Another week, another fantastic episode of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! This week we continue to dive in to the technical side, as our crew begin to produce their first animated short. Learning about short cuts, time and business considerations, and just creative freedom. So without further ado, lets dive in!
Starting off, this week Eizouken gives us our first major goal, the Budget Committee! It’s a nice and manageable one I think, a way to get the ball rolling, and lets Kanamori strut her stuff. As this first goal, with its set deadline, really lets the time/business aspect of anime production shine through. For instance I loved how Kanamori just broke down how much effort a 5 minute shot would be, at a simpel 12 fps. Resulting in a 3600 frame count, along with all the other overhead. While its pretty obvious, and something anyone could figure out, it’s also something anime fans ignore a lot I think. The sheer amount of effort that goes in to a production, the sheer number of drawings that have to be produced for a single minute of footage. And yes, there are shortcuts as Eizouken shows us, but its still work.
For instance we see during their conversation about their short a number of shortcuts brought up. There are the obvious, such as covering a face to reduce expression animation, to the less so. Such as the reusing of explosions at varying distances or angles to save on time, rather than hand animating a new one each time. Or how cutting between the tank and the girl over and over can give the illusion of speed, and multiple shots. Some of these are even jokes, such as Asakusa talking about simple faces being easier to animate. Meanwhile her face in that same frame is basically just 2 circles and a line, grinning at how she herself is animated. Or even that background which was just a series of cube houses, and how simple it is compared to the ones before it. Showing us the types of considerations that go into anime.
Meanwhile there are a number of more subtle nods to it. Such as the initial explosion being composed entirely of key-frames. Just 5 frames of explosion, yet with some simple effects and sound, it carries huge weight. Or leaving in the cut/page numbers and animator markings during the big final cut with the tank, keeping that “rough” aesthetic to it all. Even just showing us mock storyboards of the whole thing while Kanamori talks about how much effort it is, and balancing time and money, etc. Again, a lot of these are obvious if you take a moment to think about them, but anime fans are incredibly picky about stuff. And from the looks of Mizusaki, animators are too.
What I mean their is her argument about “Animation” vs “anime”, this quest for a sort of purity in animation. Mizusaki is seeking to depict reality in her art, the human movement, subtly over flash. And I like how Eizouken contrasts that with what Producers/Fans want/buy, in her argument about “flash sells”. How what an animator wants, why they animate, isn’t necessarily what the industry is looking for because at the end of the day, they have to make money. Compare this to Asakusa, who we see throughout the episode and described by Kanamori as “Doing it cause it’s fun”. Asakusa loves the flashy shit, she just wants to draw cool things. Is this any less valid, any less artistic than Mizusaki’s, even though its more in line with what Kanamori/Management need? I don’t think so, but I love that Eizouken brings it up.
Actually on the topic of Kanamori, I want to take a moment to talk about her. Because I think Eizouken is doing something great here. She was introduced as this sort of money grubber, out to make a buck. And most of the time these sorts of characters are played straight, are looked down on. Yet here Eizouken shows Kanamori to be the only one keeping them on track. Keeping them focused on their work and getting shit done. She is focusing Mizusaki and Asakua’s artistic and excitable impulses into a finished product. It’s a very positive, nuanced take on the relationship between Studio’s and Producers, Managers and Animators. I was expecting a much more cynical take on it to be frank, a criticism of them. But Eizouken makes it clear that it’s a mutually beneficial relationship and I can’t wait to see more.
Lastly, I want to talk about some small things that came up throughout the episode. For instance, the first bit with the fixing of the building. There was some nice characterization for each of them here, but it mostly served Kanamori. As we see that while she represents business/management in the trio, she does care. She is willing to put in the work and wants it to succeed, and I feel like we will probably get more emotion from her moving forward. Opening up more and more as she hangs out with Mizusaki and Asakura. Meanwhile, Asakusa begins to come off as a little bit… autistic? That seems rude to say in a way, but she’s very focused and driven. Yet she seems very spacey and we see she is afraid of crowds/presentations. Perhaps it’s just the introvert in her, but I look forward to seeing more.
So, all in all, how was Eizouken this week? Well in case you couldn’t tell by how fast this went out and what I wrote, I love it. I think Yuasa is doing something really special here I might have to rework my entire scoring scale for it. As up until now I have had my top 10 of all time taking scores 100-91, with everything else being 90 and lower. A sort of pointless distinction, but I liked it for aesthetic reasons. Yet if Eizouken keeps this up, I can’t justify giving it a 90. Even if it doesn’t become one of my favorite’s ever, it just feels wrong to give it a 90 through no fault of its own. It’s something I will have to ponder in the coming week. But in the meantime, we have some damn good anime here.
