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While Wash It All Away is a slice of life manga series, it also features a bit of a mystery regarding heroine Wakana Kinme and her unexplained amnesia. It comes up in the first volume, and later ones suggested it is tied to her past. Now with volume 9, we’re seeing the condition brought to the forefront again. And, as before, Mitsuru Hattori suggests there’s something more going on that affected the lead character deeply.
Editor’s Note: There will be some spoilers for the first part of volume 9 of the manga Wash It All Away below.
Mitsuru Hattori closed out volume 8 of the Wash It All Away manga with quite a cliffhanger as Wakana is again suffering from a case of amnesia after falling down the stairs. The ninth volume of it picks up immediately after, with her not recognizing Uka Hatsuayu. Considering they’ve known each other since the third volume of the series, when we last saw Wakana thinking back to her past and getting “lost,” it’s almost a bit of deja vu. Twice now, that supporting cast member has been around when Wakana’s experienced some sort of memory-related issue.
It’s an interesting narrative mechanic for a number of reasons too. One is that it momentarily puts the past case of amnesia Wakana suffered from in question, since this situation is tied to an accident in Wash It All Away and not some sort of psychological or PTSD type of trauma. Another is that it shows how, even without memories about who she is or people are, she retains her memories about working at the laundromat and cleaning. Which suggests she’s always known about it and had those skills even before Kinme Cleaning. It also highlights her personality remains unchanged. Wakana is Wakana, regardless of whether she does or doesn’t remember the people around her, so we know she’s always going to be the positive, helpful, considering, and caring person.
But the most important of those insights is the fourth one. That is that Wakana’s memory does come back. We see her regain her sense of self. That is, the identity she’s maintained since the first volume of the series and one she’s taken since working at Kinme cleaning. There’s another teaser hinting at what might have been connected to her first bout of amnesia too, and it’s that possible memory that seems tied to her coming to this time around as well.
The downside is that, once again, the manga creator Mitsuru Hattori pulls away before we get any more solid information about Wakana and why she is suffering from amnesia in the first place. It definitely seems to be teasing the possible connection to Hatsushima that we saw in the third volume and another individual. It also again seems like Wakana isn’t really her name, but is instead tied to someone important to her. But the mangaka isn’t committing to any answers just yet, and it’s a little frustrating given we’re nine volumes into this series now. However, the fact that Shio, someone tied to her past, is a part of the story again as this volume comes to a close suggests we could be on the verge of actual answers.
Mitsuru Hattori takes so much time teasing us with insights into the amnesia Wakana suffers from in the Wash It All Away manga. Many chapters and volumes never even touch on it! But in volume 9, we seem to get more substantial hints than ever before, and the cliffhanger seems to set up a possible situation and development that could lead to more memory jogging. (Finally!)
Volumes 1-9 of the manga series Wash It All Away are available now, and Square Enix will release volume 10 on October 20, 2026.
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