Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken vol. 2
Eizouken overcame their most dire challenge as a school club, being allowed to actually exist, in the previous volume. Now that they’ve been recognized as a club that actually makes anime, it’s time for them to start making some. Doing so comes with its own complications, however, once Eizouken is asked by the Robot Studies Club. They want the club that makes anime to make one about a giant robot for them, for a fee. Kanamori is all about getting paid and she accepts the gig, figuring that she can convince Tsubame and Asakusa to go along with it. That turns out to be less of a problem compared to actual work. From the issues that come with location scouting, production, robot design, and actually keeping the two animators motivated, one has to wonder if Eizouken is going to be able to complete anything if its three members can’t get their heads straight. Or maybe they’ll just starve to death after falling into a pit while exploring one of the abandoned buildings around their school. That’s always a possibility too.
It’s a slim one, I’ll give you that; but the chapter about location scouting is a nice diversion while giving us greater insight into Asakusa, the club’s most oddball character. It’s nice getting to know her better along with Kanamori who isn’t all about the money-grubbing. She’s the club’s manager, schooled in practicality about getting things done. However, it’s Tsubasa who gets the closest thing resembling a character arc here as the issues hinted at with regards to her parents in vol. 1 rear their head to create some (gentle) drama towards this volume’s end.
Seeing the club deal with their struggles leaves vol. 2 ending on a positive note, even if it’s not quite the same home run that the previous volume was. It feels like this volume was repeating the previous one’s arc about seeing the club members try to make an anime. Though there’s much that feels familiar, there’s also some stuff to set it apart too. Mainly with the back-and-forth with the Robot Studies Club regarding the specifics of the anime which feels true to actual production, even as it’s scaled back for high school kids and played for laughs. I still enjoyed vol. 2 of “Eizouken” as there’s still nothing quite like it being published today. This is even as I’m left wondering if “make a new anime” will be the setup to every arc from here on out and for how long mangaka Sumito Ookawa will be able to keep it fresh.