Animation has always been, and always will be, a versatile medium. From its initial inception in the late 19th century to now, animation all across the world tackled all sorts of stories and subject matter, and is capable of feats that live-action media can't replicate. Unfortunately, a good majority of people wrongly dismiss animation as just babysitting fodder for children, refusing to believe that it can be used to tell all kinds of stories. While that mindset is slowly going away, it's still around, and considering all the sad news about certain companies not only outright cancelling a crap ton of cartoons, but refusing to compensate animators for all their hard work and pretty much throwing them under the bus, it's probably not going to go away any time soon. Looking at you, David Zaslav and Warner Brothers. Luckily, Japan got the message pretty early on, and from the seventies onward, it treated animation as a medium just as capable of creative storytelling as anything else. That's not to say other countries don't do the same, but that's beyond the scope of this review. Plus, even as some people still treat animation as little more than children's fare or Family Guy knock-offs, there are still plenty of stuff made by people who love and revere animation as an art form, with the subject of today's review, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken, being very much a love letter to animation as a whole.

When Midori Asakusa was young, she became fascinated not just with animation, but how its made. When she enters high school alongside her cynical, money-grubbing friend Sayaka Kanamori, she dreams of creating an anime set in the weirdly constructed campus of her high school. But she's not exactly good at talking to people and is rather shy by nature, so she hasn't been able to take that first step. While attending a screening at their school's anime club, they encounter Tsubame Mizusaki, a rich and famous model who also happens to be a classmate of theirs. Upon learning that Mizusaki also wants to become an animator, the three of them become fast friends, with Mizusaki and Asakusa finding common ground in their shared interest, though Kanamori mainly sees encouraging their interest as a way to make some cash. Together, this eclectic trio intend on creating an animation club so they can bring their creations into reality.

I initially passed over Eizouken when it first came out, because at the time, I was still deep into my anime burnout, and didn't claw myself out of it until COVID hit. It's only now, three years after it first aired, that I finally decided to sit down and watch it, especially now that Sentai Filmworks FINALLY has a release date set for their blu-ray set for the series this year. For the sake of brevity, I'm just gonna keep referring to the series as just Eizouken. For an anime that's entirely about the medium of animation, whoever decided to have Masaaki Yuasa and his company Science Saru produce the anime for Eizouken deserves a medal, because it's made clear from the very first frame that Yuasa and Science Saru understood the assignment they were given. The character designs are all unique, looking nothing like your typical anime character designs, but are expressive and lively, with Yuasa's team bringing them to life with his signature style of movement exaggeration. The backgrounds are given just as much attention, with the show taking place in a bizarre cityscape that actually has a pretty rich history and feels like a character in and of itself, from the sci-fi-esque architecture to the little nooks and crannies Asakusa and friends find whenever they're out and about. One thing to note about Eizouken as a series is that there are segments that take place in Asakusa and Mizusaki's imaginations, showing how immersed they are when they start thinking about how to animate things, contemplating story ideas, or explaining sci-fi concepts. These fantasy segments are animated with watercolor backgrounds, rough linework, and intentionally messy renders, reminiscent of storyboards and indicative of the creative process, which I think was a stroke of genius on the animation team's part. The usage of all these different animation styles, even the outline-less pastels in the short films the club creates, really highlight the medium's overall versatility, which makes sense since Eizouken is about showing off how great the medium can be.

The soundtrack I'm admittedly a bit more mixed on. It's not bad or anything, and the techno sounds that are present throughout the OST are used pretty effectively. The songs are well sung, too. I'm just not really a fan of heavy usage of techno in general, and there were some noises in Eizouken's OST that really hurt my ears, like the weird dial-up-esque beeping noise that appears whenever the girls get lost in their imaginations. I guess it's more a matter of personal taste for me. It's definitely not a bad soundtrack though, don't get me wrong. I will say that the sound design is very unique, not just in the regular things, like the usual sound effects. Did you know that some of the sound effects, particularly the ones that appear when Asakusa and Mizusaki get lost in their imaginations, were done by the voice actors themselves? To quote another reviewer, from the pat pat pat of propeller blades to the ch ch ch of a train on the tracks, even the whoosh of wind rushing through the air, is done by the leads VA’s. It’s incredibly charming, fits the scenes perfectly, and lends itself well to Eizouken’s “homemade” aesthetic.

The characters themselves are also a huge highlight for Eizouken as a whole. The main trio in particular all have the right balance of personality, quirks, strengths, and flaws that actually make them feel like three-dimensional people rather than just generic cutesy anime stereotypes. Everything from the way they carry themselves to even the quirks in their speech really bring them to life in the best way possible. I could really relate to Asakusa in particular, being shy around people and passionate about her interests. While they don't always change over the course of the story (With Kanamori being the biggest example of this), the way the anime gradually shows us what they're like and what drives them to do what they do manage to do an amazing job at changing the viewer's perspective on them. I love all these dumb kids. I kinda wish some of the side characters like Doumeki and Sowande could have gotten more screentime, though. That being said, my only other complaint about Eizouken is the character of Kanamori. Don't get me wrong, she's a perfectly fine character who bounces off Asakusa and Mizusaki amazingly, and her interactions with the rest of the characters are fun to watch. My problem with Kanamori isn't her penny-pinching ways or the fact that she sometimes goes too far in her criticism of Asakusa and Mizusaki sometimes. My issue with her is that she's somehow able to pull off all sorts of amazing feats and get connections with powerful people that no middle schooler should be able to, and the fact that she manages to pull it all off to solve whatever problem is in front of the club kind of makes her feel less like a character and more like a walking talking get-out-of-jail-free plot device or a force of nature that pulls solutions out of her butt whenever its convenient. Seriously, what kid her age is able to somehow garner a crap ton of media coverage around a short cartoon film and get said media coverage to turn out positive?

In terms of story, I've heard people compare Eizouken to Ed, Edd n Eddy, and I can absolutely see the similarities, as both are shows about three kids hanging around town and getting into adventures. But Eizouken is more structured, has an actual plot, and isn't anywhere near as mean-spirited as the later seasons of Ed, Edd n Eddy got. Eizouken's story in general isn't very complex, as it focuses solely on our main trio trying to make an anime and showing the work they put in to make it happen, exploring the realities of running a studio and making compromises in order to make your vision come into shape. But the strength of the characters and their colorful personalities give more meat to what would be a fairly rote story, and its unabashed celebration of the medium shines through in every frame, elevating Eizouken into something special. Bottom line, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken is a fun, energetic series that absolutely oozes with love for not only its source material, but for the medium of animation as a whole, and you absolutely should not miss out on it. Now if only certain people would acknowledge that animation is just as valid a medium as live-action movies and TV and not screw over the people who work on it. AGAIN, LOOKING AT YOU DAVID ZASLAV!!