Teshima Rei seeing her students marvel over the sights and sounds of Tokyo brings back an old memory of her and Nana doing the same thing back in the day. So how long have they been friends? How are you gonna cast Tanezaki Atsumi for this role and leave her so underutilized? Well, it turns out this is the episode where we’ll finally learn how she and Rei first met. You know what that means: it’s flashback time. Specifically, we get to see Rei serve as an assistant to a mangaka. She even got to work with her idol Hebichika. Rei was just one of many assistants already working for the woman, and sure enough, the others included Nana. Ah, so this was their first encounter. So how does being a manga assistant even work? I’m sure other shows might paint a more flattering picture, but one of the girls described working under Hebichika as hell. Still, it wasn’t all bad for Rei. Between tasks, she got to pick Hebichika’s brains. The problem, however, was that there wasn’t much to pick.

Hebichika’s advice was often vague and unclear. She’s the classic example of a genius who can’t translate her instincts into workable instructions. It’s like how the best athletes don’t always make the best coaches, because they either can’t express themselves or understand your struggles. Then in Rei’s other ear, her editor Hana’s advice would often be the complete opposite. Rei didn’t know how to filter them properly, or how to adapt them to her own work. The end result was a manga that was seemingly an amalgamation of ideas that didn’t make any sense to anyone including herself. If you want to get serialized by the company that Hana works for, then I feel like Hana’s advice should have had priority. Working as an assistant simply gives you a different perspective. But we’ve already seen from previous episodes that Rei was often dismissive of her editor’s critiques. In this same flashback, she would just sleep through what Hana was telling her. She doesn’t disrespect Hebichika the same way, though. Maybe that was the problem. Hebichika isn’t the end all and be all of manga. Nevertheless, Rei treated her like a god. That doesn’t mean becoming an assistant was ultimately a bad idea, but Rei was too headstrong. She took Hebichika’s word as gospel.

Rei obviously had a legitimate passion for manga, so I feel for her struggles. At the same time, however, I’ve read a lot of really terrible manga. Those same manga then turn into absolutely bottom-of-the-barrel anime. So how come she couldn’t find any success whatsoever? Was her work even worse than the shit I’ve seen? Or was she simply barking up the wrong tree? Maybe the company she kept coming back to simply had super high standards. Well, if Hebichika’s opinion was anything to go by, Rei simply sucked. Hana must have felt the same; she was just kinder about it. This didn’t mean Rei had no talent, but she clearly didn’t improve enough for the aforementioned reasons.

Hebichika’s advice wasn’t always useless, though. One time, she gave Rei very specific examples of what the latter was doing wrong. Again, becoming an assistant is supposed to help you gain a new perspective, which literally happened with Rei. It turns out she had impaired eyesight, and it wasn’t until she worked under Hebichika that she started wearing glasses. Huh, I didn’t even notice she didn’t have them on in this flashback. Shows you how observant I am, and I’m currently wearing glasses! Still, it’s wild to me that this had gone undetected for so long. I remember telling my mom I had trouble reading the blackboard back in second grade. In any case, we get this sequence where her art dramatically improved thanks to finally seeing the world correctly. Still, you can’t pin all of her troubles onto not seeing the world properly. After all, her stories weren’t up to snuff either. With or without glasses, she still couldn’t impress her idol. Her drawings got better, but her own manga only got messier and messier. We already know how this story ends.

By the end of her time with Hebichika, Hebichika’s sheen would eventually wear off. Rei started to see her for the flawed woman that she was. Still, she tried one last time to impress Hebichika — or “kill” her in Rei’s own words. We learn that this was how Ai’s beloved manga Robota & Pokota came to be. She smashed that unsightly amalgamation to pieces, started over, and finally produced something that would touch her student’s heart years later. Unfortunately, Hebichika didn’t even look at it. She was a selfish woman through and through. So what did we even learn from this experience? Well, we learned that Rei literally had impaired vision and ignored it until she met Hebichika. But clearly, this didn’t fix all of her troubles. Most of all, we learn never to meet our heroes. They’re just people like you and me. They’re not god, and they can often lead you astray. Not on purpose, mind you. Hebichika wasn’t an evil person or anything like that. She just never cared for anyone else, and maybe her vague, unhelpful advice was a symptom of that character defect. Unfortunately, by the time Rei realized this, it was probably too late. The soul can only take so many crushing defeats and disappointments before it gives up.

Stray thoughts & observations:

— Nana tried to warn Rei not to put Hebichika on a pedestal, but Rei didn’t like Nana at first. They would only become friends by bonding over their mutual dislike of working under Hebichika. This seems to happen a lot in anime, huh? I guess the trope is just fresh on my mind, because we recently learned how Honda didn’t like Nishi initially in You and I Are Polar Opposites. I don’t think any of my friendships have ever started out this way, but I only have one half of the story. Who knows? Maybe some of my current friends hated me at first as well.

— We see Hebichika order one of the assistants to redo a page on a whim. In these flashbacks, she’s portrayed as a tyrant. Even worse, a wishy-washy one who indulges her selfishness. Well, as they often say, never get too close to your heroes, or you’ll soon realize that they’re flawed just like the rest of us. I learned from an early age not to have idols. Used to respect the hell out of Kobe Bryant as a kid… then the whole Colorado thing happened.

— Hmm, is it healthy to eat curry every single day? Calorie-wise, I guess it just depends on the portion size. And Japanese curry does come with a ton of healthy root vegetables like potatoes and carrots. Yeah, I dunno…

— Oof, sounded like Nana wanted to be roomies with Rei for life. They just had to sneak that little detail into this scene, huh? Well, Rei was dense about her manga, so it figures that she was dense about her love life as well. We don’t even know if Rei likes women. Hell, she might even be asexual. Still, they’re both single at the moment, right? Is Nana still pining for Rei even after all this time? Girl, move on.

— Rei is furious when she finds her students still up, listening to Nana’s stories of their time together. Man, it’s the girls’ first trip away from home. Let them live life and have fun. One late night yap session isn’t going to ruin anything.

— Oh yeah, we haven’t seen what kinda stuff Nana drew back in the day. I guess since she’s running a manga shop now, she too crashed and burned as a mangaka. I kinda wanted more of Nana’s backstory.