Sketchbooks, Daydreams, Deadlines: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! is one of those shows that makes you want to drop everything and make something. It sure did for me. On the surface, it’s a slice-of-life comedy, but it’s also a full-on celebration of anime—and all the wild, obsessive, behind-the-scenes work that goes into creating it.

‘Eizouken’ translates to ‘film research club’ in Japanese, which is the loophole three high school girls—Midori Asakusa, Sayaka Kanamori, and Tsubame Mizusaki—use to get around their school’s rules. Since there’s already an official animation club (that just watches anime), they form a “film club” instead… except they’re secretly there to make anime. 

The show is adapted from the manga by Sumito Ōwara, whose art style is wild in the best way: loose, messy, and full of personality. He doesn’t care about drawing perfect, sparkly anime girls—instead, he leans into their frantic energy, raw creativity, and chaotic sense of humor. The anime holds onto that vibe too. Everything looks like it’s on the edge of falling apart, and somehow that makes it feel even more alive.

Yes, Eizouken has a live-action version. No, I don’t recommend it. Not because it’s bad (well, okay, maybe a little), but because Eizouken is the kind of story that needs to be animated. You can do so much more visually and emotionally with animation than you ever could with live action. Sure, CGI can make something like Avatar: The Last Airbender look semi-realistic, but a lot of the original charm gets lost along the way. Eizouken is about crossing the line between imagination and reality—it literally animates the girls’ daydreams.

Machines whir to life, entire worlds appear mid-conversation, and sketches explode into full-blown scenes. You can’t act that kind of magic. You draw it. There are points in the anime where the girls’ imaginations will get them swept away and they’re figuratively transported to their imaginary world. These segments have a sketchier style, with looser coloring and sound effects done by the voice actors that are really fun to listen to.

I’ve seen multiple people refer to this as a love letter to animation, and I could not agree more. It reminds you that anything you can imagine can be drawn. And then animated. And then turned into an experience that moves people. These girls have a clear passion for anime, and the show indulges in that passion enough to really make the person watching giddy alongside them. 

There’s this idealized image of the teenage girl in anime, and the girls in Eizouken look completely past it. Asakusa wears an oversized bucket hat that when paired with her frog-like stance, makes her look like a little gremlin (I say this with all the love in my heart). Kanamori is tall, deadpan, and always looks vaguely annoyed—glasses perched on her head, not her face. Mizusaki balances out the two with her put together attitude in social situations, is elegant, and has a polished vibe to her (given that she’s a trained model). 

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! isn’t just about animation—it’s about the guts it takes to make something when the odds are stacked, your tools are janky, and nobody really gets what you're doing. The girls show so much passion in the work they do, and through their work they manage to capture the spark of creativity. It’s a reminder that creativity doesn’t wait for perfect conditions. Also, the intro song? An absolute banger. You will be humming “Easy Breezy” for days.

If you've ever daydreamed about building something weird and wonderful with your friends, Eizouken gets it—and honestly, it might be the nudge you need to actually start.

Written by Zainab Wani

Zainab wrote this article while working as an Intern at the Media Makers Fellowship.

This article was created for the program zine, The MMF Summer Rewind.

This zine was established to showcase the work of students and interns at the Media-Makers Fellowship's May '25 cohort.