I'm a big fan of Takeshi Shudo's writing. You prob know him from his work on episodes and movies in the early years of the Pokemon anime. He's my favorite author, though I won't be going into that here. This post is from me watching one of his other creations: Minky Momo. (Specifically ep 4, which he wrote from what I understand.) Originally this was a thread on twitter from March 18th 2022. (when I was sick.) What you're seeing here is a re-write I made for Tumblr, where I've been re-posting some of my favorite stuff I wrote on twit. I'm not going to do many backlog uploads on this site. This piece, and what I talk about in it, is really important to topics I'd like to talk about on this blog moving forward. Thus, I'm taking the time to pop it on here for ease of access. For clarity, this version was edited from its original twitter form for anything I didn't think needed to be here in hindsight and spelling stuff.
Minky Momo ep 4 might be one of the most wild and maybe even sad eps Takeshi Shudo has written (to my knowledge.) Go watch, for real, I'm about to spoil it.
It's starts out fine. Momo's ma is threatening to divorce her dad, Momo DGAF about her grades, just normal shit for Shudo. Then we meet the character of the day, Ken. At first he's just some kid staring out the window during class. Momo is so curious about why he's looking out at the sky, she pokes him with a pencil getting them both in trouble (and failing their tests I think.) She keeps trying to hang out with him and he's all like "fuck off." (my words) For some reason another student knows that his dad is an archeologist and his ma "works late so he has to go home and watch the house after school."
Momo stalks him to his place and he's like fuck off. (again.) Like a week later his bird is sick and he comes into the vet Momo's earth "dad" runs and momo cures it. He asks her to, and I'm not joking to "see his room" tho not in THAT way I promise. Anyway, his house is full of ancient artifacts his dad "found" which includes a map of the fairy world Momo come from. (Honestly this is interesting stuff, I'ma skip it for pacing.) We get to the kids room and find out he's beyond "I'm feeding these crows because they're my only friends". His toys are his friends. Legit. Not making it up. This kid is so lonely that he's resorted to this shit.
Then to make his life worse, but actually in the end not, the one time Ken didn't watch the house his entire apartment catches on fire. He goes inside to save his bird and friends, a cop is like "fine, I'm not gonna go save you kid." and Ken is like an inch away from Death. Really. Ovi Momo tried to save him, but she wasn't gonna get to him in time, so she used her magic to make the toys come alive and (I think?) create a barrier around him until she could get to his room.
At the end of the episode he's like "I know they saved me and now they're from the dream world. Even if no one believes me" ( I can't remember what Momo's land is called rn sorry.) At least he's happy I guess. You know what's wild? This would be the episode most people would remember from the series. The poor abused child grappling with a slipping mental state due to isolation from his parents to protect their stolen property almost dies in a fire to save his imaginary friends. But instead, (unless there's something else I don't know about.) the truck-kun episode happened to be in the same series.
Sad dark plotlines mixed with the wildest of scenarios is one of the reasons I love Takeshi Shudo's work so much. This is peak his work. Damn, I don't even think Ken and Momo became friends. He's Fren exclusive to Mr. Peanut. (A lot of his friends seem to be from other IPs.) I won't forget Ken or this episode for a while.