We’ve not a moment to lose, everyone. At this very moment, I could already be watching Eizouken’s fourth episode – it’s only the tragic necessity of offering some framing to these notes articles that keeps me from the golden glow of its animated splendor. Having already watched this episode once, it already feels like a genuine contender for the best episode of anime about the anime-creating process that I’ve ever seen. To be honest, there aren’t that many contenders – there’s one specific episode of Paranoia Agent in contention, and aside from that, the consistent excellence of Shirobako.

But while Shirobako stands as a remarkable collective love letter to the full production process, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an episode get as deeply in the weeds of cost-saving animation techniques, production compromises, and editor-animator dialogue as this, nor illustrate the final product with such tangible awe at the wonder of creating something with your own hands. Eizouken’s fourth episode might actually be its best episode yet, and I’ve run out of patience waiting to revisit it. HERE WE GO!

Episode 4

After an establishing shot of the film studio sign, we enter their club building in full production mode. The empty floor has been filled with shelves for papers and finished cuts, and Asakusa and Mizusaki are each hard at work on their own production desks. The first shot already establishes their expected distribution of duties – Asakusa’s walls have painted backgrounds pinned all around them, while Mizusaki is rifling through a stack of sheets to check the flow of the motion

Mizusaki, the perfectionist, is frustrated with how her explosions look. As the windmill process demonstrated, creating a convincing illusion of movement requires both a strong understanding of physics and perspective, as well as the experience to know when “unrealistic” details are actually crucial to the emotional effect

Meanwhile, Asakusa is finally experiencing the consequences of constantly adding new visual ideas without thinking about how they’ll fit into the overall aesthetic or narrative. I love her grimace here, which really implies both her frustration and her understanding that this is her own fault

Mizusaki’s machete skills have gotten sharp, and her illustration of them naturally conveys the power of animation to evoke fluid, impactful human movements, even with her relatively loose-limbed base design. Eizouken doesn’t just articulate lessons, it embodies them – all of its insights about animation are illustrated by the show itself

Phenomenal character acting in general through this sequence. I like Mizusaki’s lackadaisical walk back to her desk, as well as Asakusa pulling her chair along to keep talking to her

Stumped by copying live action, Asakusa offers Mizusaki examples from anime. Once again, creating the illusion of reality doesn’t necessarily mean directly copying reality – smart key frames or impact frames can create a stronger effect than photorealistic explosions

Kanamori has their completed, colored, composited cuts! They have… exactly three of them

Fantastic expression work with Mizusaki’s eyes, as she reveals her lack of progress to their project manager

The layouts in general are much more intimate this episode, and the colors muted. The overall effect strongly conveys how they’ve moved from the gleeful self-expression of the early brainstorming process, to the familiar drudgery of actually doing the grunt work, day after day

Mizusaki and Kanamori’s priorities are fundamentally incompatible – if they want to finish by the time of the committee meeting, they can’t maintain this fluidity of movement. This is the true reality of the anime industry – talented animators constrained not by ability or “laziness,” but by oppressive budgeting and scheduling realities

Kanamori lays down the facts: Mizusaki’s desired level of quality would require continuous drawing for thirty straight days

And so Asakusa discovers a new talent: finding places where they can avoid fluid animation. Establishing shots, pans on backgrounds, camera movement over character action, THE WORKS

“We can get away with just rotating the cell for the camera for top-down shots. Wait, maybe we should just rotate the rest?” Meanwhile, the shot itself is actually doing this. Amazing

Incredibly punchy illustrations of all these ways to create animation economy. They improve on a “speed lines” cut by adding a simplified sky and three-frame repeating floor

And of course, a dramatic pan up a character. Want to avoid drawing details? Add an overwhelming light source!

Compromises abound. I love this playful sequence of Mizusaki bargaining for just one more frame in her skirt-fluttering loop

Eizouken itself keeps the animation light by panning down this establishing shot for so long

Asakusa’s increasingly terrified faces as she realizes what Kanamori is planning are great

And so they decide to cut the narrative entirely, and instead create more of a proof-of-concept

Remarkably intricate animation of Mizusaki bandaging her fingers. The production seems to be emphasizing her growing awareness of the complexity of physical actions

And now Kanamori introduces another sacrilege, this time aimed at Mizusaki: computer-generated inbetweens. If you don’t know, “inbetweens” are the drawings that go in between the “key frames,” the frames that signify each significant movement within the frame, and thus are generally drawn as guidelines by the main animators. Normally, you have younger animators fill in the inbetweens – but with no secondary staff at all, the Eizouken has to cut corners somewhere

“I’ve heard those kinds of optimistic predictions before, and I’ve come to realize there’s no basis for them.” Good managers know when not to trust their subordinates, too

Nice look of shock by Mizusaki as her hardline position is betrayed by Asakusa. All of their dreams are hitting some hard rocks here

Kanamori transmits her fury into the hole punch machine, and Mizusaki relents

Hah – Kanamori knew this compromise would come eventually, and thus she’s already set up and learned the digital inbetweening software. Mizusaki is a genuinely brilliant animator, but she has no ability to compromise on her passions in order to get anything done. Meanwhile, Asakusa has plenty of creativity, but lacks the confidence or focus to complete a full project. As it turns out, Kanamori seems to be just as gifted as her two friends – except her talents come in the form of personal confidence, project management abilities, and skill in negotiation. These skills are just as critical when you’re attempting to produce an anime, and her two friends are lucky to have her

This episode continues to brim with intimate perspective shots, emphasizing the tactile nature of this work, as well as the tightly constrained nature of living in a production studio

“I’d say it’s less about finishing or completing the project, and more the outcome of passion crashing against compromise and resignation.” Now Asakusa is a real artist

The colors through the window, seen as if for the first time since starting the project, are beautiful

This whole “judgment by the student council” sequence strongly reminds me of the energetic club sequences from The Tatami Galaxy. I wonder if Yuasa’s college experience was somewhat like this

The whole school here seems refreshingly multicultural. Lots of kids with darker skin tones, and a bunch of languages represented on the walls

After being presented with accusations regarding the Eizouken’s shenanigans around school, Kanamori responds with “I fail to see the problem.” Her confidence is a kind of superpower – she knows that even when someone is actively demanding something of you, their power is limited, and simply refusing to engage with the conversation they want to be having can often deflate them. Being correct often matters less in conversations or negotiations than simply possessing the confidence to impress your will and view of reality upon the other party

The true head of the student council wields her microphone like a blade. Really great push and pull between her and Kanamori

Kanamori rightly realizes that the true power here is the faculty, and that they’d rather not talk about the complaints the council is raising. Love her playfully aiming her microphone at the faculty for comment

Unfortunately, Kanamori’s counterpart in the council knows all her tricks, and understands she’s just bluffing. Fortunately, Asakusa’s here to muddle the whole discussion!

Aw jeez, Asakusa hiding between her hat and shirt, on the verge of tears, angrily fighting for her anime. What a great hero she is

The first three cuts maintain the greyscale of their actual production, and then we’re carried away by the same momentum as the audience, and seeing the colors the crew had envisioned

Hah! The animation of the heroine’s slide down the hill is precisely the slide Mizusaki initially made to demonstrate her own animation preferences

Oh wow, this 180 degree pan is really ambitious

And then there’s the dramatic pan on the character, followed by the machete-spinning dance Mizusaki practiced for so long

Time for Asakusa’s specialties to shine. The discharge of this tank’s shell casing feels so convincing, a boy in the audience can see it tumble off beside him

God, these action cuts are so good! The lack of linework really emphasizes how well Mizusaki’s captured the muscle movements of this heroine

Eizouken’s merging of fantasy and reality is as charming as ever, but this production barely even needs it. It’s clear this team have created something incredible

And here’s Mizusaki’s tank-girl-tank-girl cutting sequence! Eizouken really is something special – it wants you to feel the delight and satisfaction of not just seeing beautiful animation, but of actively recognizing how animation techniques add up to a finished project. It wants you to feel the joy of the creator

And of course, to the people who created it, the finished creation is overflowing with faults and mistakes to correct. This too is the creative life

How could the council say no to that?

And Done

Dear lord, that episode was amazing. Two thirds of it dedicated to illustrating every painful compromise and sleepless night of the animation process, one third dedicated to the pure, unmatchable thrill of watching something you created come to life. I’ve never seen a show go as deeply as this into the nitty-gritty craft details of an art form, but the results of that focus are clear: Eizouken’s triumphs ring with a satisfaction that only comes from actively understanding all the work that went into their productions. And that this show can maintain that level of production insight while also coming off as a breezy, charming club drama, and simultaneously offering such gorgeously realized fantasy sequences… I just don’t even know. In an industry defined by limits as harsh as these, how can something as good as Eizouken even exist? I feel so lucky to watch it – but of course, luck has absolutely nothing to do with it.

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