Weakest Beast
獣になれない私たち
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A capable woman who never says no at work or to her boyfriend, and a man who cannot commit — the exhaustion of being 'good'.
Akira Shinkai, thirty, is a sales assistant at a small web company in Tokyo, praised by everyone for her bright smile. She also does the work of a departed sales manager and of the president's secretary, cleans up after the salesmen's mistakes, and absorbs the tirades of the autocratic president, Kenji Tsukumo. She has cut off her mother: her father beat them both until he died when she was in high school, and her mother then wrecked the family's finances in a pyramid scheme. Her boyfriend of four years, Kyoya Hanai, who works for a big property developer, promised they would live together, but his former girlfriend Shuri, jobless and withdrawn, has stayed in his flat all that time and will not leave.
At 5tap, the craft-beer bar where Akira drinks, she meets Kosei Nemoto, an accountant who has just learned that Kureha, the designer he thought of as his girlfriend, has married someone else. He tells Akira her smile looks fake. On a night when harassment from a client has left her unable to smile at all, they talk properly for the first time, and his remark that it would be easier to be a fool sends her into work dressed for battle to confront the president. She gets a new title and the same workload.
The knots tighten. Kureha, trying to push Akira into leaving Kyoya, sleeps with him and tells her. Kosei, to pay off his brother's debts, is signing a client's falsified tax returns. Kyoya's mother insists on nursing his bedridden father at home. Kyoya finally gives Shuri the flat, but Akira realises that clinging to him has meant throwing her own life away, tells him so, and ends it. Shuri takes a job at Akira's company, makes a costly mistake under the president's pressure and vanishes. When Tsukumo tells Akira the company would manage perfectly well without her, she and Kosei, both at their lowest, spend a night together and regret it.
In the last episode Akira tells the president that a one-sided relationship is a sad thing, hands in her resignation and leaves with her colleagues' good wishes. She turns Kyoya down for good. Kosei reports the fraud to the tax office, closes his practice and disappears. Kureha, hounded by the press, leaves for Sydney with her husband; Shuri is working in a ramen shop. On the night of 5tap's anniversary party, Kosei calls Akira to a brewery in Nasu, where they drink the beer they missed a year earlier and walk to a nearby church to hear its bell. The bell does not ring. Akira takes Kosei's hand, and he holds hers.
Starring
Yui Aragakias Akira Shinkai
A capable, endlessly obliging sales assistant who smiles through every demand at work and in love, until she cannot.
Akira Shinkai’s story
Akira does the work of three people at a small web company and, at home, waits for Kyoya to keep his four-year-old promise that they will live together. After a client's harassment leaves her unable to smile, a remark of Kosei's sends her into the office dressed for battle to demand change; she gets a title and the same workload. Kureha sleeps with Kyoya and tells her. When Kyoya finally gives Shuri the flat, Akira sees that clinging to him has meant throwing her own life away, and ends it. Told by Tsukumo that the company would manage without her, she spends a night with Kosei that both regret, then resigns with her colleagues' good wishes. On 5tap's anniversary Kosei calls her to Nasu, and at a church whose bell does not ring she takes his hand.
Ryuhei Matsudaas Kosei Nemoto
A sharp-tongued accountant at Akira's bar, jilted by Kureha and secretly signing fraudulent tax returns to cover his brother's debts.
Kosei Nemoto’s story
Kosei tells Akira her smile looks fake, and on the night she cannot smile at all he talks to her properly; his remark that it would be easier to be a fool sets her fighting. When he begs on his knees to stop signing the falsified returns, he is threatened into going on. He tells Kyoya, falsely, that he has slept with Akira. Learning that Kureha hid from him that she could no longer have children, sure he would not take it seriously, he feels how much he loved her. At their lowest, he and Akira spend a night together that both regret. At last he reports the fraud to the tax office, closes his practice and leaves town. On 5tap's anniversary he calls Akira to a brewery in Nasu, and when she takes his hand, he holds hers.
Kei Tanakaas Kyoya Hanai
Akira's boyfriend of four years, a property developer who cannot bring himself to make his former girlfriend leave his flat.
Kyoya Hanai’s story
Kyoya grew close to Akira when she was temping in his department, and four years ago promised they would live together in the flat he owns. But his former girlfriend, Shuri, whom he invited to move in when she quit her job, is still there, and his one attempt to make her leave fails. Kureha seduces him and tells Akira; Kosei claims to have slept with Akira, and Kyoya is furious. His mother insists on nursing his bedridden father at home. At last he gives Shuri the flat and moves out to find one for them both, and Akira tells him that clinging to him has meant throwing her own life away. Days later his father dies at home. He asks Akira to come back and she refuses; he wishes her happiness and resolves to look for love again.
Haru Kurokias Shuri Nagato
Kyoya's former girlfriend, out of work and withdrawn, who has lived in his flat for four years and refuses to go.
Rinko Kikuchias Kureha Tachibana
A free-spirited designer and model, Kosei's former lover, newly married, whose meddling makes everything worse.
Takaya Yamauchias Kenji Tsukumo
The president of Akira's company, quick-witted and bullying, who piles work on her and answers complaints with titles.
Why it matters
This is a drama about the cost of being good. Akira is the colleague who covers for everyone, the girlfriend who waits four years, the woman who smiles through a client's harassment, and the series shows that goodness as a self-erasure that workplaces and partners are glad to accept. The issues are ordinary and structural: a bullying boss who answers complaints with titles, emotional labour no job description names, a relationship stalled because a man cannot say no. The Japanese title calls them people who cannot become beasts, and that is the point: they cannot simply take what they want, and the drama will not pretend that is a flaw to be cured. Its ending offers no wedding and no promise, only a woman who has quit, walked away and reached for a hand of her own accord. What it leaves open is how much of one's life has to be given up before one is allowed to stop.