It lowers your heart rate. Two minutes of a very small shark existing in Yauo town, and somehow your shoulders come down from your ears. Season 1 built its whole case on the smell of nostalgia: morning radio exercises, festival stalls at dusk, the specific quiet of a town that doesn't need anything from you. Then Kozame-chan went to the big city and made new friends there, which is the closest this franchise gets to a plot twist. Season 2 hands you 72 more of these, which is less a season order than a prescription. There's no arc to keep up with, no stakes to brace for, just a shark going somewhere and you going with her. Watch one before bed. You'll watch four.

Kozame-chan, the little shark, returns in this second season of Odekake Kozame, a short-format slice-of-life series. The earlier season followed her everyday outings in Yauo town, a place with a nostalgic feel, where radio exercises, festival stalls and time with friends made for warm little adventures. A later film took her to the big city to meet new friends.