This episode featured a regular case again, and boy, was it a great one! Basically, a guy hears from his doctor that he only has a very limited time left to live, and he ends up spending time with a naive little girl. The creators did a wonderful job of bringing the guy and his anxieties to live. After all, it’s easy to think of what you would do if you only had a limited time to live, but what if this fantasy turns out to be a reality?
This episode still featured the standard Shigofumi-subtlety (that random truck, coming from out of nowhere). Little kids also usually turn very whiny during the evening, at the end of a day out, so where the little girl in this episode got her energy from is beyond me. Still, these details didn’t stop this episode from being a success. It lays an interesting parallel to the desire to fit into society. Look at how the policeman got surprised when he found out that the main character for this episode had no job (which he quit, because it had no point at all).
One thing that the creators did nail perfectly about little girls is their ignorance of death. At such a young age, it’s perfectly understandable that you don’t get why all the adults are getting so worked up about somebody dying. When the main character for this episode died, she didn’t even cry. She just realized that she’d never be able to play with the guy again.
Shigofumi on my watch list too. Not found time to watch it lately though orz.
I’ve been watching this aswell, although I normally wait for subs. I was expecting this episode to be the beginning of the last arc, although I suppose shigofumi doesn’t really prolong anything. Still sounds like a good episode but I guess I’ll find out for sure in a few days.
couple of notes
loved how we never got to see the eyes of many caracters except both fumikas,that really helped isolate the guy.
and then….that little girl was awsome,i checked to be sure but that was just a formality,i knew where that awsomeness came from:the voice actress is Akiko Yajima who did Pino in ergo proxy and kyoko in dennou coil.
That episode was surely a really good one. What Shigofumi lacks a little is a bit of that nostalgia/uncertainty of life and death which was the daily bread of Shinigami no Ballad.
This episode also reminded me of “Welcome to the NHK”(a sociological masterpiece of a series).