Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! - Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! - Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! is an anime comedy-drama from creator Sumito Ōwara. The series has a robust and unique aesthetic with animation produced by Science SARU (Lu over the wall, Ride Your Wave). Produced by Eunyoung Choi (Ride Your Wave, The Heike Story), Jun Sakata (Butt Detective), Junya Okamoto (Black Lagoon, Jormungand Perfect Order), Shinya Tsuruoka (Hi Score Girl, Infinite Stratos), Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! fits in the slice-of-life genre nicely as it explores a tale of friendship and camaraderie. Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! features vocal-performances by Sairi Itō, Mutsumi Tamura, and Misato Matsuoka.

Midori Asakusa (Sairi Itō) has one true passion and calling in life: animation. There is nothing more important and special to the life of Midori than the world of animation and all of the potential the medium offers for storytelling. Animation promises a world of imagination and a land perfect for exploring creativity through oneself. Midori finds it easy to come up with idea after idea. Making animation feels important to Midori and as such it is a calling in life.

Even despite her passion for animation, the thought of producing animated films seems overwhelming to Midori. That’s where Sayaka Kanamori (Mutsumi Tamura) comes in to the equation. Sayaka is more business savvy than Midori and she finds new and exciting ways to spin these fun animated ideas into possible business ventures.

Yet the animated equation isn’t perfect until a third person enters the story: welcome Tsubame Mizusaki (Misato Matsuoka). Tsubame joins the other two in a quest to make animation and her daydreams are pushed towards becoming reality. Though Tsubame has strict parents who don’t want her to join her school anime club, she ends up being part of a new club all about motion-pictures and filmmaking. Nothing can stop these creatives from achieving their future dreams. Can Midori, Sayaka, and Tsubame find the right ingredients to bring their animated dreams to life?

The characters are essential to the production. Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! is a series that thrives on the characters and their part in the tale. Without the compelling cast of characters at the helm, the fun and charming series wouldn’t be the same. The journey of Midori and her friends is one that many will find relatable. The goal to pursue some artistic method or form and push forward towards achieving a dream is something that many will find a connection with. For anyone who has ever daydreamed about succeeding in the world of animation or another creative industry (related to filmmaking or otherwise), the character journey brings a nice layer to the series.

The character designs by Naoyuki Asano (Magical Circle Guru-Guru, Urusei Yatsura) are fun and distinct. The designs for Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! are a lot more engaging and unique than on some other anime creations. The aesthetic is certainly creative and provides a more cinematic language for the series. A good effort by Naoyuki Asano.

The animation is stunning and essential to the success of the series. Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! has impeccable art direction by Masanobu Nomura (Expelled from Paradise, Star Wars: Visions) and with chief animation direction by Naoyuki Asano (Hantsu x Trash, Road to Ninja: Naruto the Movie), the series animation makes a strong impression. The team of animators involved on the series helped deliver something fantastic – something special. The results are certainly an example of how special animation can be when a team of animators comes together to work on something unique and as compelling as this production. Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! is no ordinary anime and the cool aesthetic is more creative with the team involved.

The cinematography by Yoshihiro Sekiya (If Her Flag Breaks, Tatami Time Machine Blues) is another first-rate element of the series. Without the cinematographic style of Sekiya, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! is a fantastically colorful and robust series with bright visuals. The cinematography helps establish the tone and vibe of the series. The effort by Sekiya certainly helped to make the series all the more fun, compelling, and memorable.

The score composed by Oorutaichi (Kick-Heart) adds to the series charm, too. The music enhances the sense of fun and energy. Though the score might not stand out as much as the vibrant animation does, the score still enhances the experience and fits in alongside the other production elements to help the series make a better impression. A solid score effort by Oorutaichi.

Directed by Masaaki Yuasa (Ride Your Wave, The Tatami Galaxy), Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! is an ambitious and entertaining series with a smart concept and plenty to offer audiences who want to experience a series that is unique and full of charm. Featuring writing by director Yuasa and co-screenwriter Yuichiro Kido (Fruits Basket, After the Rain), Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! has an enjoyable time exploring the quirky cast of characters and their journey together through the world of animation. Anime fans seeking out a more sophisticated series will want to check out Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! with master filmmaker Yuasa at the helm. Yuasa remains one of the most talented and gifted anime filmmakers in the industry (and with good reason). Yuasa has a knack for filmmaking and storytelling that is remarkable – one of my favorite anime filmmakers.

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! - Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arriving on Blu-ray from Sentai Filmworks, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! is presented in 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high definition in the original television broadcast aspect ratio of 1.78:1 widescreen. The animation is exquisite on the release and looks well presented with the high- quality encoding. This is certainly a fantastic presentation that capably presents the vibrant animation. Sentai has delivered a wonderful video presentation with good color reproduction, detail, and clarity. The release is another testament to the strength of the Blu-ray format – offering superior presentations to streaming options (which are comparatively lackluster alternatives with less robust video encodes).

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! - Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The release includes a selection of lossless audio options: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 and Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (with English subtitles). The lossless audio encoding for the presentation is fantastic and a wonderful component of the release. The sound direction by Eriko Kimura (Lu over the wall, The House of the Lost on the Cape) makes a solid impression as well. The dynamics of the audio are engaging. The series score sounds well reproduced on the release. With excellent dialogue reproduction, the audio clarity sounds crisp and clear on the release. Sentai has provided a worthwhile lossless encode. Audiophiles will appreciate the superior audio encoding on the release (offering an advantage over streaming services – which only provide films with a comparatively lackluster lossy audio quality with lower bit-rates).

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! - Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The release has a somewhat small supplemental package but it does include a few extra offerings above standard opening-closing animations. The release could still have benefited from the inclusion of audio commentaries or making-of featurettes. Considering the pedigree of the filmmaker involved on this production, the set would have been that-much better with some more features involving the ace director.

On disc supplements include:

Clean Opening Animation (HD, 1:31)

Clean Closing Animation (HD, 1:31)

Process Movies (HD, 6:33)

Best of Eizouken (HD, 13:16)

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! - Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! is an intelligent, charming, and engaging anime series from master filmmaker Masaaki Yuasa (The Tatami Galaxy, Ride Your Wave). The series has a wonderful cast of characters and a compelling tale about a passion for animation and the world of storytelling that the medium offers. The animation is one of the standout elements of the series and this is no surprise given what the series is about – those wishing to make the perfect anime. The results are outstanding and this will make anime fans quite pleased.

The Blu-ray release from Sentai Filmworks provides an excellent video and audio presentation alongside a selection of bonus features. Fans of director Yuasa will consider it essential to check out this show. The Blu-ray release is well worth consideration. Highly recommended.