Anime review: Eizouken ni wa Te o Dasu na! (2020)

A bit late to the show, but I think that except Kanamori's grumpy freckled face doing things to my pene, it simply didn't grab my attention when it came out. Actually good thing I waited, because the best fansubs (GJM then MTBB v2) were really needed to do it justice.

I must say I had a very good time, the subjects of amateur animation and Kanamori's parallel battle with money, school regulations and "management" (autism wrangling and reality checks) were equally engrossing and - as expected of meta work - very well animated.

But there's one major criticism to give: the show was a bit too "fluffy", showcasing passion as an easygoing thing through a pink lens while omitting the painful parts. Like when the fire inside temporarily loses to laziness, life problems or outright depression but you must still power through to avoid coming to a dead stop. Or when your obsessiveness marks you as weird to the normalfags and effects your work/school life, etc…

Actually, let me quote an Anon who wrote a well-articulated post about the matter:

It has a wishy washy, (for lack of a better word) "girly" aesthetic that I just can't get over. I would say it's something like: this anime is to Otaku no Video as Genshiken Nidaime is to Genshiken. There seems to be a shift away from depicting otakus and their interests as the result of obsessive, fiery passion, and towards depicting it as more of a child like or idle interest, or the aforementioned "wishy-washiness" that is most clearly reflected in the aesthetics and design philosophy, but permeates the entirety of the show.

A second, smaller criticism is that even more technical/work focus would have been welcome (by me, at least) instead of the extensive school shenanigans with the student council.

Yet despite that, every episode was a delight in its own right and each watch made me await the next with eagerness. And lanky Kanamori is really my type.