For two years, Wakana Kinme has run a laundry service in the seaside resort city of Atami. Kinme Cleaning is a well-loved business, and Atami residents admire Wakana's devotion to her trade. She builds a fulfilling life, making friends with the locals and visiting hot springs. Although Wakana doesn't remember her own past, her cleaning services safeguard memories imbued in customers' precious items.

Wash It All Away is one of those shows that gives me a much-appreciated look into the cultural differences between Japan and America that aren't so obvious. Beyond the stronger emphasis that Japanese culture tends to put on cleanliness and maintaining strong outward appearances, there's the simple fact that so many folks in Japan don't have easy access to machine dryers the way that most homes in the West do. I find Wash It All Away interesting simply for presenting a story where I can totally buy that our protagonist has built a sort of community hub out of her humble little laundry service.

I mean, yeah, there's the whole convenient amnesia thing that the show's presumably gonna deal with more directly down the line, but you'd only even really know about that by reading the summary I just shared or the back of the manga volumes that the anime is adapting. Besides, I can dig the thematic connection that the show is clearly establishing in this premiere, where the clothes that people wear inevitably end up telling stories about the lives they've lived and the journeys they've taken. There's a melancholy vibe underpinning all of Wakana's enthusiastic explanations of mesh-bag protocol and proper shoe cleaning technique that makes her into a compelling character.

The choice of Atami for the setting also contributes to the tone. Atami is a resort city on the Izu Peninsula directly neighbouring the equally tourist-attracting city of Ito. Just like Ito, it's known for its beautiful seaside and abundant hot springs, but it has a relatively small population. The hills, sandy beaches and alleyways create an idyllic beauty that sets the stage for the intimacy between Wakana and her clients and the quiet rhythms of her life, a life that's rather slow-paced and full of simple pleasures. It's not 100% realistic, but neither is a young woman singlehandedly running a laundry business with total joy and relaxation. It's just nice to imagine things working that way.

As a sidenote, Sayumi Suzushiro sure is busy this season--she's the voice of Wakana and also Miyu in You and I Are Polar Opposites!

This first episode is all about showing Wakana's daily routine. We see her exercise before work, interact with her various customers, and even invite her landlady in for tea. Through all these, we can see not only how she does her job, but how it's almost become a driving obsession for her. When seeing the local fireworks festival after closing up shop for the night, she decides to put in an extra bit of work while listening to them. When she notices a stain on a shirt or a scuffed shoe, she can't resist fixing the issue, even doing it without asking in the latter case.

Yet, while it's interesting to see all the technical ins-and-outs of how she does her job, there's more to the episode than just that, and it all comes down to a single line of dialogue. When a client offhandedly mentions that Wakana sure loves doing laundry, her response is "It's the one thing I didn't forget, after all."

Now that's one hell of a line to drop, and it's the first thing in the show proper to clue us in that she has amnesia. With that in mind, perhaps her first meeting with Ishimochi is anything but. Maybe they knew each other before her memory loss, even went to the same school. The same could be said for any of her various clients. Maybe they all know more about Wakana than she knows about herself. On a meta level, that line makes you put every scene before and after under a microscope, looking for secret meanings even as she performs mundane everyday work. It's a cool little way of keeping the viewer's attention.

Overall, it's an interesting little episode, and I'll be coming back to see if we get any more info about Wakana's situation. I don't know yet if her characterization and relationships will make for the kind of compelling storytelling that I need to hold my attention in the long term, but Wash It All Away is such a lovely-looking and pleasant show that I'm willing to give it a fair shot.