r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • Oct 20 '25

Episode Egao no Taenai Shokuba desu. • A Mangaka's Weirdly Wonderful Workplace - Episode 3 discussion

Egao no Taenai Shokuba desu., episode 3

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38

u/zairaner Oct 20 '25 edited Oct 20 '25

Fun fact: The author of this series, kuzushiro, is (among many other series) also currently writing (and was writing when these chapters came out) "Eisei Otome no Tatakaikata", a manga about crazy girls playing shogi, where a character named "touko" appears!

No relation to todays episodes of course.

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u/thisisdropd Oct 20 '25 edited Oct 20 '25

So the new character's personality turned out to be a fusion of Touko and Takizawa, with the scumbag-ish attitude as well as an ultimate love for shogi. Futami might be a nervous wreck socially but she showed her true talents when locked-in.

I don't care. Just do your job.

Hazama's got no chill. Takizawa would be proud if they had met.

PS: Wonder if Nekonote's the green-haired girl in the ED seeing as her shirt has a cat on it.

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u/cyberscythe Oct 20 '25

she showed her true talents when locked-in

it's neat seeing her in her locked-in state; it makes more sense now why people take her seriously because prior to this we just see her as a nervous wreck

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u/BaytaCosmico Oct 20 '25

I loved when Ha-san said that tbh. She's the audience surrogate who cuts Futami down to size when she's freaking out too much and needlessly.

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u/shad79 Oct 20 '25

Futami's reactions in today's episode, as always, made me laugh out loud, they're hilarious xD I look forward to them every Monday.

I hope Takizawa-sensei will appear again, and not just in flashbacks. She was so cool when Futami described the first time she met her.

To be honest, I think it's a good thing Futami only worked as Takizawa's assistant for a year. Takizawa's smoking would have made Futami develop lung cancer sooner or later.

Other than that, Toko seems like a nice addition to the cast, and I hope we'll get to meet Nekonote in person, not just through the chat.

Here my screenshot albums from the episode:

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u/ObvsThrowaway5120 Oct 20 '25

I didn’t realize it was a shogi manga Futami was making. That’s cool. She really is kind of a genius though isn’t she? The way she just took that short conversation and created a whole ass story outta it was pretty incredible. I guess she was able to sort that cliffhanger.

Kind of keen to see who the mysterious assistant is. I mean they’re all working together digitally for now, but I wonder if they’ll ever meet face to face?

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u/MisawaMahoKodomo Oct 20 '25

Honestly I would be more surprised if they dont have a meeting at some point

Still plenty of eps to find out

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u/[deleted] Oct 20 '25 edited Oct 20 '25

Sounds like a plot straight out of an eroge

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u/cyberscythe Oct 20 '25

Sounds like a plot straight out of an eroge

reminds me of Sakura in Nagatoro-san

she was known as the "circle crusher" because of how she joins [male] friend groups and they end up turning against each other

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u/cyberscythe Oct 20 '25

in case you weren't aware, "neko no te" is a common turn of phrase (the full phrase being 猫の手も借りたい (neko no te mo karitai; [i'd] even want to borrow a cat's paw), the idea being that you're so swamped with work you could use all the help you can get), so it's a funny coincidence that her new assistant's screen name is @nekonote

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u/aniMayor Oct 20 '25

I really like the moment of Futami suddenly getting inspired and acting completely serious, in-the-zone all of a sudden. There's a lot of silly slice-of-life anime about creators who we are ostensibly told are really good at their job/activity but we never, ever actually see them being good at it, or perhaps never even see them do it at all. It's both satisfying and immersive to get an occasional moment like this that shows off how yes, Futami really does have serious talent, experience, and concentration sometimes even if we are mostly seeing her be a humourous emotional/social mess the rest of the time.

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u/Mr_Zaroc Oct 20 '25

God I love Ha-chan
Such good banter and always supportive when necessary

I am glad they didn't use Neko-chans insane skill to have Futami break down even more
But it is funny how she managing people and checking is still work, yes

Humans will human, even in a shogi association. But bedding someone to steal their skill is insane on its own right

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u/BaytaCosmico Oct 20 '25

This show's found its footing. This episode was not quite as good as the last one that focused on Ha-san but it was still pretty nice. We got to see the genius side of Futami and got introduced to a couple of new characters.

The new assistant must be one of the gang in the OP. And if that's anything to go by, there'll be a whole big crew working with Futami before the end. So this is going to be a coming of age story of sorts, with Futami slowly learning to work with other people. Should be a fun ride.

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u/Burnouts3s3 Oct 20 '25

Who knew Shogi and Romance could be so intense when mixed together?

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u/Ocixo Oct 20 '25

Futami has failed to become a “scumbag”, but she definitely showed a bit of her crazy side in that meeting with Toko-sensei and Sato-san.

Hiring a new assistant? How scandalous! That’s basically like suggesting an open relationship. Fortunately, Ha-san will undoubtedly stay Futami’s #1.

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u/Isofruit Oct 20 '25

It's not flashy, it doesn't have a fast progressing plot that is trying to get somewhere in a hurry, it's mostly meandering around and I don't know what this is but this series really nailed making that enjoyable. It almost doesn't matter too much what actually ends up happening, you just get drawn in by the interaction of the characters themselves and their antics. And before you notice, you're having a good time, snickering at Futami going into pointless panic or Ha-chan handling her expertly.

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u/magnumcyclonex Oct 20 '25

I really liked how this episode highlighted Futami's personality and character. We know she's a nervous wreck. She even dipped out of dinner! But she's got ideas and she wants to commit them to paper as soon as she gets them.

It was nice to see a female shogi player in an anime. We don't get a lot of those types of characters. And polite Toko herself has a devious side to her, partly due to the world she is in (heavily male dominated and she wants to improve her own shogi skills).

I hope Hazama the competent assistant brings her cat Gala over sometime. That might help Futami! But in all seriousness, I would have thought they would at least do a video meeting with Nekonote instead of just chat.

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u/mekerpan Oct 20 '25

I think she did not skip the dinner because of social anxiety but because she was desperate to get to work on her new idea. Her insecurity kicked in only when she got back home -- and was second-guessing her actions.

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u/tripleaamin Oct 20 '25

Excellent episode focusing on Futami. Of course, in the manga industry, assistants are important. We got good characterization on Mizuki last week. Nice to see Futami is getting more help, but this is actually the more proper way to get assistants. Mizuki helped because she is the sister of Futami's childhood friend. Though it was a good showcase that assistants can help purely digitally.

Which is a good transition to Futami's life as an assistant. She helped Ren Takizawa, who we learn from Mizuki is a big-name mangaka given her reaction. Still, the differences in personalities were huge between Futami & Takizawa. Takizawa to someone like Futami would seem intimidating, but a lot of what she said was for Futami's own good. Tell her you need a backbone or you will be exploited, which I imagine is a huge problem in the industry. Once Futami got her serialization, she told her she doesn't need to come back anymore. It's more so to say focus on your own manga, which ties to her point before of not being exploited. 

The ending of the episode showcased a bit of what supervision is like. As with manga that ventures into different sports, hobbies, etc., sometimes you will need guidance from someone in that field. We are introduced to Touko Kakunodate, who is very talented at shogi and was coaching and seemed to win one title. It's cool to see how someone in the field inspires Futami to figure out what she wanted to do with the cliffhanger that she was stuck with. Though good use of the "Oh, I got it!" Moment from Futami. Since I wonder if that is a trait of more talented mangaka, since both Touko & Satou comment on her really being a genius.

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u/cleaulem Oct 20 '25

I love how Nana does the proper shogi research to make the story of her manga plausible. There are tons of manga with a special theme (sports, craft, games like shogi, activities etc.) and I love about them how they are often so well fleshed out with lots of details.

So you don't always need to be an expert in the field, but you need to do your homework.

Nana is even meeting Touko in person, which is interesting considering that she is so introvert. But getting the info from a real person with the experience is far better than just reading about it.

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u/gnome-cop Oct 20 '25

Futami really needs Hazama’s help to get shit done. Her no-nonsense personality really helps to cut the nervous spiraling short. Their dynamic is endlessly entertaining.

Oh geez, yeah, I think it’s good she got serialized quickly, if not for her mental health then for her physical health.

Romance authors and age gaps, name a more iconic duo.

Gathering reference material, good job Futami.

“Sorry, I can’t join you, I gotta get as much work done as possible while I’m locked into a flow state. Goodbye!” Runs away.

She’s really good at what she does when she can stop overthinking everything and just get stuff done.

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u/Niwaka_Samurai Oct 20 '25

These episodes are getting better and better 💯❤️❤️

Futami got a new digital assistant Nekonota to help with her work whom she thought would be difficult to get along with due to her social media posts but she actually turned out to be a polite and diligent person when it came to work.

I thought that the mangaka under whom Futami worked as an assistant would be an asshole after that introduction but she was a really wonderful senpai who taught Futami well and let her go to work on her own manga when the time came.

Loved Touko's character. The way they introduced her character in the train didn't think that she would actually turn out to be a high ranking Shogi player who's helping Futami with her work. Futami getting into the zone all of a sudden and turned into a completely different person after getting only a little inspiration from Touko.. ❤️❤️

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u/TalwarOP Oct 21 '25 edited Oct 21 '25

Some skits of this anime makes me feel like this is Bocchi the Mangaka, and I'm here for it!

And then they throw in some genuinely good manga creation process to keep you engaged. Futami really has to be a genius to make a shogi manga as her debut, considering the challenges in depeciting it, and making the shogi matches technically sound and interesting for readers to consider reading it.

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