Keith Palmer's Multi-Purpose Journal

Six volumes of the Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! manga being translated into English and published means there’s now as much manga going beyond the anime as there was manga the anime was adapted from. I at least remember the first accusations Dark Horse might not bother to release even the manga that turned into the anime, so it was nice to see this new volume. At the same time, starting into it I did have a bit of trouble picking up on the story again beyond the sense the tale of the Eizouken’s latest anime-within-the-manga hadn’t been complete in one volume and just might have ended on a cliffhanger.
( And we have title )

When I started watching Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! (although I needed to be reminded of and pointed to it by a screenshot and positive comment on my reading list before scrambling to catch up), its first episode alone started leaving me with the hopeful feeling I was already ahead of 2019 so far as “really impressive new anime” went. Unfortunately, before it had quite finished streaming I’d stuck myself in protective isolation and just might have worked myself up to worries the series would be the last great anime ever. After lapsing into staying three months behind to make sure shows were complete before watching them (and beginning to watch some notable titles from years past I wasn’t quite sure “saving for later” was quite wise any more), I did find reassurance of a certain sort in series like Deca-Dence and Appare-Ranman! For now, though, I’m returning to a show there’d been certain “it seems like it was such a long time ago” comments about mere seasons later.
( Easy breezy )

As I began reading the third volume of Dark Horse’s release of the Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! manga, memories of the first two volumes had me supposing this would bring me to the end of the original source material for the anime adaptation at last. Having started off aware of suspicions Dark Horse didn’t have the dedication to keep publishing anything other than its most successful manga and the long waits between instalments of this title wouldn’t help there, though, I was wondering if this would wind up a last hurrah leaving me right where things had ended the first time around.
( Varied surprises )

It was a bit of a surprise to learn the “anime about making anime” Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! had in fact been adapted from a manga by Sumito Oowara. (Still, I have read a novel also addressing that subject, perhaps just a little less “light” than most of the prose fiction translated from Japanese I’ve got through of late.) With the anime’s last episode offering a sense the adventures of its eclectic trio of high school student creators would continue, seeing news the manga had been licensed raised thoughts of where to see those further works. However, that news was passed along with added complaints the manga had been licensed by Dark Horse Comics. Accusations flew that the company (the most notable one I know of that publishes manga in English as one part of its line rather than its apparent focus) dawdles too much getting its manga out, then lets those releases trail off to nothing when it’s clear the fickle public has moved on to something else. I guess I did remember how I’d bought three volumes of Emanon from Dark Horse in rapid succession for that to not be followed by anything else (although, in returning to the last pages of the third volume, I did find in the afterword not a casual promise of a fourth volume now obviously unfulfilled, but a more tentative comment about that volume not having been included in the original license deal). Still, it did seem not buying the first instalment of this new series out of indignation would only help fulfil the dire prophecies. Regardless of how many others had moved on to something else in the two and a half anime seasons since the show had streamed, I managed to pick up the manga.
( The hands-on experience )