Tsurikichi Sanpei

As far as I’m aware, Tsurikichi Sanpei is the first anime about fishing. In fact, other than a small handful of titles, there aren’t that many anime solely about fishing. We recently had Houkago Teibou Nisshi back in 2020, and in 1997 there was Super Fishing Grander Musashi, both of which featured fishing as the main focus. But I struggle to name more besides those and a few others. Perhaps it’s the slow and monotonous nature of fishing that is hard to translate into entertainment—something I assumed before getting into Sanpei. I couldn’t have been more incorrect. So how does Tsurikichi Sanpei make fishing entertaining? And does it live up to the expectations of being one of the first anime about fishing? Tsurikichi Sanpei adapts a popular 1973 fishing manga under the same name, written and illustrated by Takao Yaguchi, into 109 episodes. It follows the experiences and encounters of Mihira Sanpei on his adventures to learn all there is to know about fishing. The anime follows an episodic structure with sets of multi-episode arcs ranging from 3-6 episodes interspersed between single episodic stories. Tsurikichi Sanpei is in fact so episodic that there is no overarching plot whatsoever, with the only semblance of one being Sanpei’s quest to find his father after an accident out at sea that left him with permanent brain damage, wandering throughout Japan with no memory of who he or his family is. However, this plotline is rarely of importance for the episodic stories because Sanpei is instead more interested in focusing on the fishing aspects. This is not a bad thing at all as this style of storytelling lends itself to a laid-back experience which suits its TV Anime format. Fishing takes centre stage in every episode, including everything from fishing technique to fishing locations and, of course, the fish themselves, thus creating both an entertaining and educational experience at the same time. From analysis about fish and their habitats to exploring a diverse range of different fishing techniques, Sanpei never fails to deliver an educational perspective to the bulk of its episodes. Hell, some of the techniques shown seem so obscure that I can’t help but be fascinated. Episodes 40 to 42 are a great example of this. In this story arc, Sanpei is taught the technique of catching mudskippers using a unique spiked fishing hook, guided by a master of the art. The episode goes into great detail about the patience and immense precision needed to perform this technique, and over the span of 3 episodes we watch as Sanpei slowly masters it. I love these longer multi-episode stories as they convey precisely the patience and time investment needed in fishing. A lot of the single episodic stories weren’t that interesting to me; most didn’t take the time to expand on the information presented. In comparison, it felt like Sanpei was able to breathe and take its time when it came to these longer stories. Though with that being said this wasn’t an issue I found in the second half because many episodes began to focus more on dramatic character stories. These educational moments are, of course, intertwined with the stories being told in each episode. Episodes 40 to 42 were accompanied by a competition with the son of a rival mudskipper fishing master, which provided the much-needed drive for Sanpei to master the skill himself. Episodes can vary in storytelling; some can be as simple as a laid-back story about learning a new fishing technique, while others can be blood-pumping high-stakes insanity. For example, Episode 53 is a pretty laid-back episode about catching a golden koi and explaining the phenomenon behind its colour. Then, the stretch of episodes immediately following, episodes 54–57, has one of the craziest moments in the whole anime. The story starts off with Sanpei participating in a competition to troll the biggest marlin (a type of fish) as he meets a veteran fisherman who explains that years ago he and his friends were attacked by a massive marlin, which not only killed his friend but also damaged one of the old man’s eyes, ripped off his arm after it was caught in the fishing line, and was violently attacked in the stomach. After hearing this, Sanpei makes it his goal to find that same massive marlin. So eventually they find the fish out in the ocean, made clear by the fact that it seemingly recognised the old man after he joined alongside Sanpei. After a long battle to maintain the Marlin, the old man stands directly in front of it on his boat, and in a fit of rage, the Marlin jumps up and fucking leaps into the boat, causing a massive chunk to rip off, and continues to bash into the boat till it’s completely tired out, to which then the old man pierces its eye and finally kills it, but then immediately following a group of sharks appear, so Sanpei and the old man have a battle with the sharks so they don’t eat the dead marlin still in the water. After the insanity that was this stretch of episodes, the following episode is just a simple story about a unique use of bait to catch a certain fish. The way Sanpei can jump from laid-back stories detailing unique techniques or analysing fish to pure insanity with battles against fish makes getting into each episode always exciting. What makes some of these episodes so suspenseful is the inherently erratic nature of fish. Like in the aforementioned Marlin episode, when the Marlin suddenly pulls on Sanpei’s rod, it causes him to almost fly out of his trolling chair. There are many scenes like this throughout the anime that play on this unpredictableness. I’m a huge fan of both the laid-back educational episodes and the suspenseful, stakes-driven episodes. All of these aspects are what create such a unique experience where it’s both educational and entertaining, which is how Sanpei manages to make learning about fishing a very enjoyable experience. Sanpei himself is a fun character to follow. He is incredibly talented and knowledgeable about every aspect of fishing. Yet despite this greater knowledge, he’s always very humble. We get to see throughout the series Sanpei sharing his knowledge of fish with others, like in episode 83, wherein Sanpei is trying to teach his friend Yuri how to catch a fish using a dragonfly when a man walks up to them and asks if he can watch. Sanpei, realising the man knows this technique of fishing, immediately offers for the man to join in with them, and they spend the rest of the episode getting to know each other and enjoying their time fishing together. With that being said though, there are plenty of episodes about a technique or unique fish that Sanpei knows nothing about, yet he is always willing to learn about them. The mudskipper episode I mentioned before is a good example of this. This is an important aspect of what makes Tsurikichi Sanpei so entertaining. We, the audience, are learning these techniques and analyses about fish alongside Sanpei. It’s the opposite of another edutainment anime I love, Oishinbo, where Yamaoka is often the one telling others the facts and information about food. Riffing off of the Oishinbo comparison for a moment; one aspect of Oishinbo that I like a lot in comparison to Tsurikichi Sanpei is a sense of community. Sanpei meets a lot of people throughout the series, yet almost every character is self-contained within their respective episodic stories. In comparison, Oishinbo has many characters we meet throughout the series who reoccur, even if for only an episode or two. While I personally love this aspect of Oishinbo’s storytelling, it’s only fair to point out that the lack of said aspect in Tsurikichi Sanpei puts greater emphasis on other aspects. Like the aforementioned focus on the different techniques, unique locations, and different analyses of fish and their habitats, the characters within these stories are used to facilitate these ideas. This approach is entertaining in its own unique way. Though this isn’t to say the characters …