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Right in the very first volume of the Wash It All Away manga, Mitsuru Hattori establishes how Wakana Kinme ends up becoming part of the community through her services at the Kinme Cleaning hand-washing laundry. Even though she’s an amnesiac and it feels like something’s up, she’s connecting. With the fourth volume, we’re seeing an even greater extent of her influence. Via her fulfilling her duties, we see exactly how much she begins to matter to everyone and become an important part of their lives.
Editor’s Note: There will be spoilers for parts of volume 4 of the Wash It All Away manga below.
While Wash It All Away starts with the typical look at a type of cleaning situation, along with actually helpful insights into how someone like Wakana would handle it, much of the volume deals with her specific relationships with two people. In both situations, we’re seeing how Wakana doing her job means she ended up becoming valued friend to the individuals. Even if she doesn’t see it right away, both people point out just how important she ended up being all because she was being herself.
One is Uka Hatsuaya, the government official she met in previous chapters. The two ended up exploring the small town and working on a Hatsushima tourism article together. We already had some hint at how Wakana positively affected her life and influenced her. When the two were doing that photo shoot, she helped boost Uka’s self-image and made what could have been tedious examinations of certain places fun by being models together.
Here, we see this wasn’t a one-off situation. Uka invited Wakana to lunch at her home. The two get to enjoy a meal together. Uka then also reveals that because of this new friendship, her anxiety is decreasing and her social skills are getting better. Wakana also emphasizes that they are truly friends. They even play with Uka’s family dogs together. It’s a touching moment that shows just how the relationship progressed from an incidental meeting and working one to a genuine bond.
The other major relationship in the manga that shows the development of a working relationship into a more personal one in Wash It All Away involves Wakana and her landlord, Ms. Aji. The volume begins with the lady stopping by to check on repairs to the business following trees falling on the building during a storm. When she does, she drops off some laundry. As the story goes on, we can see that while Ms. Aji teases her, it’s out of love.
But then later, we see Wakana catches something about Ms. Aji because of her laundry. She brings it up to her. While the reaction is a bit awkward and makes it seem like the relationship is damaged, we get to see just how close they are even though they are only tenant and landlord. When Wakana goes to see Ms. Aji for a delivery, there’s a new insight into what’s going on. Her influence again affects Ms. Aji for the better. As a result, we get to see another important moment as their relationship develops further.
Now that Wash It All Away manga is so established, we’re really seeing the influence of Wakana on other characters. We watch as they aren’t just acquaintances, customers, coworkers, or a landlord anymore. There is too much history. There’s too much consideration. It’s this satisfying journey to become important and positively influence each others’ lives.
Wash It All Away volume 4 is available now, and Square Enix will release volume 5 of the manga on December 16, 2025. The anime adaptation will air in 2026.
