Ge-ge-ge no nyobou 9/1

[mbarker]

a.k.a. a slump?

Shigeru looked at the collection of odd masks, and said, "It's all trash, isn't it?" Fumie said, "Shigeru?" He turned and shrugged. He said, "it's OK." Yoshiko said, "But your treasures..." Shigeru said, "Please, just go." Fumie touched the girl's shoulders and left with them.

In the kitchen, Yoshiko said, "There's something wrong with Dad." Fumie said, "No, I think he's just tired." Yoshiko said, "But his treasures... calling them trash?"

Later, Mitsui sat with Fumie in the kitchen. He had the schedule book open in front of them. He said, "I can't believe that this month there's no orders. We've never had nothing."

In the workroom, Sugai was clipping illustrations from a magazine. The other assistant was putting scrapbooks and manga in order on the shelves. Sugai said, "Don't clean too much." The other assistant said, "Why not?" Sugai said, "You want to have something to do tomorrow. And if it's too clean, we'll notice that the others are gone more. It's lonely without them."

Mitsui closed the schedule book. "I was talking to Shigeru about the ghost of poverty." Fumie leaned forward. "He talked about that?" Mitsui said, "He started to. Then he said no one would read it. And he looked at a blank sheet of paper on his desk, and told me to just go away." Mitsui frowned. "It's not like him. Do you think he's in a slump?" Fumie said, "A slump?"

In the coffeehouse, Sugai and the assistant sat at the table. Kameda, the pawnshop owner, sat at the counter tossing an apple in his hand and watching them.

Sugai said, "Could Sensei be in a slump?" The other assistant said, "You mean like baseball? But manga... you do that on order, don't you?" Sugai shook his head. "I've been his assistant for 15 years. I think he draws because he has to." The other assistant said, "But if he doesn't have work, then... he doesn't need two assistants, does he?" Sugai said, "Well, I think he needs me. You could go somewhere else, I guess." The other assistant said, "No, I think he needs me, too."

Sugai said, "Actually, being the only assistant would be lonely." The other assistant nodded. Sugai said, "But I hope we get some work. There's this girl, we've been talking about getting married." The other assistant said, "Married? You?" Sugai nodded.

Kameda set the apple on the counter, and walked over. He said, "A wedding? Congratulations!" Then he looked at the two men and said, "Wait a minute. If we're talking about a wedding, why do you both look so sad?"

Fumie sat in the kitchen, using an electric gadget something like a large soldering iron to work on her art flower. Shigeru walked through the kitchen into the living room. He laid down on the sofa in the dark. Fumie said, "Would you like some coffee?" Shigeru grunted.

As he lay in the dark, Shigeru mumbled. "I'm going to be lazy for 10 minutes." He opened his eyes a little and looked around. "So where are you, spirit of poverty?" Fumie said, "Shigeru?" Shigeru closed his eyes and shook his head. "I don't think I ever saw Kitaro and the other monsters. It was just... crazy old talk, I guess."

Fumie came in and knelt by the sofa. Shigeru said, "Are there really any monsters?" Fumie said, "You know there are. You told me that when you were a boy, there were water monsters in the back. And during the war, you ran into Nurikabe, the wall that blocks you." Shigeru shook his head. "I don't know. I don't think I ever knew. Why did I think there were monsters?" He got up, and said, "I'm going to sleep."

Fumie went back to work on her art flower. She frowned, thinking that this was the first time she had ever heard Shigeru lacking confidence.

Aiko came in. She sat down and said, "Where's Dad?" Fumie said, "He's sleeping." Aiko said, "So early? That's not like him." Then she leaned forward and said, "Yoshiko says she's going to quit school." Fumie set the iron aside. "What? Why?" Aiko said, "Well, she never has liked it very much. And she says we can save the school fee that way." Fumie said, "I'll talk to her." Aiko said, "What about the assistants? Will we have to fire them? I guess the manga business is really hard." Fumie said, "Well, I don't know. But that's your father's business."

Aiko leaned back. "I was looking in a newspaper. I could probably get a part-time job." Fumie smiled, "I really appreciate your concern, but I don't think you need to do that." She shrugged. "I could work, too, if we need to." Aiko said, "Mom? You work?" Fumie chuckled. "Yes, I could." Then Fumie lifted the rose she had been working on. "Maybe with a little more practice, I can make art flowers and sell them."

Fumie laid the rose down on the table and looked at AIko. "Really, it will be okay." Aiko said, "All right. But I think Dad shocked Aiko." Fumie said, "What do you mean?" Aiko said, "He told her there were no monsters. She came to me and said something was wrong with Dad. She said she asked him about monsters in Kyoto, and he told her there weren't any there. He was staring at a blank sheet of paper, and he told her there weren't any monsters. She asked me if there weren't any monsters, what did that make all the manga he had drawn?"

Fumie took a deep breath and leaned forward over the table. "I don't know. But I do know that I believe in Shigeru. We've had hard times, and it's been his strength that pulled us through." She sat back in her chair. "It will be OK."

Later, Fumie walked into Shigeru's private office. She was carrying her art flower rose. The office was dark, but in the light from the window, she could see there was a blank sheet of paper laying in the middle of the desk. Fumie looked at the paper. She remembered Genbee, her father, telling her that everyone had good and bad times in their lives, but that the bad times are where we learn our real strength.

She told the empty office, "Fight on, Shigeru." Then she tucked the rose into his pencil stand.

<to be continued>

Comments

Too many camera cuts!

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

This episode was a little frustrating, because it was done with lots of camera cuts -- in the kitchen, in the coffee shop, back to the kitchen, etc. And there was one of the most imbedded flashback scenes I think I've seen. The TV show had Aiko and Fumie talking. Aiko tells Fumie that Yoshiko was talking to her... And they flashed to that. So now Yoshiko and Aiko are talking, and Yoshiko says she talked with Shigeru... and they flashed to that. So we have Shigeru and Yoshiko talking, with little pop-backs to Yoshiko telling Aiko about it, and some all the way up to Aiko telling Fumie about it. Eventually it returned to Fumei and Aiko talking. A three-layer flashback? I just did it as Aiko telling Fumie about it. A scene within a scene within a scene? It was awkward on TV.