Episode Seventeen Transcript - The Butterflies On The Concrete Podcast: What Got Me Through The Week?
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[Intro Music – “There is poetry all around me…”]
Hello and Welcome to this week’s episode of the Butterflies On The Concrete Podcast: What Got Me Through The Week? This week I want to talk about the Japanese drama, Animals. But first, please listen to a brief disclaimer before we get started.
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Alright! Now let’s get started!
This week while I was on the Rakuten Viki app, I stumbled upon a drama called Animals. It was really good so I’m discussing it with you now. The story follows Shikamori Umi, played by actress Suzuki Airi, who initially works as an Assistant Director on a television program. She’s overworked though, and ends up falling asleep while holding cue cards in the middle of the broadcast during a beauty segment, and the camera pans over to her causing her to be shown on TV everywhere. This incident makes her workplace look bad, and so they want her to apologize for it on air, but she - rightfully - refuses. Around the same time, she gets an offer to interview with the makeup company shown during the on-air beauty segment, and she takes that opportunity. After the interview, she thinks she failed, and she ends up confiding in a photographer named Kazao, who she’s run into a couple times. She tells him that she wants to change who she is. She didn’t use to have time to care about her appearance before, or to sleep properly, or focus on anything except work, but now she wants to improve herself and her quality of life. Luckily, she passes the interview for the makeup company, Animal Beauty, and once accepted we get to see her give it her all.
Kazao, the photographer, is the person that she meets first, and so if you’ve been watching dramas for a while, we all know what that means. But, I actually really liked the president of the makeup brand who was also a potential love interest in this story.
One of the other things I really liked about this drama was Suzuki’s acting. She reminded me of the actress who played in Coffee Prince, which is a Korean drama. That clumsy yet sincere, or silly but charming sort of vibe. Very endearing. Her portrayal of the protagonist made me want to see her succeed. All the actors were very talented actually, and I’d love to see more of their work.
It’s a sweet drama about figuring out what you want in life, and I’d say that it even advocates changing who you are so that you can become the person you’ve always wanted to be. I also really love the soundtrack but I haven’t figured out which song was used yet.
Please note that there might be some spoilers ahead as I talk about certain episodes that I enjoyed and why.
An episode that really stood out to me was Episode Five. In that episode, a model for the brand confesses her love to the president, and he rejects her. Instead of sulking, the model confronts the president and tells him that he shouldn’t solely focus on work. Instead, he should focus on himself and be more self-aware. You see, she’s noticed he likes the female lead, but it seems like he has no idea about his own feelings, and she won’t tell him until he recognizes it for himself. Later on in this episode, we see that he starts thinking about what the model said and tells his colleague and good friend, who also happens to be the female lead’s boss - while they’re in his office - that he’s trying to figure out if he likes the female lead, which is a really hilarious moment. The colleague has to walk away and compose himself because he’s so stunned by the news, and then the president asks what he should do about it since he usually only thinks about work. The president’s worried because it’s problematic for him to date a subordinate so the colleague tells him to talk to her and try to gauge if the feelings are mutual before he asks her out. The president asks Shikamori out awkwardly under the guise of some sort of random market research type of outing and she agrees to go, not realizing that it’s a date. Another aspect of this episode that I love is that when Shikamori’s younger sister prepares to go on a first date with someone, Kazao, and all of her female coworkers, gather together to have her try on different looks for it. The coworkers bring over their own clothes for her to try on and pick from, and it’s in exchange for the sister to give feedback on low cost makeup trends for people in her age group.
Kazao likes Shikamori, but she treats him as a younger brother for a good portion of the show, until after her younger sister’s date, when they go out for dinner where Shikamori usually eats with Kazao, and Shikamori gets drunk, and he shows up and walks her home. He hears from her younger sister that she’s going on a date with the president, and then on the walk home, he holds her hand while they’re walking when she’s off balance. I should probably mention also that in the show Kazao is 23 and Shikamori is 27, so there’s not too much of an age difference there, but he is younger.
In Episode Six, Shikamori has her date with the president, and we see that they’re very similar in that they’ve both been focusing on work and haven’t been thinking about love ever since they graduated college. After the date, Kazao shows up randomly at her apartment. They end up arguing later on though because the conversation they have that night inspires her to write a proposal for a photo exhibition where his name would be prominently displayed alongside his photos for the brand. She speaks to him about the exhibition and he declines because he wants to go overseas and take other types of photos, not commercial photos. He’s just doing the Animal Beauty gig for money to save for that trip. They have a difference of opinion about it and she doesn’t want to apologize so they don’t talk for a while afterwards and it looks like they won’t reconcile at first.
In Episode Seven, the president encourages Kazao to follow his dream quickly and go overseas sooner rather than later, encouraging him to pursue his own goals. It’s interesting because in another drama, he would be doing this so that he could have an easier time courting the female lead, but here, he’s genuinely wanting the best for Kazao. He never really thinks about how Shikamori might feel towards Kazao, it’s as if he assumes that they’re just friends for a lot of the show. He mostly has internal sorts of angst about how he should pursue her, there isn’t that typical competition between the first and second male leads which is refreshing. Perhaps it’s because they’ve worked together for several years and so the president views him as a friend, not just an employee. A moment of growth for the female lead occurs in this episode. She used to run around 24/7 doing everything she could to excel at work, but when she gets asked to go on the television program she used to work for, she declines. Her old boss tells her that she’s – and I quote, “changed in a good way.” We then see that Shikamori manages to secure segment time for Animal Beauty’s new product on that program. She’s a very capable worker, and it’s really great to watch her change into a better person in real time. And when I say better, I mean that she puts her own needs first, and stands up for herself without hesitating, unlike how she was conflicted in the beginning of the show as she struggled to decide what was best for her after the cue-card incident. This episode also is when she finds out the photographer is leaving Japan and we see that she’s upset he didn’t tell her directly.
In Episode Eight, Kazao tells Shikamori that he likes her, but then he says he doesn’t need a reply from her because he’s going overseas that following week and he doesn’t want to bring anything with him. He then tells her to become the person she wants to be, and to be happy. Ultimately, she tells him she likes him back, but they almost part ways without her saying anything. I wasn’t sure how it was going to be resolved because there was so much distance between them at various parts of the show, but at some point I did have a feeling there would be an airport scene and I was right. She goes to the airport frantically trying to see him before his flight leaves and once she finds him she tells him how she feels. I think that the show is resolved really nicely, and there wasn’t any unnecessary conflict, which I appreciated.
Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to this episode. If you’ve also watched Animals, please let me know your thoughts! You can leave a comment on our website hyssopandebony.com, or on this episode’s post on our Instagram page at WhatGotMeThroughTheWeek. You can also send an email to whatgotmethroughpodcast@gmail.com. The transcript and audio for this episode will be posted on our website, HyssopandEbony.com.
Until next time!
[Outro Song – “Ocean waves on busy streets, butterflies on the concrete. The beauty I could not see becomes a deeper part of me. You remind me, You are present in every single thing.”]
Intro & Outro from Magnified (a cappella) © Amber Eboni