If you’re like me, the opening to Negative Positive Angler episode 1 probably caught you off guard. Usually, there’s a trigger warning for that kind of content. But Crunchyroll said, “Nope, not today.” And that probably put a lot of people in a forlorn mood. But the initial shock aside, I could not be more excited about that.
Negative Positive Angler Episode 1 — Episode Summary
When a show opens on a suicide attempt, it’s tempting to believe that they’re going for cheap shock value. But as the show starts, the insight into Tsunehiro Sasaki’s life paints a bleak picture. Massive loans, depression, and a terminal illness have robbed him of his future. When it all catches up to him, and loan sharks show up to collect his debt he bolts. But his escape attempt backfires, and he almost drowns. Luckily for him, a group of the most delinquent-looking anglers I’ve ever seen saves him. And unknown to him, they introduce him to something that will completely change his life: angling.
Initially, he finds little joy in what he’s being forced to do, but without an option to leave, he keeps at it. The show does quite an eloquent job of showing the awkwardness of someone casting a reel for the first time. It also perfectly captures the freak-out that novice anglers get when they catch something and refuse to touch it. But as the day wears on, he realizes there may be something to the pastime he’s trying. Yet, any semblance of peace shatters when he discovers he no longer has a home after the fishing trip concludes.
Negative Positive Angler Episode 1 — Episode Comments
Angling and anime are, without a doubt, the most loved things in my life. My room is decorated with waifu fishing art that my buddy @AdmiralReign illustrated for me. However, being a fishing junkie has its drawbacks. The biggest is that I’ll be nitpicking any fishing scenes I see in anime (or anywhere else). And while I’m forever grateful that shows like Breakwater Club and Slow Loop introduced droves of people to the world of angling, those shows didn’t thoroughly explain the gear they used, which is a huge disservice. Make no mistake, fishing is an expensive hobby, and sport fishing is a luxury. So all angling anime should do a better job explaining gear.
And I’m not the only person who thinks that. The most common complaint I hear from people who took up fishing because of anime is that they rushed to buy the gear they saw, only to find they couldn’t use it. Fishing gear is designed to meet specific requirements, so getting the wrong gear can severely limit what you can do. But it looks like that won’t be the case here. Hana mentions that she is handing Tsunehiro an 8’6″ medium rod. That rod is perfect for what they’re doing and it pairs well with the lure they’re using. That’s a huge green flag.
While I’ll dive deeper into gear and technique in the next episode, I want every potential angler to keep one key thing in mind: lure movement. That’s the most significant thing depicted in this episode. When Hiro moves his lure erratically, he gets more bites. You never want to retrieve your lure in a straight line; fish don’t move like that. I wish they had explained this in more detail. But since this is the first episode, I can’t be too critical. Likewise, I wish they would have explained the sea bass boil-up/foaming (fish-feeding frenzy) more. That’s an angler’s dream.
Art-wise, this show isn’t for me. If I wanted to see a bunch of hooligans gush over fish, I’d go fishing with my mates. I know the angling community isn’t renowned for its beauty, but Studio Nut could have made us look more attractive. Ice and Fujiro look like they’re on meth. Hana is the mirror image of my alleged drug dealer. Meanwhile, the more I look at Takaii, the more I see Matthew from Bama Beach Bum, but I don’t know why. The voice acting in the show is so far impressive, and I particularly love that they cast Fairouz Ai. Any show in which I can hear Hibiki gets my love.
Overall Comments
Trigger Warning: Suicide
Creating an anime based on a real-world hobby isn’t as simple as it may seem. You have to find the right balance between presenting it easily enough to interest new people and keeping veterans of the hobby invested. Asteroid in Love‘s Ao may have inspired professionals to name an asteroid after her, but fans complained that the show didn’t cover astronomy and geology in detail, and I share that sentiment. Other shows are guilty of that same faux pas. For all my love of Slow Loop, I’ll complain until I’m dead that the show failed to really go over line weight and how that relates to the reels/rods.
But it seems Studio Nut and Negative Positive Angler are out to properly depict angling. Plenty of people, myself included, enjoy this hobby because it offers a welcome escape from something. The most dedicated anglers are usually hiding some deep personal scars. Much like Hiro, my obsession with fishing stemmed from depression and suicidal thoughts. On the night when I decided that enough was enough and I’d be dining with Jesus come morning, I caught my first tarpon. And that moment so drastically changed the course of my life that the JP writing this and the JP before that are barely the same person.
Knowing what I now know about tarpon, the only way I can describe that moment is as a divine intervention. There’s no way a novice angler could fight a 150+ lb tarpon on a medium rod with a 12 lb line and no leader for as long as I did that night. I’ve been fishing for tarpon for ten years now, and with the sum of all my skills gained in that time, I couldn’t keep a 50lb tarpon on a 12lb line for more than a few minutes. I’m not a religious person, but that fish has become something holy for me.
I can’t say fishing solved all my problems, there are still a lot of bad days. But, nothing comes close to the peace that provides. And from the looks of Negative Positive Angler episode 1, we finally have a show that understands that. So anglers should definitely check this show out, and anyone who’s ever been curious about this hobby should too.
Screenshots: Crunchyroll
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