Animehouse

The passage of time can be a frightening thing. After all, it’s been two years since Do It Yourself!! aired and we still don’t have any information regarding a season 2. Jokes aside, the most recent Pine Jam anime original is a really interesting story- both within the anime, and with the broader perspective of the studio that made it. I’d love to offer something from the perspective of the staff on Do It Yourself!!, but funnily enough there’s only a single interview in the context of the anime- with its sound designer, Hozumi Gouda. If you’re interested in reading the (JP) interview, you can find it here, but it doesn’t have too much to add to the discussion of the art and style of Do It Yourself!!. So for now, I’ll have to make do with the Do It Yourself!! Setting Material Collection.

Regardless, from the outside looking in to Do It Yourself!!, the anime is very Pine Jam in terms of staff- maybe even the “most” of any of their anime. Which makes sense, given that this is an original project for them in what you might describe as their “sophmore era”. Getting to the point, series director Kazuhiro Yoneda worked with every major staff member (but one) on at least one anime before DIY!!. To add to the familiarity and oneness of that staff list, that same group (sans character designer Yuusuke Matsuo) all worked together previously on Gleipnir. It’s quite the tightly bound group which is a massive boon in any situation, but I think the most interesting piece is how Matsuo arrived and provided the most visually defining aspect of the anime.

Having a rich history of designs with Yama No Susume Matsuo was, in my mind, the best pick for Do It Yourself!!. From their work on Yama No Susume, you can feel the similarity in how they approach proportions. The limbs are rather slim and lanky, and the characters tend to favor that sort of knock kneed posture where the knees point inward. It’s hardly at the pinnacle of offensively moe designs, but Matsuo certainly puts a slight bit of emphasis overtop the natural shape of the leg.

The most interesting piece is how disparate their designs are from the shoulders and up. While Matsuo’s designs typically favor overall somewhat reasonable proportions, their work with Do It Yourself!! goes in almost the opposite direction. Here, Matsuo ends up favoring larger heads which I think is a very interesting choice. Considering the freedom gained with an original where you have much more space, Matsuo’s choice for larger heads despite the level of detail is a smart decision. It adds a degree of personality, but it also better fills space while emphasizing the more minute details of each character. One of my favorite pieces is actually their eyebrows, funny enough. It’s great that they have such varying styles for their eyes, but with the afforded real estate you’re really able to take in the more interesting differences that you might not have otherwise. It boils down to basically the number of lines and the way they curve, but it’s really fun that it’s a type of detail that the series had the space to express.

Keeping with cool details in Do It Yourself!! I really loved how Matsuo challenged expectations for CGDCT styling. In the vast majority of cases (sans some older series) the focus of moe is on smoothness or softness. While it doesn’t go to any extremes with the designs, it’s very clear that tenet of smoothness doesn’t really track with DIY!!. The easiest example to point to is the hair of all our girls. It’s not… spiky, but it’s definitely rather pointy in the cases of Serufu and Rei.

Overall, it’s safe to say that Matsuo imparts a lot of explicit personality with the cast of Do It Yourself!!, and while it’s not necessarily an aspect easily displayed in character design, they provide some really solid impact with something as simple as posture. It’s a weird thing to really think about, but when given such a simple canvas your eyes wander to other details like that. Matsuo understood that really well and delivers nicely. Serufu doesn’t shrink and push her shoulders forward, but she certainly lets them hang as an expression of her carefree attitude. Purin on the other hand pulls her shoulders up and tight to come off rather stiff. Rei focuses in on her more boyish mannerisms which play well against her character at times. Kokoro always has a hip popped out to the side to express her energy, Jobko keeps her hands close to her waist or in pockets, and so on and so forth. It’s a lot of great details that bring out personality that can be missing with some of the simpler choices in Do It Yourself!!.

Well, I think I’ve shared my thoughts on Matsuo’s designs enough, so it’s time to move on to color designer Kouji Sakagami. Sakagami had been around colors in anime for a good while (all the way back with digital coloring on Aquarion in 2005) but it took until the formation of Pine Jam for them to step out into the spotlight. While a bit unrefined in comparison to Do It Yourself!!, their debut with Mahou Shoujo Nante Mouiidesukara helps give perspective into their style. In particular, their interest in texture and brighter/less saturated colors stands out in hindsight. While it’s not necessarily the lighter and almost water color appeal of DIY!!, the short anime does expose Sakagami’s use of texture in color to help with the feel of the environments around them- which I’ll talk about later.

Right now, I just want to excitedly mention the under colors. I am a big, big fan of that two tone style of coloring for hair, and I really love how bold Sakagami was with it in Do It Yourself!!. The characters with darker hair colors of course don’t see much of an impact (besides Purin), but with the lighter hair colors it really makes for a fun bit of variance and personality- especially when you consider how simple some of their hairstyles are.

And now, last but not least, art director Yuka Okamoto and Yasuhiro Asagi. Admittedly, school settings can be hard if you’re not a well equipped art department. I wouldn’t say that Pine Jame and Okamoto’s team were lacking in any degree, but in comparison to other studios I would say they remain on the smaller side. Here though, it’s hardly an issue thanks to Sakagami and Asagi’s work. When given strong texture from color, and some really great but subtle composition, Okamoto gets to head in an interesting direction and provide some really great 3D work for constructing buildings and other man-made details. It’s not all that surprising as an environmental technique, but the focus is really on how well it blends thanks to the work elsewhere- both in terms of the work of other teams, but as well as the smart 2D environment art that builds around the CGI components.

As mentioned earlier, Asagi does have quite the role to play in helping blend together Okamoto’s environments. For the most part, it’s very limited work overall, but Asagi undoubtedly excels with the idea of expressing tone in several circumstances. In particular, I really love how heavy their darkness feels at night, where it’s almost as if light is having to fend it off from creeping in. Another detail that I enjoy, and is really the perfect fit for Do It Yourself!! is the vignetting. It feels so surprisingly at home within the series, and adds such an interesting flair and appeal that makes each scene feel like an incomplete snapshot of something greater.

Much like how Asagi caps off the visuals of Do it Yourself!!, I think this is as good a point as any to cap this post off. Pine Jam’s (2nd) original series is quite the looker, and fits the title of original across the board. Its focus on comfort and an enveloping feeling is wonderfully expressed throughout the series, and remains something that I love revisiting still- though it’s only been 2 years at this point. Though I’ve only outlined a few staff in relation to this series, it really was a tremendous effort across the board, extending past what still images can convey (just look at this cut of Serufu riding her bike). For a full experience and understanding of how good Do It Yourself!! is, I really can’t recommend enough giving the series a chance if you haven’t already. Like myself, I’m sure it will be an unforgettable watch for many.