Hand Shakers is pretty much fate stay night but with generic anime character, the main character is this boy who looks like a grade school student and suddenly he is paired with this silent girl who has been comatose for a long time, so they have to fight all these other pairs and win so they can get a wish granted by God.The main hook of the story is so the fact that the two main characters can't let go of their hands or they die but this concept is thrown out the window.They fight using powers called “nimrods” but the only “nimrods” are the people who edited this mess, it's like the scenes got jumbled out of order and it's very weird.Also this has to be the worst thing they could do, but you expect to see people fight each other. You do get that for like one half of the episode and literally the next hour and a half is just nothing but pure BOREDOM.OMG I was begging for something to happen I mean come on.They do the regular fighting but after two or three of those, the show slows down so quickly I think I got skidmarks. The second to last episode is just a regurgitated fest of exposition and the ending begrudgingly was alright, but really see why people drop this show.It's really hard to get through.
Alrighty then, the hardest part to talk about is the animation.It was done by Gohands who are masters of chromatic coloring,see “K” for example.In this show though, you can tell where they were going for but it doesn't completely work. What actually shocked me was that the main director and art director both worked on K, so if they did work on this they were probably drunk as hell.The show tries make everything in the background animated on par to what's in the foreground,but it all looks slow and sloppy, some of the characters disappear before even leaving the fucking shot.And what really doesn't help at all is whoever directed the camera movements .There is this one scene where someone gets a close up but they are walking towards the camera so they just disappear and it's very weird.Also, the camera has the stupidity to try to follow the characters around when they fight and it made me so freaking dizzy.This one girl jumped like two blocks to hit this building and bounced off and just went back. WTF. The 3d can sometimes look good (if the show was released in 1999)but when it gets involved with 2d and the crackhead behind the camera, it can look very bad. Getting to the art, its fine but just so overwhelming, the hair looks so fake, and the background is just Bleeeeh. There are times when it zooms into the background but it's low in resolution.There is one part that looks decent. it's when the pair enter the fighting world and all the walls have cool looking designs that come to life and it looks kinda nice.That’s the nice looking flower you see in all of the trash in the dumpster.
Now the BEST part of this show hands down (seriously if you think anything about this show is better than the sound,there is something wrong with you.)I watched the dub, cuz Funimation is the best, and it's alright.The soundtrack sounds like a bunch of royalty free computer leisure music from the youtube editor.Not only that but i feel like if I bought the CD, it would be like 20 minutes long.There are like 5 songs on the soundtrack.But they don't sound too bad.The foley was alright. I The best song is Dust Trail for sure.It’s like a mash of ballroom dancing music with orchestra and its very good.I recommend to listen to it on your own.The opening was done by Oxt who did openings to Overlord Season 1 and 2.Those opening themes weren't my favorite,but after hearing “One Hand Message”I can see why they are so popular.It's super addicting and kinda unfair that they have to be put with messy eye gouging opening visuals.The ending is freaking beautiful too.
The characters are kinda clique but there are very weird turns taken with them.The main character and the emotionless girl are bland but I can't say the same for the others. Including a girl with Hypopituitarism, another girl who is actually a.pedophile, and also another girl who uses the powers of orgasms to break the ground around her.Despite that, the actual interaction with each pair is decent.One pair uses cards.Another pair can only use her nimrod after using hand sanitizer.The route they went with the two MCs wasn't bad,but the execution made the show BORING AS HELL.There was one episode moment that lasted 5 seconds, but it did a good job of showing interaction between the two characters but that was the only memorable thing in the whole episode.
I can see why everyone trashes this show ,but I don't hate it with a passion.It's just forgettable.The story is alright but done way better.The animation and art had potential but it was just too overwhelming and lazily put together.The soundtrack is not bad but it sounds like stock music.And I can appreciate the personalities of each pair but the MC and the girl interaction was just so freaking boring I was tearing up from yawning all the time.This show is pretty freaking bad, but people are just overreacting.People who say this is the worst anime ever probably haven't seen all the other trash that anime has to offer.
Overall-5
I feel sorry for Gohands right now....
