I promise it’ll make you feel better about life and the world around you.Ĭast: Sairi Itō, Mutsumi Tamura, Misato Matsuoka, Yumiri Hanamori, Miyuki Kawashō, Mikako Komatsu, Hiroko Kiso, Ryō Matsuzaki, Yūki Ono, Yūsuke Kobayashi, Ryūnosuke Watanuki, Shiori Izawa, and Kazuhiko Inoue Masaaki Yuasa, the writer/director of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, was also responsible for Netflix’s Japan Sinks 2020, which we also loved. This is precisely the kind of wonderfully life affirming content that you need to round off this awful, awful year. I have no doubt that every anime fan will be able to relate to the opening few minutes of the series, when Asakusa puts on an episode of “Conaso of the Lost Island” (which seems to be an analogue for Miyazaki’s Future Boy Conan), and how it blows her mind, and inspires her lifelong obsession. With Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! Masaaki Yuasa has written a love letter to the genre. There’s also this incredibly catchy theme song from chelmico which led me down a delightful rabbit hole of their music. To revisit all of the things that brought us so much joy as children. These 12 episodes are a reminder for us to reconnect to that side of our brains. The power and import of having a childlike imagination is a foundational theme of this series, and while it may seem simplistic – even reductive – to say that within that lies the solutions to most of our problems, it nevertheless remains an undeniable truth.
It is what unites them and gives them common purpose. As Asakusa becomes increasingly confident as an artist, so too does her view of the world.Īsakusa’s imagination is the catalyst that brings these girls together. What begins with her early line drawings, slowly but surely evolve into these wonderfully elaborate creations with perspective, and depth, and colour. I loved the way the animation reflected Asakusa’s growth. And their friendship proves foundational to who they become as people.Īll of these metaphors and conceits only work because of Masaaki Yuasa’s incredible direction. Their relationships with one another are real and believable. They are beautifully fleshed out characters, with actual personalities and meaningful interactions.
KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF EIZOUKEN HBO MAX SERIES
It’s all very important.įor me, however, the true genius of the series lies in its secondary message about the power of friendship, of finding your tribe, and discovering your place and purpose in this world.Īsakusa, Mizusaki, and Kanamori are perfectly drawn in every way.
And it manages to perfectly capture that painful dichotomy between the art we love and the sometimes unpleasant reality that goes into its creation. Through Asakusa, Mizusaki, and Kanamori, who play surrogates for the director, artist, and producer respectively, we are given some insight into the issues that plague the industry and the conversations it inspires everything from the long hours and low wages, to the ongoing debate between digital and hand drawn animation, to that perennial conflict between art and commerce. On the one hand, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! provides a deep cut into the struggles of those working in anime. The series tracks their madcap adventures, cutting back and forth between reality and the expansive worlds they’ve conjured in their minds, as they enthusiastically work towards their creative ambitions. It is my new anime obsession and the perfect counter programming for 2020.īased on the manga by Sumito Ōwara, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! is ostensibly about three high-school girls – the obsessive nerd Asakusa, the talented and ebullient Mizusaki, and the poker-faced Kanamori – who form a film club at their school so they can make their own anime. Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! is that series. That manages to somehow be clever and insightful, yet funny and entertaining. That is an uncynical celebration of humanity and all of its quirks. Every once in a while there comes a series that is joyous, and pure, and inspiring.
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