Fall 2024 was filled with many amazing seasonal shows and each one of them blew me away, so much in fact I was actively looking to add shows I didn't think would be that good to my watch-list so I'd have something to get mad at for being bad(sometimes slop is fun),so I started watching a show about "fishing" of all things.
NegiPosi Angler, or Negative Positive Angler, wasn't the show I was looking for, it was so much more than I signed up for. Within the first 30 seconds this show is determined to ruin your perception of it as just another slice of life centered around a chosen topic, in this case fishing and a quirky little convenience store. What I thought was a cute, relaxing fishing show, immediately shifts to tackle themes of depression and tragedy, while unexpected, it creates one of the most compelling stories of the season through this story of healing.
Our Protagonist, Tsunehiro Sasaki, is in my opinion the perfect lead for a show like this,Tsunehiro is introduced to us as meek , awkward and tragically depressing character, this isn't remedied by the fact that because of all this he's not the most likable protagonist. I personally love him, ~~I think I relate to him a bit too much in fact~~ , but I've seen some people dislike him quite a bit and with good reason. He's frequently irresponsible, ungrateful and kind of a dick, I cant defend that but if your like me, you might see that as a good thing in a lead, and I think this part of him is a necessary evil for his growth as a character later in the season.
All the other characters are equally compelling, its an ensemble cast of quirky anglers , so if you don't vibe with Tsunehiro, I'm sure you'll love Takaaki,Hana and the rest. They're all endearing and funny in their own ways and work as the perfect foil to Tsunehiro depressing pessimism, despite its initial dark beginning this show is about joy and healing, which this cast executes flawlessly.
Visually, the show isn't anything to write home about for the most part, stylistically its unique enough to stand out enough from the other shows this year,I particularly like how the main trio are draw in a a uniform enough style to fit the shows style, but unique enough to make them give off their own unique vibe. The show looks good but not enough for me to praise it too much. It looks adequate with a lot of strange cgi fish and water effects,Im not a CGI enjoyer, but I'm not a total hater, I dont think its bad enough cgi to turn a viewer off but its enough to make you think "oof, thats cgi alright" whenever you see it. While for the most part the show looks good, not great, every now and again it does something phenomenal. The from beautiful sunset fishing trips to the night time lights of Tokyo, the show knows when it really needs to kick itself into gear visually and does that to make some stunning scenes, that i plan to add to my shuffling list of desktop wallpaper images.
If you're unconvinced and dont mind spoilers, I think there was a mutual shock when everyone saw this scene weekly
Spoiler, click to view
Something about this show spoke to me on a personal level, both in its soothing parts and its depressing part, its nice scenes work to put a smile on your face and hope you forget the inevitable dread of the future for Tsunehiro. Pacing-wise I think this worked very well for a time, there is an episode or two in the middle that did kind of feel like almost like filler, which is weird for a show like this that is at the end of the day a Iyashikei slice of life, I think having a looming topic or story line that you want to have slowly add tension and tease the audience with works well unless you spend too long building it up or stop adding to it in a meaningful way, even if that pause is only only for half an episode or so. That said, I don't think there is a bad episode to this show, just weaker parts that could have been better to meet the rest of the highs this show has.
If your looking for a slice of life but with something deeper to it and this show slipped through the cracks of your seasonal watchlist among Fall's heavy hitters like DandaDan,Bluebox and 1/2 of the new Re:Zero Season, I cant recommend this enough, its unbelievably underrated.