Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! (2020)

[映像研には手を出すな！]

Director: Masaaki Yuasa
Studio: Science SARU
Starring: Sairi Ito, Mutsumi Tamura, Misato Matsuoka
Episodes: 12

Synopsis:
Three students come together to form a film club as a way to produce their own animations.

Impressions:
I had heard of this series and some positive buzz about it, but it pretty well slipped under the radar for me until a friend brought it up. While her reception was somewhat tepid, it nevertheless provided me with the motivation to check it out. I was immediately stricken with how richly imaginative the series is. You can tell the deep love of the art of animation and the creative process at large. However, it's not all rosy idealization. Particularly thanks to the cynical Kanamori in the producer role, we get a blunt take on the business side of things, as well as the challenge of wrangling creatives who often have their heads in the clouds and need to be brought back down to earth in order to meet their deadlines. The setting of Shibahama is a fascinating mishmash of old and new worked and reworked over the years to provide fertile ground for director Asakusa's insatiable and vivid imagination. I particularly like the art shift whenever Asakusa is in imagination mode. You get the feel of an art film, only spread out over the length of an entire TV series. If you have any interest at all in animation production, you're going to find a lot to chew on. I absolutely love this series and heartily recommend giving it a place in your collection.

Rating:
Own It