Boy, I gotta say – Trillion Game is just really good. And it gets better and better on a pretty consistent trajectory, which is the main reason I don’t feel worse than I do about not covering it for almost a cour. There’s a terrific cast here, top to bottom. But making Gaku the de facto MC was the best decision Inagaki Riichirou made with this series. He’s grown into a really exceptional anchor for everything that happens. He’s the heart and soul of Trillion Game, no question about it. He pulls off the extremely rare feat of being both the audience POV character and the most interesting person in the cast.
This is a backwards-facing episode in more ways than one, a relative rarity for TG. First off, it’s a trip to repay the early investors who stuck their neck out for Haru and Gaku when no one else would. Specifically, Mitsuzono Flowers and Maeyadama-san. This is not sentimentality – it’s business. They took a risk, they earn the rewards (a lot of them, especially Maeyadama). But it’s undeniably sentimental, seeing their success reward those who believed in them. Especially Mitsuzono-san, pushed to the brink by Dragon Bank but able to reclaim her company and its building thanks to Haru and Gaku’s success (and some shrewd decision-making on the way down).
It’s also very much a reflective episode for Gaku, who’s invited to his high school reunion (and a sendoff for a retiring teacher). As you’d expect the high school experience was not kind to Gaku. In fact the only positive memory he has is of Momose-san (Inagaki Konomi), a fellow introvert who played flute in the band and forever imprinted herself on Gaku’s psyche with a random act of kindness. She’s the main reason he goes to the reunion, and it’s predictably torturous for him until she shows up fashionably late.
These things are generally awful, though the reasons they’re awful evolve depending on the number on the invitation. For these whippersnappers it’s all about bragging, posing, and looking to get laid – none of which interest Gaku much. One braggart noses him out of the way when Momose shows up having undergone quite a transformation, now a rather glamorous figure. But the dude’s rather pathetic pose of working for an advertising agency is blown to pieces when Gaku (at his prompting) says he founded the company that made “Popping Land”. And since the agency the guy works for is God Promotion, all that’s left for him is to grovel.
In a sense, I don’t think there’s a right or wrong in what happens between Momose and Gaku. The heart of the matter is that he’s heartbroken that she changed – but from her perspective, she surely feels for the better. She’s more confident, proactive, and socially skilled. I don’t think she’s gold-digging with Gaku here – she probably always had a crush on him too, and like most people she went to her reunion hoping to hook up. But Gaku’s “Somewhere That’s Green” fantasy around Momose was never going to happen. She grew up and yes, she changed.
Gaku, arguably, hasn’t changed much. And again arguably, in his case that’s a good thing. He’s still kind and idealistic and that’s served him well. But he’s also a guy well into his 20’s who’s (presumably) never gotten laid and passed up a golden chance with the girl he always adored, who was absolutely keen to be with him for the night. He chose his fantasy over what would have been quite a game-changing reality. Again, not that he was wrong to do so – Gaku being Gaku is why he’s so likeable as a character. But still – fantasy isn’t reality, which is a lesson guys like Sakura and his fancy car are in the process of learning in their own way.
Eventually Gaku wanders past the parking lot where it all began with Haru, and then to the izakaya where the gang from work are drinking. They’re on the way out (it’s pouring and Sakura left the top down), but pile in to head to the next stop. This includes Rinrin, and if we know anything about Rinrin it’s that she’s highly idealistic herself. And the look on her face when Hebijima talks about why guys go to reunions is indeed a revealing one. There can’t be many in the audience who haven’t looked at Gaku and Rinrin and thought how logical it all seemed. But this is the first time the plot has seriously teased any possibilities in that direction.
This notion of how people change when money enters the picture is an interesting one. Truth is, this is a first-world problem if ever one existed – those who struggle financially have every reason to scowl in disgust. But in a society that’s largely financially egalitarian and lacks a really intense entrepreneurial tradition, where decades of economic stagnation has flattened out the peaks in the Japanese dream, it’s a topic that’s well worth exploring. Not for the first time I think Trillion Game is a pretty un-Japanese story in many ways, but that makes its explorations that much more fascinating.
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