News

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! Anime Casts Sairi Itō, Mutsumi Tamura, Misato Matsuoka

The official website for the television anime of Sumito Ōwara's Eizōken ni wa Te o Dasu na! (Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!) manga revealed six main cast members for the anime on Friday. The cast members are:

Sairi Itō (in her debut TV anime voice acting role) as Midori Asakusa, an anime fan who has drawn many ideas and concept designs in her sketchbook.

Mutsumi Tamura as Sayaka Kanamori, who has no interest in anime, but is put in the producer role

Misato Matsuoka as Tsubame Mizusaki, a model for fashion magazines who dreams of being an animator

• Yumiri Hanamori as Doumeki, the club's sound consultant
• Mikako Komatsu as Sowande Sakaki, the student council secretary
• Kazuhiko Inoue as Mr. Fujimoto, the Video Research Club's advisor

The manga follows Midori, Tsubame, and Sayaka, an energetic trio of first-year high school girls who come together in the Eizouken (Video Research Club) to turn their anime dreams into a reality. Midori is nervous to create an anime alone. She meets Tsubame who appears to be a well-to-do girl but she really has artistic dreams of being an animator. Midori's best friend Sayaka has the financial sense to bring the project to fruition and joins the pair on their quest.

Masaaki Yuasa (DEVILMAN crybaby, The Tatami Galaxy, Night is Short, Walk On Girl) is directing the anime at his Science SARU studio. Yuasa is also supervising the series scripts. Naoyuki Asano (Saint Young Men, Mr. Osomatsu) is designing the characters, and Oorutaichi (Kick-Heart, Lu over the wall) is composing the music.

The anime will premiere in January on NHK General.

Students from the Nihon University College of Arts in Tokyo previously submitted proposals to animate a short based on the manga last year. Eight pairs were selected to make promotional videos, and the videos premiered at the college's Nichigo Festival 2018 event last November. Second-year students Chihiro Izumi and Minano Ōmori created the winning piece.

Ōwara launched Eizōken ni wa Te o Dasu na! in Shogakukan's Gekkan! Spirits magazine in 2016, and Shogakukan published the fourth compiled book on May 10. The manga was nominated for the 11th Manga Taisho awards last year, and it won the top Bros. Comic Award in 2017. The manga is also inspiring a live-action film adaptation that will open in summer 2020.

Sources: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! anime's website, Comic Natalie