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This Week in Anime - Is Do It Yourself Worth Watching?

I can't believe you restrained yourselves from signing off with the obvious pun—"Be well, do good work, and love Yua Serufu!"

But I do have to stick up for the character I think is the true "secret sauce" of the show, the one no one ever notices (and goes entirely unmentioned in this article!): Hikage Takumi is the ultimate and most moving example of how DIY can improve your life.

Unlike the other girls, we never get the slightest glimpse of Takumin's home life, but what we don't see speaks volumes: she gets fantastic grades but never seems to take any pride in her achievements. She naturally lets herself fade into the background and initially gets nervous when Serufu starts treating her like a real person. In episode 2 she looks up from her book only to gaze admiringly at her peers walking to school talking about their friendships. Most heartbreakingly, her reaction to the praise she receives after designing the club's signboard (and to Shii's delighted response to her vase hanger in episode 5) shows us that she has simply never been praised for much of anything before. In short, Takumi clearly comes from a home where she is isolated, unacknowledged, and valued only insofar as she does nothing to trouble others, and where her personal interests are of no consequence. Although a fundamentally goodhearted person, she has never been given any cause for self-esteem or reason to take pride in her own work.

And that's exactly what DIY does for her! It gives her friends who recognize her value and encourage her to explore her unique talents, it lets her express herself in a way that is comfortable for her and gives her a deep sense of accomplishment, and it provides a gateway out of admiration for "girls with friends" into supportive, healthy friendships of her own. We'll probably never see anything more of Takumin's private life—and certainly, being the only non-tomboy of the group (note that I do love my tomboys!), she'll never be as popular among anime viewers as her peers—which unfortunately leaves me free to imagine the most horrible home possible, but what the show has so gently and naturally insinuated about her internal journey out of solitude into the salvific light of Yua Serufu represents the most touchingly affirmative statement of this lovely little show's thesis.

*please* wear breathing protection when drilling into glass. Under no circumstances whatsoever drill into glass while not wearing breathing protection.

(Gujjobanai!)