Anime continues its global takeover, and Draw This, Then Die! ‒ Episode 5 is the latest title making waves. Whether you follow the manga, the anime, or both, this news changes the picture in a big way.
The Story So Far
This installment did a great job of covering a lot of ground without an exhausting pace like last week's. It kept the focus on one main idea, but resolved a lot of part-related issues that naturally would have popped up in the pursuit of that goal. The goal is for the girls to go to this manga event, but they can't until they get permission from their parents, which means they need to talk to their parents about being in the manga club.
The main two people that needed to have that conversation with their parents were Yasumi and Fujimori. While Yasumi's talk with her parents was played a bit more for comedy, Fujimori's was a lot more serious given the setup that was done in installment two I would be lying if I said that the manga that Fujimori drew to express herself wasn't incredibly sweet.
If anything, that was the perfect way to figuratively and literally communicate the message of the show: that art can be used to express yourself in ways we never considered before. Unfortunately, for all of the buildup that this confrontation had, it resolved itself a little too easily. Fujimori's mom just reads the manga and then agrees to let her continue drawing manga, but there's no real resolution to the situation.
Was she just hard on Fujimori because this show is full of stern women? I don't know, and it feels like a missed opportunity. So the show didn't go in the direction that I thought it was going to with Yasumi and Hikaru's relationship.
If anything, the end of this installment resolved any weird tension that most of the girls would've had with each other. I do like how the installment just casually dropped facts about Hikaru like they were nothing. Not only was she held back a year, but I'm pretty sure her mom is the same manga artist that Miss Teshima ran into when she was younger.
I can only imagine how that confrontation will go. Still, I'm glad that the girls were able to accomplish their goals by working together, and the fact that the installment still had plenty of quiet moments to let the characters breathe from working so hard was a nice touch. Overall, it still feels like the show is trying to find a perfect narrative balance, but this was definitely a better step in the right direction.
is currently streaming on Crunchyroll. back to Draw This, Then Die! installment Review homepage / archives
For now, fans have plenty to discuss, and the industry has plenty to analyse. TeraMovies will be tracking every twist in this story as it unfolds, bringing you the full picture from the world of entertainment.
