like the fact that Teramura never really gave up on the idea that Teshima would eventually go back to writing manga. I want to see their friendship explored more, and I can see that being the next major thing that gets covered in upcoming flashbacks.

One of the best things that the show has done was framing a lot of the current-day events through the lens of Teshima's past trauma, establishing her as arguably more of a main character than Yasumi. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, but I would like to see Yasumi take center stage a bit more, even if her endeavors end up fueling that creative spark that Teshima is desperately missing. The rest of this episode is a step in the right direction, being about the girls just going on a field trip to find sources of inspiration in their surroundings. This is a very real and practical lesson that can apply to any creative field. If you're ever feeling burned out or if you're ever feeling at a loss for what to write or draw about, just go outside and touch some grass! There is literally inspiration all around us. It can come from another story, or your literal backyard.

I liked visiting all of these specific locations with the girls throughout the episode and seeing what creative ideas get built up by the different locations. From an outsider viewpoint, what they were doing was relatively mundane, but when their trip was done, they had crafted an entire fantasy story about giants interacting with the very land they were watching. I want to read that manga they were describing, and seeing them so excited about that is enough to make me want to create or go outside myself. This is when the show is at its best, perfectly pacing out the creative modern-day development with the personal struggles of the individual characters.

The fact that everything was building up to that moment where Teshima opened the book that she had passed onto Yasumi was perfect. Her finding it filled with not just a hundred but practically a thousand different creative ideas or reasons to write manga honestly brought a tear to my eye. It's both uplifting but also a little bit sad because, in a lot of ways, Yasumi is showcasing exactly what Teshima was missing as a creator, and I think she knows that deep down. Seeing her also get overwhelmed with emotion from the situation shows that deep down, Teshima still cares, even if she keeps insisting that she only wants her students to do this as a hobby. I know that there's no way that spark is completely gone, even if Teshima isn't quite ready to take that step back into that harrowing field considering how borderline traumatic it probably was for her. It's episodes like this that can hit on a multitude of levels, for the story, for the characters, and for the audience watching. So far, this is as perfect an episode as the show has delivered since it started airing.

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Draw This, Then Die! is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.