Do it Yourself is so unassuming that one would be inclined to come away with the initial impression that its not anything more than just cute girls doing cute things: the woodshop edition. And you wouldnt necessarily be wrong on the surface it plays the formula in much the same way as it has been employed in countless other anime before it. Niche hobby relaxed atmosphere low stakes the whole nine yardstick. Why should anyone walk into a show like this and expect something different or different enough that it would become one of the morepleasing anime of the season? https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/d5e8ac6035f667e53cfb35ce5bd6619d.mp4 Even if someone was willing to take a chance on it goodness knows that the show also had its own uphill battle to climb. Fall 2022 was to put it in one term topheavy. Between the highlyanticipated juggernaut Chainsaw Man and desired sequels Bleach: The ThousandYear War Mob Psycho 100 III and Spy x Family Part 2 a show like Do It Yourself stood no chance of etching itself onto the landscape atlarge. Even when Bocchi the Rock managed to do it that was an unexpected dark horse. A happy one to be sure but an exception nevertheless. Do it Yourself thus seemed condemned to be lost in their wake suppressed by the sheer extent of their mark. But that reality in truth is why the show managed to succeed so well. Whereas other shows announced their presence with boisterous explosiveness or an unexpected comedic jolt to the senses Do it Yourself started more gradually. When were introduced to the animes world its aesthetic is markedly cutesier and more juvenile. That is not an insult in this case rather its a perfect visual sign that the show will kick back its feet and let simplicity take the reins. The aesthetic of the show when its not adopting its musically jazzy time in montage or its delightfullycatchy OP feels fresh out of a childrens coloring book the color palette employed is simple but it propelled by its splashes of beautiful lighting and animations. It is not the type of animation that will be immortalized forever but the level of care gives its simplicity more verve and spunk. Serufu is likewise a charminglysimple protagonist klutzy and always seemingly with her head in the clouds rather than her feet on the ground. Theres a disarming appeal in how she always takes misfortune on the chin sometimes literally given how often shes covered in BandAids allowing herself to be impressed by others around her or have her friend Purins insults bounce off her like rubber much to Purins consternation. She coasts on by often right into a telephone poll. She meets Rei the senpai of the show who introduces her to the world of DIY crafts after helping fix Serufus bike and one clever little pokinglyfun pun later the show sets itself into proper motion. Coming to stop by the club include the shybutcapable Takumi the selfconfident and obscenelyrich Juliet Queen Elizabeth VIII which yes that is her name and it is glorious and the energetic and ninjalike Shii all while Serufus old friend Purin watches the oddball group from afar. Oddball not only defines the group as a whole but it similarly characterizes the humor. Do it Yourself does not rely nearly so heavily on setups and punchlines if anything the way I described the pun earlier as pokinglyfun is the mostappropriate descriptor. Given the sometimesweird nature of the characters both individually and as a group any time is prime time for a little barb a little cutoff or a little moment for someone to be temporarily fascinated with someone else. Scenes therefore have a little spark that allows comedy to come from any direction and from essentially anyone. They have their moment arise naturally out of the dialogue and dynamic then gradually fade away into the background. So when Shii scampers up a tree like SpiderMan or Rei and Takumi obsess over a mutual love of manga the scene carries on seamlessly when the moment is done like no pause had occurred. https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/8f728d3eabe5efd048de9c4363fea546.mp4 But when it decides to pause it works well DIY is not just a little framework to make the show fit into some kind of mold. Do it Yourself wisely takes the time to let us know how exactly the various goods and crafts are made which is more than can be said for other shows around niche hobbies in its genre. Ill confess upfront that I have never been blessed with good hands for DIY. I am not a woodworker handyman or anything closely resembling that nature putting together a chair this past summer was more hassle than Id like to admit. Not all of the crafts are immediately feasibleI wouldnt know where to get my hands on a decent UV light for hardening gelsyet I didnt care. The show treats its audience like it treats Serufu a newcomer to this type of craft that might need help knowing what to do and when to do it. The show in essence takes it upon itself to be the teacher. I cannot say that I remember how to make everything the show demonstrated but I enjoyed seeing the process at work and play out into finished objects. The care in showing the crafts be made step by step is not the only way the show shows its cohesiveness. Its made clear throughout the narrative that the club members are not just a hodgepodge of girls hanging out together and doing whatever is in the animes name. Rather they are and actually function like a team actively seeking to help one another when something either goes wrong or needs to be worked on. Especially as the increasinglyapparent competence of the other DIY Club members makes its presence known Serufu is notably left behind. Jobko Rei and Shii are all good with their hands but even early on newcomer Takumi works to create the colorful mosaic to hang outside the schools clubhouse. Serufu bumbles about trying to do something as plain as work an electronic screwdriver correctly. This does beg the question of why let the narrative focus so much on Serufu. The show fantastically has an answer. Serufu is a walking accident waiting to happenput the hammer down Serufubut her contributions to the club are not limited to simply making things. I remarked before that one trait to describe her was disarming which each character at various points in the story comes to experience for themselves in her wake. Even when the show operates under the veneer of giving the other characters their time in the sun Serufu is always right beside them encouraging them with unapologetic sincere positivity and getting them to admit or realize something about being in the club that they might not have either understood or wanted to admit or perhaps even wanted to try. To put it in terms the show would use if the other club members are the tools in the shop the saw the screw the hammer and the straightedge Serufu is the superglue that keeps it all together. Serufus usefulness to the story is only insubstantial if one limits their understanding of the DIY Club and DIY as a whole to the things that are made and how finelypolished they are. If Serufu were out of the picture its fair to say that everyones lives would have been a lot lonelier. Because shes so enthused theres a mutual admiration that is collectively shared among everyone in a way that comes across as so earnest and sweet that it makes the mundanity meaningful. Serufus handiness comes not in the house for Meatit makes sense in context I promisenor the charms they make. Her handiness is in talking with Purin on the boat cute nicknames always trying to make new friends and letting the good times roll. The DIY Club with all its members smiling and enjoying themselves is her masterpiece. It may have been forged from incongruous parts with the instruction manual thrown into a paper shredder after getting jammed first because lets be real for a minute it would happen if Serufu did it but hold their form they do. Do it Yourself never could have wrestled with the larger monoliths that the season had but it didnt need to. What the show did was adopt something plain with just enough of the right blend of sugar spice and everything nice. It needed no highfantasy it just needed a saw. It needed no bloody splashes it just needed a lot of BandAids. In setting itself apart from everything surrounding it it carved its own cozy little corner handicraft in my anime season and whether one wants to observe from a distance to see the overall shape or get in close to see the times Serufu accidentally screwed in something incorrectly it was wholly its own. In that sense the show did it itself which is so beautifully poetic in its own way. https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/6a62444b840b3773058ef1f324838e0b.mp4