Is GoHands’ Artsy Camerawork Holding It Back?

A good first impression is key. GoHands animation studio made an impressive comeback with two series this summer. The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today and The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses are their first works in two years. Both have top-tier opening sequences. By opening sequence, I mean the first few minutes that set up the story. GoHands world-built and set the perfect mood in just a few minutes with unique animation. After their past controversy, will these two shows help revive the studio? Or is GoHands’ reliance on artsy camera angles and CG a detriment to their success?

GoHands Are Go

GoHands formed in 2008 after Suzugo Kishimoto and several other employees left Studio Satellite’s Osaka and Tokyo branches. GoHands means either Osaka-han (of Osaka) or “I want to eat rice with animation”. Their debut work was the harem series, Princess Lover! but not its hentai OVA spinoff of the same name. The work that raised GoHands’ status was the Mardock Scramble trilogy. It’s a favorite of mine. Their momentum continued with the K series and movies.

In 2017, the studio faltered with Hand Shakers. Its CG and color palette drew negative reactions. I find it hard to watch, but the story is interesting. Despite the show’s problems, it received a sequel, W’z, two years later. Controversy then hurt GoHands’ reputation when their planned Tokyo Babylon 2021 series faced plagiarism issues. This stemmed from character designs based on outfits from K-Pop star Yeri and a Volks doll. As a result, they canceled the series. It’s a shame because I wanted this series to happen. In the end, 2021’s Scar on the Praeter would go unnoticed and be the last work by GoHands until this year.

My GoHands Go To

My favorite GoHands series this season is The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today, but it’s not my overall favorite. That honor goes to Seitokai Yakuindomo (Student Council Staff Members). The series aired in 2010 and had its second movie premiere in 2021.

Seitokai Yakuindomo follows the risqué misadventures of Takatoshi Tsuda and his fellow student council members. Takatoshi attends the Ōsai Academy, which just became coed. On his first day, he’s forced into the Student Council Vice-Presidency and discovers that the all-female council engages in perverted jokes and behavior. Takatoshi plays the straight man during their over-the-top antics. Every girl is perfectly perverse and they’re all my favorites. The best part is the bondage teddy bear that Student Council President Shino sleeps with. It’s a life-sized bear too.

GoHands’s Best

GoHands wouldn’t be able to put out works like Seitokai Yakuindomo without the help of its in-house directors. Susumu Kudo stands out at the small studio because of his work on their first big hit, along with the two shows this season. Kudo’s debut directorial work for GoHands was Cheburashka Arere?, a TV series based on the Russian children’s book character. Afterwards, he directed the Mardock Scramble trilogy. This trilogy was a boon for GoHands. First, it showed off the studio’s CG potential, which is a mixed bag these days. Second, it boosted their brand and Tow Ubukata’s career. Last, GoHands’s artistic freedom is on display. This “freedom” would become a signature for the studio. Currently, Kudo is the Chief Director of The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses and The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today.

Busy Hands

GoHands’s artistic freedom has been a double-edged sword. Their artistic use of camera angles and perspective has turned many fans off. People are fine with weird camera angles for fanservice, but not in romantic comedies. An example is the camera work in The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses. As the MC walks upstairs, the camera follows him, switching between exaggerated low and high-angle shots with occasional close-ups. The quick camera panning makes the scene disorientating and chaotic. On the plus side, GoHands animated the hell out of the heroine Mie’s hair.

Overall, GoHands has a lot of talent and creativity, but they need to temper themselves. A little goes a long way. In the end, the studio has found success with the smile-inducing The Masterful Cat Is Depressed Again Today. Hopefully, this season will be the fresh start GoHands needs to reinvigorate themselves.

If having a cat take care of you seems like a dream come true, then imagine if it became a cute girl. That’s the premise of the photobook If My Cat Turned Into a Cute Girl, which is available in the J-List store.