This panel was hosted by one of Eizoken’s animators!

*note: I’ve never seen this anime or read this manga, but after this panel, it has piqued my interest and is higher on my list to watch/read!

If you don’t know about Keep Your Hands Off Eizoken! I’m hoping to be the person who guides you to it! When this anime dropped, it was compared to critically acclaimed shows like Better Call Saul, and highly praised by the likes of Elvis Costello (acclaimed British singer/songwriter/producer). In 2021, it was the winner of the 24th Japan Media Arts Festival for the category ‘Animation Division’, the 5th Crunchyroll Anime Awards for categories ‘Best Director’ (Masaaki Yuasa) and ‘Best Animation’, and the Tokyo Anime Award Festival for category ‘Animation of the Year (Television)’.

The awards are well deserved, especially after what I learned from this panel. The host provided the details of its origins from Monthly Big Comic Spirits and the other manga that come from the magazine. Some titles that fall under Big Comic are Golgo 13, Blue Giant, Pluto, Monster, Gigant, and Blood on the Tracks.

The anime adapts volumes 1-3 of the manga, but the manga itself has 9 volumes currently. The panelist started by discussing the diverse student body saying, “Even though, in the larger sense, most Japanese people over 20 have a diverse blend of friends/family”. This was interesting to me even more so when I saw panels of the manga showing black/brown characters and, to my shock, the background had signs for halal options in the cafeteria. The panelist talked more about the background touches in the manga from the art to the dialogue.

The panelist discussed how each character brings something special to the anime they are trying to create. Asakusa Midori, the director of the anime has a vision that she wants the anime to look like and feel. She’s concerned about the audience not understanding the story or the themes and she is very passionate about her work.

She joins up with Mizusaki Tsubame, who is a socialite, but secretly wants to become an animator, and Kanamori Sayaka, Midori’s best friend to create their anime.

Throughout the manga, they meet others who help them really transform their anime, but the clips and snippets of the manga that were shared, show how much Ōwara-sensei loves this story. The detail in the art, the displays, and visions that each character has in showing their individuality. even down to the dialogue in the manga that differentiates between whispers and conversations. It’s so much so that the animator showed how descriptive the manga was showing written ambient sound.

It was a wonderful opportunity to see and hear about this manga and learn about the creative directions of the team, both in real life and in the manga!

Thank you to AWA for the opportunity!