WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Tokyo 24th Ward Episode 2, "Sepia Graffiti," now streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation.
The Winter 2022 anime season introduced fans to the tense world of Tokyo 24th Ward, where Tokyo's newest island ward is in the middle of a controversy over its use of Hazard Cast, a Minority Report style surveillance system. Protagonist Aoi Shuta and his friends find themselves in the middle of the conflict, but they haven't forgotten their innocent roots.
Ever since their childhood, Shuta, Akagi Ran and Suido Koki were best friends at the same elementary school, along with Suido's sister Asumi and their mutual friend, Sakuragi Mari. One year ago, the friends tried to protect their old school from getting razed, but then disaster struck -- and that tragedy still haunts the friends to this day, especially Shuta and Mari.
Episode 2 of Tokyo 24th Ward provides more context to the dreadful elementary school fire where Suido Asumi lost her life, and the school's role in Shuta's story hints at the slice-of-life genre in this sci-fi thriller anime. During his boyhood, Shuta was already good friends with Ran and Koki, while Asumi cheerfully named her three friends RGB -- after their hair colors -- and Mari was there too.
Having stuck together in all the years since, a flashback revealed that in the late 2010s they resolved to save their abandoned elementary school from getting torn down. That building has sentimental value to them, but is also historic as the first school ever built on this island ward. The friends launch a campaign to petition the ward government to reconsider tearing it down.
Shuta and the gang were making good progress with their campaign -- until the school caught on fire one night, and Mari failed to stop Asumi from running inside and losing her life. Shuta did rush in to rescue everyone but couldn't save Asumi, and both he and Mari now blame themselves heavily for her death. This loss places a firm barrier between the good old slice-of-life days at school and the present, where Shuta and his friends fight as amateur superheroes to save the day. It seems their childhood innocence is lost and their lives will only become grimmer from now on. But there's still hope.
In the present of Episode 2, Shuta clings to his desperate idea that Asumi somehow came back to life, and Mari is similarly weighed down by the past. The night Asumi died, Mari recorded a message to encourage her future self to move on, yet she still struggles to do so. Feeling down, Mari returns to her family's okonomiyaki shop -- only to find the RGB squad there and the three friends are in high spirits.
They and Mrs. Sakuragi warmly welcome Mari back, and she recalls a fond memory of her and Asumi washing the restaurant's dishes together. Even if Mari has trouble letting go of her past's darkest moments, the brightest memories still remain, and that gives reason for Mari to have hope. The slice-of-life past just might return someday.
Mari certainly needs hope soon, because she also has a cooking competition on her plate. Her family's restaurant will compete with the Takara Mall's best eatery, Mon Jungle, and Shuta and his friends plan to support them during the GourFes event. The restaurant is on the line and, interestingly enough, a plot like this sees Tokyo 24th Ward again echo the slice-of-life genre. Even with her family's restaurant at stake, this relatively ordinary conflict is just what Mari and her RGB friends need; they can enjoy the challenge and take their minds off the worst night of their lives. This is surely what Asumi would have wanted for them all.
