Rock star Elvis Costello made a passionate recommendation for Masaaki Yuasa's anime-about-anime Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
Writing for The Guardian's "On My Radar" column, in which different celebrities make recommendations for media that's currently captivating them, Costello chose Eizouken, which is available for streaming on Crunchyroll and HBO Max, as his pick for the best TV show he's watched recently. Other pop culture recommendations of Costello's include Questlove's music documentary Summer of Soul and the as-yet-unpublished novel The Auburn Conference by Tom Piazza.
Describing the show's main characters, Costello writes, "Each girl balances a skill with a social burden: the first [Midori Asakusa], painfully shy but brilliantly imaginative; the second [Tsubame Mizusaki], easy in her fame as teenage lifestyle-model; the third [Sayaka Kanamori], a cynical and almost sinister presence, is the business brain and necessary politician." He praises how every episode of Eizouken "uses different layers of animation as the girls’ creations leap from the page into their life. The series in total is a tutorial about every component of film production, from storyboard to sound design." As a musician, he also makes note of the anime's "cool theme song," "Easy Breezy" by Chelmico.
Costello isn't someone who's recommended a lot of anime before, so his recommendation for Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! serves as the latest example of how Yuasa's adaptation of Sumito Owara's manga has managed to win over viewers who normally wouldn't share its protagonists' obsession with anime. The series made both The New Yorker and The New York Times' top 10 lists for the best TV shows of 2020. Reception among anime fandom was similarly positive -- the show was nominated for 10 Crunchyroll Anime Awards and won Best Director and Best Animation.
Yuasa was recently announced as a recipient of Japan's Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon. In addition to Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken, his other major works include the anime series Kemonozume, Kaiba, The Tatami Galaxy, Ping-Pong: The Animation, Devilman Crybaby and Japan Sinks: 2020, and the movies Mind Game, Lu Over the Wall, The Night is Short, Walk on Girl and Ride Your Wave. He is currently taking a temporary hiatus from directing following the completion of his 2022 historical rock musical Inu-Oh, which premiered to rave reviews at the Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals.
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! is currently available for streaming on Crunchyroll and HBO Max. Sentai Filmworks will release the series on Blu-ray in 2022.
Source: The Guardian
