Hello everyone, and I hope you’re ready for another episode of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! Today I am consumed by even more anticipation than usual, as unlike every other episode since the premiere, I actually haven’t watched this one myself yet. Yes, scandalous, I know.

Eizouken’s fourth episode seemed like a clear endpoint for the “first act” of this production, as our three young creators both created and debuted their first finished work, earning themselves an actual club budget in the process. “Hold That Machete Tight!” was a stunning demonstration of all three of their talents: Asakusa’s evocative designs, Mizusaki’s fluid and personality-infused animation, and Kanamori’s ability to wrangle her unfocused and overly ambitious friends into working on something they can actually finish. Their production managed to simultaneously embody all the shortcuts they had to embrace to actually finish, while also demonstrating the indescribable magic of seeing your creative ideas come to life. I imagine the team will be setting their sights even higher for their second production, and I can’t wait to see what dark corners of the creative process this show illuminates next. Let’s get back to Eizouken!

Episode 5

We’re opening with a horror riff this week, featuring plenty of horror touchstones – ominous rising horns matched by slow pans up mysterious objects, and a generally desaturated color scheme

Weather is another profoundly useful dramatic tool. Rain can create a sense of heightened drama, desperation, or despair, overcast skies can create a sense of anticipation or malevolence, etcetera. And that effect extends beyond the sky itself, as this episode demonstrates through its muted overall colors

Aha, I love this cut of Asakusa stumbling past Mizusaki, that then immediately transitions to a second shot of her continuing to stumble across the walkway. Nice comedy of expectations there – stumbling past someone is a common piece of physical comedy, but extending it to a second cut with no transition emphasizes Asakusa’s world-class clumsiness. And the lack of closeups or camera shifts creates a sense of “deadpan” in the framing itself. A great deal of anime comedy fails for me because it lacks a light touch, but sequences like this make it look easy

Asakusa found a giant robot. “Something is definitely going on at this school!”

More horror movie framing – the extreme closeup of the door as Asakusa pokes her head in, and the shot of Mizusaki from three quarters overhead, emphasizing her stance within the light of the door

The character acting in this show is so loose and yet so brimming with personality. Asakusa runs in a perpetual stumble, and this slow-mo shot of her pulling the chord is fantastic

“I thought this was going to be giant robot scifi, but instead it’s got the scent of robot crime.” ROBOT CRIME

Asakusa even explains mechanical concepts when she’s by herself. Nice seeing her go on this solo adventure

Oh no, Kanamori’s working with the enemy! Well, of course Kanamori would be working with the enemy

Another great joke of anticlimax, as the horns build up and the rocket is fired through this impressive perspective shot, then the collision with Asakusa is framed flatly from the side, and heralded by an unimpressive “boink” noise as the music cuts

The robot is Talos, and was built by the robot club, unsurprisingly. This whole school gives me extreme The Tatami Galaxy vibes, which shouldn’t really make sense, since the two stories are by different authors. I guess Yuasa himself just gravitates towards works that embrace this kind of inventive educational playground

They’ve been hired to make an anime about the robot! I suppose, in a show about all aspects of anime production, discussing the historical tropes of anime also makes sense. And Asakusa’s mechanical interests align perfectly with giant robots

“Pay exists to ensure a quality standard for labor.” Kanamori truly believes in the righteousness of money

“I dunno about buildings, but a giraffe is taller than this thing. If we’re talking about three-meter-tall monsters, wouldn’t a heavy machine gun do the job?” Asakusa relentless in her criticism of their worldbuilding

The team enter a network of tunnels beneath the school. This episode continues to lightly riff on horror tropes through its staging

Oh my god, Asakusa even has light-up shoes

Their fortunes have certainly improved – this second video will be promoting the robot club at the school festival, which will also be robot-themed

Asakusa articulating a common plight of the creative – they want their work to be seen and appreciated, but they also want to spend all their time hiding and working in a dark hole, away from lots of people. I strongly relate to all of this

“You’re taking pictures too, Mizusaki?” “Of course! There’s background animation to consider. And of course, the setting influences the movement!” Mizusaki is articulating something relatively unique to anime, even within animation more broadly. While most animation is constructed of animated character art laid on top of stable backgrounds, anime included, big animation highlights are often constructed differently – a certain key animator will handle not just the character movements, but the overall layouts and camera movements for their chosen cut. Because of this, anime is often uniquely flexible in its approach to standout sequences, and the best animators concern themselves not just with characters, but with how full environments can facilitate exciting drama

Kanamori states that it looks like they’re playing around, and Asakusa admits they kind of are. This, too, is a key part of the creative process – going out into the world, and being inspired by the things you see. Creators like Hayao Miyazaki and Shigeru Miyamoto regularly admit they’re inspired by incidental elements of the natural world; rather than simply make a story that echoes the ideas of the stories you’ve seen before, it’s crucial to go out and find your own inspiration, and make something that feels true to your own experience of the world. Anyone can make a story that seems like other stories – to write your story, you must pull from your own experiences

Oh my god, Asakusa’s little windmill run

Asakusa invents a turtle-crab for the robot to fight

“Asakusa, sometimes your focus on realism can be a little hard on fiction.” It’s true – Asakusa’s approach is very specific to her, and her fascination with detailed mechanical design. Most artists are actually more willing to discard reality in order to facilitate their ideas, but Asakusa’s inspiration in part comes from how she explains “realistic” designs

“Its special weapon will be a chainsaw!” “Do you know how hard those teeth are to draw!?” This show is so good

Holy shit. They fall through the floor, and all of Asakusa’s survival tools actually come in handy. Bless this tiny explorer

“Did you get a haircut, Kanamori?” Between this and the legs comment, I think Mizusaki might have a crush

“She’s awkward in conversations, so she tries to sound quirky as an emotional defense.” Ruthless, Kanamori. In general, this show’s dialogue is just so much sharper than most shows – these characters feel young and anxious and self-aware in a way you don’t often see through the idealized nostalgia of anime

And for the negotiation phase, Kanamori of course takes charge. This too is a key part of anime production – your production committee is unlikely to be composed of people who actually care about the artistic value of the anime itself, but rather how effectively it promotes their financial stake. Thus great producers must also manage their own financiers, not just their artists

Kanamori opens with a big win, as she enters the room while the robot club are in the process of their own negotiation strategizing

Hah, this hyper-elongated shot of the girls at the negotiation table is so good

And this is actually a point where Asakusa’s talents also really come in handy. The club are worried that Eizouken aren’t taking this seriously enough, but Asakusa’s incredibly detailed and seemingly realistic monster designs immediately put the lie to that

But the leader of the robot club can not be made happy, because he himself is unable to realize what he’s asking for is a contradiction. In his heart, the idea of a giant, man-piloted robot that is also grounded and realistic makes total sense, because part of the appeal of giant robots is their real-world mechanical grittiness. But in truth, they are an entirely fantastical construction, and their sense of “reality” is purely a result of framing and staging, not their fundamental nature. This guy is not able to parse the fiction he loves with a creator’s eye; he is describing a feeling, and getting mad at seeing the half-finished, fantasy-dismantling stages that will eventually create that feeling

“So it’s reality that doesn’t care about giant robots.” Mizusaki can be ruthless too, even if accidentally

And at last, the underlying truth comes out: the club president can’t admit that giant robots are inherently unrealistic because goddamnit, he really wants to pilot a giant robot

Kanamori senses weakness, but of course the two artists are actually moved by his plight, and relate their own unrealistic fantasies

Ooh, I love this. The final result is not Kanamori browbeating the robot club, but the teams finding their point of emotional connection, and then the Eizouken actually bringing the robot club into their design process

Analog instruments are essential – a true giant robot would likely be run entirely by a computer program and keyboard, but analog controls just feel robot-like. As I said regarding Asakusa’s spaceship, audience resonance is key

Mizusaki has a more inspiring explanation: “it shows the people creating giant robot anime ultimately put their faith in people!”

They go maybe a little overboard in its design specs. Good luck making that move, Mizusaki!

And Done

Man, this show is just the best. I was honestly a little worried that an episode about giant robots would pull Eizouken further from my own interest in anime, but this episode was just as insightful and universally applicable as any of its predecessors, touching on all sorts of fun aspects of initial concepting, creative inspiration, effective collaboration, and much else. The largely underground venue made for a somewhat more visually conservative episode than the last several, but this show is still absolutely overflowing with beautiful layouts, engaging character acting, and stunning fantasy sequences. Eizouken remains an incredible gift of a show.

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