Hundred Scenes of AWAJIMA ‒ Episode 7

©志村貴子・太田出版／淡島百景製作委員会

I love the journey that Takako Shimura takes us on this week. It's one of Awajima's more straightforward narratives, only involving the same three students across two main periods of time. However, within that structure, we find a nested set of revelations that recontextualizes our prior assumptions, told always with a great degree of nuance and emotional honesty. In fact, simplifying the shape of the story allows the writing more time to really probe at the complicated feelings dwelling within these women's hearts. And that, in turn, adds a new facet to our understanding of Awajima as an institution.

We must begin with Saori's point of view. When she falls ill and has her role filled by Mikako, her mind immediately turns to Mikako's bouts with illness. Tellingly, she remembers Mikako powering through and performing anyway, even though she eventually quits due to her health. In this moment, Saori silently scolds herself for not being able to “suck it up” as Mikako had back when they were in school. That's a cinematic moment. It's a human being triumphing over adversity. That's the standard we're all beholden to, right?

Obviously, real life isn't that simple. We later learn that Mikako's decision to step away from the theater granted Saori her first big break as “Yuuki Kaburagi” (her stage name), setting her up for her current level of success. If Saori truly respected and admired Mikako's strength, then it's logical to conclude that she would have wanted her to continue acting. However, in that world, Saori may never have made it as an actor, or she might have become a less successful one. This space only allows a certain number of people at the top. It's a cutthroat game, and you need to be cutthroat to play it. Therefore, in front of Kayo, Saori accepts her current bed-bound fate with a wry and self-deprecating acquiescence. This is the cosmic balance sheet at work. Mikako “deserves” to replace her. It's payback.

When we switch to Mikako's point of view, the situation looks much different. Mikako has a chronic illness in a society that takes little action to accommodate her, let alone perceive her. To me, that last part is most important. This is not unilaterally true for all the people in her life, but Mikako grows up on a planet that expects her to power through and be normal, because the alternative is being a strange burden that nobody wants to acknowledge. Although her mother loves her and seems to do everything she can to support her daughter and her dreams, she still finds herself apologizing that she “couldn't give birth to [her] as a healthier girl.” That's one of the saddest lines in the series to date. But in the absence of society banding together to make life easier for everyone, people assume individual responsibilities for both themselves and others.

Mikako grows up hyper-aware of all of this. Children are perceptive, so Mikako learns to read the subtext behind her mom's actions, after which she modifies her own behavior so she doesn't worry her. To be clear, this isn't all bad. Lies and half-truths are fundamental building blocks in all human interactions. Having a goal to focus on can have a measurable impact on one's recovery. Rivalries spur people to keep going and keep improving. The problem, however, lies in the physical realities of our bodies. These are not perfect, holy vessels. They break down. They require maintenance. They perform wildly differently from one model to the next. Each of us possesses only limited control over what our bodies do. We cannot will ourselves out of an ailment. Healing is often an agonizingly long process that rarely guarantees a “full” recovery. How do we square these facts against a world that demands constant attention, constant labor, and constant conformity?

My one major complaint about this episode is that I would have preferred more specificity in Mikako's ailment. As is, the story works as another character study, but it's a missed opportunity to delve deeper into the systemic problems in Awajima and the wider world. Chronic illnesses and disabilities affect too many people to count, yet the resources put in place to help rarely do so adequately. Unfortunately, it's also an easy problem to sweep under the rug because it doesn't impact “normal” people (ignoring, of course, the fact that even the fittest of us is a single car accident away from needing those resources). Shimura could have followed that thread further without sacrificing this episode's focus.

I love to see open and honest interrogations of messy feelings, and this week, shame is under Awajima's microscope. Nobody in this story did anything wrong. Life happens sometimes. Nevertheless, Saori, Kayo, and Mikako all feel like they betrayed one another. And regardless, the truth is irrelevant at this point, because the feeling that truly fragments their relationship is shame. Mikako doesn't want other people to concern themselves with her health. Saori doesn't want to think about the potential opportunities she “stole” from Mikako. Kayo doesn't want to think back on how she quit acting on her own volition. Each of them is ashamed of something, and it pulls them away from each other. Naturally, what finally mends their relationship is Mikako and Saori voicing some of these dark feelings out loud in each other's company. Their situations may not be identical, but they've both been on that hospital bed. They understand it—the ugliness and the beauty.

Awajima puts too pretty a bow on this saga with the double-casting of Saori and Mikako together in the same production in the end. That feels a tad too precious to me. This story should have ended on Saori and Mikako venting their ugly emotions to each other, because that's the real catharsis. Still, that's a small nitpick in another excellent episode about flawed characters surviving Awajima's halls.

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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.