Wash It All Away

Episode 7

We are far enough into Wash It All Away that we have at last reached an episode where every moment feels like filler. It's an inevitable destination for shows like these. The average slice of life can only do so much before it churns out something that doubles down on its cozy monotony. I accept that, so long as said monotony still has something to keep my attention. The one thing this episode does have going for it, however, unimpressively lags.

After Kinme gives another one of her patented Ruri Rocks-esque lectures on stain removal to the young Naori and her friends, the kids convince Kinme to give social media the ol' college try. I mean, why not? Kinme's laundry business is apparently the talk of the block, so reaching out to others on Facebook and upping engagement, and therefore business, seems like the next logical step. Kinme's ditziness emerges once more, this time in a way that would Usagi Tsukino blush: Kinme doesn't know how to use the Internet! It's already rough that Kinme's an amnesiac, but now becoming more and more of a naive, clumsy girl also turns her into more and more of a cliche.

The majority of the episode has the kids take photos of Kinme, and then upload them to her business's Facebook. It more or less exists as an opportunity for the anime to throw in more fan service. Kinme tells the kids not to take photos of her face, so they take shots of everything else. The photos that Naori's squad takes aren't actually lewd at all–one totally wholesome picture has Kinme on the beach, back turned against the camera, as she throws up her hands in utter exuberance. Yet the photoshoots themselves have the audience gazing at as many leg and chest shots as possible. Wash It All Away has never been gun shy about its fan service, which, okay, I get there's a quota that needs to be met here. Nothing is spicy about said service, although it is off-putting when you use a group of children's harmless photography sessions as the proxy here. Aside from that, the whole social media bit exists without any real flair, and lasts maybe seven minutes longer than it should.

Kyusho randomly passes by Kinme's shop in the episode's final two moments, and when the two meet up, all of the ways that it could be more impactful are there. There's a bright sunset draping everything in a brilliant orange, and those twinkly pianos that have become a staple in this show's soundtrack come around to imply a moment of heartfelt intimacy. So what happens? The two talk about doing Kyusho's dirty laundry and....that's about it. Everything falls flat, and nothing is added to Kinme and Kyusho's relationship. I'll give the episode credit: at least the amnesia plotline isn't reinforced here to remind the audience that it still exists.

The music, which was such a highlight in the previous episode, was the biggest letdown in this week's episode. The pianos are still pleasant here, but only on the sonic level. Cinematically speaking, they don't do much to add emotion here, and just exist to go along with the melodrama. If the last episode was some of the best the anime had to offer us, then this episode served up some of the weakest. It's the perfect antithesis, in a weird, twisted way.

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Wash It All Away is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.