Anime Sunday: Hand Shakers Episode 01 Impressions

Michael Blaker
Game Industry News is running the best blog posts from people writing about the game industry. Articles here may originally appear on Michael's blog, Windborne's Story Eatery.

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This week for Anime Sunday I’m taking a look at another Winter 2017 Anime. It’s my Hand Shakers Episode 01 Impressions!

Plot Synopsis: The story revolves around Takatsuki Tazuna, a high-school student with a knack for mechanics, who accepts a certain repair request and visits a university research facility. There, he meets Akutagawa Koyori, a lone girl asleep on a bed. As though being led by something, Tazuna touches her fingertips – and a voice flows into him from a place unknown…

Plot: This first episode opens up in medias res, which is always a risky plot device. Frankly if not for certain distractions I would’ve loved the hell out of this first episode and the story’s main premise. But I’ll get to the distractions in a bit.

Characters: Tazuna is a pretty neat young kid, who has a real knack for anything mechanical, Koyori on the other hand is pretty much silent this entire episode so I didn’t really get an impression of her all that much. The rest of the cast is okay, although Break is a bit of a disturbing fellow….

Art: Here’s the real kicker and problem I had with Hand Shakers, the artwork for the most part is great, except for the blatant use of 3DCG that looks like it’s meant for a 1990’s 3D Movie. I hate 3DCG in anime as a general rule of thumb. It’s almost never used well, and the terrible use in this first episode was so off putting I was very tempted to just stop watching. It didn’t get better as the episode went on. Unless they drop the cheesy special effects and use of 3DCG I probably won’t ever finish this series, which is a shame because the premise is pretty interesting.

Overall: Skip this unless you are really bored, or want a good example of poor special effects.

For those who like: Action, Drama, Romance, Intriguing Plot, Good Cast of Characters.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above, or poorly used 3DCG.

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