Hello all, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am very excited to return to Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, in the wake of the team’s successful premiere of their giant robot anime. Not only did Asakusa and her team’s production garner a massive crowd and dazzle the student body, it also neatly resolved Mizusaki’s conflict with her parents. Having seen how Mizusaki is able to “perform” through her animation, they have no doubts that she’s found a path that is right for her – she has proven she can convey unique human experiences through her art, to the point where even her professional actor parents can see their daughter in her work.

Unfortunately, it turns out making great art isn’t actually the hard part when it comes to anime production – it’s making money. Having been commissioned to create their most recent anime by the giant robot club, it seems quite likely that, as it goes for actual anime studios, they won’t have much right to the spoils of their labor. The actual industry’s production committee system tends to treat anime studios as replaceable contract workers, who get paid a flat rate regardless of how well their production does. On top of that, staggeringly predatory wages mean most young animators can barely support themselves, and often rely on their family, or projects like the animator dorm initiative, just to get by. We’ve spent plenty of time exploring the sheer joy of creation and the steady labor of production, but we’ve yet to cover the true dark heart of anime, and I’m guessing that time has finally arrived. Let’s dive into another episode of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Episode 9

The sound of rain accompanies a pan down the school’s canal system as we open the episode. The sequence is designed to make us hyper-aware of sound design, as we note the difference in tone between water striking on the rooftops, water rushing through the storm piping, and water gurgling into the storm drain itself

And with that context in mind, we learn the sound team has been selling their audio through… oh my god, Sound-Booru. They actually referenced Sakugabooru, the animation database run by some of my friends. This show is amazing

The student council do not seem to be thrilled at Kanamori’s entrepreneurial exploitation of the sound library

Unsurprisingly, the giant robot anime resulted in lots of new production requests

Yep, they’re actually going into it. As Kanamori explains, the Eizouken ultimately only received 15% of the profits on the DVD sales. Even profit sharing puts them ahead of most studios, but with that rate, the return on their hourly labor is basically microscopic. They put in hundreds of hours for money they could have made mowing a few lawns

Rather than work for another club, Kaminari suggests they sell their own product at “Comet A,” which is presumably their world’s version of Comiket. The existence of massive, centralized amateur art markets in Japan has a genuinely profound effect on artists’ ability to make money on niche products, and potentially develop support for larger ones. Properties like Fate flat-out would not exist in their current incarnations without comic conventions’ ability to connect independent artists with potential audiences

“Let’s sell the hell out of some DVDs, you dorks!” Kanamori is the best

“That building looks like a piece of shortcake!” Bless you as well, Mizusaki

Lovely backgrounds as the group explore a winding town in the country. There’s something about sleepy Japanese towns that always feels so calming to me; I love the sense of open space, the humble architecture, the way residential developments echo the curve of the land

Lots of goofy Asakusa fantasies that take advantage of the naturally labyrinthian nature of this place. Asakusa’s fantasies are fun, but I’m particularly impressed by how the base architecture of locations like the school and this town imply adventure, through how well they capture the beauty of idle objects in disarray, or the allure of a winding back alley

Asakusa mentions the water level has risen, another hint that this world might be further along than ours in enduring the consequences of climate change

“I didn’t know this was here!” This town embodies the spirit of finding adventure in the everyday – this unexpected kappa shrine, that secret underground shopping district. Rather than simply say “Asakusa and Mizusaki find artistic inspiration in the world around them,” Eizouken is directly illustrating what one might find inspiring about such experiences

Right on cue, a mysterious spiraling staircase beneath a grate prompts Asakusa to imagine an endlessly spiraling shopping district, which actually sounds like a really awesome idea

Asakusa’s endless little inventions point to another truth of storytelling: coming up with a story is not the creation of “one idea.” One idea might inspire the thrust of the narrative, but every great story is brimming with ideas of all sizes, from tiny ones like inspired bits of dialogue, to larger ones like full scene concepts, worldbuilding conceits, or dramatic, iconic images

“That’s the kind of robot anime I’ve been looking for!” ‘Real robot motion principles with fantastical super robot action’ is a tricky balance, but fortunately for Mizusaki, this is one sub-area of animation where a lot of passionate audience members deeply care about the details of the animation style

“I still feel like we’ve got too much to work on to accept it openly, though…” Learning to accept praise gracefully, even though you personally feel hyper-attuned to all the failures of the work being praised, is a genuinely necessary skill for artists. Great artists often tend to downplay their own work, because always being unsatisfied with your current level, and frankly assessing your own weaknesses, are some of the qualities that tend to create great artists in the first place

Kanamori goes surprisingly deep in her ramen critique

“There is nothing fun about social media!” Absolutely fucking true

Mizusaki cares so little about her own appeal as a commercial draw that she is completely fine with Kanamori shamelessly exploiting her celebrity in every way possible

God, I wish I had part of that instinct that Kanamori possesses. She attacks problems like building a brand or monetizing her fanbase with genuine glee; in contrast, even just promoting my Patreon alongside my articles tends to make me feel exploitative and uncomfortable. I’m happy to work in an era where niche creators can be supported through avenues like Patreon, but I could not be less effective in terms of the “all creators must also be brands and self-promoters” aspect of our current moment

My god, wild 3D shot as we pan down the group floating through a lightly sketched canal, and then the camera curves entirely to take in the liquor store they’re approaching. This shot is only possible because the distinct houses on the left bank are all individually designed as layers to be moved independently, as well as being distinct 3D shapes. The shadow work and curve of the river do a lot to create that sense of depth here… just a really impressive cut in general, and a successful execution of Science Saru’s Flash tricks

Very pronounced use of CG environments throughout this sequence, as we actually walk forward into a series of prerendered buildings. The way these loosely scribbled lines dissolve at their ends does a fine job of mitigating the natural obtrusiveness of these CG shapes, but it’s still an imperfect effect

So we’re finally getting Kanamori’s backstory then, and learning why she’s so preoccupied with making money. Tiny Kanamori is pretty adorable

Oof, this sequence of Kanamori learning the family business is closing is brutal. Just a flat white background against the increasingly muffled sounds of the people around her, as the world she knew suddenly ends

That experience clearly taught her to respect the complexity of making money. She watched the shop that was her family’s identity wither away, and thus learned firsthand that capitalism has no particular bias towards hard work, great products, or nice people. Capitalism is a system with its own rules of value, rules that must be mastered if your work is to be appreciated. Kanamori arrived too late to save her family’s shop – but she’ll be damned if she’s not making Eizouken a financial success

“There’s no point in focusing entirely on the quality of your product. You need the right methods and products at the right time, and you need advertising!” Kanamori’s frustration with her friends’ passion makes perfect sense, as to her, there isn’t really any product at all if that product is not making money, and making money out of artistic products is largely a reflection of the qualities she articulates – hitting the market at the right time, advertising to the right demographic, etc. You can’t dazzle audiences if you can’t find audiences, or afford to produce anything

This sequence also demonstrates that Kanamori is just as passionate as the other two, she just tends to express that passion as anger, not joy

Asakusa proposes they use the whole town of Shibahama as their next venue. And this episode has certainly demonstrated the town’s appeal

All of Asakusa’s narratives are basically “there’s a cool setting… and then monsters attack!”

Her imagined defense of the town makes use of the idle fantasies she shared with Mizusaki earlier, emphasizing how every larger idea is composed of many smaller ideas, and also the general artistic usefulness of their style of exploratory play

Her newest project embodies the appeal she articulated in the very first episode, about using this wonderful environment to tell a story

Now that they’ve established relationships with the other relevant clubs, production goes much more smoothly. This, too, is a critical aspect of anime production: making personal connections with animators and studio leads who can help you out in times of need. A show like One Punch Man would not be the spectacle it is if director Shingo Natsume did not have a lot of very talented friends

Holy shit, Kanamori got funding from the Shibahami Chamber of Commerce. Already moving beyond the school!

This episode is incredibly generous in terms of Greatest World backdrops and designs

Asakusa offers a lengthy explanation as to why laser weapons would not actually produce visible beams, but of course, audience resonance is key, and audiences love laser beams. C’mon Asakusa, you know this stuff!

I love when this show just winds Asakusa up and lets her go, like when the background sound cuts and Asakusa demonstrates her mental image of explosions against a plain white background

“Everything I’ve done so far has been a performance.” A key realization for Asakusa, something related to the nature of storyboards. Telling a story through animation isn’t the same thing as reading that story in print – animation is a visual performance, and the contrast of light and color, motion and stillness, are just as crucial as the actual events of the plot. How the story is told is everything

Upon realizing that, she briefly yanks up her jacket over her head, realizing all of her productions so far have actually been intensely personal public performances

And Done

With the robot production finally completed, this episode drew us back towards Kanamori’s area of expertise, offering plenty of jaded reflections on the difficulty of getting paid for anime production. I greatly enjoyed this look into Kanamori’s childhood, and also just getting to walk around the streets of Shibahama was a real treat. As I’ve said before, Eizouken can at times pull off some of the appeal of a show like The Eccentric Family, in that it is uniquely able to capture the inherent excitement of living within an interesting town, as well as the magical flourishes that make each of our experiences unique. Between that and the ample, visually dazzling brainstorming regarding their upcoming production, this was an extremely generous episode of Eizouken!

This article was made possible by reader support. Thank you all for all that you do.