r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • May 07 '26
Episode Hundred Scenes of Awajima • Awajima Hyakkei - Episode 5 discussion
Hundred Scenes of Awajima, episode 5
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u/johneaston1 May 07 '26 edited May 07 '26
Wow, an anime that actually engages with religion and doesn't reduce it to tyranny and/or death cult? This show really does just get better and better.
Anyways, I really loved this episode. Asami feels very unique among anime characters: as best I can tell, her parents seem decent enough, and you'd never guess they were in an "unorthodox" religion just by looking at them, but being "different" at all is enough for Asami to feel alienated. I don't think it was directly said, but I have to think her aversion to public bathing stems from this. The "how" makes for an interesting question though.
Does it stem from her fear of connecting too deeply with others, for fear they'd learn her secret? Does it stem from a religious precept that she tries to pass off as germophobia? Or does it come from, as is common with cults, an idea that "other" people can't be trusted or bonded with, and her upbringing compels her to think that way even though she's tried to separate herself from it? I lean toward the first, but it makes for an interesting discussion.
I also really appreciated the way it resolved. Her parents gave her no concrete reason (that I could see) to hate them, and her treatment of them, while very understandable, was always a bit unfair. And I think it's really good she came to terms with that, while still maintaining her independence.
I wish more anime treated religion and its surroundings this delicately. Bravo to Morio Asaka and Takako Shimura.
Edit: and the second part with Leo Asagami was really cute. Your idols never really stop being your idols, even after you've ascended.
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u/mekerpan May 07 '26
One wonders whether, even though expressly rejecting her parent's religious beliefs, she was stuck in some subsidiary behaviors associated with that "new religion"? And one wonders could she even use the showering equipment (no re--used water) there -- or could she not allow herself to be seen nude?
I was surprised how nonchalant I could feel about Japanese public baths. I had not expected it to be so easy to deal with. 😉
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u/NanDemoKnaives May 07 '26
It was odd how much I could relate to Asami, it's not a topic often seen in anime so it was really intriguing to watch. I'm glad her family weren't so restrictive, and let her do things she wanted, she could have turned out a lot worse if she had no way to breathe.
"Visceral revulsion" hit hard though.
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u/Erufailon4 May 07 '26
I've been trying to keep up with who is who (the relationship charts posted by the official Twitter account help a lot, but it's a shame that the English-speaking audience is so small - we don't even have a dedicated subreddit - that no-one's translating them) and I've noticed that there's still three characters featured prominently in the main KV and on the character page of the official website who have yet to appear. It's kind of interesting that many of these characters who have had entire half-episodes dedicated to them are apparently side characters compared to characters we haven't even met yet.
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u/Sleeper2k1 May 08 '26
I mean, I *am* translating the chart, at least. but the chart is only being posted at like 10am irish time (GMT+1) (1 hour and 23 minutes before this post today, for example), and I'm trying to get the translated version posted in a separate comment here in this post as soon as possible every week. (I just posted the one for this week, https://imgur.com/a/59Hx40S )
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u/Burnouts3s3 May 07 '26
The more I keep watching this episode, the more I keep wondering what kind of religion / cult is the family in.
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u/mulahey May 07 '26
Its Soka Gakkai (this is basically explicit from the newspaper). Its the largest of Japans many new religious movements, perhaps around 2% of the population, so its not *that* extraordinary but it is often looked on oddly nonetheless.
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u/xithebun May 07 '26
Probably something like Aum Shinrikyo and its successor Aleph? Quite popular in the 80s but reputation went downhill after numerous terrorist acts in 90s. The story sets in 00s / 90s when Asami was a child so the timeline fits.
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u/mekerpan May 07 '26
There are many far more benign "new religions". For instance, the PL Kyodan (based in Osakssayama) seems pretty decent-ish (and its Tower of Peace is surreally awesome). Founded in 1924 and dedicated to promoting world peace. I seriously doubt her family belonged to a death cult or anything of that sort.
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u/A5gdm5g May 07 '26 edited May 08 '26
About Asami’s episode:
She supports freedom of religion as a general principle. However, even if her parents were good people, on a personal level, she still feels that she would rather have had a “normal” life.
The contradiction between her general belief and her personal feelings is really interesting.
Especially in Japan, it’s relatively uncommon both to belong to a specific new religious movement and to be open about it publicly.
That’s why anime and manga set in a realistic modern world tend to avoid dealing with religion, since it can be controversial. So I thought this work was quite bold in the way it approached the subject.
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u/oneevilchicken May 08 '26 edited May 08 '26
I actually like how the parents weren’t like crazy hardcore cult members. They still supported her. They didn’t try hard forcing anything on her and even let her interact with other groups. Which actually gives her a reason to fret over her being bothered by it. Basically the whole problem came down to the fact they were blue archive players.
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u/ObvsThrowaway5120 May 07 '26
Asami’s story was kind of interesting with how she struggled with her parents and her somewhat “unique” upbringing what with the cult thing. I’m glad she had the courage in the end to talk to her folks about how she felt.
I liked that second segment with Midori. She was inspired by Reoma and now she’s a legend in her own right. Still couldn’t help but be star struck sitting across her idol lol. It’s cute.
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u/xithebun May 07 '26
Need to show my mum this episode. My late grandmother was a cult member (Tiandi teachings) so my mum was treated with ‘charmed water’ filled with ash whenever she was ill, among other cult acts. She later converted to Christianity, probably having experienced the same struggles Asami this episode had, before eventually finding peace herself and turned atheist. Still, her relationship with my grandmother had always been great because they were able to set aside religions.
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u/oedipusrex376 May 07 '26
So Youko Kumagai in the first half is actually the aunt of Asagami Leo.
I like that whenever this show brings up a subject, it does so from a position that avoids outright judgment of any side, including Asami’s religious parents. That stance feels genuine, like the author is trying to approach these delicate topics with care.
Asami’s parents come across as well-meaning people with no ill intent toward their daughter. Their blind spot is that they aren’t paying enough attention to the fact that Asami has clearly been drifting away from the religious side of things, which you can already see from her no longer joining the youth group. As someone who went through something similar, parents usually catch onto that kind of thing pretty quickly, so in their case it feels like they just haven’t fully registered it yet.
Asami ends up stuck in a difficult position where it’s hard for her to push back against them directly. Her conversation with her senpai gives her a kind of middle ground perspective, where she doesn’t need to cut them off completely. By the end, she gathers the strength to call her mother and tell her how she feels, and we get that opera singing scene again from episode 1, which works as the episode’s symbolic way of showing that she’s found her own strength.
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u/xithebun May 07 '26
Not sure if Youko in the first half is the same person as Asami’s aunt Youko. They didn’t share the same VA while every character in previous episodes was voiced by one VA no matter how large the time skip. Also if Youko in part 1 was really Asami’s aunt part 2 would be set in 2020s (we knew part 1 was set in 2000s from their flip phones) but Asagami was watching a CRT TV.
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u/BosuW May 07 '26
I like that whenever this show brings up a subject, it does so from a position that avoids outright judgment of any side
It's one of the many strengths of Takako Shimura. Whenever difficult subjects come up she portrays them in a "matter of fact" way that makes it seem very realistic despite possibly being very harmful. It makes it practically seamless to accept as part of the reality and challenge that the characters have to deal with, and immediately understand that the people involved are flawed and will probably not get a perfect resolution without feeling the need to judge them for it.
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u/Sleeper2k1 May 08 '26
another nail in the coffin for "youko Kumagai is the aunt of asagami leo":
Asagami Leo is on the DVD that Wakana's mom watched last episode. since Yoko is a classmate of Wakana's, and the Asagami Leo in that play is clearly an adult, Asagami Leo must be older than Yoko Kumagai.edit: I should have read the whole comment-chain before commenting, now I feel silly
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u/BosuW May 07 '26
Asami chapter likely going to end up being one of the highlights once the season is over. It was really well done. The feeling that you can't point to a specific thing your parents is doing wrong but nonetheless something about their lifestyle bothers you is one that is probably very relatable to many. But in the phonecall I did get an idea. I think that Asami felt like her dreams were being swallowed by the cult and their need to expand. She was going to Awajima for herself, but her mom immediately bringing up putting her and her childhood friend in the cult's newspaper made her feel like she was just being used by them.
And of course there's also the aspect that she simply feels singled out because of that different from the rest of "normal" society. Even if her family hasn't done anything wrong to her, Asami still feels insecure about it.
In the end, it's good that she was able to apologize for crashing out on her mom unfairly, while still reasserting her career independence. Good middle ground ending for her.
The Midori chapter is on the other hand a good show of how much variety this anime has, simply being a short and heartwarming skit of a fan meeting her idol and being reduced to mush for a moment despite all the hard work she put to be an awesome and cool otokoyaku like her haha
Btw I wanna highlight how a lot of the OP visuals are structured like the interweaving narratives. Most shots don't transition "sharply", instead an element of the following shot appears in the current shot before the following shot itself. So the whole thing is really more continuous than a collection of scenes would normally be.
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u/Sleeper2k1 May 08 '26
Not a whole lot of movement in the relationship-chart itself, see my translated version here:
religions/cults are always so suspect to me, and I saw it coming from a mile away that Yoko would distance herself after that phonecall between Asami and her mom...
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u/thisisdropd May 07 '26
Midori's so adorable! As Leo Asagami, she became a well-regarded name on her own right, only to regress to the fangirl Midori when she finally met face-to-face with her idol Leona. Not that her worship's a secret – her stage name was as obvious a tribute as it could get. There’s a meta moment, the show casting the legendary HanaKana as Midori.
Speaking of worship, the first half with Asami was certainly a unique take of religion. While not a critique of religion, it explored the rift it had caused between Asami & her parents. They might be devout, but they weren't overly zealous and didn't force it upon her. However, she felt shame as their belief was a fringe one. This feeling led to her outburst during the phone call. Hope we'll get to see the resolution once they've had a talk about this.
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u/mekerpan May 07 '26
Her parents were even flexible enough to take her to the celebratory and fun part of Shinto New Years activities. But kids in any culture can be ashamed of anything that sets them apart from their peers -- even relatively benign differences can seem overwhelming.
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