Sparks of Tomorrow

Episode 4

There is a kernel of genuine human insight in episode four of Sparks of Tomorrow, and I really wish this show focused more on that rather than shoehorning the characters into inventing the defining technology of the 20th century into this storyline. Ostensibly a rumination on grief, this episode squanders the opportunity to frame loss as a universal experience that can lead to community and group healing. Instead, it advocates for exploitative chicanery being a quick fix to feelings that get in the way of productivity. Sparks of Tomorrow is rapidly becoming the most frustrating anime I'm watching this season, and I really hope the borderline harmful ideas it's elevating are accidental rather than intentional.

Beginning with a flashback that expands Inako's relationship with her late mother and another new opening animation segment that reinforces this relationship, the episode then transitions to Yosuke Mizoe again trying to get the “real” Electric Catalog from Kihachi and company. He's forced away as this plucky young gang now has some muscle backing them up, and in the process we're introduced to a distraught young man who can only mutter “Mommy” and “Daddy.” The heir to a traditional textiles shop, the gang learns that Inako has a connection to this business, that the heir's father passed away suddenly, and that the business has fallen into disarray as the proprietress is even more grief-stricken than her son and refuses to leave her room. Sympathizing with the proprietress, Inako asks Kihachi to invent a machine to allow her to speak with her dead husband, like how she thought he connected her to her dead mother through an audio recording in the first episode. After convincing the proprietress to leave her room by admitting to her own experience with a loved one passing, the proprietress speaks with her son who's pretending to be her husband using a rudimentary telephone that Kihachi invented, and she's motivated to open the shop again!

It's really messed up that Sparks of Tomorrow frames the cast tricking this poor woman into thinking she's speaking with her dead husband as a good thing. In the real world, fraud psychics have extorted tremendous amounts of money from the family of a deceased person by offering them the opportunity to “connect” with the deceased rather than do the hard work of processing that loss. That these characters feel the need to create an intricate lie to motivate this woman to start working again rather than show her that her community and remaining family are grieving with her and here to support her through this is really dark and upsetting.

This is especially true since Inako was able to get her out of her room through a genuine connection formed through shared grief! They didn't need to lie to the proprietress and give her the false hope of still being able to communicate with her dead husband! They all could have just talked this out, but instead Kihachi's invention of the telephone is crammed into a storyline that's actively worsened by its inclusion. This episode also could have been easily rewritten to be way less scummy, where the telephone could have been used for her to have a more transparent and healing conversation with her son, who's in a different location and unable to grieve with her in person.

Even as this episode's visuals once again charm in both their creativity and execution, I really wish they were utilized to express a more considered story.

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Lucas DeRuyter finds sparks of inspiration in all parts of his life, which would explain why his portfolio features such a broad array of interests and writing formats! To read what he's ruminating on more regularly, you can keep up with his regular contributions to ANN's This Week in Anime column.

Sparks of Tomorrow is currently streaming on Netflix.