Category: Finished Series: Slice of Life/Drama

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! – 12 [Shibahama UFO Wars]

by Lenlo, posted in Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

This is it ladies and gentleman, the finale to Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken, my anime of the season. I was curious how our leads would respond to such a setback and Eizouken did not disappoint. So sit back, relax and let’s talk about anime!

Now there was a lot worth talking about this week, but I want to start with the short itself. While it wasn’t perfect, I really loved both the short and how it was presented. I loved how unlike the previous animations, which were large events with an audience, this one was incredibly personal. With our leads watching it alone in Asakusa’s apartment, a private viewing just for them. Meanwhile across the city everyone who bought their DVDs are doing the same. It simultaneously felt small and personal, but community driven, like a private event for the entire city. And the way it was setup, starting with the discs going in, made it feel like I was watching it with them. Like 4 friends watching what they made together, since we went on this journey with them over 12 episodes and 3 months. It fantastic.

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Runway de Waratte – 11 [The Promise]

by Lenlo, posted in Runway de Waratte

This was a very surprising week of Runway de Waratte. I fully expected it to be a disappointment, to somehow screw up its grand finale, for Ikuto to ruin it… and none of that happened. It was surprisingly good. Not flawless, but probably the best episode of the show yet. Why? Well let’s jump in and find out.

Now, before I get all sappy and praise Runway, I want to talk about what it could do better. Specifically I want to talk about the animation of this week’s episode. Because while what we got is fine, I can’t help but think it could have been amazing. Runway had a huge opportunity this week with Chiyuki’s dress changes and walks to really show off its source material and subject. It could have shown us the dress changes in real time, animating the clothes being removed and add. We could have seen the difference in how Chiyuki walks by how its animated, rather than just getting upper-body shots. Instead though, we just the same presentation as we have for any other scene in the anime. Instead of being an event for the series… it was just another episode. And while its a good episode, ultimately, I am a little disappointed.

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Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! – 11 [Each Other’s Existence!]

by Lenlo, posted in Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Continuing my streak of “better late than never” this week, we have Keep Your Hands off Eizouken! Though this time with backstory, some dancing and more great Kanamori scenes. Lets dive in! And I promise, no more late ones, I should have things sorted now.

Starting off, this was a pretty straightforward week for Eizouken. Focusing in on a specific theme and tackling it from a variety of angles. However while the theme itself might not be particularly complicated, I think Eizouken did a great job portraying it. The idea of “Coexistence” was tackled from a variety of angles, from more professional ones in their club to the person in Asakusa’s flashback. Each one managing to both explore the characters while still building to a final peak. I will admit, at the beginning of the episode I wasn’t to enthused. I thought it was going to be another sort of montage filler episode. Which while it would still contain Eizouken’s usual quality, wouldn’t be particularly memorable. As the episode went on though and it revealed more and more of the primary thread, I came to love it. So now, let’s get to the details, yeah?

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Runway de Waratte – 10 [Must Not Lose]

by Lenlo, posted in Runway de Waratte

Apologies for the wait on this one everyone, between Evangelion reviews and this virus, it’s been busy! As far as Runway de Waratte goes, this week was actually… surprisingly competent. Not perfect, the first half was a bit of a wash. But for once something Ikuto was involved in *didn’t suck*. So without further ado, lets dive in!

Like I said, the second half of Runway this week wasn’t half bad. Ikuto’s fashion show worked. The outfits, while clearly not my style, were interesting and his theme consistent. I could do without the various poorly thought out metaphors, or the constant “Mr.Perfect” praise. But compared to what I was expecting to come out of his fashion show, it all actually fit together. The way Runway spelled out the expected order of the countries and how clear his theme was worked. And the the finale on the minimalist outfit was an unexpected surprise. Had Runway built all of this up, the characters, the families, everything, it could have been phenomenal. As is it’s just this sorta bright spot in an otherwise lackluster series. Still, next week is Chiyuki so we may have something to look forward to there.

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Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! – 10 [Against Our Independent World!]

by Lenlo, posted in Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Welcome all to another week of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! Like the Runway de Waratte post, this one is going to be shorter, for very similar reasons. But where “more of the same” for Runway is a disappointment, for Eizouken its just a good time. So lets dive in!

As always, the animation and production of Eizouken is good, but this week I want to focus on something else. I want to focus on the meta aspect of it all, and how Eizouken cleverly uses its premise here. This latest episode actually gives me a perfect example of what I am talking about, ala how it visualize things. We see it when Doukemi, the sound club girl, is modifying the sound waves in time with the actual bell. Or when she is moving the sound waves around, layering and piecing them together. It’s a little choppy of course, it isn’t perfect. But I love the concept behind it and how Eizouken uses its premise and medium to depict it all. This isn’t the first time either, we have seen it throughout the series. This week just gave me a good chance to talk about it.

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Runway de Waratte – 9 [Rivals]

by Lenlo, posted in Runway de Waratte

Hello everyone and welcome to another week of Runway de Waratte! Apologies, but this one is going to be a short one. I just don’t have much to say about what was a pretty meh episode. So without further ado, let’s dive in!

Right off the bat, I have to say, this was a very non-episode episode. What I mean by that is that Runway didn’t really do anything new or different this week. There was no meaningful reveal or change from what is already a pretty standard shounen formula. And that isn’t to say a standard formula is necessarily bad. Kimetsu no Yaiba was one of the most standard Shounen’s of last year, but I loved it because it was competent. Runway’s problem is that it goes for a similar formula, yet it has none of the competence that Yaiba did. The stakes are either low or non-existent and there is never any real concern that Ikuto will lose. Meanwhile as a character Ikuto is very bog-standard in his actions. So when I say that Runway gave us more of the same, I mean that you could have predicted it last week.

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Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! – 9 [Aim for Comet A!]

by Lenlo, posted in Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Every week I wonder how Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken is going to top itself. And every week it finds a way, it finds some area to improve or some new facet to explore. That is no different this week as we learn a bit more about Kanamori and explore the wonderful world of “labor costs”. Riveting. Lets dive in!

Starting off, I just have to gush about the character animation throughout this episode. Specifically, I want to call attention to Asakusa at the end, both during the sound effects and her realization. These were just some beautiful long shots, like the one you can see below. Really showing off how expressive Eizouken can be. Simultaneously keeping her on model while exaggerating the movements just enough to keep it energetic. I want to credit this cut to Izumi Murakami, but so far I haven’t yet seen any sources confirming who worked on it. Meanwhile you also have the general aesthetic of scenes like the Kanamori flashback. Turning the world into this almost watercolor or marker scene. It’s the same style used whenever they are imagining something out in the world, yet now its being used as a flashback, and I love it. Chibi-Kanamori is just fantastic.

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Runway de Waratte – 8 [The Designer’s Capacity]

by Lenlo, posted in Runway de Waratte

Another week, another dash of Runway de Waratte. However this week wasn’t actually that bad, as Ikuto is finally challenged, even if the pacing is a goddamn mess. So without further ado, lets jump into Runway!

Starting off, I want to talk about story structure for abit, because Runway failed miserably at it this week. You see, normally in a story you want to introduce a problem that challenges your character. One that forces them to grow, change and improve so as to tackle that problem. If you have an outside force, someone completely different, solve that problem then your lead character learns nothing. They don’t grow, they don’t change, they just exist and problems are solved for them. It leads to a terribly uncompelling narrative. Especially when you introduce said problem and then solve it in the same episode. No buildup, no challenge, no progression or rise and fall. Just “Here is a problem” and “Here is an easy solution”. Basically what I am trying to say diplomatically here is that Runway’s pacing this week was shit, and everyone knows it.

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Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! – 8 [The Grand Shibahama Festival!]

by Lenlo, posted in Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Welcome one and all to what is my favorite episode of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken yet. I laughed, I cried, and I all around loved it as 25 minutes felt like it went by in 5. So enough preamble, lets just jump into it.

Right off the bat, I have to admit, I legitimately teared up during Eizouken this week. I could feel the passion bleeding through the screen throughout the episode. But the part that really got me, that hit the hardest, was the Robot Club President. I loved his run through the campus, you could tell that this was the best day of his life. Both from the VA work of yelling out the OP to their anime to the ugly cries of joy under the costume. Terrify the neighborhood with spine-chilling Scary Halloween Costumes. It was simply infectious. It was a moment bought not through some grand battle or terrible stakes, no one was in danger here. Rather Eizouken created it through the combined passion and works of its characters. All of them pushing towards a singular goal that, even when at odds, they all loved. And it culminated both in the video and in this run.

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Runway de Waratte – 7 [Aura]

by Lenlo, posted in Runway de Waratte

Runway de Waratte did it again, doing great with half the episode and falling apart in the 2nd. It’s a shame that a show can have such a compelling character in Chiyuki, and such a boring on in Itsuko. Still, no use whining without proof, lets dive in! And apologies for the wait, I was guesting on the r/anime awards livestream and that took up some time.

First up, the good, which is mostly Chiyuki. Seriously, Chiyuki is the best character in this show. Everything that is wrong with Itsuko is good with her and her story. We need only look at this episode for proof. Throughout the first half, Chiyuki actively faces challenges and discrimination. Runway doesn’t just tell us that short models have it tough, but actively shows us. With Hasegawa’s manager putting her down, the client putting her in the back, etc. We actively see her struggle to get work, passing out her card and doing her best to network. She brings multiple sized heels and sells herself based on the contents of the shot. All the while not being so proud as to whine about the work like the other models. None of this even really goes into her character, which is great.

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