Do It Yourself!!

Episode 12

DIY's finale begins with Serufu perfectly fastening in one last screw to complete the club treehouse. This moment should inspire us all. If a Looney Tunes-caliber injury magnet can learn to handle a power tool correctly, then what's stopping you? And more importantly, Serufu's small personal victory sets the tone for the rest of the episode, which can similarly pride itself on a job done well and confidently. Do It Yourself!! is the adorable dark horse of the autumn anime season.

This last installment divides itself neatly down the middle. The first half deals with the end of summer break, and the end of the DIY Club as we've come to know it. Jobko's impending departure has been, for the most part, the gently ticking clock pushing the construction of the treehouse along. However, now that we've reached the end, the narrative gives her a proper sendoff replete with totems of friendship and youthful nostalgia. It's an open-ended farewell, and fittingly so, because I can picture these girls staying in touch and crafting trinkets together until they're old and wrinkled. Some of the pathos feels a bit shoehorned in—I think Jobko's relationship with her parents could have been developed more organically over the course of the season—but the series is too adept at crafting mood for that to detract too much.

It's also funny that Jobko explicitly calls out Kurie and Takumin's Sunflower Girls proselytizing, because the show itself can't help but throw in some last-minute proselytizing about the moral value of DIY. And you should know I wholeheartedly agree with that by now. The setup is perfect too. Right after Serufu nails that final screw, Purin starts pointing out the flaws Serufu imparted into the rest of the structure. Again, though, that's storytelling. That's life. That's humanity. Each of those girls put a piece of themselves into that treehouse, and that's a legacy that will outlast their own tenure as students. One day, future DIY Club members might even strip the secret base for lumber as they plan to build their own even cooler project. That's what it's all about: intergenerational connections and resource savviness.

The second half of the episode narrows its focus on Serufu and Purin exclusively, and that also feels deserved. After a full season of butting heads in increasingly flirtatious ways, they've earned some alone time. And wouldn't you know it, they complete the project that inspired Serufu to join the club in the first place. It's now exactly the same bench they sat together on as kids, but it's a swing made from wood with their names literally on it, so I think that counts as “close enough.” It's also oh-so-perfect that Purin's season-spanning frustration stemmed from an offhand comment that Serufu immediately forgot about and Purin completely overreacted to. I'd complain about the show shoving this revelation into the finale if it weren't so completely accurate to both of their personalities. Of course it was that stupid. They deserve each other, and I'm happy for them.

I'm happy for Do It Yourself!! too. In a normal season, its strong personality, themes, and presentation would have catapulted it to the top of the crop. Kazuhiro Yoneda's infectiously fun direction and Mitsuo Iso's probable contributions to the series' setting fused together into a one-of-a-kind experience with eyes on the future and the past. Among its compatriots in a ridiculously stacked Autumn 2022 season, DIY is just another one of the greats, standing shoulder to shoulder with its flashier brethren. It's easy to overlook, but you'd be remiss to do so. When it comes to convincing you to build a shelf from scratch, DIY is an anime without peer.

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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.