Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! Full Season Review

“There’s still a lot of room for improvement.”

Masaaki Yuasa is an interesting figure in the anime community. With a willingness to play around with non-conventional and sometimes outright ugly art styles and some notable “auteur” elements, it’s fair to say that nothing looks quite like a Yuasa work. He was the creative mind behind Devilman: Crybaby as well as the director of Ping Pong: The Animation, which I’m often quick to cite as a personal favorite. Therefore, when I heard he and his personal studio, Science Saru, would be helming a new manga adaptation for the Winter 2020 Anime Season, I was eager to see what we would end up with. I gave the first episode a really solid review, and even joked that it felt as if Yuasa had somehow known my birthday was coming up. However, we’ve come to the beginning of the Spring 2020 Anime season, and as a wise man once sang, “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” So, let’s take a look back at the Eizouken’s run and ask, “Did it live up to the promises made by that first episode?” This is obviously rhetorical as you can see the rating I’m giving it. Frankly, the show ultimately exceeded my expectations time and time again, and took everything I loved about Ping Pong and elevated it to new heights. Whereas Ping Pong was a story which centered itself around the isolating power of talent, Eizouken exists as a monument to the unifying powers of passion and the creative forces it can fuel. This is a new personal favorite.

The series focuses on the titular Eizouken, or Motion Picture Club, which is helmed by three high school girls. The first is Midori Asakusa, an eccentric and introverted concept designer and artist who is enthusiastic about creating anime but lacks the social wherewithal to bring her concepts to life. The second is Tsubame Mizusaki, a model with actors for parents, but whose true passion lies in character animation and movement analysis. The last of the group is Sayaka Kanamori, and, in my first impressions review, I noted that she was something of an odd person out in this particular group. She lacks Asakusa and Mizusaki’s passion for anime, and her down-to-earth pragmatism can lead to her feeling out of place early on. However, her critical eye and strong sense of negotiating and planning quickly lead to her taking on the role of producer as she proves to be the only one capable of reigning in the freewheeling imagination of her friends. Kanamori is already a strong contender for best character of the year, and definitely my top nominee for best character of the season. Watching her serve as the cat wrangler for the group and force Asakusa to remain focused by any means necessary is extremely entertaining.

On paper, the premise of the show is relatively straightforward. Eizouken must produce a product in a limited amount of time, and they face a number of limitations or parameters that must be accounted for or met. This process is repeated 3 times over the course of the season, but the series is effective at shaking up those limitations and parameters in order to both keep the scenario fresh and allow the series to illustrate different approaches to production. The balancing of the characters is key here. Asakusa is all about the broad creative vision and world that she wants to convey. Mizusaki wants to capture particular aspects of movement with her animation. And, finally, Kanamori wants to be able to deliver a complete product and make it a productive venture. Each of them has a different philosophy that they work by, but their end goal remains the same, so watching the back and forth negotiations combined with Yuasa’s artistic approach to their brainstorming sessions results in an engaging experience that is unique even amongst the subgenre of anime about making anime and manga.

The production is fantastic. Yuasa famously first heard of the Eizouken manga when he was searching for his own name online, and came across a post suggesting that he would be the ideal person to adapt it. Given the end result, it would be difficult to argue otherwise. Yuasa’s quirky visuals match well with Eizouken’s narrative and artistic stylings, and Science Saru imbues every episode with a sense of passion and creativity run amok. The opening can be a little overwhelming with its brash palette, and I’d be lying if I said I never skipped it, but I’d also be lying if I said it wasn’t one of the most memorable and charming OPs of the season. The music and sound design is strong throughout, and the decision to have the VA’s perform the sound effects during the character’s brainstorming sessions was a stroke of genius. I’d say that, in terms of sound design, Eizouken was second only to Chihayafuru this season, and that’s not an entirely fair competition as Chihayafuru has had years to bury its leitmotifs in our heads. That being said, while I’m comparing the two, I find it rather unfair that one of my favorite franchises returned after 6 years only to lose the title of “Best Show of the Winter Season” to Eizouken.

Before I wrap up, a few Notes and Nitpicks:

• I think that, of the three productions that we see Eizouken create, the second one they work on is my favorite, both in terms of their creation process and the end result. The third would be my least favorite on both counts as the core ideas remain muddled for a while, and the end product is a bit confused from my perspective.
• We never do learn why Kanamori wears those glasses on the top of her head. We clearly need a second season just to explain that alone.
• The Eizouken manga is still ongoing, so it should come as no surprise that the ending of the anime lacks a sense of finality. However, were this show to never get another season, I could easily be satisfied with how things end. It’s an impressive balance to maintain, keeping viewers wanting more but still satisfied if they never get it.