"Do It Yourself" is So Wholesome and Sweet
This is the Japanese High School Girl Equivalent of Learning What Jesus Learned From Joseph
This is a quick, one season of feels-good and happy times that has the softest, barest nibble of social commentary sprinkled in.
Do It Yourself is as the name suggests and many a Pinterest board boasts: DIY things and how to do them. You don’t learn how to do much of anything in this anime, but you get to watch as high school girls figure out the ins and outs of how to use a drill and what being creative and technically competent with their hands means in a society entering a technological/industrial revolution.
In this world, DIY is obsolete.
Everyone has a tablet and knows how to code and doing ‘caveman’ things or learning tools of a dying trade is not something taught in schools.
The elite Yuuyuu Girls’ Vocational High School teaches high-level maths, programming, design principles in a 3D space.
Gatagata Girls’ High School is still struggling to get their students to memorize English poetry and literature.
Gatagata is literally in Yuuyuu’s shadow. And the curriculum that we see exacerbates the metaphor of Yuuyuu being cream of the crop and futuristic and elite, while Gatagata focuses on the homely aspect and the down-to-earth, this-feels-familiar kind of education we can relate to.
Two very different schools, but teaching skills that (I think) are super important. Skills on one side to help you in the ever-changing workforce. Skills on the other hand to make you more independent and self-reliant, skills to be analytical and practical thinkers.
To divide them seems silly, but is very much the world we live in today.
Oddly enough, this anime absolutely does not pass the Bechdel Test, which I thinks is HILARIOUS, but every woman is simply shown as strong and independent and whole without.
The Advancement of Technology
With the rise and fear of AI, and the resurgence in streaming of movies like Blade Runner 2049 (2017), I, Robot (2004) and Megan (2022) scaring the masses into a state of terror— technology, just like in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, is the very monster we have created.
“What if” is the question we always ask but c’mon. Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics work off the idea of humans always being in control. There is no if, but or whens of a robot takeover, because as the creators, we should have total and unlimited control over that which we have made.
Any failures to do so, is more a failure on the creator than of the creation.
This DIY anime touches briefly on the advancement of technology and the world it will inevitably leave behind. It doesn’t go as far as some of the aforementioned movies in the future or as dark and unhinged as Black Mirror, but it does explore a society where technology is the only way forward. And any and everything else is a moot and laughable point.
Why learn how to ride a bike when the public transport is so advanced and always on time?
Why learn how to use a hammer when you can program and build a machine to do that and more?
Why do anything if you can so easily have it done by a machine?
And the answer (at least the very optimistic answer I came up with hehehe) is because we can.
Because we want to.
Because with all the advancements and all the good things going for us in the world, you might as well do something that you want to do.
Doing things selfishly is underrated. I don’t mean like buy all the PS5s from your local Best Buy because you can.
I mean like choosing activities that bring you joy and happiness. Finding pleasure in your daily life and committing to enjoying that, no matter what anyone says about it.
In a world where almost everything is given to you and society is accelerating to the stars at a breathtaking speed,
might as well take a breath to enjoy the only life we have left.
Jumping Jellybean Eyes
There’s this thing in anime.
Where they have an ungodly amount of close-ups (probably because the budget got cut and they can only animate so much in so little time).
But it’s really to show emotion. My favorite thing about when anime does that close-up is how their eyes, the windows to the soul, bounce and jump around.
Nothing too crazy and nothing that looks terribly unnatural for a Japanese anime.
But you can see the shine in their eyes.
The glitter of hope and excitement and expectation that things are going to work out.
There is so much said in that close up with their eyes literally shining that makes me just as excited and just as happy as the characters.
Those eyes tell a story, and as simple a camera technique as it is, it does wonders to make you invested in what nonsensical thing these characters are up to next.
When they learn about how to do a new DIY project and they stretch themselves and try different methods.
When they go to the beach (of course it’s a slice-of-life anime so they need a beach episode. No questions asked. It’s a given) and their eyes reflect the ocean water back with twice as many sparkles.
When characters look at each other and there’s this love, this emotional and heartfelt connection that you have at that age with your peers and your loved ones because this is a core memory, this is a moment they cannot absolutely will not forget.
It’s such a cop out that I love and will cherish for as long as I watch these 2D characters do random shenanigans.
[And if you like this newsletter, I’m so sure you’ll like these other works from the archives: Lycoris Recoil, Bocchi the Rock 1, Bocchi the Rock 2, Bocchi the Rock 3 (I was really obsessed with Bocchi at some point), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Part I, The Bad Guys, Monster House, Heroines Run the Show, Wotakoi, Clean Freak Aoyama Kun, Given, Little Witch Academia].