Eizouken ni wa Te wo Dasu na!

"No matter how vast the darkness, we must supply our own light"

Eizouken, is a great reminder before anything else, that this world needs the light that comes from the individuality, and harmony and coexistence.

From the very first glance at this anime, i have felt that something is different about this anime, the usage of timing, anatomy and the story telling, it's unlike anything else, it's the most sincere yet cruelest try to keep the light in the world lit.

Our three main character match up to make a motion picture or anything really, they go through history and discover the history is alive even now.

The animation ... is probably one of the finest to the detail-catching eyes, that's why it can drive away the viewer without the patience. the story matches perfectly to the anime's message the way no words can describe.

More than anything else, this anime is hope, that needs to be protected.
And as the anime's ending indicates, this can only be achieved by learning to live truthfully with our shadows in mind.

No one really wanna go into the details here, as the master of the cinema Stanley Kubrick put it: "A good work always lefts nothing to say"

This is exactly the case about Eizouken, it should be lived, it can not be described.

Eizouken has been a very comfy anime for me this season. The soft colours, the incredible backgrounds, and the music all make for a comforting experience with the simple story of three friends (plus alpha) making an anime.

Shirobako comparisons aside, I do like how a lot of focus is given to the business management side of things instead of just purely the animation side. For a talentless office worker such as myself, it's a lot easier to engage with the show from Kanamori's perspective.

The direction is incredible. This is my first proper Yuasa show (I did watch that weird wrestling thing he made ... years back though), and I appreciate how it isn't as surreal or discomforting as I had feared. It's fairly grounded with a lot of interesting directing choices that really complement the scenes well. It's a nice blend of interesting visuals yet with a relaxed atmosphere.

It's a fun comfy show. While some of Asakusa-shi's delusions can be a bit distracting and overwhelming, the show maintains a steady and smooth pace throughout leading to a very pleasant watching experience and a great breather after each Monday.

7/10

Eizouken is the first television series Yuuasa has directed by himself since Devilman in 2018. Is this a worthy successor to Devilman? Let's see. This review will be split into 3 sections: art/animation, story/characters/writing, and enjoyment-to-series length-ratio.

(1) Story/Characters/Writing: 7/10
This story follows three young girls: Asakusa, Kanamori, and Mizusaki. They work together to run an amateur animation studio as a school club. Kanamori runs the studio logistics. Asakusa is the director, and Mizusaki is good at animating subtle motion. Kanamori is the most interesting charecter. She reveals herself to be much more interesting that she appears initially (greedy, rash). Mizusaki is the next most interesting: she ... goes through a character arc that explains why she is interested in animation. Asakusa is left out of this character development. In fact, any character development that does happen is shallow. It always happens in a single episode, then it is left behind. The story itself is good: it is interesting

(2) enjoyment-to-series length-ratio: 8/10
I enjoyed this series quite a lot. However, the arcs do not vary that much. They can all be boiled down to the same elements: the studio gets a job; they think about the animation and what they should do with it; there is a problem or two and they have to finish in a time crunch; they finish. While the show is short (thus there is only time for so many short arcs), this cycles becomes a little stale towards the end. I feel like this show would have been more effective as an OVA that is smaller that the series (with less arcs). That being said, I enjoyed most of the series most of the time!

Art/animation: 9/10
Let me be clear: this is the strongest aspect of this show. Eizouken is stunning. While the animation is good (at best), the art is interesting and unique. Eizouken takes inspiration from western cartoons: it portrays itself as a mix of western and eastern animation styles in the best of ways. Color choices are intentional and interesting. The series always has a consistent, interesting color palette. The only time when the palette is not consistent is during particular scenes where the girls are imagining the anime world they will next create. In these scenes, all colors in the palette become just a shade or two lighter. This reflects the fact that they are essentially just throwing out half baked ideas: they are brainstorming. In that, their work is unfinished. The color palette in these senses create an unfinished look. Needless to say, the art is wonderful. The use of color is ingenious. The animation is good.

Overall: 8/10
This is an exceptional show. While the story and characters are okay at best, the enjoyment I had and the art really made up for the sometimes lackluster writing. Eizouken is a great show. It is, in my view, the best anime of the winter season by far.

<maybe spoilers bellow>

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken is a currently airing anime from renowned director Masaki Yuasa. He is well know for his outlandish styles and ability to think outside of the box to develop creative animation. He’s worked on well-known hits like Devilman: Crybaby, Ping Pong: The Animation, and Night Is Short: Walk On Girl. When he started out he was a smaller indie director and now he’s a major name in the anime industry.

Yuasa-san decided to work on this show because he found a forum post whilst searching his own name on Google. The post was from an enthusiastic fan of a lesser ... known manga called “Eizouken ni wa Te wo Dasu na”. The reader thought that Yuasa-san would be a perfect director of anime based on this manga. He researched this manga and fell in love with it. From this, Yuasa decided to try to find a production committee to bring this idea into a reality. The rest is history.

Now, the anime has been airing for a little over two months. With the help of studio Science SARU, director Yuasa-san has created one of, if not, the best anime of this season. To be honest, when the show was first airing and I heard the premise, I was skeptical. It seemed original, a story of three classmates who come together to create their own anime, but I felt like a lot could easily go wrong or be badly paced and end up boring. However, my fears were put to rest after I watched the first episode. The animation is vibrant and the world is endlessly imaginative. There is no boring exposition on the strange, futuristic city the characters live in, because why do we need it? Yuasa-san is a master of the classic rule of “show not tell”. He would rather let the audience experience it, than tell them it.

The show was sitting around a 7 out of 10 for the first six episodes, however, with the recent story arc, the festival arc, coming to a close which spanned around three episodes, my faith was re-established in this show. The build up for the final episode of the arc was huge. We had several episodes of the characters developing and animating their idea for an anime to show at the festival. These lead-up episodes were interesting and highlighted important issues in the industry, like tight deadlines, unpredictable production issues and budget restrictions; However, they were just not as imaginative and fun as the previous episodes were. I feel this was because the story was slowed and pacing was a little bit off, but it always picked up whenever the characters began imagining what they could do with their animation. Director Yuasa-san chose to depict these scenes by having the characters metaphorically enter the animation they were creating and truly immerse the viewer in their imagination. These are always the highlight of the episodes. The main trio bounce off each other gloriously and exposition of ideas was made fun and vibrant.

Once we passed the build-up, the climax is wonderfully executed and the wait was well worth it. The protagonists wanted to use the festival to sell DVDs of their anime as to raise their production budget, which was demonstrated to be very restricting in previous episodes. The issue is that the Student Council wants to prevent the showing of the anime as the trio bribed the ‘air conditioning club’ into lowering the temperature of the theater; Which would attract people to come inside during the hot summer. Yes, that’s what actually happens. The student council then contracts the ‘security club’, which are equipped with full riot gear, to track down the main three protagonists and shut down their show. This is where the show gets fun. There are a variety of crazy antics which all come together to allow them to slip past the students councils grasp and have a successful showing of their anime. The people who they helped in the past by creating anime for them to use in promotion for their clubs come to protect our trio and help them get to the theater. Including a complex operation from the ‘robot club’ to distract and mislead the security club into letting them pass. The final moments of the episode are very satisfying and the trio get the recognition for the anime they worked so hard to create. This excuses the slower paced build-up episodes, as they allowed us to experience the hard work they put into the animation; Making the ending all the more satisfying.

In conclusion, Eizouken is a creative, innovative and, most importantly, fun anime about three classmates wanting to make their own anime. The world is well built and imagined and the over-dramatization of the student council is well done and creates ridiculous situations for the viewer to enjoy. The over the top and use of school clubs which would never really exist is not only creative, but allows for a fleshed out world for us to experience.

Overall, I really enjoyed Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken.

8/10 from me.

KEEP YOUR HANDS OF EIZOUKEN REVIEW by CRISTOU (very minor spoilers)

INTRODUCTION
I just couldn't resist writing this review. Very few shows hit a chord with me so much that I immediately start writing a review once its finished, but this one has. Eizouken is my pick for anime of the year, and its still the start of spring.

SUMMARY

Strengths
-Incredibly strong characters
-Good animation
... -Beautiful visuals
-Strong world-building and conceptualization

Weaknesses
-Fairly unique artstyle
-Fair characters outside of main cast

STORY (7)
Keep Yours Hands of Eizouken can be summarized in this sentence: High school girls in a not so distant future make anime. However it really is so much more than that. The story is by far not the selling point of the show, so if you're looking for a very plot driven anime then this is not your place. Eizouken has a much more laid-back, relaxing atmosphere. The city they live in is old, overgrown, and worn down. The girls go to some pretty unique places that have to do with the history, architecture, and development of the town over the years. When they actually make anime, the main character, Midori is incredibly in-depth when conceptualizing things in the animation. It takes on a sort of dreamy aesthetic as your enter into the mind of someone fascinated with good anime. Another thing to point out is the show tries to show the journey of creating an anime as much as it can without getting too in depth. The girls adventure out in search of ideas for story, wordling-building, and animation, and other times they have to deal with the incompetency of others involved with the project. There's honestly not much to type when it comes to story since most of the events don't as much alter the course of action that the girls take, but rather give them opportunities to either develop or show their development. Most of what I want to say here would be better covered in a different category, so I'll do so.

ART (10)
As someone who values artstyle and animation almost too much in anime, this show is breathtaking. I am always up for a unique and interesting artstyle, and that's why I'm really into shows like xxxHolic or the monogatari series where they take aesthetics farther. Likewise, Eizouken delivers to this. I actually have a friend that was turned off from the anime because of the artstyle, so I guess it can vary person to person. I, However thoroughly enjoyed the minimal, almost cartoonish artstyle. It was humbling in a sense, as the characters did not look as glamorous as other characters are in most anime. It makes characters easily distinguishable without having to do things like change hair color or style drastically or have them wear a specific article of clothing that normal people wouldn't. Furthermore, it puts more focus on the shows beautiful environments. The city that the Oowara Sumito created is strangely aesthetic, which compliments the sort of washed out coloring. When showcasing ideas that Midori has, the backdrops disappear into a white void as the characters stand tall, creating a feeling as if they are sharing a connected thought. When there are things that they conceptualize, the outlines are messier to draw similarities to Midori's actual notebook which is great. When showcasing the actual anime that they create, the show strips back the outlines of everything and thickens the coloring to create a more humble, amateur look befitting of three girls in a old warehouse.

SOUND (6)
Not much to say about the sound, as it is never really a key point in the anime (as it is in most). The opening was fair, and the music and sound design of the animes they create are of good standard (they acquire a character who specializes in sound design which makes the good sound design make sense). One thing that I may note is that I kind of started getting tired of the same track over and over again every time Midori gets an idea or the production really starts rolling.

CHARACTERS (10)
Alongside art, the characters are the strongest point of the show. This only includes the main cast, however as other characters are barely given enough screen time to justify a character picture on MAL. Each of the three have clear motivations, struggles, and strengths, in a way that makes them feel incredibly likable and just human. This makes them all incredibly easily to sympathize with. Since there are only three, I can tackle them briefly one-by-one.
-Midori Asakusa is the main character and my favourite character of the show. She is the main source of story for their animations and also is a specialist on the environments which Mizusaki animates upon. Her imagination seems to know no bounds, as whenever they seem to go out she is constantly forming new ideas in her head from the things around her. She is also incredibly dedicated to realism in that she is unable to proceed further with a story if there are things in the story that seem unreasonable. For example, in the first short which is a fight between a girl and a tank, she decides that the tank is a special model which is so small and light, that while is has great mobility, it is forced to knock itself onto its back whenever it fires a shell, and that the girl is on a planet with weaker gravity which allows her to fight better, but is also forced to wear a mask due to the thinner atmosphere.
-Tsubame Mizusaki is the lead animator of the three, more focused on animating characters. Her character is defined by her dedication to her craft. Whereas Midori is obsessed with the world-building in anime and the implications of certain things in anime, Mizusaki is more concerned with portraying realistic movements of a human and putting more effort into scenes to show that. For example, in the same short with the Tank-Girl fight, there is a scene with the get tumbling down a rocky hill. Mizusaki becomes determined to show the girl tumbling down, slowly getting on her feet, and begin running again as humanly as possible to the point where she records herself falling down a hill the same way. Shes the only character we see working so much at night, and the work even goes against her parents wishes which shows all of her dedication.
-Kanamori Sayaka is the third and final member of the Eizouken, as she seems to be the most popular one online. Shes tall and has a thuggish appearance, which isn't too far off what she actually is. She is a genius businesswoman, being the manager of the Eizouken securing deals and managing relations. She is the one who realized the potential in joining Midori and Mizusaki and she is also the one who gets then the rights to the Eizouken in the end. She is seen throughout the anime as very strict, constantly coming down on Mizusaki and/or Midori for being off-schedule or creating more work. For example, when Mizusaki put more work into the one scene of the girl tumbling, Kanamori was constantly yelling at her and arguing about how it would be a wasted endeavor and endangers the project as a whole. Despite all this, she is still a vital and beloved member of the Eizouken, as Midori states in a later episode "She's not my friend. She's a comrade!" to which Mizusaki smiles to.

ENJOYMENT (10)
I mean, how could you not love this show?

Its a relaxing show about girls creating anime, which fantastic visuals and strong characters to boot. It never gets too boring, but it also never gets too intense. With how in-depth they look into the first few projects, it starts to feel as though you yourself are a part of the Eizouken.

OVERALL
8.5-9/10

~cristou

I have to say how much I love how this show instantly grabbed me by its hooks with its first episode. I know for myself, I have zero interest in things like animating it actually got my attention fairly quick. With it describing in almost full detail the things that go into making an animated film come to life somehow interesting, and it's characters Kanamori, Asakusa, and Mizusaki having their own paths of how they got around to where they are. There were definitely some moments were I could easily relate to their characters on their situations that they face.

While there was that my ... only con I have with Eizouken is with Kanamori and Asakusa. While I do like them both, and one of them being my favorite of the trio, I wish that they'd went into telling a bit more about her relating to their origins stories a bit more outside of just being just regular art students with a passion for their craft. I personally want to get to see how it all went before the first episode.

If you are reading this, you probably like anime to some extent. At the very least, you are most likely curious about it. And this show features several girls who love anime not just for its entertainment value but for its complexities and artistic value.

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! is essentially a love letter to anime. The appreciation of the medium is not only the plot of this show but is directly demonstrated by the animation of the show itself. However, for me personally, I just did not connect with this concept.

Story:
The plot is relatively straightforward but not the main focus of the show. The ... plot merely serves as a means to have characters talk about their love for anime and animation as a whole. It is rather wholesome by the end but not particularly something that I was invested in.

Art:
The art is the main purpose of the show. The style is much different from mainstream anime, and the show benefits from this difference. The art design of the setting is fairly impressive, but the imagination sequences are what is to be focused on. In every episode, there is a sequence where the characters "dive" into their drawings and explore an imaginary world. These sequences are supposed to be very impressive and serve as the "wow" factor of this show. And for the most part, they are. However, it was hard to be interested in art design when I lacked interest for the show as a whole.

Sound:
The OP is very good. Besides that, sound did not impact my experience with the show.

Character:
The three main girls can be a nice change of pace from the typical anime girls with high pitched voices. Personally, I never really am annoyed by typical anime girls, but I do find these characters to be somewhat interesting. Each one has their own quirk and surprisingly, some depth to their background and character as a whole.

Overall, it was hard for me to be invested in this show. The main point of this show, the impressive imagination sequences, just did not connect with me at all. At first, I thought this show was supposed to kinda be a comedy, but it is definitely not. All the components of the show serve to express the love for anime, but it makes the show seem like BTS real of making an amateur anime, which I did not care for too much. If you love the art of animation, you will probably love this show. If not or if you are not to interested in that, then this may not be for you.

"God I love this show, and God I love anime, amen," -me at around 12:30

I don't usually give series based off of incomplete material a 10, as one can't improve on perfection, and if it's incomplete it's not perfect yet, at least, that's what I usually say.

Keep your hands off Eizouken isn't the exception to the rule, but it's so close to perfect and such a masterpiece that I made an exception. I didn't know what it was about very clearly until I actually watched it, and I only watched it because of the glorious Masaaki Yuasa, the Van Gogh of anime, as I love ... his work, even though Devil man Crybaby was a little hard to get through at points, Ride Your Wave, while amazing, wasn't quite the tearjerker for me, I couldn't get into Mind Game, and he has other works I haven't seen yet. Despite these little things, I've always loved Masaaki Yuasa's work and knew I would love this one likewise.

Story- Picture anime production, you got your director(s), your storyboard artist(s), writer(s), background artist(s), producer(s), animator(s), key animator(s), etc. etc., now take all of that and shrink it down into 3+ high school girls, and have them go through productions of various projects while dealing with the difficulties of business. That is the story, and it's bloody amazing.

Art- The character art is perfect, it's simplistic, it gets the characters across easily, and it's expressive. The background art in contrast the simplistic characters, has a bit more detail, especially in some of it's sequences of the creative process, where the show visualizes Asakusa's ideas and blends them with reality. A lot of detail was placed into the artwork, and the animation is able to appear like a film in someplaces, in part due to animation saving methods tha Science Saru is able to hide masterfully. Every scene, while not always the best animated, is a joy to behold.

Sound- Music is the most subjective thing out of MAL's review parts. In this case, Music is critical to the story and characters, as they need to work on sound design and getting help with music, in that respect this series is fantastic. As for the music made to enhance scenes outside of in universe music, I found that it created a sense of excitement and joy whenever it was used.

Character:
Kanamori- the producer, and straight man of the group. She uses her knowledge of business, and her no-nonsense attitude to get the production done. She's one of the most standout characters, as she has to negotiate with the student council, the school board and others. She also has the to keep Mizusaki and Asakusa in check, as they tend to go off topic or be stubborn about wanting to do the production perfectly, but of course, they have to cut corners and make changes to adapt to bad situations. Kanamori is my favorite character.
Asakusa- Asakusa is the director/background artist/storyboard artist/writer. She's the de facto protagonist, who from a young age was enthralled by anime, and wanted to make her own someday. She's got most of the creative story ideas, and her realities are often the ones visualized by the series. as character, she's socially awkward, having trouble with people, and when working with people she's comfortable with, she'll often say more quirky lines like "you bet your bottom" or something like that. She's a fun character and I love seeing her work through the creative process, as I can somewhat relate as an aspiring writer myself.
Mizusaki- Mizusaki is the animator, and the character who helps get the ball rolling on the Eizouken or Film club I believe. She's a rich girl/model who wants to work in anime, to the point where she will pay attention to little details no one cares about, like how water is thrown, and I respect that, as an artist in training myself. She can be a bit unreasonable though, as she wants everything to be animated well, which I can still respect, but I know they do have to cut corners somewhere. Mizusaki is a character I quite enjoy, but she's definitely not as perfect or quirky as the other two.

Pacing- The series pacing is fine, I only really care about pacing when it's too fast or slow. This series is fast, but not fast enough to the point where I'd be annoyed.

Enjoyment- when I started this series, I had initially been unsure of it. I enjoyed it, but I didn't think I was enjoying it enough, after all, I hadn't quite known what to expect and had to take everything in, and after taking everything in, I must say-

Overall- "God I love this show, and God I love anime, amen," me at around 12:30

This anime tells the journey of three high school girls to make anime. One is a pocket rocket of imaginative powers and has great skills in background art and sound direction. Another is a passionate animator. And the third girl? Watch the anime to get your answer 😉 Together they make a fun combination and compliment each other nicely.

This anime is short, sweet, and straight to the point. No excess shenanigans or nothing. It shows us in nice detail about various aspects of the anime industry: character design, animation, attention to detail, when and why to use 3D graphics, the suitable use of sound, the ... list goes on and on. There is a lot of information packed up in this anime. But they are presented in an interesting way. But it can be tough at times to totally follow what's going on. That's why you may have to rewind some scenes to get it.

The strongest feature of the anime is it's character development. The three main characters are relatable and really fun to observe. Their traits are really well portrayed in the anime. I think as the anime didn't try to do anything extra or unnecessary, it was able to use up it's 12 episode length really wisely. So the direction and pacing are also praiseworthy. It's OP is probably the catchiest of the season.

This anime is a great tribute to the anime makers, showing the hardships they face to make anime. And it's one of those anime that you can rewatch again and again at a later time, and feel just as good if not more.

When I first started watching "Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!" I hadn't drawn anything for a number of months. After finishing two episodes I was scrambling to find my sketchbook just to draw something and shake off my cobwebs. This animation is incredibly inspiring for someone who enjoys creating but is struggling with rediscovering that spark you may feel you had years ago. The energy each of the main trio chases their ambition and talks about their interests is contagious, especially in the imagination scenes where the vocalized sound effects and on the fly additions to designs and story draws you into how the characters ... see their ideas and how they want them to be presented.

Watching this show so far made me incredibly nostalgic for the creativity and imagination my school friends and I shared working on our stories and comics, and seeing it given such life and love in an anime makes me smile. On top of how much personality and whimsy the show itself has with its style and moments, this show thrives on giving you characters who feel both exaggerated and realistic and a story of childish nonsense and taking those first terrifying steps into your dream. I'm writing this at only 5 episodes but I'm confident the remainder of the season will continue the strong start this show has and hopefully retain its appeal well after it's finished airing.

Here I will give my impressions and not talk much about the series to avoid giving them spoilers:
I honestly can't imagine finding a work as daring and interesting as Masaaki Yuasa breaking the mold, this director is a GENIUS.
We have a work that I would call very experimental, it is a work that overflows of love and detail, this series doesn't pretend to be pretentious, this one only pretends to tell us how a group of girls make anime but its narrative is so MAGISTRAL, so absurdly beautiful and original that you won't find it easily. It's a too experimental series because while all ... the animes opt for styles almost copied from each other, the good Masaaki gives us a work that breaks that mold and gives us a work where the world of imagination feels too handcrafted and that's incredibly beautiful because it also plays with meta-narrative, plays with references and it's so incredible his visual style that it reminded me a lot to the story of Princess Kaguya from Ghibli. I'm so happy to find such beautiful and original works.
Regarding the animation, the same thing is super well done, it doesn't pretend to be pretentious but it is animated in a simple way that combines perfectly with its environment and characters, regarding the design of these last ones I am totally demonstrated that we don't need disproportionate girls or with ridiculous personalities so that these are endearing; these three have a synergy and compatibility very well spun, their friendship is noticed that it is sincere and it is not forced, during the course of the series I didn't find deus ex machina and the flow of it is very well. Regarding the sound section I can say that it's the first time in all my experience watching anime that I find a foley and use of FX so curious and great because in the world of imagination, much of the OST and FX are made with guttural sounds that play a characteristic prosopoeic function but at the same time illusory and aesthetic, it's incredible that a series has so much genius on it.
I feel that I didn't really see an anime series, I feel that I saw a high work that has a great cultural charge besides being a love letter to the animators, honestly no matter how much I try I don't find any mistakes, even so later I will see it again, it is simply incredible and wonderful.
My grade is 10/10

Though not for everyone, it is a very nice break from the usual norm

The anime has an overarching "Ghibli" feel to it, despite being simple the animation has tons of colour and fair bit of depth to it. It was the first show to draw me in not with fight scenes and a deep story, but with a simple premise.

The show talks a lot about the struggle of being an artist, while I'm not a artist, I am an writer and I can understand a lot of the themes this anime is going for.

The main character trio is also fun, three opposing personality Traits working ... together for a common goal.
Overall:
Give it a try, it won't hurt but don't complain if you find yourself drawn in.

Honestly I had such a blast watching this and I’m kinda bummed out it was only 12 episodes.

Not only is the concept of an anime about making anime delightfully meta, but the whole show is such a deeply effective look into the emotions and feelings that come with pursuing a creative passion, both the good and bad. The waves of sudden inspiration, the creative block, it’s all very relatable to someone like me with an in an artistic hobby or career.

The main trio make a delightful cast and each bring something unique to the dynamic. The ‘dream’ sequences where the girls become absorbed into the ... worlds they’re creating and beautifully animated and encapsulate the feeling of getting absorbed in your concepts as you develop them, especially if it’s a collaborative effort. But also balancing this with the realities and compromises of making it a career, marketing your work and not overworking yourself, not only for your own sanity, but under massive time constraints and what an audience might actually care about when they experience your work.

If ever there was a show that just makes you want to go out there to follow your artistic passions and create to your heart’s desire, this would be it.

(Spoiler free :O)

So.. Eizoken ni wa Te wo Dasu na! The people from Devilman Crybaby have returned in full glory with their newest anime about three girls taking their city by storm with their animation! Really that is basically the story, but that is not to say that it wasn't enjoyable. Because let me tell you it sure was a heck of fun... Just dont expect this show to be full of characters blooming with personality or an amazingly written story. It is really just your standard anime and yet it feels like so much more...

Story 6/10:
So like mentioned the story isn't something too crazy ... just a standard 12 episode anime about three girls making anime. But along the way the have many obsacles to face and no it is not your generic antagonist which in this case wouldve be en a different animation studio in the same school. No instead the girls face the harsh reality and why for example the marketing of a product can be just as important for their succes as the actual product. Though the story isn't generic or cliché it also isn't something amazing... It's just different, but not as good as other "different" shows.

Art 10/10:
Next the Art and Animation. Holy moly this really was something else! I mean it was to be expected from the likes of Devilman Crybaby. But this was really amazing. The way they portrayed the fantasies of the girls the way the anime the girls made looked the general artstyle the world was made in it was all amazing! Really if there is a reason why I like MOB Psycho 100 it was for the exact reason as Eizouken! because the characters, artstyle and animation were all just amazing! So if you're looking for a relax anime with a different artstyle than your typicial isekai/shounen anime boy do I have the anime for you!

Sound 6/10:
The sound was aight... Just aight there was no bad track nor earblessing track. Though I gotta say that ending be kinda catchy though! Ok lets move on.

Character 7/10:
The characters were also pretty good. They had good chemistry with one another and they were all really memoreable. Even if I don't remember their names. I do remember how they looked which is also part of the Art aspect but whatever. The characters were again nothing amazing, but they were also far from being bad.

Enjoyment 9/10:
So Enjoyment. This show is one everybody can enjoy I'm convinced of it. Though don't expect this to be the next Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood... Eizouken is just full of fun characters, an amazing artstyle, a simple to understand story and a anime that sucks you into its world. So if you don't have an Plan To Watch list full of long running anime then I'd say you should watch this since well if you listen to your government youre probably locked down in your house anyways.

Overall 7/10:
OVerall I really enjoyed the show, but it wasn't one that was pioneering in something it just knew what it was doing and it shows. Though it was fun it wasn't something worth higher than a 8 at least for me... Also I know the review was short, but so was the anime... Anyways I hope this review helped you! Also quick reminder stay inside I don't want my fellow weebs to get infected by that virus :3. Anyways see you all around!

First of all, I would like to talk about "sound" that sound feels similar to "Kaze Tachinu" and that's probably we have same sound director here, next, i want to talk about the feel, the feel is same with "Kaze Tachinu". A people, a group, a human being pursues his dreams and there is a impermeable blockade, a sick girl or bad parents.

I have things to say about art style of this anime. It was something new for me, i mean i have never watched something like that, it kinda draws itself which was funny for me, it's still too early talk about characters and ... other things but i have some expectations about this anime.

"Do you want to make anime or not?! ... We've got youth on our side. That means we don't stand to lose anything here. There's no risk involved." in other words "Just do it!". And so, begins a somewhat unoriginal story about two girls wanting to produce anime and a third saying: "well, then do it". Our main trio creates the "Motion Pictures Club" at set themselves of on a journey into the world of producing anime from their dilapidated club house.

Grounded in a somewhat realistic setting, which viewed through the eyes of these girls, transforms into worlds into which our mains cast tries ... to create stories. How does this robot work? What are these used for? Why are the pilot seated there? Questions into the mechanics of things created from the imagination, grounds it in a sense of realness, which Eizouken really excels at. A thing missing in their worlds though are real people. As Miyazaki puts it "Almost all Japanese animation is produced with hardly any basis taken from observing real people, you know". Even though a lot of thought is given to the movement the trios anime characters, they have no personality since they only create somewhat flat action shorts. It's somewhat excusable since their short are at most 5 minutes, but theorizing about the third robot’s interior can become a bit dull if one is not into that.

That the cast mainly consists of Asakusa, the concept artist who dreams up worlds, architecture and the story. Mizusaki the child actress who wants to draw characters and character movement. And Kanamori the catalyst of it all who acts as a project manager and therefore mostly have no creative input other than, is it going to be done on time. To me Kanamori serves the most interesting role which I haven’t seen in anime before. The ability to narrow down and concentrate the unbounded creativity of Asakusa and Mizusaki, really makes a lot of the show for me. Seeing how boundaries can sharpen creativity and focus it into a finish product is wonderful.

Eizouken might have the best first episode of any anime this season or even in many years. But the gimmick which catches you, the 'going from our characters world into an imaginary world and explore it' is Eizouken’s double edged sword. Seeing it being deployed for the 12th time, since it is used in every episode, makes it loose some of its magic and is rather unfortunate.

Eizouken is one of the highlights, if not the must watch of this season so give a watch and enjoy the bloom of youth giving their all and following their passion.

Truly an entertaining way to spend the last 12 Sundays. For some reason, the winter anime season felt a little dry this year, save for this anime, which was, no doubt, the best of the season.

Eizouken is a quirky, funny, imaginative, and artistically-pleasing look at what goes into the art of animation. I enjoyed myself watching as these girls dove deep into their imagination and strode toward success. Each completed project gave me a sense of fulfillment, especially in this last episode, where everything seems to come full circle, though there is still the notion that there's still much more work to be done.

Will Eizouken ... be the best anime of 2020? Probably not. Will it gain more recognition than many of the awaited sequels this year? Most likely no. But will it be memorable enough to look back on when the year draws to a close? For sure. It's certainly not the best anime I've ever watched, which is why I steered clear of a 9 or a 10, but if you're looking for something fun and imaginative to watch (especially during quarantine), then give this 12 episode anime a binge. The anime moves a little slow at times, and not everyone may be drawn to the more business-oriented/infuriated artist tropes, but everything is heavily balanced so you get a little bit of everything watching this anime. Other than that, I can't find any major flaws.

Also Kanamori is a queen. That is all :)

So incredibly creative and fun, and at the perfect length at 12 episodes. People generally point to Shirobako as "the anime about making anime" but personally, Eizouken is more my speed.

Each episode brings in a new element of the creative process while also highlighting the character's contributions to the project in a way that makes it so satisfying to see it all come together and also see their improvement over the course of the show.

Also I really appreciate the inclusion of Sayaka's character on a personal level. I'm no good at traditional art forms like drawing or music but I still think of myself as ... an artist that's capable of contributing towards creative projects. Similarly, Sayaka can't animate or draw or compose music, but she plays a vital role in the group in addition to being a good friend.

Auteurship isn’t something you really see in anime, more often than not multiple titles in the medium can look borderline identical, there are very few examples of noteworthy directing and or editing. If you examine things, the industry has such an abundance of potboilers about a group of friends in high school doing high school stuff that you would be forgiven for thinking there's nothing worthwihle. And that’s a bit of a shame, I’m not one to give out praise for art being unique and different just for being so, works by the likes of Jackson Pollock might be unique, but that doesn’t make them ... any less gash. Eizouken is a bit of a rarity, since it is not only a definite example of auteurship in anime, but actually good on top of that.

To elaborate, the most striking element of Eizouken is the usage of visuals, for one, these characters are a major divergence from what is standard in anime, I would not call them ‘traditionally moe’, but still moe in their own way. On top of that, the city in which it takes place has a particularly unusual architectural development, and there are many events which are described through the eyes of the highly imaginative Asakusa, and when this happens, it’s animated as though it is a series of rough notebook drawings, and cheap looking as it is (but that is the intended effect), it still looks better than CGI so I can’t complain, and I'd probably suggest that her passionately explaining (to give one such example) the dynamics of energy weapons and how they don't actually look like regular lasers and thus to demonstrate their operation and power to the viewer it would be better to display the ejection port are the best moments in the series.

To actually get to the point, Eizouken is about the eizouken (film club), consisting of procastination-prone midget and probably autistic director Asakusa, PR manager and negotiator Kanamori, who likes to take after the Sicilian Mafia’s method of negotiating, and probably spends her evenings deciding if she’d rather shag Leopold II or Machiavelli, and there’s the animator Mizusaki. If you’re wondering why I didn’t give you any details surrounding her, it’s because I’m struggling to think of any defining characteristics beyond the fact she enjoys animation and wants to make sure it looks good. She is definitely the third wheel of the group, while Asakusa and Kanamori have all the chemistry of any classic comedy duo, she’s just kind of there, - Asakusa is the funny man, Kanamori is the straight man, and Mizusaki just switches between whichever of the two the writers thought would work better for her at that given moment, this isn’t to say she is inconsistent, but she’s just not got the energy the other two do. Since Asakusa’s clearly shown to have good drawing ability, I would think that could translate to being able to animate, so I’m not entirely sure why Mizusaki’s even there to begin with. Maybe it’s some metacommentary about how animators are always overlooked in favour of the more public figures like directors and advertisers, but that’s not our fault if all animators are like this.

So, in essence, it’s about the eizouken having to produce their anime film, and having to deal with the various obstacles that get in their way, including but not limited to Asakusa’s own inability to work consistently, having to negotiate with other school clubs whose creative vision of the film differs from Asakusa's, and the student council sending a no-knock raid to the eizouken’s door for failing to declare income, so, typical stuff. And it works well for the precise reason that it contains the aforementioned chemistry with its characters, I did mention that Mizusaki is a bit of a third wheel, but I would not consider her presence detrimental to my experience, only neutral, rather than additive. In addition to this, on the side there’s plenty going on, the personal and professional sides of their lives are examined.
At the end of the day, it works well, it makes for an anime that is a definite cut above (director’s cut, even) the standard slice of life high school anime, it feels like a very personal tale, and with a slice of life, isn't that what it should all be about?

Is it just me or has 12 episodes of this anime just flew by already this year?!

Anyways with me dropping a ton of anime this Winter 2020 season, this anime was luckily one of the decent ones I've watched through atw!

I really liked how this anime portrayed on anime itself, especially how it is never easy to create it and honestly Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! definitely proved this realistic concept folks!

Fairplay to Tamura Mutsumi, Itou Sairi and Matsuoka Misato for doing such an incredible performance as the girls. We all know here that Kanamori will definitely be crowned "best girl" here for her ... intelligent blackmail technique when it comes to their animated films haha!

This anime may not have been the best personally but it still was good to keep me interested in watching more of what the group of girls have for us to offer in store. The animation in this I gotta say, is pretty basic enough like it wasn't that mind blowing or fascinating. However it still has it's own charm and is good enough if you're not gonna take this anime that seriously!

Definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to be an animator for real or just needs new anime to watch!!