On Inami Mahiru and the Cast of Working!!’s Threat Level to Society (2/3)

Continuing off of THIS post:

Here’s a list of basically everyone’s issues and/or roles in the series, both employees and family/friends that I can remember off the top of my head;

• Inami – Dealing with and working on a mental disorder, also in love with the MC. Jokes about both are around often, but not the only thing she’s involved in within the show. She also has a secondary quirk aside androphobia, which is her strength. Both issues go through massive development throughout the show and are multifaceted, she’s also shown plenty without either of these things coming up.
• Takanashi – Pedophile. Most times he’s brought up it’s about this or his dealings with Inami.
• Kyoko – Lazy glutton gang member who eats the entire stock of food on a regular basis. Every time you see her this is the joke.
• Poplar – Being short. 90% of jokes and over half her lines are about this. She has nothing else to her entire existence aside being short.
• Satou – Likes Yachiyo and likes teasing Poplar. Violent. Most times he’s brought up it’s for one of these two things (which, by the way, are going nowhere).
• Souma – Stalker who just helps in the kitchen, not even a cook. Every time he’s relevant it’s about blackmail or information spreading/hiding.
• Yamada – Attention craving girl who ran away from home and hides her identity. She is one of the more multifaceted characters but at the same time is still pretty holed into one role – the stupid child who thinks she’s better than she is.
• Yachiyo – Entirely ignorant of the modern world – from technology to carrying a katana around. Major joke is ignorance/obliviousness.
• The “normal” girl – Clearly has a disorder of some sort about fitting in and personal image issues as she’s shown to have serious panic attacks several times over how she’s perceived. The few scenes she has revolve 100% around this issue.

• Yamada’s brother – Idiot. All he does is be stupid, very generic “dumb” style character.
• Takanashi’s Sisters – I’m tall and manipulative! I’m an alcoholic slut! I’m a piece of shit who can’t even stand on my own! I’m a strong working woman who don’t need no man! All four have their own one issue which is the only thing to their personality.
• The twins that are in Kyoko’s gang (forgot their names) who help at wagnaria – Extremely aggressive and violent; known gang members. Brainless goon stereotype jokes constantly.
• Otoo-san – Where’s my wife (why not ask the cops)? Coward. Hiding a missing girl in his store. Hiring insane people. Not firing or pressing charges against Yachiyo who has very nearly killed him several times. Not firing any of the other staff who have assaulted people. The constant joke about him is that he’s worn out and can’t find his wife.
• Inami’s classmates – Force Inami into going up against a sexual assaulting mugger without hesitation or any concern for her safety. The joke the few times they are around is some retarded thing about how “not because it’s funny, but because we’re friends”. Said after almost every line in a mental monologue.
• Inami’s father – If you ask me, he’s by far the worst human being in this show- both in terms of the show and as a human fucking being. He’s desipicable. He’s like if Usagi Drop MC guy (manga where he FUCKS his little girl after she grows up) doesn’t get his way with his daughter and turns into this shit instead. This fucking guy ruined his daughter’s life entirely, he’s so bad it genuinely makes me angry even though he’s just a fucking cartoon character. It really pisses me off. The “joke” with him is that he’s a piece of shit. What a piece of shit.

And none of them, aside Inami, actually do anything about their issues – some even pretend they don’t have one. Nobody develops as a person, nobody has more to them than one very flat and uninteresting issue that they very stereotypically and generically play out while having a billion jokes about it come up every time they are on screen. Inami is the only one who has more than that to her and is practically the only character with, well, character. The rest are just sort of personified versions of their issues and nothing more than that. I do love the show and the entire cast, so don’t take it as saying that’s a bad thing – it just goes to show that she is one of the most well developed and interesting cast members is all.

This is exactly why Inami has so much of a focus. Without it focusing on the ONLY character with any development or progress we’d literally get hammered by the same joke over and over again. Poplar would appear and we’d hear about how she’s short, then she’d go complain about being short, followed by a scene about someone joking about how short she is to tease her, then her measuring herself and noticing she’s still short while stomping off angry about being short. Then the next episode would be the same. This, no matter how much you want to exaggerate, is not how Inami is handled. Her punches are at most a method of showing her development, and they aren’t around nearly as often as people like to pretend.

“She attacks men brutally, why isn’t she arrested? How does she keep her job? This is so fucking retarded there’s no way she wouldn’t be locked up or at least unemployed like this!”

Let’s look back to the previous point and then realize, oh, this is another thing that EVERY CAST MEMBER DOES and some even do worse, more often, and on a more illegal and life threatening or fatal injury level.

Here’s a short list of basically everyone else’s violence and-or very dangerous activities in one way or another;

• Inami – Only attacks out of instinctive defensive reasons, she isn’t violent by nature but as a product of her disability and shitty parenting. Goes very out of her way to avoid causing harm to others. Actually very kind and working hard to fix this about herself. Even when she does attack, she’s just a stronger-than-average teenage girl who punches you usually one single time. Unless you suffer from a disease that makes your bones as brittle as dried up cat shit then there’s nothing to worry about.
• Takanashi – Magically is extremely strong but holds back – not really violent unless you consider how he is with people he dislikes; most notably Yamada’s brother whom he purposefully hurts more than he needs to simply out of jealousy (of him and Inami) and goes far enough that Yamada shows signs of genuine pain and fear at the time of the attack. He’s clearly quick to violence against men he dislikes. He is also a pedophile, so given this he’s a very big danger to the public – hell even the series brings this up with Poplar of all people screaming (seriously, not jokingly) for someone to call the police when she sees him with a little girl. Satou, usually quiet about this stuff, badgers him about stealing the child until they finally believe him as well. He’s a real threat to children and men he doesn’t like, and even the cast knows this.
• Kyoko – Physically and verbally abusive to her customers frequently. This includes calling them fat or ugly as well as kicking the shit out of them. Worse yet, on a regular basis she has customers mugged once they leave simply because they offended her. This is extremely illegal and extremely dangerous to the public. Leader of a proven to be violent gang. She also aids in the continual coverup of Yamada’s information from the police and her family.

• Satou – Physically assaults Souma on a daily basis. Sometimes it’s just a little kick or jab, nothing serious, other times Souma is earnestly screaming for help or for him to stop – usually when he’s using extremely heavy kitchen items to smash his head in. Also, what he does to Poplar is clearly emotional abuse.
• Souma – Serious stalker. This isn’t physical violence, it is however harassment, mental abuse, and invasion of privacy on all sorts of levels. Not only that, but he very often tends to blackmail other employees – which is highly illegal and dangerously manipulative.
• Yachiyo – EXTREMELY DANGEROUS – Extremely prone to violence (even willing to murder) in the case of Kyoko asking for it – or – someone being a way she dislikes with Kyoko. Blatantly breaks weapons laws and carries a katana around, which is highly illegal in Japan. She has SEVERAL TIMES held her very real katana to the throats of both Otoo and Souma, in a very serious and threatening manner – not a joke or something. She is by far the most dangerous to society in terms of life threatening level, as she’s the only one who has seriously threatened lives. She attacks Otoo almost every time he’s there (only one exception). She also will do the earlier mentioned things for Kyoko if asked. Actually, in season 1 she DOES literally attack to kill Otoo on several occasions – he only gets EXTREMELY lucky. She does NOT stop or just threaten, he simply gets lucky he can stop her sword or run away in time. It’s a miracle she hasn’t killed someone, proof she’s by far the most dangerous of the entire cast and the one who most legitimately should be arrested. She not only has tried murdering two of her coworkers (Otoo and Souma), she’s also canonically mugged or aided in mugging of customers and, if bothered by anyone, is “defended” by her gang friends who will assault said people later.

This is a “normal” situation involving Yachiyo if you ever mention Kyoko – and this is much more tame than her interactions with Otoo.

• The twins (again, the ones that work for Kyoko and are in the gang) – One is an “insurance salesman” and it is clearly shown that by this she means she’s a Yakuza enforcer running an insurance scam. Extremely dangerous and very clearly violent. The brother is just a lowly street thug, but still a dangerous person prone to violence.
• Takanashi’s sisters – One is manipulative, which isn’t violent but rather dangerous, especially since she intends on being a politician. The alcoholic is only likely to end up with public indecency charges, so she’s okay too. The next is no threat to anyone other than herself. However the oldest, the lawyer, is not only violent, but regularly assaults people so often that she purposefully buys heavy and large books specifically to throw at people’s faces – which is ironic given she’s a lawyer and should know better than to attack people.
• Otoo-san – This one is less factual and more of a possibility, but he shows up with Yamada out of the blue, lets her use a false name, and lets he live at the store. This sounds more like he forced her into Stockholm syndrome and has kidnapped her for ransom from her family. Of course, that’s not the case – but it’s entirely how the police would see it if they found a little girl living in the attic of the restaurant. As for actual threat, he literally took in a random little girl, didn’t tell the police, and just lets her live there – even if it’s all pure and good intentions that’s still very bad.

If any of these people can maintain a job, let alone a free life in the world, then Inami is by far the LEAST of worries for the community around Wagnaria. Those who argue with me often like to say the rest of those are for comedy – but Inami is not, and that’s just bullshit. Why would she be serious and nothing else in the show be? The lack of consistency or evidence for that proves it’s not the way it is. Either everyone is seriously like this, or it’s all just exaggerated for the sake of entertainment. In both cases though, Inami is not a big threat – even at her most exaggerated she’s never done more than put a very quickly-healed bruise on someone.

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