Winter 2019 First Impressions – W’z

Yukiya is about 14 years old. He spends his time DJ-ing alone. Due to his father’s influence, he’s listened to house music since he was young, and he uploads videos online. He wants to convey something to someone. He wants to be recognized, and become important. But getting hurt is scary. One day, while trying to get more views, he does something that can’t be undone. And he sees a live broadcast from “that world.” Yukiya believes he can’t do anything alone, but that he could accomplish something if he were doing it together with someone else. – ANN

Streaming: HIDIVE

Episodes: 13

Source: Original

Episode Summary: Yukiya is a middle school student with a modest amount of e-fame as a masked DJ “W’z” (pronounced “wise”). He wants to attend a music-focused high school next year, but his father is deeply opposed to the idea. His father has always told him never to hold hands with others. This may be because, when he does so, Yukiya has the ability to enter into an alternate, mysterious dimension; a dimension that could very well hold danger for him and others.

Yukiya confesses to his friend Haruka that he feels stuck, languishing without the kind of online views and fame he’s seeking. Haruka’s positive attitude encourages him, and he invites her to embark on a potentially game-changing move with him. As night falls, Yukiya sets up his DJ equipment in the middle of the city, then asks for Haruka to hold his hand; this transports them into a dimension of color and beauty. Yukiya’s stream starts to light up and things are going well, but then the couple is joined by several other duos who are after a particular goal.

Impressions: Handshakers was reviled by many as one of the worst anime to broadcast in 2017, so it doesn’t surprise me that Studio GoHands, they of the overwhelming use of CG, strange prismatic color schemes, and general style-over-substance mentality, would want to keep the fact that W’z, ostensibly a new original project, is actually just a Handshakers sequel. It actually took me longer than it should have to catch on, because I kept thinking to myself “no, they wouldn’t do that… would they?” while assuming that visual and plot-related references were just a way to indicate that the two series took place in a shared universe. But no, despite the fact that most promotional blurbs focus on main character Yukiya’s music-making and the fact that several different EDM artists have signed on to provide the series’ soundtrack, this is, in fact, a sequel.

Once I realized this fact, I had a bit of a personal crisis. Should I, having never watched past the first episode of this series’ predecessor, continue to try to review it? Should I save it for a sequel round-up later on? Should I treat it as a separate entity and attempt to disavow myself of any bad memories or trauma brought on by Handshakers? I decided on the latter, because, despite its origins I think it does represent some improvements from its predecessor and that, at least, is worth talking about.

If I had to choose one word to describe Handshakers, it would probably be “intrusive.” The first episode, at least, is profoundly intrusive to many of the senses. Its use of constantly-moving CG backgrounds actually gave me vertigo sitting in my computer chair. The gender-relations were frighteningly dismal. It just felt like a cluster of bad ideas that might have been tolerable in isolation, but when combined formed a rotten katamari of insulting, intrusive content. This episode seems to have taken some lessons learned from that experience and reigned everything in a bit.

The backgrounds are still CG and they still move more than a typical, static anime, but something about the style, detail, and even frame-rate seems better attuned to the potential for human viewing. They also allow for some cool effects, the most obvious of which is the switch between our dimension and the handshaker dimension. CG is used for some of the characters’ weaponry, as well as to animate crowd scenes, and while both of those aspects are significantly less successful at melding into a cohesive whole, they at least don’t constantly, frequently, and loudly broadcast themselves in every scene.

Haruka is, by and far, a more interesting hand-holding partner than the timid and relatively useless loli character from the previous season. While she still fits into a particular mold as an “anime” girl with a specifically-appealing contrary attitude to Yukiya, I’ll take it as an improvement. She’s kind of funny, kind of likable, and even has a couple of good lines once the action starts to ramp up.

I am a little interested in the potential of the soundtrack as well. I’m intrigued by the fact that the series attracted so many different musical artists, though to be honest I’m not familiar with them so I’m not aware of how famous they are. Still, collaboration can be difficult even with the minimal amount of participants, so perhaps this is a small victory all its own.

Perhaps this series’ relationship with such a reviled earlier anime is to its benefit, because in almost all respects this one comes out looking like an improvement. I think for most viewers this is all that would need to be said. There is one problem, and this one is all me – I’m not a huge fan of feeling like I’ve been tricked into something. I think we’ll probably never know the real reasons why the production studio decided to keep such a bit plot revelation a secret; we can speculate all we want about their knowledge of overseas (or even domestic) reviews and whether that had anything to do with it, or whether it was just a gimmicky coincidence by a studio and crew that seems to, as I’ve said, put more weight on style than substance. Whatever their reasoning, I really wish I’d known beforehand rather than had the fact dumped on me like a bucket of ice water. Deception really isn’t a good look or a decent practice.

This show doesn’t really seem like my cup of tea, and knowing that there are cross-over details and characters with Handshakers makes me less likely to watch it (since I’m not going back to watch its predecessor). But I do have to give credit where credit is due: this seems to represent some improvement in Studio GoHands’ methods, and I think folks who enjoy stylish scene-framing and decent action will probably find this to be a safe bet.

Pros: The episode is very watchable. The soundtrack is cool.

Cons: The plot relationship with Handshakers feels like a bait-and-switch.

Grade: C-