Once again I’m reminded of the word of my AMPAS friend when asked what he thought of the latest Twilight movie: “It’s not for me.” I’m most assuredly not the target audience for Do It Yourself. As such, my opinion about it is basically irrelevant. Nevertheless, I do find it worth mentioning because it asks an interesting question – how interesting can an anime be without being remotely interesting?
As far as I know, I coined the term CGDCT – “Cute Girls Doing Cute Things”- in anime commentary, years and years ago. And let me tell you, Do It Yourself was the epitome of the sort of series that prompted me to start using it. At the time such series were complementary parts of any given anime schedule – now, along with isekai LN adaptations, they dwarf every other genre. They are, frankly, a dime a dozen. And that’s overpriced as far as I’m concerned. Most of them represent a race to see how little creativity can go into a concept designed strictly to get a series serialized and/or adapted.
Well, this one does stand out among that group. It features a frankly ridiculous collection of talent on the visual side, working under one of anime’s best directors, Yoneda Kazuhiro, at one of its most ambitious studios (Pine Jam). And make no mistake, that has an impact. It’s full of punchy and interesting artistic flourishes at every moment in every corner of the screen, all in a rather throwback aesthetic (it reminds me of Sketch Book more than any other series in terms of look). I won’t list them here, you can find the names easily enough – suffice to say it’s an august group at the very least.
My question, I suppose, is “why?” Why does this group of people decide to spend their time on a boilerplate story of a bunch of misfit cute girls making stuff cutely? If that makes me sound like a snob, too bad – I’d love to see Yoneda and the posse he’s gathered here working on something that anime isn’t going to vomit up 15 versions of every season without the need of any real talent attached to it. All that talent does make Do It Yourself better than almost all of those 15 shows – but so what? I’m sure Masa or Thomas Keller could make something better with only a bag of white rice and one or two rejects from the spice cabinet than the average line cook at a Waffle House. But should they? Is that really the best showcase for for their talent?
The answer is, yes – if that’s what they want to do. And I can’t reiterate enough, my opinion is completely irrelevant. It’s not my place to question an artist’s motives or choices – they can indulge their genius however they like. No matter how vapid and generic the ingredients, Do It Yourself still has the essence of a chef (a bunch of them) at work about it, and as such it makes a fine diversion for 22 minutes. I might speculate that all those talents are here mainly because in 2022, this is what production committees are willing to pay for – but it would be just that, speculation. I’m sure DIY will have no problems finding an audience – I just hope most of them appreciate just how hard it is to make anime look this good.
Bob
October 7, 2022 at 6:38 am>As far as I know, I coined the term CGDCT – “Cute Girls Doing Cute Things”- in anime commentary, years and years ago.
No way, when?
Guardian Enzo
October 7, 2022 at 7:41 amLike, 2013-14 I would guess. Maybe somebody else was using it but I sure as hell never saw it until after I started to circulate it.
Should I sue for royalties?
Haraga
October 7, 2022 at 11:21 pmI don’t mean to be disrespectful, but I just did a quick google search and it turned out the term already was used at least in 2010-2011 at the height of K-On popularity both on Reddit and anime blogs. But you may have played a huge role in popularizing it, no doubt, as I didn’t really follow the community closely back then.
Guardian Enzo
October 8, 2022 at 12:21 amI never followed that show (I tried and dropped it) or any discussion about it so it’s entirely possible. TBH I also have no real idea when I started using it – could have been even earlier than that, since I was talking about it on ASF, possibly before this site was a gleam in my eye.
Haraga
October 7, 2022 at 11:51 pmI think even the most talented creators always work on something at the intersection of their interests and what their colleagues and wider industry allow them to do. Only the privileged few have the opportunity to do exactly what they want, especially when it comes to anime.
While this show has lots of visual flourishes, it’s a bit too tame for its own good, and it’s coming from someone who enjoys this kind of show much more than you seem to. Especially the way it’s written feels more calculated than genuine.
Guardian Enzo
October 8, 2022 at 12:25 amMore calculated than genuine is one of the many reasons those shows almost never work for me, because it applies to pretty much all of them. But they’re a license to print money so they’re not going away anytime soon. DIY overdelivers, but the minimum standard one of these has to meet to be popular and profitable is laughably low.
fripp
October 8, 2022 at 8:18 amwell, you absolutely nailed the criticism of this ‘genre’ but where they really lost me was the way too on-the-nose yua serufu/yourself pun.
Simone
October 8, 2022 at 7:41 pmHonestly IMO you’re being a bit too cynical about this, and letting your personal dislike colour your perception towards “it must be something that is only done for the money”. First, if there’s fans that genuinely like the genre (if only because of its relaxing and unchallenging nature), why wouldn’t there be creators that do so too?
Second, you’re only focusing on the writing as your main metric. Fair enough if you’re a story-oriented person, but this is anime, and that’s not the whole thing. While this episode was uneventful in terms of actual happenings, and not particularly deep in its character beats either, what it does oozes is a lot of detail and attention that have to go in the art and animation (not to mention, some small but interesting tidbits of world design, like the ever-present drones and other soft sci-fi touches). I’m sure for an animator or an animation director working on getting the motions of a character like Yua right, having them look the right mix of clumsy and endearing, is an actual legitimate challenge that isn’t really diminished by the fact that the end product is “goofy girl does nothing of consequence”. So it doesn’t really seem that hard to believe to me that some of these talents work on projects like these simply because they want to, and because they allow them to flex their technical muscles in ways that they wouldn’t in a different context. At least when it’s done well, but garbage productions are equally distributed between genres too, so that’s not a CGDCT exclusive.
Guardian Enzo
October 8, 2022 at 7:50 pmThe only flaw with that comment is that it completely contradicts what’s actually in the post. Where, you know, I talk about how great the visuals are and how it’s not my place to project motive about what these superstars choose to work on.
sonicsenryaku
October 8, 2022 at 10:40 pmYou know, given some of the anime Yoneda Kazuhiro has worked on, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if this had less to do with production committee influence and more so happened to be a case of a team of artist who actually have some affection for the CGDCT subgenre of slice-of-life and thought to themselves: “If we’re doing this shit, let’s show out in the most audacious way possible just because we can flex like that. We actually find this genre pleasant so let’s make one of the best-looking slice-of-life shows ever and let’s have as much fun as we possibly can doing it.” Could they be spending this effort on something more “profound?” absolutely. Does it always have to be that way? Nah. Sometimes an artist is perfectly fine just goofing off and having a good time with their buds; free from the pressures of having to deliver a product that others expect to be….well….profound. It feels to me that DIY is just an excuse for Yoneda’s team to crack cold ones with the homies and show off how great they can be producing an anime of such visual splendor without having to worry about the stress of making something intellectually revered in the traditional sense.
Now granted I think it’s fine for you to ask the questions you’re pondering, I just think the answers to them are fairly simple and are normal circumstances of even the greatest of artists: sometimes you just want to take a load off and have fun with your friends, yet still create art; there’s no rabbit hole to explore
Joshua
December 14, 2022 at 2:04 amSo after watching several more episodes of this series, it just came into my mind the realization of the thing that piqued up my interest into something that was worth watching every week. Interestingly, this CGDCT SOL series began exploring the relationship between society and technology, how there’s concern that automation and tech threaten to make old-fashioned hand-crafted works extinct, but also explores how tech can still benefit DIY craftsmanship as well. And then I searched up who the original creator of this series is…
IMAGO if you remember, is a term used in Mitsuo Iso’s 2007 series that also explored the relationship between society and technology, Dennou Coil. I also found out that one of the Avex producers of this series worked on Iso’s latest project too. Could it be that this was a stealth Iso project all along? Albeit one where he simply provided the concept of this series to Pine Jam? Granted, it could be just a total coincidence and DIY is simply just a rudimentary CGDCT show, but it’s interesting to think about with that connection.