Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! (Japanese: 映像研には手を出すな！, Hepburn: Eizōken ni wa Te o Dasu na!) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Sumito Ōwara. It has been serialized in Shogakukan's seinen manga magazine Monthly Big Comic Spirits since 2016 and has been collected in ten tankōbon volumes as of January 2026.
An anime television series adaptation produced by Science Saru aired from January to March 2020. A live-action television series was broadcast from April to May 2020. A live-action film adaptation premiered in September 2020.
Contents
Plot
First-year high schooler Midori Asakusa loves anime so much, she insists that "concept is everything" in animation. While she spends her time doodling endless ideas and settings in her sketchbook, she has not taken the first step to creating anime, insisting that she cannot do it alone. After Asakusa's money-loving best friend Sayaka Kanamori notices her genius and drive, and when it becomes clear that their classmate and charismatic fashion model Tsubame Mizusaki wants to be an animator, the energetic trio start an animation club. Together, the three aim to realize the "ultimate world" that exists in their minds, and come to see the power that fiction and imagination have on their lives and the world around them.
Characters
Eizouken
The club is founded to produce the animation Asakusa and the others made. An anime cultural workshop already exists at Shibahama High School, but Kanamori lied and called the new club "A film club" and a teacher approved it. It was created because Mizusaki's parents forbade her from joining the anime club.
Midori Asakusa (浅草みどり, Asakusa Midori)
Voiced by: Sairi Ito (Japanese); Monica Rial (English)
Portrayed by: Asuka Saitō
A fifteen-year-old girl at Shibahama High who likes anime. She is curious and imaginative, but not good at socializing. Her policy is that "anime is all about the setting", and she has kept various designs inspired by her daily life in her sketchbook. Her classmate Sayaka Kanamori used to be the only person who knew about Midori's passion until she met Tsubame Mizusaki at Anime Club, which lead the three of them to start Eizouken. Her goal is to explore her own "greatest world".
Sayaka Kanamori (金森さやか, Kanamori Sayaka)
Voiced by: Mutsumi Tamura (Japanese); Olivia Swasey (English)
Portrayed by: Minami Umezawa
Midori's tall and long-legged classmate. Though she has neither interest in nor knowledge of anime, she took interest in Midori and hangs out with her. She loves money-making activities and thinks of ways to make money even in casual conversations. Since starting up Eizouken, she has been the only realist, and is in charge of the producer role and is in a sense, the club's de facto director since Asakusa, the club's actual director, is too absent-minded for the position. She is also brilliant at negotiating with the school and the student council. While she appreciates Asakusa and Mizusaki's abilities, she is often troubled by the two creative-minded individuals.
Tsubame Mizusaki (水崎ツバメ, Mizusaki Tsubame)
Voiced by: Misato Matsuoka (Japanese); Jessica Boone (English)
Audio Club
Parker Dōmeki (百目鬼・パーカー, Dōmeki Pākā)
Voiced by: Yumiri Hanamori (Japanese); Kira Vincent-Davis (English)
Portrayed by: Hiyori Sakurada
The only member of Audio Club. She joined the club for the vast numbers of the audio files that are stored there, but ended up giving up a part of its storage to the student council. Approached by Eizouken, she accepted taking the role of the club's audio consultant on the condition that she can use part of their club room for storage.
The School Council
Tōru Dōtonbori (道頓堀透, Dōtonbori Tōru)
Voiced by: Miyuki Kawashō (Japanese); Donna Bella Litton (English)
Portrayed by: Sakurako Konishi
The school council president.
Sowande Sakaki (さかき・ソワンデ, Sakaki Sowande)
Voiced by: Mikako Komatsu (Japanese); Melanie Ernestina (English)
Portrayed by: Ema Grace
The school council's secretary. She is better at seeing the essence of things compared to the opportunistic president, and is considered an influential person on the council. She seems to care about Eizouken and often promotes their activities.
Kyū Ajima (阿島九, Ajima Kyū)
Voiced by: Hiroko Kiso (Japanese); Elissa Cuellar (English)
Portrayed by: Riko Fukumoto
The school council leader.
Shunya Ō (王俊也, Ō Shunya)
Portrayed by: Ryō Matsuzaki
The school council treasurer. Male student with a shaven head who seems largely gentle.
Robot Club
Robot Club Ono (ロボ研小野, Robo-ken Ono)
Voiced by: Yūki Ono (Japanese); Labraska Washington (English)
Portrayed by: Mizuki Itagaki
Robot Club Kobayashi (ロボ研小林, Robo-ken Kobayashi)
Voiced by: Yūsuke Kobayashi (Japanese); Nazeeh Tarsha (English)
Portrayed by: Eiji Akaso
Robot Club Gotō (ロボ研後藤, Robo-ken Gotō)
Voiced by: Ryūnosuke Watanuki (Japanese); Andrew Love (English)
Robot Club Seki (ロボ研関, Robo-ken Seki)
Voiced by: Shiori Izawa (Japanese); Alyssa Marek (English)
Production
After completing a fine arts major at the Toyo Institute of Art & Design, Ōwara continued to pursue independent study in drawing and animation. Ōwara gained recognition for his submission Usagogi at the Comitia 111 convention in 2015, which caught the attention of a scout from the editorial team at Monthly Big Comic Spirits. Approximately a year later, the first chapter of Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! was released in the same magazine on July 27, 2016.
Media
Manga
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! is written and illustrated by Sumito Ōwara. The series started in Shogakukan's Monthly Big Comic Spirits on July 27, 2016. Shogakukan has compiled its chapters into individual tankōbon volumes. The first volume was published on January 12, 2017. As of January 9, 2026, ten tankōbon volumes have been published.
In March 2020, Dark Horse Comics announced the acquisition of the manga for English release which originally would have started on October 6, but was postponed to November 4.
Anime
An anime television series adaptation was announced in May 2019. Produced by Shogakukan, Warner Bros. Japan and Science Saru, the series was directed by Masaaki Yuasa, who also handled series composition. Yūichirō Kido wrote the scripts, Naoyuki Asano designed the characters, and Oorutaichi composed the music. The series aired for 12 episodes on NHK General TV from January 6 to March 23, 2020. Chelmico performed the series' opening theme song "Easy Breezy," while the band Kami-sama, I Have Noticed (神様、僕は気づいてしまった, Kami-sama, Boku wa Kizuite Shimatta) performed the series' ending theme song "A Blue That Has No Name" (名前のない青, Namae no Nai Ao). The popularity of the series led to it being rebroadcast on NHK Educational TV in Japan in October 2021.
It was streamed by Crunchyroll worldwide, excluding Asia. In May 2021, it was announced Sentai Filmworks picked up the home video rights for a Blu-ray release. It contains an English dub and the original version with subtitles. It was released on July 25, 2023. Medialink licensed the series in Asia-Pacific and streamed it on Ani-One Asia YouTube channel.
Live-action film
A live-action film adaptation was announced on October 15, 2019. The film was directed by Tsutomu Hanabusa and stars members of the idol group Nogizaka46 Minami Umezawa, Asuka Saito, and Mizuki Yamashita as Sayaka Kanamori, Midori Asakusa, and Tsubame Mizusaki respectively. It was originally scheduled to release in Japan on May 15, 2020, but was postponed to September 25 of that same year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Live-action series
In February 2020, it was announced that the film would be preceded by a six-episode television mini-series, with the same staff and cast as the film. The series was broadcast on MBS from April 5 to May 10, 2020.
Reception
Manga
After the debut of the anime adaptation in January 2020, the manga had over 500,000 copies in circulation.
The manga series was nominated for the eleventh Manga Taisho awards in 2018, and it won the top Bros. Comic Award in 2017. The series ranked fifteenth along with Dr. Stone on a list of the top manga of 2018 for male readers put together by Kono Manga ga Sugoi!. The School Library Journal listed the first volume of the series as one of the top 10 manga of 2021.
Anime
The anime series received widespread critical acclaim. During its airing in Japan, the series won one of the four monthly Galaxy Awards for March, becoming one of the candidates the association's yearly Galaxy Awards.
Following the conclusion of the series, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! received extensive positive reviews as one of the best Japanese animated series of both the season and the year at large. Both The New York Times and The New Yorker highlighted the series as one of the best television shows of 2020, with The New York Times naming it to their "Best TV Shows of 2020" and "Best International Shows of 2020" lists, and The New Yorker identifying it as one of the Best TV Shows of 2020. Singer-songwriter Elvis Costello identified it as a personal favorite in a 2021 featured article in The Guardian.
The series was awarded the Grand Prize for Television Animation at the 2021 Tokyo Anime Awards Festival, and won the animation division's Grand Prize of the 24th Japan Media Arts Festival.
The series was nominated in ten categories including Anime of the Year at the 5th Crunchyroll Anime Awards, and won two for Best Animation and Best Director (Masaaki Yuasa).
At the 2021 Anime Awards Brazil, an event presented in cooperation with Brazilian entertainment website Omelete, the series received nominations in ten categories and won 7, including Anime of the Year, Best Director, Best Screenwriter, and Best Animation.
Live action
The live action adaptation won Best Picture for Live-Action Visual Effects category in the 2020 CGWorld Awards. Studio Buckhorn, the studio that worked on the effects, also won the Grand Prize.