"Do what's right, and everything will work out": What it means to work in The Aquatope on White Sand

Every morning, before school and work, Misakino Kukuru performs the same ritual. She heads over the a shrine by her house, leaves out some food, claps her hands twice, and says "makuto soke nankurunaisa." "Nankurunaisa," translating roughly to "everything's gonna be alright," is a famous idiom associated with the people of Okinawa. And it's most often used as part of the aforementioned prayer of "makuto soke nankurunaisa," meaning something like "do what's right, and everything will work out," as Crunchyroll used for the subtitles on their service. I love this for a number of reasons, such as the way it adds a sense of authenticity to the setting. Okinawa in anime is generally reserved for big outings, climactic trips similar to someone in the U.S. heading to Hawaii, but here, it's the main setting. Specific language like "nankurunaisa," alongside other ways the series conveys the culture and attitudes of Okinawa and its people, create a sense of unique culture which helps to make this show's presentation of Okinawa feel genuine, and like it came from a place of love and respect for the setting. But I believe that the particular inclusion of "makuto soke nankurunaisa" has another purpose, as a framing device which the story recontextualizes over the course of its run. In understanding how we're meant to interpret "makuto soke nankurunaisa" at various points in the story, we can find a glimpse of Aquatope's general attitude towards work, and what it truly means to work. As a story about young women finding themselves through their work, and the fourth in a larger series about working women, I think there's a lot of resonance to gleam from understanding why this idiom was chosen on a thematic level, and I want to share this aspect of the story that helped me to fall in love with it so much. 

We first see this phrase used less than a minute into the show. After a series of establishing shots, we watch Kukuru leave her house and perform the ritual. It's literally the first line of dialogue in the show, setting the phrase up as something to think about. Kukuru is the granddaughter of the owner of Gama Gama Aquarium, an old and run down aquarium with equipment that needs to be fixed or replaced, and not enough money to do it. Kukuru works as its acting director, and is desperate to save it from closing before the end of the summer. Once this gets established, we can get a face value reading of her ritual. "Do what's right, and everything will work out": If you're a good person and do the right thing, things will somehow turn out well for you. Kukuru repeats this prayer basically every day, almost as if she has latched on to it as her only hope of saving the place. If she prays hard enough and does the right thing all the time, something will grant her wish. And the series goes out of its way to make it feel like this is something that can plausibly happen, as we see the spirit of the shrine take her food offering, and grant magical phenomenon at the aquarium many times throughout the story. Kukuru basically wants a god to fix her problems, and a god is watching over her and able to do it. 

The first half of the series, apart from focusing on Fuuka's journey to get accustomed to her new job at Gama Gama, is about Kukuru's struggle to save Gama Gama from closing. We get a sense of just how much she loves aquariums when she gets upset at the fact that Fuuka didn't care about working at an aquarium and would have taken a job anywhere other than home. But eventually, Fuuka and Kukuru grow an intimate relationship, as Kukuru finds in Fuuka someone who understands her and can share in her dream. And from there, the series can start to focus on Kukuru coming up with ways to save Gama Gama. There's a sense of melancholy that pervades this portion of the story, making it easy to understand just how lost the characters would be without Gama Gama, which gives the story a sense of high stakes. But when you actually consider what happens, Kukuru doesn't really do all that much to attract customers and make money. In spite of the high stakes established, most of the episodes are light-hearted and fun just as often as they're dramatic and emotional. Kukuru really enjoys her time working at the aquarium, sharing her love and knowledge of marine life with kids. One episode is spent on the characters taking a day off and having a barbecue at the beach, and another largely focuses on the girls going out to taste ice cream. Kukuru comes up with a few plans, but they're all either too small scale to be meaningful, or desperate and unachievable. We never get a sense of how her goal is progressing, and unlike other shows about saving something from closure such as Aquatope's predecessor Sakura Quest, we have no idea how many customers the aquarium gets and how it changes on a day-to-day basis. This contrast between the stakes and generally positive attitude is entirely intentional, as is our inability to see the progress made towards her goal. Because at the end of the day, Kukuru never actually did much of anything, and made no meaningful progress.

That's not to say she lazed around all day or put in no effort. She performed her duties as acting director diligently. She played an important role in numerous events, such as setting up the touch tank at a hospital, and she even tried her hand at marketing. But what she ultimately did came down to just a few small things. She gets Udon-chan to set up a shaved ice stand and advertises it on social media to get a bit of extra money, a marketing scheme that does make a bit of extra money, but which is too small in scope to actually make a meaningful difference towards her goal. Selling cute fish themed shaved ice for three bucks for one day is not going to generate enough money to replace or fix expensive equipment. And other than that, her only efforts to save the aquarium were a desperate scheme to advertise supernatural phenomena that can't be activated consistently, and to eventually throw a tantrum and hole herself in the aquarium during a typhoon when all hope is lost.

She essentially prays for a miracle to happen, and this mirrors her interpretation of "makuto soke nankurunaisa" at this point in the series. For Kukuru, to "do what's right" just means to be kind and perform her duties diligently. If she does that, a miracle will come and make things turn out alright. She doesn't need to put in time, effort, planning, and money, things will simply work out. Haebaru calls her out on this during her short tenure shadowing Kukuru. Regardless of how she sees it, Kukuru is here to play, not to work. She's desperate to keep Gama Gama open for selfish reasons, just a tantrum she's throwing out of grief; to save the one place that connects her to her deceased parents and her unborn twin sister. She doesn't consider the safety of the animals, the feelings of her coworkers, or the feasibility of her ideal. Everyone around her has accepted that Gama Gama is beyond repair, and it's implied that her grandfather is letting her play around as acting director partially to let her gain experience, but mostly to allow his granddaughter one last fun summer working at the place she loves. 

By the end of the first half, everything does not "work out." Gama Gama is in shambles due to a typhoon, Kukuru is forced to accept that the place has to close for the safety of the animals, and her newfound biggest support in Fuuka leaves to find her own dream. Clearly, "do what's right, and everything will work out" does not mean to simply be a good person and do your basic duties well in exchange for divine intervention. And due to this, I don't think it's a coincidence that Kukuru goes to the shrine significantly less often in the second half of the series. In some ways, her failure to save Gama Gama has made her lose faith in that prayer, and other events in the second half of the story don't help things. But nonetheless, she has to move on to a life without Gama Gama, and (temporarily) without Fuuka. 

Kukuru's failure to save Gama Gama ultimately came down to not wanting to do the hardest work: to really put in the nitty gritty and plan things big enough in scope to meaningfully affect the place's income, and to compromise on things that would allow for better customer experiences. In other words, it was the fact that she wanted to have fun being an attendant, rather than put in the work as the marketing manager it desperately needed. And that's why it's so perfect that once she has to get to work at newly opened Tingarla, she's placed in the marketing department. This is the kind of work that she would have had to do to save Gama Gama. And as expected, she does not adjust to it well. She does try to give it her all at first, but she quickly grows to hate her work, and is desperate to go back to playing around with the animals as an attendant. Part of it is definitely her boss, who is a complete asshole and does a terrible job of motivating her and giving her reasonable work and guidance. But it's also a product of her own immaturity. Kukuru is still, at the end of the day, a child who would rather throw a tantrum and pray for God's help than put in the work to save the place she loves. At Tingarla, Kukuru is challenged on how much she loves aquariums. She was upset at Fuuka for not caring about aquariums, being willing to take any job no matter where it is. But Kukuru is no different. She only wanted to work at Gama Gama, and had no desire to work any job other than the one she had there, even if it's at another aquarium. She didn't care about aquariums, she only cared about Gama Gama. And this challenge brings her to her lowest point, and forces her to try and adjust her view on what "do what's right" actually means. 

The turning point comes when Kukuru is made to plan how weddings will be held in a new location at the aquarium. She gives it as much as she can, but ultimately fails to make a convincing plan, and gets rejected for the moment. She cares more about the animals than the people, and prioritizes keeping the animals safe over making a memorable wedding, without even a small amount of compromise. She's still incapable of realizing that an aquarium is a business that needs to attract people, more than just a fun place to express her love for marine animals. When Haebaru was shadowing at Gama Gama, a point is made that the key to running a great aquarium is to make the people happy, not to make a place that prioritizes education. The goal is to make the people interested in the fish on their own, not to shove the fish facts down their throats or force them to look at the tanks. If you can give the people a good overall experience, they will take interest in the critters naturally, and keep returning for the sake of that overall experience. Kukuru cannot see that, and when faced with the reality that her way will not make for an aquarium that gathers guests, she does what she's always done and runs away in a tantrum. 

But the series takes this point about making people interested in marine life further, providing one of the most unique and emotionally resonant arguments for wildlife conservation I've seen. By making people take interest in fish, you might encourage them to take interest in people. And by encouraging people to take interest in other people, you create a kinder, more empathetic world. Kukuru has the interest in fish, it consumes her brain at pretty much all times, even to the point of getting in the way of her school (when she was there, anyway). But she has not yet taken that next step of being interested in people. If "do the right thing" means to be kind to others, how can you do that if you are more interested in fish than people, or if you care more about your own selfish desires than the lives of those around you? 

Then Kukuru watches some sea turtles hatch from their eggs and start their lives heading towards the ocean, and learns about the damage that humans do to sea turtle populations, leading them towards extinction. While this event has a particularly big impact on Fuuka that drastically changes her path in life, Kukuru also takes something important from seeing it. If she cares about animals, she has to care about people. The sea turtles are one of many aquatic critters harmed by human activity, and the goal of an aquarium is to make people care about animals. If you do not focus on the people, you do not actually do anything for the animals. Attracting more guests to an aquarium is just the first step, your goal is to bring people to an environment where they will learn to care about sea life, and become more aware of problems like those facing the sea turtles. Their interest in learning about the animals should be built from empathy towards them, and building that will keep them coming back again and again. Having finally realized this, she returns to Tingarla and completes her job by changing her approach. For the first time in the series, Kukuru puts intense thought into her planning, and comes up with an inspired and impassioned presentation to convince the wedding planners to work with Tingarla. She gives her a tour, she makes compromises that will allow her to maintain the safety of the animals while making the wedding memorable for all who attend, and she gives a passionate speech about how wonderful it will be to make it look like a wedding at the bottom of the ocean (honestly, I want my wedding at Tingarla now). And in the end, it pays off. Her plan gets approved, but more importantly, the wedding planner takes an interest in fish and falls in love with the aquarium. That is what it takes to save an aquarium. It takes effort, dedication, compromise, communication, networking, and planning, all things she was simply not willing to do for Gama Gama. 

In the final episode of the series, Kukuru decides to stay in marketing even after being offered a job as an attendant. Unsure of her choice, she asks her grandfather if her decision was correct. And his response, I think, gets at the core of what "do what's right, and everything will work out" truly means. He tells her that she has to make her choice the right one. The path you choose can always be correct if you put in the work and keep enough of an open mind to make it so. To "do what's right" is to build empathy with people, to care about the feelings of others and work to make your job a rewarding one by doing so. It involves putting in the planning, doing the dirty work, keeping an open mind to things you may not like, making difficult compromises, and being aware of how precious life is. If you do that, you can make it so that everything will work out, but you have to be the one to make things work out. This recontextualization of "makuto soke nankurunaisa" from a desperate prayer for a miracle into a declaration of intent to make your life fulfilling is the ethos of The Aquatope on White Sand.

We work to live because life is precious, and the job of an aquarium marketing manager is to share how precious life is with curious people just waiting to learn about it. And anyone can make their precious life worthwhile, regardless of the job they spend it working for, so long as they work to "do what's right." So when the series ends with Kukuru and Fuuka putting food on the shrine, clapping their hands twice, and saying the mantra "do what's right, and everything will work out," it is proof that these characters have grown past the need for prayer. Having found themselves in their work, this is now their declaration that they intend to make their lives work out for themselves, and will accept any challenge that comes ahead with an open mind and a love for the path they chose.