The Little Key Frames Girl

With a total of thirty cuts to work on, Aoi starts assigning scenes for the final episode to the company's key animators, including Ema at the request of Yumi. However, with dozens of cuts still remaining and not enough animators at Musashino, Aoi struggles to find willing animators working outside the company who would work on the cuts, as other studios are busy with their own anime. She begins contemplating on hiring self-proclaimed amateur animators, but Erika warns her that by doing so, the overall quality of the episode's animation will fluctuate and the schedule will be further delayed due to the director and the animation supervisor having to fix the cuts. While scheduling a meeting with Onodera, a potential candidate, Aoi goes to The Born, an animation company she had previously applied for but was rejected as she did not have a clear idea of what she wanted to do at the time. There, she meets up with Onodera, only to learn that he moved on to become an episode director. The next day, Aoi and Tarō are brought on to help interview candidates applying to Musashino Animation. Meanwhile, Erika learns that her father has been hospitalized and ends up overworking herself to try and take her mind away from the situation. Eventually, Tarō drives her back home. Pushed further to find animators with Erika out of action, Aoi approaches Watanabe for any recommendations as he plays mahjong with Katsuragi and other industry members. One of Watanbe's playmates, Masato Onoue, jokingly suggests finding a high-profile animator, Mitsuaki Kanno, only for Aoi to take him seriously and go off in search of him.