The Eizouken go on-location for some inspiration
What They Say:
As the Eizouken continue building the concept for their new project, the Student Council bare their fangs once again, this time getting teachers involved. But minor setbacks won’t keep these girls from moving forward! The Eizouken along with sound director Doumeki head to a remote area of Shibahama to retrieve some live-sound samples.
The Review
Content (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
This week kicks off with the Eizouken deep in the planning stage for their new project. Recruiting musicians, scoping out voice talent, maintaining social media presence – the Eizouken’s latest venture already seems much grander in scale. But as they reach for greater heights, they’ll be met with greater obstacles. The Student Council have set their sights once again on the film club – but now it’s the school administration who’ve come knocking at their door.
You can feel the annoyance radiating from Kanamori during their meeting with the school, and rightly so. This scene points out a common deficiency of the education system in failing to truly support their students. We’ve all heard these phrases before – “experience is a reward in itself” or “cherish your youth, no need to rush into adulthood”. This way of thinking, while it means well, is a detriment to the growth of students. By separating the world of education and the working world, educators are forfeiting their role in preparing these kids for the next stage in their lives. It’s a frustrating scene to watch, but at least we can count on Kanamori to speak her mind. The Eizouken won’t be able to collect money from the project, but I’m faithful that Kanamoney (thank you Secretary Sakaki for the new nickname) will find a workaround.
With that roadblock behind them, the Eizouken get back to work… to the best of their abilities. Asakusa is struggling to define the boundaries of her story for the project. Who are these aliens? Why are they invading? Why Shibahama? She can have fun dreaming up cool concepts all she wants, but if there’s no rhyme of reason to anything, it makes it hard for everyone else to follow. The rest of the Eizouken and their contributors can’t move forward without a clear picture in their minds. To find those missing pieces, Asakusa needs more real-world inspiration. It just so happens their Sound Director Doumeki was planning to gather some sound samples from a remote area of Shibahama. With that, our quartet takes a scenic bike ride across the bay to a rustic clock tower.
Doumeki’s goal is the clock tower’s hourly chime. They set up her equipment and wait for the horn to bellow across the bay. This section demonstrates the precise process of sound editing and clipping, as we watch Doumeki physically chopping the soundbites into pieces and lining them up to her liking. The on-location trip also gave Asakusa the push she needed to spark a few more ideas, but she’s still far from connecting all the dots.
The girls continue collecting sounds into the evening, when Student Council Secretary Sakaki shows up. Sakaki acts as the instigator for the Eizouken witch hunt, but it looks like her interest in them goes a little deeper. Before she knew it, Sakaki was strapped into Ms. Asakusa’s wild ride. Her imagination-fueled tangent takes inspiration from the clock tower and Doumeki’s sound design to construct a sort of waterwheel wind chime. Yet again, her scatter brained concepts don’t tie in to the current project, but Sakaki was given a first-hand experience to the world of the Eizouken. She seems like a tough nut to crack, but maybe now Sakaki has a clearer vision of the passions that power the Eizouken.
In Summary:
Another fruitful day of work for the Eizouken! No amount of Student Council meddling or educator failings will keep this club down. With their combined power, there’s no telling how far this small team of high schoolers will go! Once Asakusa has a solid vision for the project, its full-steam ahead for the Eizouken. As an aside, I really loved the cheeky references in this week’s episode, from Asakusa’s Hayao Miyazaki impersonation to Kanamori demonstrating the iconic AKIRA bike slide. Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!! remains an extremely fun love letter to the world of animation.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
