Well folks, a day I have both been eagerly awaiting and quietly dreading has finally arrived. At long last, we find ourselves on the brink of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!’s final episode, as the adventures of Asakusa, Kanamori, and Mizusaki conclude with the debut of their third major production.

It’s been a cozy and rewarding journey so far, full of insights into the complex world of anime production. Asakusa has taught us a great deal about creative inspiration and storytelling, Mizusaki has illustrated the finer points of animation itself, and Kanamori has consistently tempered her friends’ ambitions with reminders of the fiscal limitations and other compromises inherent in film production. They’re a good trio, complimenting each other both in terms of talents and temperaments, and through them Eizouken has illustrated and celebrated many of the granular elements that make animated art so compelling.

It’s certainly true that this episode doesn’t feel particularly climactic, though. As an adaptation of a continuing manga, Eizouken has made little effort to hide its episodic nature, and hasn’t really “ramped up” towards a climax in any way beyond the natural rising tension of their development schedule. But that seems somewhat appropriate for this show, which has so often reveled in the day-to-day friendship of these girls, and which clearly sees a long and illustrious future spiraling out before them. It’s been a delight to spend time with this cast, and appreciate the joy and imagination with which Yuasa’s team has brought them to life. Let’s settle in one more time for Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Episode 12

Even the episode thumbnail is Asakusa hiding under a folding chair. Bless this show

Oh right, they only have one song and it doesn’t fit anything. Back to the crisis!

“You received this email two weeks ago. Didn’t you check it?” Goddamn, this show is going to give me anxiety. I’ve certainly experienced this – getting blindsided by a sudden emergency in a creative project, then checking the receipts and realizing I received an email explaining the situation long ago, and thus have only myself to blame

Mizusaki is getting far angrier than usual, which makes sense. She poured her heart and soul into that dance scene, and created it to perfectly match a specific tone and tempo. Hearing this song is like hearing these musicians mocking her hard work

As always, Eizouken is able to convey remarkably nuanced and relatable character acting even in its distant shots – in fact, it oftentimes seems like many of the show’s best flourishes of character acting appear when the characters are reduced to simplified shapes. Mizusaki’s anger is clear in her posture – somewhat hunched over as she paces back and forth, fists balled in front of her, like she’s ready to fight whoever caused this situation. Meanwhile, Asakusa, who is frightened of confrontation, crouches closely over her storyboards, sifting through them with a deliberateness that feels performative – as if she’s trying to look busy and productive in order to mitigate her shame at letting this situation progress this far

While Mizusaki is afraid of her vision being distorted, Kanamori lays down the law: they will be selling DVDs at Comet-A, regardless of the content of those DVDs. Imperfect products can be apologized for; breaking all of your professional promises is unacceptable

While Kanamori says she’s calling the DVD printers to negotiate, it’s clear she’s actually calling some other ally – presumably the treasurer?

Asakusa thinks they should adjust the production to the song, which seems like a terrible idea. We cut immediately from there to the OP, presumably to shelter us from the brutal violence Mizusaki inflicts after being told “we’re ditching the dance scene”

Aaand yep, we cut straight from OP to Kanamori choking Asakusa out. Wonderful faces here

I love how as we get further into the production process, the cuts we see as Asakusa explains her plan are closer and closer to fully painted and animated. At this point, most of the work is done – but anime is an incredibly hectic industry, and scrambling on the fly to make up for breaks in the production line is pretty much an assumed element of the process. Shirobako’s first season finale was also centered on “holy shit we’re changing the ending with no time to spare”

Asakusa realizes her initial dance party ending was unrealistic; people don’t resolve their differences as easily as that, and the fighting would still continue even if two enemies learned to understand each other. It feels like a more cynical ending, but in the context of Eizouken, it actually feels weirdly celebratory as well – because these three also keep fighting, even as they’re working to build each other up and create beautiful anime. Kanamori underlines this further by acknowledging that even those who share larger goals will often disagree on implementation

Love this cut of all three of them bounding out of the sound studio. Well, Mizusaki and Asakusa “bound” – Kanamori just sorta trudges forward while making a phone call

Kanamori attacks the video production club’s barricade with a goddamn circular saw. These girls better appreciate what a good producer they have

Eizouken’s giving us a refreshingly broad perspective on Comiket. We normally just see the anime-focused elements, but it’s a market that encompasses far more than that, as we see things like quilts and books of photographs also on sale

Asakusa is too exhausted to feel either anxious or excited about selling their film, which absolutely scans. In today’s world, artists need to be both public personalities and relentless self-promoters, but those are jobs they’re assuming on top of their actual job, and it tends to wear on you

I like these perspective shots framed from Asakusa’s low position. Eizouken isn’t “about” Asakusa’s social anxiety in any major way, which is itself refreshing – she’s not defined by her anxiety, it’s just one aspect of her. But in scenes like this, the framing is still capable of neatly articulating some fundamental truths about social anxiety, like how anxious people will often feel most comfortable in busy places like this by sort of sinking into themselves, and letting the commotion flow over them like a river

Eventually the stimulation gets too much, and Asakusa retreats under her chair. As someone with pretty profound social anxiety myself, I really appreciate Eizouken’s even-handed approach to Asakusa’s feelings. They are treated as neither a strangeness to be “fixed” nor a fragility to be intensely coddled – that’s just the way she is, and her friends know and accept that

Kanamori then puts a bag over Mizusaki’s head, to “heighten the mystery of the production,” as she explains it. Producers are full of strange sorceries

Using the very different heights of the three leads, as well as varying their distance from the camera frame, is a really effective way to create dynamic compositions with a sense of depth. A lot of shows tend to put characters on an equal level and distance relative to the frame, which is convenient when it comes to animating character acting, but uninspired in terms of cinematography. Eizouken instead embraces consistently varying shapes and a lack of any sharply defined character models, which is more animation-intensive and likely requires more animation correcting, but allows for much more interesting camerawork, and much more attractive layouts

Asakusa snug with her bunny is extremely good content

Incredible flash-animated spinning cut to open the production

Mizusaki has gotten very, very good at explosions. Great energy and volume to the aftermath of these laser blasts

As expected, the somber music track makes for a somewhat strange accompaniment to this high-energy action scene. It’s not a totally foreign contrast, but it’s one you tend to only see used for specific moments, generally to highlight something like “everything’s falling apart” just before the hero makes their thrilling comeback

Asakusa was right to change the ending. This soundtrack makes this conflict feel tragic and inevitable, rather than momentary and thrilling

Damn, this cockpit sequence is so good. Having watched the team struggle against the limitations of their schedule in their first film, it’s wonderful to see Asakusa and Mizusaki gain the proficiency to embrace more ambitious storyboarding here

You can tell Asakusa’s ambitious narrative is straining against the limitations of their resources and run time. Her entire explanation regarding the original nature of the city, and its decline into two warring sides, is conveyed through a series of largely still diagrams

Gorgeous water animation as this craft sinks to the bottom of the bay. Just stunning how well this captures the water and bubbles rushing up around their craft; like fire, water is an incredibly difficult force to effectively capture in animation

The machinery is so beautiful, too. This film is their most thorough celebration yet of Asakusa’s fanciful designs

And instead of the original, indulgent ending (which I’m sure Yuasa loved, given how much he loves dance scenes), the film ends on an ambiguous yet hopeful note. The use of the koi, the strange music, the way their repeated footage actually emphasizes the tragedy of this situation – they did a very good job

Just like when she and Mizusaki first teamed up, Asakusa’s perpetually inspired imagination is tied to staring out through her window into a larger world

And sure, why not just finish on an impossibly ambitious pan backwards through like fifty layers of moving scenery

And Done

Whoooo, what a RUSH that show was! What a delightful, thoughtful, indulgent, critical, and above all loving exploration of the magic of animation, and the incredible human struggles required to bring that magic to life. And what a great cast, too! Asakusa, Kanamori, and Mizusaki all feel far more textured and real than the vast majority of anime characters, whether it comes to slice of life, character dramas, or anything else. And through exploring their stories, Eizouken demonstrated that insightful, grounded character writing is able to naturally coexist with fanciful, imaginative storytelling – and all of this wrapped up in a remarkably easy breezy package, where the larger demands of this show’s narrative ambitions and desire to educate somehow end up facilitating its moment-to-moment lightness and comedy. Eizouken is a remarkable show by any metric, and an incredibly fulfilling tribute to the magic of art and storytelling. You can really feel this team’s love for animation in its every frame, and I hope Science Saru continue to articulate that love for many years to come.

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