Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! (08)

Episode Synopsis:

The Film Club has just managed to finish their giant robot short in time for the cultural festival, and now it’s time to get butts into seats. As Kanamori works behind the scenes to ensure a profit off the premier, the Robot Studies Club pulls out all the stops to flaunt the student council and make sure their beloved epic gets the attention it deserves. While all of this is going down, Mizusaki decides that she’s done hiding her passion from her parents, but how will they react?

Episode Review:

Episode 7 was another loving and grounded look at the challenges of the creative process. Episode 8 takes a different turn and focuses on the absurd lengths the Film and Robot Clubs must go to in order for their show to be a success. It’s more freewheeling and ridiculous, but no less engaging and delightful.

Eizouken has wrapped up their animation just in time for the cultural festival, but there wasn’t enough time to properly edit the voice acting from the Robot Club. Despite the setback, Kanamori is confident that with Mizusaki’s star power, they can host a successful premier and make some serious cash off DVD orders and autographs. Kanamori is nothing if not consistent.

The producer/glorious leader has also managed to secure them a prime screening space, and blackmailed the HVAC Club (that’s a new one) into cranking up the AC.  However, due to their last-minute completion, the girls haven’t had any time to prepare a marketing strategy, so it’s time for the Robot Club to step up.

And step the heck up they do, resulting in one of the funniest extended chase sequences in recent anime. After violating the student council’s rules on aerial displays, Ono and his team work with Kanamori to make sure Mizusaki makes it to the stage on time. He then leads the Security Club on a mad dash through campus, drumming up attention at every turn and belting his glorious theme song at full volume. Dude deserves a medal.

I was smiling and laughing throughout the entire chase scene. The whole thing is great to watch, especially with the ridiculous running form Ono and Mizusaki have to adopt while wearing boxy robot costumes. The pièce de résistance is when Ono takes to the sky on a zipline and loses one of his cardboard wings on landing. I could watch that whole thing over and over again.

Once the team reassembles in the deliciously cool auditorium, we get to see the entirety of the anime, dubbed in real-time by the Robot Club members. Thanks to the girls’ hard work and the contributions from the Sound and Art Clubs, the film is a huge step up from their first short. The audience is thrilled to see it, including…

Mizusaki’s parents! At last, we get to meet them, and it turns out that they’re pretty aware of the gap that’s been growing between them and their daughter, and they want to mend it. They genuinely appreciate the effort that she put into her work, and enjoy the parts of her personality that come through in the final piece. In the end, it appears that the family may be much more supportive than we were led to believe.

This is something that’s deeply personal and appreciated by me as an artist. Everyone who draws, writes, performs or otherwise creates something for others to enjoy, puts their own personality into what they make. There’s something incredibly invigorating in seeing others recognize those touches and appreciating the experience and skill that went into them, and doubly so for family and friends. Eizouken keeps hitting on all of the small individual elements that make art and animation so thrilling to work in, and I love it.

Summary:

I didn’t talk too much on the club’s anime in this episode. The final product is what everything else revolves around, but the true focus is on the rush to promote it and Mizusaki’s parents reconnecting with their daughter. Things didn’t go the way I had anticipated, and I was thrilled that the show played with audience expectations.

Real heart combined with wacky yet relatable hijinks and personal challenges are the recipe that keeps Eizouken cooking. I cannot wait to see how the last several episodes turn out, and what new work the girls will create.

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