Shigofumi

I've had an interesting experience with Shigofumi. Particularly the thoughts I've had since finishing it and the actual experience of watching this series. I'd like to give some general thoughts and my point of view on the themes and other things I love about this series and hopefully get other people invested or think they want to try this series. I'll be writing this review with the assumption that you have read the synopsis, and this review will contain some spoilers.

Firstly I want to talk about the overarching theme of the anime, death. Each episode covers the lives of those close to someone who has died or will soon die. The overall story is very dark as it covers broad themes such as bullying, cancer, abuse, and most importantly to me love (we will get back to this soon). The first two episodes cover one story as an introduction to what to expect from the series, mostly the tone. The rest of the show is episodic focusing on Fumika delivering shigofumi to a new character each time with the mystery of who she is and why she is aging progressing in the background until we learn who she truly is and what is actually going on.

The characters of Shigofumi are largely less important than the story and themes. They do their job well in exploring the themes, however I think there are two in particular that are worth higher praise. Fumika is one of my favorite characters. She is a large part of why I enjoy this show. She comes off as distant and cold, is very dedicated to her job, and takes the delivery of shigofumi very seriously. The mystery surrounding her and her past is very engaging and the ending to her arc is very satisfying. Chiaki is one of the Fumika's coworkers. She is practically the opposite of Fumika in every aspect. She doesn't take her job seriously, she is much more expressive and energetic. Their interacts are very endearing and tend to be the more fun and lighthearted parts of the series.

When it comes to the theme of love there are many instances of love in this story. Characters that love someone romantically, self love, familial love, and many more kinds. There are a few episodes exemplify this theme well that I want to talk about. The first episode is about a boy, named Shouta Machiya, who is building a rocket to impress a girl he is in love with, Asuna Ayase. He receives a letter from the girl's dead father. The letter is addressed to Ayase's lover and he believes he shouldn't read it until he starts dating her.

Spoiler, click to viewclick to hide

The letter is accidentally left behind where Shouta reads it and finds out that Ayase killed her father. At the end of the first episode he is killed by her and in episode two it is revealed that she did it all to protect her younger sister and give her a better life. The first examples of familial love as well as romantic.

In episode 4 Fumika delivers a shigofumi to a tennis player named Ran. The letter is from her mother who left her at a young age. She refuses the letter out of hatred for her mother, but Fumika persists and she eventually accepts the letter.

Spoiler, click to viewclick to hide

Ran hurts her ankle while running and is forced to stay in the dorms to recover. A fire breaks out in the dorm and she nearly dies in it. Afterwards Ran decides to read the letter from her mother, and finds out that she came to all of her tennis matches despite leaving her as a child.

In episode 7 and 8 when things are starting to be revealed we get an example of self love and how it manifests within Fumika.

Spoiler, click to viewclick to hide

Fumika is actually a second personality known as Mika. She is created because of how Kirameki abuses his daughter Fumika, or as Mika refers to her Fumi. Kirameki attempts to kill Fumi, but Mika takes over and shoots him to protect her. Due to this Fumi is put into a coma thinking she's the one who shot her father and Mika is effectively dead and becomes a mail carrier as she waits for Fumi to wake up. Mika loves Fumi and protects her from her father due to that love.

There are many more examples of love within shigofumi, but I want to leave some mystery to it and hopefully you can find the happy and heartfelt side of this dark series.

I had a lot of fun watching this series, but even more thinking about it whenever it was over. It has stuck with me ever since and will likely remain one of my favorites for a long time. It isn't perfect, or ground breaking. What it is tho is a great story with a satisfying ending well worth your time. If you read this I hope you enjoyed, or have an interest in trying out this series.