Thursday, August 15, 2013

Recap:// Attention Please Episode 4

You gotta love Misaki for sticking to her style no matter  how glaringly inappropriate it is.  The fact that she doesn't know she'll inevitably have to conform if she's going to achieve her goal is amusing.  If she wasn't so charming and sincere in her denial, it would be annoying.  And that's where this episode starts off.

Instructor Mikami checks everyone's appearance in the class.  Misaki receives the most corrections;  her skirt is too short, her shirt open too low, her jacket isn't buttoned up and her hair is too messy.




During orientation in the training cabin, Misaki is still playing around while everyone else is paying attention. Afterwards in the lounge, Sekiyama tells the girls about the different ways to tie the uniform scarf and asks Wakamura if she's shown off her uniform to anyone yet.  Sekiyama has sent her own photo to various relatives.  Meanwhile, Misaki is complaining about how uncomfortable the stockings are.  Hirota and her friends try to insult her, but Misaki doesn't notice.


Instructor Kinoshita sees Misaki scratching herself and rushes in the scold her.  Misaki convinces her that she's doing yoga and is in the process of getting her to try a pose when Director Dazai and a guest walk in.


Later, Wakamura asks Misaki if she's shown herself in uniform to anyone yet.  Misaki says no, and as they walk down the corridor they spot Nakahara.  He is seeing the girls in uniform for the first time and tells Wakamura that it really suits her, but Misaki looks bad in it.  Doesn't Wakamura agree?  She does, and then immediately apologizes to Misaki.  But still, she does agree with Nakahara.

Director Dazai introduces his guest to Mikami as Fukunaga from Channel 2.  He is filming a show about cabin attendants and trainees pursuing their dreams and wants to feature Mikami's class.  Mikami feels that filming will be too much of a distraction, but Director Dazai thinks that the filming will attract more people to his Continental Aviation Centre.


Instructor Kinoshita is concerned about Misaki being on television.  Director Dazai says that he wanted Fukunaga to film Kinoshita's class, but that he had specifically requested Mikami's class instead.  Kinoshita tells Mikami that she feels sorry for her and that she must also be worried.  Mikami asserts that she's not afraid.  Director Dazai adds that it'll be fine since Misaki is maturing, at which he receives incredulous looks from the ladies.

A new round of training begins in the cabin.  Misaki gives a clumsy performance, stepping on Wakamura's foot and hitting someone else in the head with a newspaper.  The Channel 2 team arrives, and at the announcement of the documentary filming, everyone gets excited and checks their grooming.  Mikami scolds them saying that they must remain calm and composed at all times.


Of course Misaki isn't paying attention and gets into even more trouble.  Fukunaga finds her entertaining and focuses on her during the filming.


During their break, Fukunaga comes to the lounge to interview the girls.  Hirota jumps up to volunteer first and gives poised comments.


Wakamura is nervous and easily embarrassed on camera.  Misaki enthusiastically joins her, goofing off with energetic poses, and giving incorrect answers to the interview questions about their training while Wakamura tries to correct her.


Tsutsumi flirts with a cabin attendant after a flight.  He trips over Nakahara's toolbox and says he looks familiar, but he only remembers women's names and faces.  Nakahara tells him that he knows all about Tsutsumi and how he peed his pants in the elevator.  Tsutsumi tries to cover it up and ushers the cabin attendant out quickly. 


Left alone in the cabin, Nakahara stares longingly at the pilot's seat.


Another session of training starts.  Mikami goes down the line inspecting everyone's aprons and correcing them.  Misaki receives the most corrections as usual, and Fukunaga seems delighted while filming.


Back in the classroom, the other girls are worried that Misaki is making them all look bad, especially after she blundered her way through beverage service training.  When Fukunaga arrives in search of Misaki, Hirota tells him that she went home while the others try to hide her.


Fukunaga takes Misaki aside and asks if she was an actress or model before.  She tells him that she used to be in a rock band and it makes sense to him.  He says that she stood out from the others with her special aura.


That night at the soba shop, Misaki tells the girls that she's going to be a reporter and do an interview in the engineer's room.  She wonders what she should talk about.  Wakamura reminds her that they are almost cabin attendants and it wasn't easy to get to where they are.  She doesn't think that Misaki should do the reporter gig, but Misaki isn't listening.


The next day, Misaki plays at interviewing the other girls.  Asou and Murayama walk in and criticize her for wearing her scarf in the senpai (senior) fashion.  Misaki mock interviews them, introducing them as having ten years of experience.  Even though there is no film crew present, Asou and Murayama are mortified and quickly correct her saying that they aren't old enough to have had ten years of experience.

Just then, Tsutsumi enters and grabs Misaki.  He asks her if she ever said what had happened out loud. Misaki starts to mention the elevator and he drags her out of the room.  Asou turns to Sekiyama and asks how old she thinks she is.  Sekiyama just apologizes, to Asou's chagrin.


Misaki tells Tsutsumi not to worry about what happened, and he says he can't not worry about it.  They spot Nakahara who just walks away when Tsutsumi greets him.  Tsutsumi persists and says he heard that Nakahara is amazing and that he graduated from an airline university.  He asks Nakahara why he only became an engineer when surely he hoped to be a pilot.  Why did he give it up?  


Nakahara gets angry and asks him why he had to look into it.  Misaki gets between them and Nakahara stalks off.


Misaki finds Nakahara and tries to find out why he's so angry, but he won't open up to her.

Meanwhile, Mikami asks Captain Sakurada to give a lecture to her class for their training.  He says that if Misaki is going to be there, then he'll have to do a good job.  He doesn't know how many more times he will be giving this speech as a current captain, but doesn't explain what he means by that.  Then he asks Mikami if she wants to go bowling.  She has to work.


Mikami overhears Fukunaga and his crew pondering if they can make Misaki do something interesting.  A traditional trainee is boring, but a girl like Misaki can improve their ratings.


At the soba shop, the girls talk about Misaki's upcoming report in the engineering room the following day. Wakamura wonders if Nakahara has a girlfriend.  Misaki says that he can't possibly.  That type of guy who is as indecisive as a girl is the worst.  Wakamura insists that he's manly.  Misaki tells her that she has bad taste for liking an idiot.  Sekiyama interjects that there's no need to go that far, prompting Misaki to ask why she's helping Nakahara.  Sekiyama characteristically apologizes.

The following day, Mikami sees Misaki going off with the film crew.  Fukunaga informs her that they are using Misaki as their reporter and Mikami lets them go ahead.

Nakahara is distracted and engineer Watanabe pulls him off the job, telling him to go home and clear his head.  Nakahara is upset and leaves the room to sit and cool down for awhile.


After filming Misaki near the plane, Fukunaga realizes his pen is missing.  Watanabe overhears him and gathers everyone around to look for it.  The rest of the filming is cancelled and the film crew leaves.


On her way out, Misaki notices Nakahara.  She mentions that they are making a big deal about the pen. Nakahara explains to her that if it falls into the engine, it could affect hundreds of people's lives, so the plane can't fly until they find what was lost.  He runs over to help with the search.


Misaki realizes the gravity of the situation and sincerely apologizes when Watanabe returns the pen to her. He tells her that she doesn't need to apologize since they were just doing their jobs.  He doesn't know how hard it is to be a cabin attendant either, but it takes the efforts of everyone to make the plane fly.


Misaki turns up for morning practice with her uniform in order.  The film crew arrives and Fukunaga asks her to create a scene with her beverage cart.  Misaki refuses and gives him the pen that the engineers found.  He complains that it's oily and throws it away.  Misaki is annoyed when he comes back and asks if she can shorten her skirt a bit.  She turns him down and tells him not to get in the way of their training. Fukunaga turns and tells the cameraman derisively that it's only serving tea in the sky.


Misaki's patience reaches its limit.  She tells Fukunaga to stop fooling around and moves as if to strike him. Mikami calls out to her, and Misaki stops herself.  Instead she flicks "garbage" from his jacket, but intimating that he's the garbage  Then she tells him not to look down on cabin attendants.

Going back to her training, Misaki thanks Fukunaga for joining the flight and points him towards the exit. The film crew takes the hint and makes to leave.  Mikami tells Fukunaga that he forgot something.  She retrieves his oily pen from the trash can and tucks it into his jacket pocket before he departs.


After class, Mikami tells Misaki that she can never use violence, and if she wants to have the pride of a cabin attendant, she will have to learn how to handle these types of situations.  Then she reminds Misaki that it wasn't the first time someone had said that cabin attendants only serve tea in the sky.


Misaki sees Nakahara later.  He reveals that he had an eye injury that doesn't affect his eyesight, but it prevents him from becoming a pilot.  So he's decided to be the best engineer in the world and prepare a plane that even useless pilots like Tsutsumi can control easily.


Misaki responds by roleplaying a flight.  She makes an announcement to the passengers that Captain Nakahara would like to greet them.  At first Nakahara balks, but then plays along and gives a greeting.


It's the day the report is to air and the excited cabin attendant trainees all insist that they don't really care about seeing themselves on TV.  However, since it's scheduled to start anyway, it might be interesting to watch.  The anchor comes on to announce that the program on cabin attendants has been suspended in order to report on a sighting of the mythical tsuchinoko.  (The tsuchinoko is a snake-like creature that some people believe actually exists.)


Misaki has finally shown some sign of maturing and taking pride in working as part of a team.  Witnessing the sincerity and sense of responsibility in others has led her to realize it in herself in a way that classroom instruction could not achieve.  It's a good illustration of how essential mistakes can be in helping people reach beyond their limitations.

Although Nakahara opening up to Misaki seemed a little out of the blue, the scene was touching, and the two of them did establish a bond of compassion and understanding that will hopefully lead to more face time with Nakahara!  I feel a little sorry for Wakamura who is obviously crushing on Nakahara.  She's sweet, has a good heart, and does everything earnestly, whereas Misaki is a hot mess.  But it's Misaki's imperfections that seem to be helping to break down Nakahara's walls.  And Misaki needs him to help her grow up.  The best type of relationship is one that transforms both people, after all.

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