Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken vol. 7

The club keeps ticking along even as they try to figure out what their next project is supposed to be.  Inspiration comes from the most unlikely of sources, however, when voice-acting congirl Sakurada gets a look at “Tanuki El Dorado” and proceeds to write a critique that shakes Asakusa to her core.  Being the trooper that she is, the director takes it in, analyzes it, and then comes back with a desire not to remake that short, but to redo the one that made Eizouken famous:  “Clutch That Machete With Strength.”  With Sakurada acting as a kind of story editor, and Mizusaki fired up by the arrival of a killer short from a rival high school, the club is ready to make this their best effort yet.  So it would be a BAD THING if the school council tried to shut them down for bringing too much attention to the school.  Again!

It took me longer than expected to get my hands on this volume, but it still wound up being another satisfying installment in the lives of the girls of Eizouken.  That said, it does feel like the series is re-treating old ground here with the creation of another short and the conflict between the school council.  Things aren’t exactly the same as there are different characters and situations in play, but this nagging feeling of diminishing returns hangs over most of vol. 7.

Not the start of it, though.  That’s a winning one-off where an overburdened Mizusaki begs Kanamori to take on one of her modeling jobs so she can work on her animation.  The tall and very serious girl has no experience as a model, but she’s got the look and enough confidence (and some stylish duds from mangaka Sumito Oowara).  Things get even better when the class president shows up, and when Kanamori’s innate dominance eventually has her taking over the shoot.  While the volume ends with things heading off in a potentially interesting direction involving creative compromise, this bit of fluff was the most memorable part of this volume and a good argument for the mangaka to take similar flights of fancy in the future.