City the Animation Episode 5-Cinema for the Small Screen

MINORU OTA HAS SPIRALLED OUT OF CONTROL!

In the beginning there was nothing. Out of that nothing a lone Midori appears, wild eyed she stares into the abyss. The abyss stares back and slowly the abyss ceases to be. First there was 3 men drinking merrily, than Mitsuami blows by, trips and immediately gets bodied by Soroban. The soccer team arrives and so does old Obaba. Obaba sees a soccer boy carrying some food about to trip on the Mole and instantly catches everything before leaving in a flash. One of the 3 men spits fire. A wild Tsuchinoko appears as does Wako “The River Pedestrian” Izumi. Mr. Mangaka and Editor lad pop in, happy about the completion of the manuscript for Mr. Bummer 2. The soccer boys are confused, as am I? There’s now the Policeman on site alongside the Butler. Mr. Nice Guy™ is here too, the Magician starts doing something and more and more chefs arrive. One of the 3 men spits fire again as the magicians pigeons murder something before happily flying in a circle. The chefs start cooking, the chefs start burning. Another chef shows off a grand tuna. The River Pedestrian triples. The tuna was a fake? Mr. Makabe is blushing, drunk possibly. The Tsuchinoko is noticed and starts a drinking. Midori at last reappears, chowing down on a ham. A single drop of water falls onto this collage and like a black hole sucks everything in, compressing time into a rapidly forming sphere before POP! A whole animated world fills the screen, one that now includes Fighting Monkey and Co and the world is at last whole. In the beginning there was nothing, by the end everything, and all of that comes in the pretty package of City the Animation Episode 5. Welcome to the City, we’re about to have some fun. Just make sure to pop by your latest and greatest secret government lab and rent 9 sets of eyes, you’re gonna need them.

City the Animation being the biggest and best anime adaptation of the year is the least surprising thing about it. As a Kyoto Animation project quality was assured, as a Taichi Ishidate(of Violet Evergarden fame) joint expectations were raised into the stratosphere and as a spiritual successor to Nichijou, one of the greatest comedy anime, period, joy was guaranteed. All the cards were on the table yet even still I was blown away by Episode 1, with this series immediately jumping to historic highs due to the succulent art direction(thanks Shiori Yamazaki), the popping colors(Kana Miyate, also color designer of Nichijou) and the god tier animation courtesy of everyone, a all timer zoom cut that blew my frigging mind seemingly handled by none other than Ishidate himself. In other words we’ve been eating good and the sky so far has been the limit in terms of artistic expression and airtight execution, City simply couldn’t get better than what it had already achieved, right? Than Episode 5 happened and if I’m gonna be blunt I don’t know HOW it happened. My religiously well kept up MAL account tells me I’ve witnessed approximately 4,105 episodes of anime in my life and when I say not a single one of them is remotely comparable to City #5 I’m not just being hyperbolic, I’m being painfully conservative. City #5 is an incomprehensible episode, both in the storytelling structure it quickly took up but also as a piece of art. Stylistically it is an impressive feat of storyboarding and animation but the magic trick is that this is but one of many episodes of a weekly airing project, a project that can be assumed had a good schedule as per Kyoani tradition. A good schedule doesn’t make miracles though, a good schedule doesn’t let one choose to animate up to 9 separate frames simultaneously, all telling unique stories that intersect. A good schedule is not enough to produce City #5. But it did, somehow, and in doing so I will simply call it what it is. A miracle. City #5 is a living breathing miracle you too can go out and watch for yourself and if I have 1 job today aside from spoiling every goshdarn second of it it’s this. Watch City.

City the Animation Episode 5 is a direct continuation of the last episode and so a brief summary of the previous episode! Nagumo, while chasing after Niikura’s locket…was kidnapped. Do you need to know about the grand action setpiece that involves that locket or why Nagumo was the subject of a kidnapping plot!! No says I, but I also say go watch that episode asap because it was the best action setpiece of the year and a definite highlight of the show. As things stand though The River Pedestrian watches as a non 2D animated manor rises out of the earth, is it a CG model, is it a physical miniature, who knows but that’s where Midori is being taken so that’s where our journey leads. The Butler cheerfully informs his captive Midori that this is the Mansion Tanabe and that she will be staying in the Hospitality Towers. Sounds like a win to me. Stocked with all the wine and food a broke college student could ever desire, a massage chair and even a open air spa, this room she is told is free to use. It is on the top floor to ensure she can’t escape. Wait a second, ring that back I might’ve wrote wrong, Butler, direct quote please! “No, it is to ensure you cannot escape,” -Butler, City #5, timestamp 01:33. Oh. Oh no, what on earth could possibly be worse than being stuck in an all inclusive hospitality tower, oh won’t someone think of the children. A quick look at the elevator reveals no exterior buttons and a quick look out the window proves no escape is possible(though a certain River Pedestrian is currently making quick progress of the tower). Disaster strikes again as Midori finds she’s not alone, oh no she’s stuck in the tower with Mr. Nice Guy™ and thus begins City the Animation Episode 5.

On the surface this episode isn’t the most immediately funny premise thus far, in fact it’s downright unrealistic in the most unrelatable way possible. If I was kidnapped and schlepped into a all inclusive vacation would I immediately lose it and think of going home, of course not. Am I a nice enough person to be kidnapped and thrown into a tower of pleasure, of course not but still the point stands, on premise alone City #5 isn’t immediately gut bursting. But it is different, as a direct storyline continuation of an episode that ended with a To Be Continued it goes without saying this was always gonna be a different flavour of City and that flavour is a more complex one than usual. Anyway we’re welcomed back by a goofy mascot giving us the lay of the vertical land we find ourselves in. In one tower, absolute pleasure. In the other, a blistering dungeon style crawl to escape, each floor guarded by a keeper that will send our hero’s back to the top. We have a brutal journey ahead, will Midori and Nice Guy™ and a wild River Pedestrian be able to survive it. Seemingly, yes! The first floor is guarded by a Magician whose greatest trick is getting his own ass beat by his own pigeons. They fly outta his hat in a flurry, immediately setting him lower on the figuratively literal pecking order and are seemingly smarter too, dispatching of his anti bird defences also known as a fire breathing set. Magic devices are sat on, dentures go from foot to mouth, a mecha appears in a flashback and all is made up in the end. Though those are doves, right? Either way the Magician sends the troupe on their way, defeat he may have brought unto himself but a win is a win.

Our trio finds themselves in the Chamber of Math Hell next. It’s dungeon master, Mitsuami. It’s downfall, Soroban. The wild Soroban appears, spits mist in Mitsuami’s eye’s, announces a Rule Breaking Moon Salt Press before getting absolutely obliterated by a head cracking suplex. Soroban, dead. Friendship can bring anyone back though and as the two make up with a mecha flashback in tow they declare that our trio has won and can pass to the next floor. In other words the joke…is the tower. From literally raising the stakes 12 stories into the sky to being a quickly descended pacing mechanism the joke has landed, we get it, do we have to do this 9 more times? Yes, and no. Welcome to City the Animation Episode 5 Act 2, it’s time to bring out the extra eyeballs you hopefully rented

A eyecatch of old Obaba under a car takes us into Act 2 and immediately the plot has thickened, doubly so. Yes our perspective has now switched to Niikura…but the tower plot still hangs in the sidebar because yup we’re doing two narratives at once now. While the gang now rendered in old school RPG format battle their way through Fighting Monkey and Co Niikura continues her search for her locket. Niikura has officially lost it I must say, her brain has literally exploded and when she catches sight of Mimineko and the locket in the hands of the dumbass duo Matsuri and Eri her brain conjures up yet another devil on her shoulder to assist her overtaxed psyche and what a devil appears. A rearfaced centaur appears and if that description isn’t colorful than let me retry. An Ass faced feet in the air centaur appears. Do. Not. Assk. Also the trio passed the RPG floor and their next one was seemingly a dojo but the master got sick so down they continue. The next floor was on break, so down they continue. Niikura dashes back and forth for the locket but she fails each time, even her box shifting to give her more space doesn’t do a damn thing to help and before she knows it Mimineko is on top of a car racing away. The next floor was also sick, down the trio go. 2 storylines at once isn’t so bad is it, we can handle this, this is fun. Cue another eyecatch. Cue the 3rd and 4th boxes, we’re doing 4 storylines at once, starting now.

Niikura’s on top, washed. The trio take the side, Midori’s looking bloody murder. A family on vacation and the dumbass duo take the 2 smaller boxes. A car with old Obaba under it flies by Niikura while Mimineko chills on top of the vacationing families car. The River Pedestrian takes a picture and oh no, a 5th box has hit the tower, we’re taking 5 at once now. Oh wait, make that 6. I don’t know what this punk ass whiner is but she’s  here. Niikura calls Midori, on cue the 7th box lands. It’s the chefs, driven by Butler. This is the can with Obaba underfoot. Niikura starts racing to Midori’s rescue. Midori meets the next dungeon master, a foreigner with a broken arm. They continue. Obaba reaches the tower with the chefs but she’s an uninvited guest and slinks away most mischievously. The soccer boys meet a Tsuchinoko in the main box. Soroban suplexes chef Makabe. The 9th box hits, it’s old Obaba and she means business. Hidden in the shadows a foe is defeated and just as quickly the 9th box loses signal but stays on screen. The Tsuchinoko plotline is boring, that’s my summary. Mimineko jumps off the car into the forest chasing a butterfly just as Niikura reaches it too. The dumbass duo are here. Many characters arrive at the Mansion and look it’s Fighting Monkey! Midori reaches the next floor and there sits Obaba, a big bear knocked into next week behind her. The Mole gets kicked in the face by soccer team star but they save him, they need him. Ae Obaba gloats we lose a box, down to 7 now… no it reappears. Niikura reaches the mansion, behind her with the locket so does Mimineko. She doesn’t notice him. In the forest the dumbass duo witness a puppet show and Midori’s had enough. She headbuts Obaba so hard she goes through the floor and takes half the boxes with her, we’re down to 3. Quickly a 4th returns as we witness Mole running through the ground and on cue the trio fall through the floor. The absolute chaos is breaking down, stories are intersecting, the trio reach the exit and Niikura is still being followed by Mimineko unawares and Midori reaches the door. She opens it. The universe explodes.

So, hands up if you just had a stroke. My doctor who I haven’t seen in 7 years says since yesterday there’s been a spike in em so there’s no shame, we’ve all been there. That is the power of City the Animation Episode 5 who’s storyboard and direction by Minoru Ota are the stuff of pure unprecedented legend. Why spend all the resources to tell all those jokes, gag plots, and sweet nothings at once. Well, because it’s funny. Not in the wow those joke’s are banging typa way but in the image that I am seeing right now is so mind burstingly insane that all my feeble mind can do is laugh. It’s madness on every level, it’s excessive on every level, it’s City on every front. The bubble sequence that started this whole writeup was apparently done by just one person. That’s madness, I hope they had an absolute blast doing it because if any animation cut from 2025 deserves to be remembered it’s that one. I kneel.

The funniest thing is that uh the episodes not over folks, this do be a 28 minute long affair because of course it’s extra long too, excess is the name of the game with City #5. After bumbling into each other to close the loop Niikura, Midori, and The River Pedestrian enjoy the party at Tanabe Mansion as Mimineko with locket still firmly on hand reaches a odds and ends store. The owner picks it off his back opens it revealing a shot of Midori’s back and smiles. 100 Yen. That’s all this 2 episode escapade was worth to an outsider. Heh, what a joke.

The credits are different this time, drawn in a classical Japanese watercolour.  They tell the tale of Tanabe Mansion’s construction but more broadly of City. The paintings are beautiful, the music is serene, the vibes, immaculate. Tanabe was known far an wide as a nice man but one day some thieving mice broke into his house and ate his cheese. He reacted… no it was Buddha himself who reacted, smiting the whole manse with a single great blow. Realizing his error he crafted 1 nay 2 towers, towers built by the hands of god and everyone laughed. That is the story of Tanabe Mansion, it’s Towers of Hospitality and of City itself. And still Niikura glares, she never did get back her locket.

2025 is an important year for Kyoto Animation. City is their first new IP in 6 years and even if it was made off the back of a previous collaboration it’s still a fresh leap forward for them. 2025 is also a very important year for my own relationship with the studio. See at the start of it I decided to give my favourite director of all time Naoko Yamada a comprehensive look, starting with a first ever watch of K-On! To put it 10,000+ currently unreleased words short it’s a good show, much fun was had. It was also a hard experience. See I’ve seen other Kyoani shows like Euphonium, like Maiddragon, like Nichijou but those were back when I wasn’t a very conscious anime fan, I hadn’t awakened yet, Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 hadn’t happened and changed everything for me. Anime were stories done in animation, not stories done by animators, by a complex conjunction of human passion and hard work. I only knew Arifumi Imai for more years than not. JJK S2 changed me, it was such a individual work, every animators touch captured raw and their quirks and personalities blisteringly obvious on the screen. Sure a big reason was the murderous schedule they were forced to produce under but the effect still landed, I officially cared about animators and could become passionate about individuals in a production, not just the studio overall. On K-On! I properly met Yoshiji Kigami.

Yoshiji Kigami is my favorite animator for K-On! and it seems many other shows too. He’s kinda that guy, a central figure in Kyoani history nurturing the next generation ever onward, taking a backseat from series directing in 2009 for smaller though still big roles on future shows, doing storyboards and animation work on basically everything. Your favorite scenes in a Yamada joint were probably done by him, he always seemed to be there. His most famous piece though seems to be in Nichijou, a cut of animation I’ve seen a hundred times now. A deer and a principal walk into a schoolyard. A deer gets suplexed. That’s it, that’s the joke and the animation is exactly what you think it is, simple, clear, devastatingly funny. In today’s City episode many suplexes are to be found and in a perfect world he’d have done one of em. Yoshiji Kigami was murdered in 2019 alongside 35 other Kyoani staff when someone decided they deserved to die. This news is old, I can remember what the community looked like when it happened because I was watching my favourite show Aot when it went down. I didn’t know Kyoani yet and even when I did the arson was just A tragedy, a event that happened but one I wasn’t associated with. Watching K-On! broke that spell and it broke me. I’ve now cried over sakugabooru entries and MAL page’s learning that that funny animation cut I just laughed at was done by an artist stolen from us. I bring this up here, in a celebratory post about a historically impressive anime episode because my main thesis is this.

You should care about City the Animation. You should care about Kyoto Animation. But most of all you should care about the individual artists who made it. Their artistic efforts should impress you, they should inspire you, you should let yourself love the artist when they deserve it. They’re people too, working hard hours in a unthankful industry because they’re passionate for their craft and they want to bring some light into the world with the power of their drawings. And their output does matter, it’s their legacy and as my Yoshiji Kigami aside shows that is a genuine, affecting legacy too. City the Animation Episode 5 isn’t just brought to you by a studio, it’s brought to you by artists like series director Taichi Ishidate, episode director/storyboard Minoru Ota, animation director Miki Kadowaki, scriptwriter Masashi Nishikawa and many animators I don’t have names of because I don’t read Japanese but sakugabooru currently identifies Tatsuya Saito and I know art director Joji Unuguchi deadass just made a real physical 1/100 scale miniature of the Tanabe Mansion. City #5 is definitely a special episode of animation earning special attention like this post itself is but the caring should be constant, you should care about the artists making your own favorite show too. Caring can hurt, but more often than not it’ll feel very good. I care very much about City the Animation and so should you!

City the Animation can currently be streamed on Amazon Prime Video.