Episode 12 – Draw This, Then Die!

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t sobbing emotionally by the end of this finale. When I started Draw This, Then Die!, I knew it was going to tug at my heartstrings given that its premise was all about creative people discovering and rediscovering their passions. As somebody who keeps throwing themselves into creative fields, I think art like this is so important because it serves as a reminder of why I pursue things in the first place while also being realistic about the ups and downs that come with being an artist. I didn’t expect to relate so heavily to characters like Teshima, who suffered a psychotic break. But much like her, this show as a whole fills me with light to keep trying.

This episode makes it clear that the reason why Teshima quit being a manga creator was that she just couldn’t take it anymore. She did have a passion for creating manga, but that passion got buried under overwhelming negative emotions like jealousy, insecurity, and exhaustion. She was already easily influenced by those emotions. Add physical burnout, and she never had a chance. She basically lost sight of why she wanted to be a manga creator in the first place. For the entire show, Teshima had been telling Yasumi that she should only be a manga creator as a hobby, and while Teshima is definitely jaded about the manga industry, it’s clear that this was to protect them both. She didn’t want Yasumi’s smile to be destroyed, but she also didn’t think she could handle seeing Yasumi as a reminder of what she went through. The irony is that Yasumi’s response served as a reminder of the difference between the two.

It doesn’t matter if you do something professionally or as a hobby; as long as you’re making something you’re happy with and that other people can find interesting, that burnout should never destroy you. Teshima probably never even considered that her manga could reach somebody because she got so overwhelmed in the throes of just meeting those deadlines and making something popular. The irony is that Teshima’s life came full circle in finding one of her most devout fans, and it’s in meeting Yasumi that she might be willing to pick up a pen again in the future. The show is a little ambiguous about what Teshima will do next, and with the recent announcement of a second season, that could be the next major arc of the show. Even without that announcement, this is how this season needed to end.

This finale even retroactively absolves one complaint I had last week regarding Pokota. I thought the show was being inconsistent or poorly writing Pokota’s potential exit from the show, but it turns out that the show was just trolling me because he’s not going anywhere. If anything, he has a bunch of imaginary friends to chill out with because every new creation of Yasumi is just another element of her world that he gets to interact with. That’s really cute because I interpret that as Pokota literally being the representation of Yasumi’s creativity. Him exiting the show might actually be more of a negative sign than a positive one because Yasumi should never lose that creative spark, and I would really like to see how far that spark of hers can go in any more physically demanding field.

That’s what the first half of this episode was: shadowing with the editor. Fujimori and Yasumi didn’t just immediately buckle under the pressure of their manga getting a lukewarm reaction. Instead, they took the criticism and applied it to their story without compromising the ideas that they came up with. They listened, reacted, and adapted. They literally did what Teshima could not based on all of her flashbacks. I know that Yasumi isn’t fully sure about being a professional, but she might have a better chance of making it in the creative world than Teshima because she was always willing to put that passion first. Plus, having a great support group like the other characters further solidifies that she could go far compared to Teshima, who seemed to be much more of a loner until the late stages of her career. This is the finale that wraps up the main arc and perfectly embodies the main message of the show, but there are so many little things that can still be built upon in a second season. I feel very satisfied with my time here. I laughed, I cried, and I felt very emotionally overwhelmed, even as I write this final review. I’m looking forward to seeing what other endeavors this cast will have and what other ways it’ll gut punch me in the future.

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Draw This, Then Die! is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.