Wash It All Away – Episode 1

Content Warning: Nudity (bathing scenes)

What’s it about? Wakana Kinme has run a small laundry shop by the sea for the past few years, enjoying the quiet of Atami. But not all is perfect in seaside paradise as she learns about the often bittersweet, yet heartwarming, lives of those who she cares for.

Life in a coastal town is often, in my opinion, pretty darn superb. There’s an inherent slowness that’s come with living by the water, a tendency to gaze upon the sea and ponder. Living alongside nature so intimately has created a pathway to mindfulness where I engage with my environment not as a superior but as a steward who can pass on the place I live to others within my lifetime.

Enter Wash It All Away, a coastal story about laundry. And while laundry may not be the most happening topic, I have a good gut feeling that if you’re anything like me, you’ll find this premiere to be the exact kind of peace you need in an already turbulent year.

But the question remains, is the premise enough to remove even the toughest stains on our heart, or am I stuck with the little bit of curry roux on my cream sweater forever? Let’s dive in!

Wakaba runs through the city of Atami with laundry for delivery.

Episode 1 starts off with Wakana delivering laundry with a smile, something that automatically feels like a daily occurrence. Then the music sweeps in and automatically, something is different about the tone. This isn’t an action adventure story, nor a grand narrative; no, the joy and adventure are simply from life, and viewers see that as Wakana goes dashing through the city of Atami, laundry delivery bin in hand.

Throughout the episode are moments of others’ lives, little snapshots of the people who make up Wakana’s community and glimpses into her work as a professional clothing cleaner (a pink collar job that’s often derided). What is clear is that this is a series about caring for the community and the quiet moments, setting the tone for an entire series focused around cleaning the clothes and learning more about the lives of those who wear them.

Wakaba focuses on a pasta stain on a pink garment.

Readers who have seen my growth since I started in Summer 2020 will automatically know that I always fuck with a cozy show. I love shows set in the same place I grew into adulthood in: that classic inaka setting that’s suburban and still has juuuuust enough city vibes to feel like my current coastal home. And that’s exactly what is found pretty automatically in what has got to be one of my favorite premieres this season.

I was immediately struck not by the gorgeous animation (Wash It All Away is incredibly pretty, mirroring the manga’s art really well) but by the sincerity of the story. The stakes here aren’t saving the world: it’s removing pasta sauce or oil or a ground in stain. It’s pressing the pleat of a pair of pants just so, of giving care and attention to the clothes that foundationally and functionally make up our lives. It’s a simple plot but it’s so well executed that I couldn’t help but love it pretty much from second one.

It helps that this slice of life show is focused on adults, something that immediately draws the eye. Wakana is in her twenties versus being a teenager, making her immediately more relatable. It also makes the few nude scenes–they’re set in a bath and just feel like adult women at the public bath in a gloriously neutral way–feel incredibly normal. These are the day to day lives of Wakana and the women in her life that oscillate around her business: there’s nothing to sexualize, and that feels like a celebration in a show all about the snapshots of everyone’s day to day existence.

Wakaba walks back to her home surprised by the wonderful sound of fireworks after a bath.

Wash It All Away was always going to be incredibly Cy Catwell-Coded. I mean, it’s a slice of life seinen set in suburban Japan that follows the lives of everyday people through the lens and medium of laundry. Once more, I’ve joined the collective and in a Sybil System-esque way, have been part of the communal desire for more series like this. Thank goodness the execution was here so that Wash It All Away can stick in my mind like miso on my white sweater.

In the end, this is an easy “Please go watch this now” level recommendation from me. You don’t have to like the genre to enjoy it: this ongoing trend of heartwarming, humanly bittersweet story continues to be my everything, and when it’s done as well as Wash It All Away, it deserves your full attention if you can spare it.