Rinshi!! Ekoda-chan ep9 – Mini review with Matt (thunder!)

Guys Matt’s still here! Don’t scare him off, I need him!

Hi Matt, thanks for continuing our quick fire review series! Hi Irina, thanks to you too! (Look at us, being all thankful and everything).

As soon as this week’s Ekoda-chan started I thought to myself “Oh wow, this looks a like an anime”. I’d gotten so use to the unusual and striking art style that something more traditional was almost distracting. I liked it though. I guess it felt comfortably familiar! It’s a bit sad that I find myself preferring the more traditional looking episodes, I thought I had odd tastes but turns out I’m just a normie like everyone else!

I must say, working for an insurance claim company must be pure hell. Just thinking about it made me feel bad for Ekoda-chan. I like the fact that in the earlier episodes we didn’t even realise this was a part of her life, sure we knew she had odd jobs but I thought she was mostly a night-owl with jobs at hostess bars. Plus I like the progression we’ve had, they hinted that she worked as a call-operator for an insurance firm in the previous three episodes, so to actually see it was a lot of fun.

I think this little bite size of weirdness and mundane annoyance was such a great illustration of modern office work. I could viscerally connect with the experience so much I almost went to get a coffee. Have you ever had an office job Matt? I’ve never had an office job, but I must admit I’ve kinda wanted one, they seem like such curious environments to work in. The irlwaifu however had worked in an almost identical job to Ekoda for the past 6+ years and so she could absolutely relate to this episode.

I didn’t quite understand why everyone freaked out at the lightening. I figured they were all so bored that anything creates a huge overreaction just for distraction purposes… It was kinda cute the way everyone acted the way I remember me and I fellow classmates reacting whenever a big storm hit the school. I know some adults who are still terrified of thunder so that could be a part of it. Though it did kind of feel a bit unrealistic, I usually consider the Japanese to be very composed, but maybe thunderstorms in big cities while working in a skyscraper are legitimately scary?

Even though in a way this was the least personal episode, I think it actually added a very interesting and missing layer to Ekoda-chan’s character. The humdrum day to day where you just sort of go about your life and nothing special really happens. Where you’re just basically neutral. Cause that’s really who we are 80 of the time, but no one ever shows or remembers that cause it’s boring. To me however, it made Ekoda seem a lot more “real”. Seeing Ekoda like this was really endearing, which might sound like an odd thing to say considering this is probably her at her least “real” that is to say she’s putting on her act of normalcy to her customers and co-workers. But like you said, that’s how we live a lot of our life and to see someone as open and free-spirited as Ekoda living a life that looks so familiar and ‘safe’ was a treat.

So Matt, any closing thoughts? I feel like I’ll need to marathon all these episodes once the season is over because every week I feel like calling each new episode my new favourite and I don’t know if it’s just because we get something shiny and new to look at or if it’s just the gradual culmination of Ekoda’s life and world getting revealed to us that makes every new episode feel that much better.