Attention Please - Cultural Artifact #1

For my cultural artifact, I watched an episode of a Japanese television drama called Attention Please. The series is about Misaki Yoko, an energetic, tomboyish girl who desires to become an elegant, refined flight attendant. As a trainee, Misaki is very clumsy and awkward, and she often gets herself and her friends in trouble with the supervisors and the other flight attendant trainees.

The main themes of the series are selflessness, forgiveness, and the value of friends. In one episode that illustrates all of these themes nicely, Misaki's friend Yuuki is having trouble with her first aid training, and won't be able to graduate unless she can pass it. In her usual well-intentioned but mischievous fashion, Misaki helps her friend by "borrowing" the dummy used for first aid practice and sneaking off with Yuuki to practice in secret. Yuuki protests that it's not right to take the dummy, but Misaki ignores her protests and drags her along anyway. Because three people are needed to practice, Misaki also drags along her other friend Yayoi, who had plans for a date that evening, and wouldn't have gone if it weren't for Yuuki. The girls end up accidentally breaking the dummy during practice, and Misaki decides that it would be best to hide it at her house until they could fix it. On their way back, the dummy loses an arm. The short-tempered Misaki and the stressed-out Yayoi have a major fight over whose fault it was, and the two end up not speaking to each other. Tensions between the two run high for a while, and their entire class suffers for it. In the end, the two bump into each other while individually searching for the lost arm, realize they both care about Yuuki, and finally make up with each other. Calm and focused at last, the girls practice hard, and they are all able to pass the first aid training.

As I said, the episode illustrates the main themes of the series quite well. Despite knowing she could get herself in trouble, Misaki selflessly helps Yuuki with her first aid training. Yayoi selflessly joins them even though she finally got her first date with her crush. Misaki and Yayoi forgive each other for overreacting under stress, Yayoi's date immediately forgives her for not showing up, and the supervisor forgives the girls for stealing the dummy. When they finally get back to school, the friends stick together and all accept equal responsibility for stealing the dummy, even though it was Misaki's idea. Though Misaki would be a terrible role model in real life, she still teaches us some valuable lessons. If we were able to help our friends only by putting ourselves at risk or by giving up something precious, could we be as selfless as Misaki or Yayoi? Should we stick by our friends when they're in trouble, even if we are not personally in trouble, and if so, would we? Finally, are we able to forgive our friends and make amends with them despite how angry we are with them or how wrong we think they are?