Episode 5 has the girls scouting locations for an anime commissioned by the robot club followed by a brainstorming session on robot design that probably puts the bar way too high. That said, I’m looking forward to what they create and I had an awesome time watching them begin the planning process. Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken continues to deliver a pretty brilliant viewing experience each week. What do you say, Irina?
Man I would have loved to have seen the episode with Scott. It would have been so perfect. Eizouken is a great episode to watch with friends to begin with and sharing passions is always the best. Wait, what was the question? Oh yeah, Eizouken rules. Fantastic show.
I’d like to go on a small tangent from reviewing the episode and take a moment to discuss Kanamori. Within a brilliant and well balanced cast she still manages to shine brightly and and despite being in the background of so many shots her remarks cut through so much of the clutter and end up stealing the scene. I absolutely love her, the practical nature of her character, the way she keeps the other two in check but also respects their strengths, and her general commentary on events. I kind of feel that so much of this anime is sickly-sweet with enthusiasm for the medium, that Kanamori’s more grounded nature really helps me connect with this trio and she points out the pitfalls of the girls’ plan as they embellish the robot before the audience needs to start picking holes in the story. In short, she’s just kind of perfect within this context.
She is my favourite character. I think that Kanamori is a collection of tropes that are all familiar but not always grouped together. She’s cool almost cold, no nonsense and pragmatic but she’s also an extremely devoted friend and she isn’t embarrassed or shy about it at all. She has a sharp tongue but she’s quick to give praise. She’s a calculating mastermind but she likes to get goofy and has a silly sneakers backpack. And her character design is also very striking. Visually she seems meant to stand out and it probably the most instantly recognizable of the three from a distance. Moreover, it’s fairly rare to have an aloof mastermind as such a present part of the main cast. They’re usually rarely seen supporting characters. For me, all of these elements come together to create a very memorable character.
The combination this week of the Eizouken club and the robot club really works well. These aren’t combatant groups fighting over the same funding and one isn’t trying to shut the other down so their rivalry and plans to get the best out of negotiations around the anime are all in good spirit and fun. Not to mention, both groups are passionate about what they are passionate about and the proposed project is bringing these two passions together in a fairly emotionally explosive mix.
The girls sympathizing with the robot club captains impossible dream was a fantastic scene. I also still try to move objects with my mind. I get it! I’m sort of digging that the show doesn’t have any confrontational dynamics. Nothing akin to a rival, let alone an antagonist. It’s fun to explore varied symbiotic relationships once in a while. It’s one of the reasons I tend to like comedies in fact. I like people that just get along.
However, while the characters and their interactions continue to be an incredibly delightful part of this anime, the best part for me is definitely the location scouting sequence. I really loved the way the girls interacted with the environment while envisioning events that could be part of their story. I also really loved some of the shots in this sequence as the focus was very much on the setting with the characters interacting with it so there were a lot more long shots of the group rather than the close ups of the characters talking. It was a nice touch and one I found really well thought out. Of course, Asakusa’s escape from the pitfall was pretty brilliant too and I love how the anime just shrugged this off as a matter of course and never mentioned it again.
In five episodes, Asakusa has fallen from the second story of the club room when the railing collapse, the girls almost fell off (or through) the roof while trying to repair it, Kanamori burst through a wall and now they fell through the floor. This school is in disrepair. I’m sort of worried about the students there.
My favourite part was the brainstorming session at the end. I loved all the adjustments and how everyone had their own emotional and practical reasons for design elements. It really gave me some insight on how and why certain anime end up looking like they do.
Okay, at 5 episodes in I’m probably going to call it: this is my anime of the season. It is consistently just really good and it is so much fun to watch. Very much looking forward to the next episode.
I’m having a great season I’m not sure I can pick but it’s a very strong contender.
Thanks for Reading From
Irina and Karandi
Follow along with all episode reviews of Keep Your Hands off Eizouken.
Images from: Keep Your Hands of Eizouken. Dir. Masaaki Yuasa. Science SARU. 2020.
This series is something of an oxymoron: quietly phenomenal! (I’d loudly proclaim it one of my faves this season if I weren’t so scared that Funimation would try to shut it down thereafter. . .)
Quietly phenomenal is a pretty apt description of the series really.
https://twitter.com/MechAnimeReview/status/1224112423117836288?s=19
I did geek out about this episode and probably the next few episodes, yes. I don’t usually take screenshots and yet I did here.
Anyway, I do wonder and the school too. Has OSHA been around recently? Possibly my current favorite airing anime too.
There have definitely been a few safety issues. Then again episode 1 had them visit a laundromat that had a few construction issues as well. Maybe the town just did away with standards for construction.
So it’s a bit like we did watch it together!
I loved this show from the very beginning!
Obviously either the school has very good liability insurance or they don’t have the same liability law there as we do.
I looked up “eizouken”. According to google translate it means “video ticket”.
ia told us it’s a shortening of video club which makes more sense
I believe Irina is talking about me in that reply there. The long-winded version of the explanation I gave her is there’s a certain kanji which can be read “ken” and means ticket (券). If you look at the kanji which corresponds to “Eizouken” (映像研), you can see that kanji isn’t there but the last bit is read “ken” as well. As it turns out, that’s short for “kenkyuu” (研究, meaning “research”). The “eizou” (映像) means “video” (and is deliberately vague, as discussed when creating the club, to not outright refer to anime or live-action, since “eizou” can also include TV programs and OVAs), so you can guess, based on what the girls say during the creation of the club, the long name of the club in English is Video Research Club…then again, Anime News Network has been pointing out Eizouken = Video Research Club for a while now, so it was only a matter of reverse-engineering the thought process.
For the interested, I found the long name in Japanese on Wikipedia after a bit of searching and it looks like this: 映像研究同好会 (eizou kenkyuu doukoukai, or the “Video Research Association [of Like-Minded People]”)…which should explain why translators went with “Video Research Club” instead.
I was!!! See I pay attention. I was also translated in this weeks episode so it pretty much confirms your analysis
Thank you for the explanation. See, my blog is teaching me something.