Manager Kamiyama

Manager Kamiyama
He is proud to be a part of the rapidly growing food service industry as an elite "hands on" employee at headquarters. But as a manager of Yochinoya Shinbashi N. 1 Branch, he encounters the assault of an organized group of Fast Food Grifters. Later he moves to a famous foreign-owned fast food chain, but meets a similar destiny. He desperately tries to handle the situation with calm, but...

Kenji Kamiyama
(Saitama Prefecture, 1966). Best known as the director and scriptwriter of the world-acclaimed million-seller TV series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. One may notice Mamoru Oshii's irony in the line "there was no future for Kamiyama as a manager," pronounced by the narrator in the movie.

WORDS
Narrator: The maximum number of buns and meat patties that could be placed on a griddle is about twenty. But everything that was hastily wrapped up disappeared into the man's stomach at once. Kamiyama was already working on the next unit of twenty burgers, but it was obvious he couldn't keep up the pace with this man. Furthermore, it was near lunchtime, and a couple of new customers arrived, adding more orders to be filled. The late shift staff, Noda and Sakurai, had not showed up yet. But even if they were to reach the frontline, the surface area of the griddle would not increase. This led Kamiyama to keep on arranging the buns on the griddle and turning the meat patties as he prayed that the man's rate of digestion would slow down. Kamiyama sent in the second and the third units of 20 burgers as reinforcements, but the man annihilated them all. Experts warn against deploying additional troops consecutively. This is a definite strategic error, as Kamiyama knew too well. But there was a major supposition that bound him: the surface area of the griddle, the device used for the reproduction of his fighting force, was absolutely unchangeable. Therefore, Kamiyama had no choice. Other fronts, otherwise easy to handle, were also beginning to fall into deadlock. Trainee Tomoe was already in a frenzied state, endlessly deep frying useless amounts of potatoes.
This was a sign of a system breakdown.
Then, a shrieking voice echoed in the shop.
Tomoe: One hundred double burgers, please!

© 2006 MAMORU OSHII, Production I.G / TACHIGUISHI RETSUDEN Committee