I haven’t seen many shows that have enthralled me so much as “Keep your hands off Eizouken”. It’s a show about what it is to make anything of value, and how the pursuit of perfection can and will sabotage you. Knowing what to spend your time on, and how to prioritize is just as important if not more, than just the search for excellence.

The story follows 3 girls in their journey to make anime. It takes a lot of small detours in the story in order to showcase how the artistic process works, some basic animation principles and history, and some of the realities of producing even a short film. The thing that originally impressed me a lot was, that every time they talked about some minute detail in anime, they directly showed it with what was happening on screen, and then in the finished product, or an animated sequence of the girl’s imaginations. It had a wonderful sense of continuity and growth.
The girls all had a different focus in terms of what goes into making an anime. Asakusa, the director, is all about world building, whether that’s story, coherence, cause and effect, etc. She wants everything to have a plausible explanation, and be internally consistent. Her main strength is her imagination, she frequently tries to look at the world in a more fantastical lens, and anime for her is an outlet to make her internal world an external one. Mikazuki is the main animator, she wants the smallest movements to look real. She has a fascination with how humans move, and imitates them to add realism, she is all about how animation can be a replacement for acting. Kanamori is a long girl.

In all seriousness, Kanamori is the best goddamn thing about the show, she is the producer, If not for her, the other two would never make something in time and in budget, she grounds them to reality, gives them deadlines and makes sure they are done. She procures materials, makes deals with people in order to acquire the funds for the next project, and does everything in her power to make sure the project has everything it needs to be done. She doesn’t really care about the minute details the other 2 nerds gush about, she wants things to look good to her, and to extension the audience, she knows full well, how important marketing is, how valuable people’s time and efforts are, and how money is blood. The money thing is important, because it’s not shown to be an empty thing, but rather the glue that binds everything together, money is needed for materials, transportation, maintenance, paying off authorities, blackmail, illegal drugs(milk mostly) and everything else. She doesn’t care too much about the ways she does things, only that things get done, and that there is progress to make the next project bigger and better. Also she is a long girl.

Eizouken mostly focuses on the joy of creation, and it’s sacrifices, all 3 of the girls in Eizouken start off being very talented in their positions, they mostly needed practical experience in how and what to prioritize. There were a lot of times where the Girls were hampered by the authorities, money issues, time constraints, laws and regulations, morals, etc. And it was up to Kanamori to bend things the way it worked best for them. It was somewhat realistic in its depiction that no matter how talented you are, you still need to pull on a lot of strings to get the recognition you deserve.

Honestly if I keep going I’ll probably start going back to topics I already covered, overall amazing show, can’t recommend more. One of the best goddamn things I’ve ever watched. I can write 10 more pages on Kanamori alone.