Do It Yourself!!

Episode 4

This isn't the first time an American has waltzed into somebody else's home and annexed it for their own, and it won't be the last. Jobko is here to stay, and she's kicking back in Purin's alcove. With an episode that shifts the focus away from the clubhouse for a change, this week's Do It Yourself!! builds a space where our resident klutz, tsundere, and child prodigy can get to know each other better. And extoll the virtues of pirating textbooks.

Purin probably benefits the most from the episode's narrower focus. She doesn't reveal hidden depths or anything—that isn't the focus of the show—but it is quite fun to watch her get owned. I love how classical a tsundere she is, down to the well-punctuated “baka.” It's not like she likes DIY or anything!! Her no-frills hot-and-cold nature is honestly kinda refreshing, like the memory of lemonade you tasted when you were nine, harkening back to simpler times. Meanwhile, Serufu proves to be uncannily adept at wielding her jester's privilege to get Purin tripping over her own words. It's a childhood friend match made in heaven. Even Mama Yua is in on the fun, clearly relishing the opportunity to help rekindle their friendship over a nice pork dinner (somebody please help Meat).

Jobko might feel like a third wheel in all of these, but she acts more like the big wheel in a big wheel tricycle, pulling Serufu and Purin along with her schemes. She's a lot more fun and less one-note here than last week. Her little bonding moments with Purin over technical jargon do both of their characters good. And it's funny how, just when Purin thinks she's finally made a friend she can have normal nanocarbon discussions with, Jobko goes all hacker gremlin on her ass. While not “DIY” in the more traditional sense, cracking passwords and stripping DRM from ebooks certainly follows a digital “Do It Yourself!!” ethos.

Despite their three clashing personalities, they start working in concert once the episode's big construction project is underway. Earlier, Purin puffs her chest with another explanation of how the technological singularity will solve all of our woes and unite us under a common banner of humanity. Here, though, we see a perfectly fine, if much humbler example of people getting past their differences. No advanced AI required (excepting Jobko's cool AR apps). It's not that DIY is Luddite in its philosophy, but rather it's being critical—and correctly so—of tech messianism. The series is looking for that kind of salvation within instead of without, and I completely agree with it. I think, if there is meaningful work to be done, then there's a fundamental part of being a person that yearns to help do that work. We are cooperative by nature. Computers didn't teach us that. In fact, if Twitter is any indication, computers have done the exact opposite.

As is typical of DIY by now, every scene bursts with personality. Purin's perpetual state of embarrassment, Serufu's floatiness, and Jobko's Jobko-ness all come through loud and clear via the animation. It's the kind of show that takes a random daydream about a gingerbread house and turns it into a fun, fluffy children's book excerpt. What I want to draw attention to this time, though, is how good DIY is at communicating sentimentality too. Purin and Jobko's brief spat of shared dad feelings does a lot with a little, using small gestures and the nighttime palette to accent the tenderness of the moment. Later, Purin's memory of the windchime exchange with baby Serufu practically oozes adorable innocence, but the anime tints the scene ever so slightly with the melancholy of a friendship that's grown apart since then. While I doubt it'll be long before the two of them kiss and make up in that soon-to-be-built treehouse, it's nice to see the series working in emotional registers other than “tool-powered goofiness.” Though I do love me some tool-powered goofiness.

Yūki Yonemori is this week's director, storyboarder, and main animation director. He has a bunch of high-profile key animation credits (Mob Psycho 100 season 2 episode 5 anyone???), plus he did Rika's introduction in Wonder Egg Priority, so you don't need this episode to tell that he's talented. However, I'm glad we have this episode, because damn is he talented. I know I've said DIY is all about looseness, but there are moments here where he wields a precision of body language, anatomy, and lighting to wonderful effect. And probably the most stand-out piece of animation is Serufu's bike ride towards the end, with its mesmerizing speckles of tree-filtered light and impeccable integration of Blender-assisted action.

On a final note, my favorite gag this week belongs to Jobko's misunderstanding of the rent she'll need to pay. And it's not the misunderstanding as much as it's how immediately she was prepared to pay $10,000 a month to stay in a little cubby in Purin's place. Poor girl's perspective must have been warped by San Francisco rents, if her tech background is any indication. But if ¥10,000 is the going rate for a cozy little alcove with a hammock and a ton of ninja movie posters, then given the current JPY to USD exchange rate, I might have to seriously consider moving abroad.

Rating:

Do It Yourself!! is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Steve is a regular freelance contributor to ANN and also the guy who called Arataka Reigen an internet sex symbol that one time. Feel free to roast him on Twitter about this. Otherwise, catch him chatting about trash and treasure alike on This Week in Anime.