Do It Yourself!!

The Fourth Industrial Revolution has led to the development of cutting-edge technologies that have rapidly evolved the world. As a result, schools have begun incorporating these technologies into their curriculum, leaving behind the ways of the old. One such institution is the elite Yuyu Girls' Vocational High School, where both Serufu Yua and her childhood friend, Miku "Purin" Suride, have applied. Although the tech-savvy Purin is accepted to Yuyu High, the accident-prone Serufu is rejected and enters the traditional Gatagata Girls' High School instead, driving a wedge into their friendship.

On her way to class one day, Serufu gets into a bike accident, and Rei Yasaku, a passerby who attends the same school, fixes her damaged bicycle. Serufu later finds out that Rei has a passion for old-fashioned crafts and is the head of the school's Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Club—which is in danger of closing due to a lack of members.

Realizing that this may be her chance to repair her relationship with Purin, Serufu joins the club in hopes of creating projects that could bring them together once more. As the DIY Club welcomes new faces, Serufu learns to build not only handicrafts but also new friendships along the way!

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Yua, Serufu Main

Inagaki, Konomi Japanese

Juliet Queen Elizabeth VIII Main

Oomori, Nichika Japanese

Suride, Miku Main

Ichinose, Kana Japanese

Kouki, Kokoro Main

Takahashi, Karin Japanese

Yasaku, Rei Main

Sakura, Ayane Japanese

Hikage, Takumi Main

Waki, Azumi Japanese

Serufu's Mother Supporting

Inoue, Kikuko Japanese

Purin's Mother Supporting

Mizuno, Risa Japanese

Kurage-san Supporting

Gouda, Hozumi Japanese

Shii's Mother Supporting

Akesaka, Satomi Japanese

Oowada, Tomoyuki Producer

Watase, Shouta Producer

Pei, Yanjie Producer

Fukuda, Kouhei Producer

Reviews

Dec 21, 2022

Mcsuper

Recommended

After watching Do it Yourself, I’m not going to lie, I have had very strong urges to start yelling DO IT YUAAAA SERUFU when someone asks me for help on something, because you know, cringe anime behaviour am I right?

Do it Yourself is very therapeutic, in that it makes you feel nice and happy after a rough day of work or school, and it might be even inspire you to start building some IKEA furniture. There’s a lot to like, from the wholesome friendships, some very fluid animation, the memes, and some of the relaxing music too. With all the big action hits this season, ... such as Chainsaw Man, Mob Psycho, and Bleach, this show might have flew under the radar for some of you, and it almost did for me, but boy am I glad that I watched this show, one of my favourites from this anime season.

STORY:

Technology is very prevalent nowadays, with many things turning electronic. The age of building things by hand has been far gone, but it doesn’t mean it’s not enjoyable. Yua Serufu, the main character, notices this when her clumsy, accident-prone self, rides her bike into a pole and damages it. Someone comes along and fixes her bike, and it turns out, that person is the leader of the Gatagata Girls’ High School’s Do-It-Yourself club! Naturally, she gains a new interest in these crafts, and the once quiet DIY club room is alive once more!

Purin, Serufu’s childhood friend, got accepted into the cutting-edge tech school, the elite Yuyu Girls’ Vocational High School, where the latest technology in science is explored. A little gripe I did have with the story is that they could have explored some more themes of tech vs DIY, but with the fun times in the DIY club making up for it, it’s honestly fine.

The story isn’t anything really special, as it’s still just a CGDCT show, and more character driven than story driven. That said, there were still some interesting bumps along the way that made the story a bit more memorable.

ART:

It looks a little different from your typical CGDCT show, and it looks great! The art style is hard to explain, perhaps it looks like a colouring book? It looks very hand-drawn, and it’s very fitting for the DIY setting, as it looks less refined, yet looks perfect for what the show is trying to achieve.

MUSIC:

Some very relaxing music, as expected. It’s soothing and calming. The OP makes me smile every time.

CHARACTERS:

The characters were definitely a big reason why this was fun and entertaining throughout. The cast of characters stood out in their own way, and each of them were great characters. First, our protagonist, Yua Serufu, is a ditz, and you know she is based on how many band-aids are on her face. She might not have been the most resourceful person in the DIY club, but at least she strives to learn, and eventually, she does get better. Her relationship with her childhood friend, Purin, is where some of the better character writing takes place. Many childhood friends tend to drift apart after a certain time, such as the end of elementary school or high school, but here, there’s a good story of friends that drifted apart still caring for each other, and the friendship slowly building up again.

The other DIY club members were also memorable, but none more than Juliet Queen Elizabeth VIII, also known as Jobko. The occasional English lines, combined with her jokes made every episode quite light-hearted, and even hilarious sometimes.

ENJOYMENT:

The show made me smile a lot, and that’s all you can really ask for.

THEMATIC EXECUTION:

The show has pretty simple themes, such as working as a team and some concepts of friendship. These themes were executed quite effectively. Some of the teamwork when building things was good, as everyone supported each other, and despite some members being better than others, no one ever put anyone down when there was a bump in the road, but just persevered together.

OVERALL:

There’s practically nothing I didn’t like in Do it Yourself, and that made it one of the most enjoyable series of the season, and perhaps even the year. It made me smile on a consistent basis, made me laugh a bit, and warmed me up after rough days. That’s all that I could really ask for.

If you ask me if you should watch this show, I’d have a simple answer for you. DO IT! (YOURSELF)

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Dec 21, 2022

ZeroMajor12

Mixed Feelings

What else do you expect? It's an anime that exists to fulfil its only purpose, showing high-school girls making DIY products by themselves. Do It Yourself knows precisely what it wants to do and wants to achieve, though I can't help but feel that it is somewhat lacking. You are safe from godawful drama and torturous bland main characters, to say the least.

To start, the characters are not exactly well-written, everything about them is purely superficial, from character designs, personalities, dialogues, quips, and problems they face through life is all expected. As they made attempts to provide a few details to the cast, it does ... nothing but sparkle a few glitters to their entirely classic character details. I'm not saying they are not likeable, it's just that every character exists to repeat the same lines just to sell you the character they are portraying, Serufu is clumsy and bubbly, therefore the voice actress will do nothing more than just sound bubbly. Purin, a.k.a Pudding is basically a closet tsundere who's a big fan of "TECHNOLOGY", Jobko has to sound like a foreigner speaking Japanese, Yasaku sounds reliable, so she has to be reliable. The character I least liked was Kokoro because her dialect is her trying to sound cute by putting nyan in every line, so it got on my nerves after hearing her saying it for a while. In conclusion, character development is kept simple and mostly nonexistent, only for moments where their club is threatened.

In terms of style, Do It Yourself does a really good job of showcasing it. Like I said earlier, its simplistic hand-drawn style gives it a sense of charm as if it was a passion project and the music is really good too especially the opening. I don't have many words for it other than the word charming.

I do like Do It Yourself!, but it would have been better if there were more times of serious and emotional character development, a bit less of DIY exposition dialogue (although fine as it is), and growing from their overreliance on generic dialogues and tropes. It's a decent show. Though, don't let this discourage you. Just watch if you just want to let out some steam.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Oct 19, 2022

Gween_Gween

Not Recommended

Preliminary (3/12 eps)

Do It Yourself is one of the most disappointing anime of this season. When you see the animation, you meet striking designs, relaxing compositions, lively and naturalistic gestures, and lovely lightning. The anime visually invites you to comfiness. However, the anime doesn’t live up to its technical ability. Do It Yourself is just a set of gimmicks and themes attached to an unoriginal setup that leaves no amazement whatsoever. It is like a viral Tik Tok recipe. Yes, it looks good, but they didn’t care about delivering the flavor, and you ended up eating a bunch of parmesan cheese.

The main shortcoming of the series is ... the awful character department. The main character, You Serufu (Yes, it is a dumb pun), is the typical careless girl who lives in her dreamlike universe. Cool, that character works, as most CGDCT uses a character that is either dense or clueless for a comedy effect. No biggie. However, You Serufu's actions lack any wonder or anticipation around them, her character is just an unstoppable wrecking ball of fluff, she is Yui Hirasawa after a bad trip of ayahuasca. She will obviously keep messing up and getting injured as a formulaic comedy act, while the rest of the cast will evidently start to mesh because of her outgoing and careless personality. The issue is that the remainder cast plainly lacks the necessary presence or tools to make her character shine and interact. Like, You Serufu didn't even stutter when her childhood friend said that her club activities were a waste of time and outdated, dude? How emotionally stunted one has to be to not show emotion after that? How can the series throw that and go business as usual after that?

The series desperately needs a character that brings her to earth or transforms her fantasies into something funnier or more reflective. We don’t have Rin Shima personally growing while teaching her, nor Konata to mess with her and create ingenious punchlines, nor Ritsu to be her partner in crime and create a memorable duo. The characters are just as artificial and cartoony-independent as her, so their chemistry is painfully absent. As the chemistry is lacking, the dialogue transforms into a muddy debate between low-quality representations of CGDCT tropes. The interactions are comically bland. Like, please, just give You Serufu a chainsaw and give me some high-quality injuries to get more of that nurse and stop the nonsense conversations.

The ultimate consequence of the generic characters is the absurd predictability of the series. When you watch the second episode you suddenly realize that this anime is ridiculously telegraphed. You can copium about the first episode and state that it was a bad start, maybe they copied the literal structure of any run-of-the-mill club CGDCT beginning because it is a reference to the medium or because they lost the original script. Sadly, the second and third episodes are the same. The second episode presents Takumin as a shy character that looks towards a group of friends with melancholy. Meanwhile, You Serufu and Rei Ayanami need people for their club since that is the plot of every club anime ever (Not a spoiler). If you do two-plus-two then you know exactly how the episode will progress frame-by-frame. Why? Because Takumin is not a girl that happens to be shy. No, she is an archetypal introverted girl that happens to exist to expand on the value of friendship (And because shyness is moe). Her character is predictable and dull, Queen Elizabeth (This is a real character, don't inhale glue kids) too.

Takumin representation of the value of being with others is not an isolated case either. Do It Yourself tries to naively attach themes to each character, and it massively fails. The anime is simply not creative in developing the topics, to the point that even integrating them is counterproductive. Example. When you witness a pseudo-futuristic setting in a DIY anime, the first thing that should cross your mind, just five seconds in after watching the third drone.obj, is:

They will clearly do a Handmade v/s Computer-made argument, right?

The flaw is not that it unmistakably does that. The shortcoming comes from the ridiculous soulless discourse of Miku to explain the topic to the people who didn't notice the theme after watching her practicing 3D printing in high school (So jealous, fuck 3rd world). The problem with this anime is that it thinks it is doing enough by mentioning stuff. The presence of a commentary doesn't replace the need for clever blending. The anime pretends that delivering these themes and designing quirky characters (Such as a girl that says meow? Sorry, I can't still wrap my head around her) is enough to capture the viewer.

The show doesn't develop out-of-the-box comedy, the dialogues are just inherently skeletal and dry, and the progression is traced from "CGDCT for Dummies: How To Make Your Own K-On". This anime is a pass. No, it is not unsalvageable, the animation is frankly alluring to watch, but that would be it. The development will not be deeper than doing some handcrafts, guided by rudimentary and uninspired motifs that will spoil the entire episode and leave no relevant impact. It is not charming, it is not humorous, it is not endearing. It is not a good CGDCT.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Do It Yourself!! Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) KANLen09 - Dec 21, 2022	145 replies	by SenseiSempai-san »» Oct 11, 11:14 PM
	Poll: Do It Yourself!! Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 ) KANLen09 - Dec 14, 2022	63 replies	by SenseiSempai-san »» Oct 11, 10:48 PM
	Poll: Do It Yourself!! Episode 10 Discussion ( 1 2 ) KANLen09 - Dec 7, 2022	75 replies	by SenseiSempai-san »» Oct 11, 10:18 PM
	Poll: Do It Yourself!! Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 ) KANLen09 - Nov 30, 2022	75 replies	by SenseiSempai-san »» Oct 11, 9:54 PM
	Poll: Do It Yourself!! Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 ) KANLen09 - Nov 23, 2022	74 replies	by SenseiSempai-san »» Oct 11, 9:30 PM