Do It Yourself!!

Episode 6

Here's a true story. I was feeling downright lousy when I turned on this week's episode of Do It Yourself!! I was tired, could barely think straight, food wasn't sitting right, and so on. Just a bad day in the middle of a rough week. But I've got a job to do here, so I sat back, hit play, and reader, let me tell you: thirty minutes later, I was cured. My brain cleared up. My stomach settled down. I felt unbothered, moisturized, happy, in my lane, focused, and flourishing. This show healed me. It renewed me. It power-drilled my problems away, one Purin pout at a time. To me, this proves the unquantifiable proficiency of DIY as both a work of art and a pleasant panacea for whatever ails you.

Conceptually, the beach episode needs no introduction; it's an anime tradition as old as time (if you count time as beginning somewhere around the 1970s). Whether you're looking for a change of scenery or looking for a change in the average proportion of exposed skin on screen, a day trip to the local seaside is a favorite of fans and creators alike. DIY's hits this pitch down the straight and narrow, which is unsurprising. This is a show about chill vibes and putting together an Etsy portfolio, so the beach only exists as a vehicle for those aspirations. And that's basically what we get: a bunch of cute shore-focused vignettes that don't rock the series' boat.

Of course, the relaxed mood of the girls' frolic in the sand belies the meticulously constant level of craft being poured into DIY from the bottom up. The seaside backgrounds are lovely, awash in inviting watercolors and the rainbow hues of beached shells and other various flotsam. The character acting is endearing—no surprise there—but I want to draw special attention to how well everyone's outfits match their personalities. Takumi wears a smart little sundress, Jobko naturally sports sunglasses and a baseball cap, Shii's rocking the overalls look, and Kurei could not have picked a more appropriately butch vest hoodie thingie. Purin's and Serufu's outfits also complement each other really well. I'd almost call Purin's getup a slightly more grown-up version of Serufu's, which suits their relationship too perfectly. The anime's sense of design is just impeccable, and fittingly so given its subject matter.

There are too many fun, tiny character beats to detail, so I'll only go over a few of my faves. For instance, while everyone else is looking for cool seashells and sparkling sea glass, I love that Kurei is lugging around a set of loose pipes, driftwood, and hex nuts. That tracks. It's also nice to see Takumi take the lead again with this week's DIY tutorial, as she delivers a YouTube-worthy spiel about using water to temper the destructive power of friction. Serufu, meanwhile, indulges in yet another disturbingly voracious fantasy about consuming the life of a creature she just met, and I hope that sea cucumber appreciates what Purin did for it.

There's a lot of good Serufu and Purin content this week. It's difficult to say whether Purin is more tsundere for her childhood friend or for the DIY club, but I continue to love how predictable she is with both of these subplots. The best part is that Serufu's intimate familiarity with her brings out another side of the show's airheaded heroine—a much more savage side. She may wrap up all her comments in her disarming singsong lilt, but Serufu clearly loves to tease Purin, and she knows exactly how to poke her. I truly believe she's much sharper than most people give her credit for. Just look at the playful way she throws Purin's earlier comments about “old and moldy” DIY back in her friend's perpetually pouting face. It's good-natured, but there's that little spark of bullying that makes it so much better. They're going to make a fantastic married couple someday.

I hope nobody thinks I'm exaggerating my bit about the restorative properties of this show; it's just difficult to avoid sounding like hyperbole when an anime is so soothingly mellow. While iyashikei is hardly a new vibe, DIY deserves commendation for its technical and spiritual mastery of the term. And it's a great anime to have around in a season loaded with so many excellent and high-strung series. In a way, it makes DIY easy to overlook, but in another way, it makes DIY stand out all the more. It's the perfect snuggly sleeper hit for these coming chilly months.

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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.