Negative Positive Angler Episode 11 — Not What It Could Be

Negative Positive Angler episode 11 seemingly confirmed that the series won’t live up to what I expected — or rather, it won’t live up to my expectations for Hiro’s journey. There were a few entertaining moments scattered throughout the episode. However, it’s difficult to ignore the feeling that the central plot has become secondary.

Negative Positive Angler Episode 11 Summary

When Hiro takes over Takaaki’s shift at Everymart, everyone realizes that something’s up. However, what that something isn’t revealed to them. Yet, that doesn’t stop the crew from speculating and trying to remedy the situation. Hana, in particular, takes the initiative to invite the downcast Hiro for a day on the water, where they can finally air their grievances. That discussion and an introspective monologue on fishing spurs Hiro to confront his illness and Takaaki.

Episode Comments

In my ideal world, a show like this should have taken a moment from every episode to work on character-building. The amount of work that comes with dealing with depression and a possible terminal illness is Herculean. Very rarely are there big breakthroughs. Even more uncommon than big breakthroughs are fast breakthroughs. I feel this was mostly absent from Negative Positive Angler episode 11. That knowledge personally makes the biggest breakthrough of this series feel truly lackluster.

Do you know how One Piece fans find EVERY SINGLE REASON to tell you why it’s the greatest thing ever and how it gets better after episode 1,352,435? I do that with fishing. No matter the situation, I’ll try to sneak it in because I want to get more people into it. So, I’m always delighted when I see someone or something try to do the same. Yet, seeing Hiro’s monologue on fishing and it being alluded to that it was what drove him to fight for his health.

Like many others, I was drawn to angling because of the peace it brings. But while I was hooked on fishing pretty early on, it took me years to realize how big of an impact it was having on me. That’s a sentiment the majority of my fishing buddies share. That’s not something that comes across here. It feels forced.

Fishing seems to be what saves Hiro because fishing needs to be what saved Hiro. And that’s unfortunate. This episode (and the show as a whole) could have been a moving story on how fishing actually heals. This could have been a better, animated version of Joshua Caldwell’s Mending the Line, yet so far we’ve gotten a show that ranks slightly below the past few fishing shows of the last five years.

Overall Comments

So, where do we go from here? Well, that’s the pressing issue. Given what I saw in the preview, what I expected from this show and what it’s delivering won’t quite vibe. Any big development in episode 12 feels like it will seem out of place.

Screenshots: Crunchyroll
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