Mizuki and the Shinagawa monkey

Mizuki and the Shinagawa monkey meet through a theft that makes a name tag more than a piece of workplace identification. After the monkey takes Mizuki’s tag and the one belonging to her friend Yuko Matsunaka, Mizuki’s already troubling lapses in remembering her own name acquire a concrete cause within the story. The encounter ends not with punishment but with her acknowledgment of a painful truth about her family, her recovery of her name, and her decision to return Yuko’s tag to the creature who stole it.

Names Before the Encounter

Mizuki’s name has several forms in her life. She was born Mizuki Ozawa and became Mizuki Ando when she married Takashi Ando. The new married name initially felt unfamiliar, but repetition and signing it gradually made it feel acceptable. At work, however, she continued using Ozawa because changing the name in the company’s computer system meant paperwork she would have to complete herself. Her business cards, name tag, and time card therefore continued to identify her as Mizuki Ozawa, while her tax status recorded her marriage. Her husband knew about this arrangement and accepted it as a matter of convenience.

That everyday division between married and maiden names matters because the loss Mizuki suffers is not a general failure of memory. She can recall other people’s names and her own address, telephone number, birthday, and passport number. The disruption concerns her own name: when someone asks unexpectedly, or when she is in a hurry, her mind can go blank. It began about a year earlier, first occurring roughly once a month and eventually at least once a week. If she has her purse, she can consult her identification; without it, the lapse leaves her feeling like a woman without a name. The name tag she uses at work and the name tag kept by Yuko become material links to identities she can usually inhabit without difficulty.

The Theft and the Discovery

When Mrs. Sakaki lays two tags on the desk, Mizuki sees her own name, Mizuki Ozawa, beside Yuko Matsunaka’s. She pales, returns to the sofa, and presses both hands to her mouth. Mrs. Sakaki explains that the tags were stolen and that recovering them is meant to help Mizuki recover her name. The explanation leads not to an abstract account of memory but to the person responsible.

In a small storage room with no furniture besides a chair, Mizuki finds a large, gray-flecked monkey tied to it with thin cord. Mrs. Sakaki identifies him as the thief from Mizuki’s apartment. The sight brings back Yuko’s earlier warning that she did not want a monkey running off with her name tag. What sounded like a joke now appears to have anticipated the theft, and Mizuki realizes that Yuko knew something of what was happening.

Asked why he steals names, the monkey describes it as a sickness he cannot control. A name that attracts him, especially a person’s name, can become irresistible; he sneaks into homes to take such names even though he knows the act is wrong. He admits that he tracked Mizuki down after suspecting Yuko might have left her tag with her. The search took him a long time: he had to learn that Yuko had given the tag to Mizuki, that Mizuki had married, and that she lived in a condominium in Shinagawa. Being a monkey made the investigation difficult. Once he found her, he stole both tags, not only Yuko’s. He apologizes and says Mizuki’s name moved his heart, but the explanation does not erase the harm she has endured.

What the Monkey Reveals

Mizuki does not stop at asking how or why the tags were stolen. Looking directly at the monkey, she asks what evil things have attached themselves to her name. The monkey first warns that the answer might hurt her and then says it would be better if she did not hear it. Mizuki insists that she wants to know. His account is severe: he says her mother has never loved her, her older sister dislikes her, and her mother sent her away to school in Yokohama to get rid of her. He describes her father as not a bad person but too weak to stand up for her. In the monkey’s interpretation, Mizuki grew up without enough love and learned to shut away her awareness of that fact, suppressing negative feelings until the defensive habit became part of her character. He connects that history to her inability to love another person deeply and unconditionally.

The revelation leaves Mizuki silent. She sinks to the floor, closes her eyes, and feels as if her skin, insides, and bones are coming apart; all she hears is her own breathing. Mr. Sakurada dismisses the monkey’s accusation as outrageous and urges the others to beat him. Mizuki interrupts him. She says the monkey is telling the truth, something she has known for a long time but has tried to avoid by closing her eyes and ears. Her response gives the scene its decisive turn: the thief has injured her, but he has also given words to a reality she had kept at a distance. She asks the others to forgive him and take him to the mountains to be released.

Recovery, Forgiveness, and Release

Mizuki’s decision is not presented as approval of the theft. She tells the monkey that she wants her name back and that she intends from then on to live with what is out there: her name and her life. She later adds that, deep down, she thinks she already knew what he told her, and that it was something she had to confront someday. The recovery of the tags thus coincides with a change in how she faces the family history the monkey has exposed. The name is not simply an answer retrieved from a purse or an administrative record; it becomes something she can claim while acknowledging what she had tried not to know.

As she says goodbye, Mizuki gives the monkey Yuko Matsunaka’s tag, telling him that he should have it because he liked Yuko. He agrees that he did. The exchange redirects the meaning of his theft: he had taken Yuko’s name because he was drawn to it, but Mizuki chooses to hand the tag back to him freely. Her gesture does not undo his compulsion or make his intrusion harmless; it changes the terms of their parting from forced possession to deliberate giving. The monkey thanks her for saving his life, while Sakurada warns him never to show his face in Shinagawa again and threatens him if he returns. The encounter therefore combines mercy with a clear consequence: Mizuki can forgive him and ask that he be released, while the officials still bar him from the place where he stole the tags.

The Relationship’s Significance

The relationship moves through a chain of reversals. The monkey begins as an intruder who has taken objects tied to Mizuki’s identity; he is then revealed as a compulsive thief capable of explaining the loss, and finally becomes the bearer of a truth Mizuki recognizes as her own. Mizuki, in turn, moves from alarm and anger at the consequences of the theft to questioning the monkey, accepting the truth in his answer, and choosing mercy. Neither character’s role is simplified: his apology acknowledges the harm without curing the compulsion, and her forgiveness follows—not precedes—the recognition of what the encounter has cost and revealed.

The two name tags give the relationship its concrete shape. Mizuki’s tag belongs to the professional identity she has continued to use as Ozawa, while Yuko’s tag connects the scene to a friend whose earlier warning now seems newly meaningful. When Mrs. Sakaki returns both, Mizuki’s name is restored to her and Yuko’s tag becomes a gift she can choose to pass on. The episode links names to memory and self-recognition, but it also distinguishes being named from being loved: recovering Mizuki’s tag does not repair her family past. What changes is her willingness to face that past as part of the life attached to her name. The monkey’s final farewell, and Mizuki’s expectation that they will not meet again, close their relationship as a brief encounter that leaves her with recognition rather than continued possession of the thief.