PEN15
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What a gut punch of an episode.
Shes stuck in the most liminal of liminal spaces.
Not a girl, not yet a woman; not American, not Japanese.
Shadow starts with Maya going to her room to take one of her naps.
Its nice that shes found a balance between self-pleasure time and doing literally anything else.
Lucky for Maya that she sensed the presence in her room before totally going to town on herself.
Meanwhile, Anna spends time in her dads new depression apartment, trying to make the best of it.
Maya calls Anna and asks her to come over and act as a buffer between her and Ume.
Friend groups meeting never goes the way you want, does it?
It is decided that Ume will shadow Maya at school the next day.
Anna and Maya assume that the racist assholes at this hell school will eat her alive.
They dont consider that Umes cutesy presentation will hit different with their classmates.
The middle school treats Ume like the Tamagotchi she carries: exotic, adorable, and not really alive.
Oh, and Mr. O is a weeb, so thats not great.
Maya has always kept her Japanese heritage at a distance.
Shes not as fluent as Shuji, and she avoids speaking Japanese whenever she can.
Now, suddenly, Ume is being praised for her exotic qualities.
People keep yelling in her face and touching her hair like shes a perfect little doll.
Maya cant see that fetishization also sucks to experience because shes only ever received scorn for being Asian.
In her one day at school, Ume gains an admirer in Hector.
He and some of the girls come over to Mayas to playDance Dance Revolution.
Surprise surprise, theyre still racist toward Maya, even as they orientalistically fawn over Ume.
We get the added nuance that Maya is biracial, as opposed to Ume and Shuji.
Too Asian to be accepted, too white to be a novelty to the popular girls.
(Side note: I wish there were more Shuji in this episode.
Unfortunately for her, Ume winds up catching her fully nude, jerking off.
Every fear Mayas had about her burgeoning sexuality looks as though its going to come true.
At breakfast the next morning, things come to a head.
Maya wants Ume out of her life before she can tell anyone what she saw.
Whats more, shes projecting all her self-loathing onto Ume because of their language barrier.
Ume cowers at Mayas misdirected rage, and Maya just keeps going.
When she yells, I hate you, its not at Ume.
Its in a mirror.
Anna goes home, her work done at the Ishii-Peters residence.
Unfortunately for Anna, the misdirected anger outbursts arent going to stop for her.
When Anna accidentally melts a plastic casserole dish, Curtis flips out at her.
It ruins the surprise gift hes gotten Anna, a pet hamster.
Or maybe the next episode will upset the apple cart all over again.
