Saturday, September 11, 2021

Nogizaka46: "Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken" film review part one

 


 Release date: September 25, 2020.... due to the virus it was pushed back from May.
Length: 112 minutes Director: Tsutomu Hanabusa, subs were done by Beam Subs

Main  Cast: The Nogi members got 95% of the screen time but it is a large cast, will just list a few of the others as most roles weren't that large. The action takes place at the Shibahama high school, the Nogi gals are in their twenties but played sixteen year old freshman.

Asuka Saito as Midori Asakusa.... Quite an introverted girl who does have explosive moments at times. Midori is an avid anime and manga fan who is a superb artist but didn't pursue that passion until entering high school. She's been best friends with Sayaka for many years and the two are so unlike which is why they may get along so well. In the Eizouken club Midori is the main artist and writer but her daffiness keeps their projects at a standstill too often.


 Minami Umezawa as Sayaka Kanamori.... As mentioned Midori's best friend but unlike her Sayaka could care less about animes and mangas. Her passion is money and she'll do anything to become rich. Sayaka is quite savvy when it comes to finances so even though she doesn't help with drawing or writing is the manager, producer, protector and accountant of the Eizouken club.


 Mizuki Yamashita as Tsubame Mizusaki.... Her parents are well known actors and Tsubame herself was a popular model before she enrolled at the high school. She loves animes and has to keep it hidden from her parents along with her joining the Eizouken club. While she's not as talented as Midori when it comes to drawing Tsubame is a whiz with a computer and can take those drawings to create animes, all three have their own unique talent for the club.


 Some of the other cast who had somewhat important or large roles.

Sakurako Konishi as Toru Dotonburi.... The president of Shibahama's student council, she can be quite mean but then again does have a bit of a soft spot in her heart on occasion.

Grace Ema as Sakaki Sowanda.... VP of the student council.

Riko Fukumoto as Hisashi Ashima.... Another student council VP.

Hiyori Sakurada as Domeki.... Was president of the Sound club which had to be disbanded, she then helped out the Eizouken girls for their anime project.

Eiji Akaso as Kobayashi..... President of the Robot club who worked with the Eizouken club for a while and they're using an image of their Talos robot in the anime.

Mizuki Itagaki.... Also in the Robot club and couldn't stand the Eizouken girls.

Keita Arai as Nishijima.... Head of the school's student security team.

Minami Hamabe as Haruko.... On the Weather club and had too small of a role.

Links to previous posts

 Watched the entire drama which had six episodes but only recapped the first two episodes. That's because there was such a long gap until the subs were completed so it didn't make much sense in doing the final four shows. So have five links if you care to view any which are worth a view, first three are a primer post for the drama and the two recaps. Fourth one down is for this movie that has premiere pics and such while the last link is for the film's trailer.





 Whew, long intro and these two posts for the film may be the largest of the year. Though most Nogi posts are very popular the ones for their dramas, films and TV specials rarely are but think these posts will turn out to be decent. If you're a fan of the series or the trio of members you should enjoy these posts and let me give a quick rundown about the drama which was a lead in to the movie. Very briefly the drama began on the first day at the Shibahama high school for our main trio. Midori and Sayaka were good friends and they soon met Tsubame who like Midori was an avid fan of animes, Sayaka wasn't though. More than education Shibahama is gung-ho abut clubs and every student was required to be in one. Our heroines decided to form their own club named Eizouken which means film club but the student council doesn't like to approve new clubs.

 Especially when Eizouken was so similar to others such as the anime and film clubs. But the girls explained to the council what would make them different is that they would create their own anime movies. The council wasn't too pleased but said if they could make an anime film they would be certified as a new club. Lot of ups and downs but by the end of the sixth episode Eizouken was able to make that film and are now an official club. They're still not liked by the council or many of the students but that was a brief explanation of what took place in the first season and where this movie will begin from. That drama was just six episodes which were about 23 minutes in length, I enjoyed it quite a bit but two more shows would have helped.

 **** Took about 140 screenshots so going to try and let them tell the majority of the story. They'll be in order of events and of course I'll explain most of what took place. So this first post will cover the story up until the 72nd screenshot, next post will have the second half of the movie. The first 35 minutes of this 112 minute film had many flashbacks of what took place in the drama but there were also many added scenes in, those flashbacks did help as it had been a while since viewing the drama.





 In the 'Kakegurui' series the high school was consumed with gambling, at Shibahama it's being in a club but things have gotten out of hand. After Eizouken was approved to be the newest club that's brought the total up to.... 429! Have never seen any action in a classroom and there may not be time for learning due to the club activities. But the school has only so much money and the vicious student council has the orders to whittle that 429 down to less than a hundred either by disbanding them or forcing clubs to merge. The student council is led by a senior named Toru who puts up with no monkey business, same goes for her three vice presidents. She's still furious that Eizouken was able to become a club despite all of the obstacles put in their way, they're #1 on her list to be disbanded.

 The toughest bunch are the Security club which is rather large too and it's leader is named Nishijima. At the meeting about whittling down the clubs he gave a presentation about the girls from Eizouken, the trio are quite meek yet also dangerous. So the purging of clubs has begun but seeing as how every student had to be in a club the easiest thing to do was merge similar ones such as putting all the acting clubs together, film, anime and manga as one and so on. The vast majority of clubs was taken care of in no time and that was led by the Security club, they may only be teens but seems they all went through Marine boot camp! For the first half hour much of this was narrated by a male student whose club had been disbanded, he was telling his tale to two other survivors. 






 Also some of the first half hour was devoted to explaining how Eizouken was formed, that's in the intro and the two links at the top. The easier clubs were dealt with first but it was getting time to do something with the three Eizouken members, right above is a Student Council VP telling them to merge with another club or disband. Both choices left our heroines furious but perhaps by merging with another club they can stall for time. Haven't mentioned any names yet but of course you know who they are by the screenshots. There's the very introverted Midori who is a talented artist and writer but definitely very off the wall. Her helper on the anime was her new friend Tsubame who helped with the stories and was able to convert Midori's drawings into an anime. Final member was Midori's only friend growing up who was Sayaka. She's not into animes and such but became their manager and spokesperson, without her that anime to get the club approved would have never been made.

 Eizouken isn't too well liked by most of the other students save for some of the more outcast and semi dangerous clubs. But many want to merge with them as they seem to be 'survivors' but the trio shooed all of them away. However there's no option but to merge with a club and Sayaka has made a pact for Eizouken to merge with the Robot club. They consist of four members led by Kobayashi and he's said that the club has been around since 1880! Not much was accomplished back then but in 1920 the club built it's first robot called Talos. As a matter of fact it's the club's only one but it's appearance keeps getting altered when the club changes hands. But this Talos robot is nothing out of the ordinary as it doesn't move, have any kind of powers and the club is really just a useless one.







 So the combining of the two clubs is official though it'll still need to be approved by the Student Council. However this union didn't go too smoothly and the Robot club didn't help out that much but the Talos robot was the inspiration for Eizouken's next anime. The school's cultural festival is just around the corner, there you can win money for having superb entertainment such as an anime but then again that's when the results of which new clubs will stay or go will be announced. To Sayaka the new club has no chance of winning anything at the festival and she's just concerned with keeping Eizouken intact. Her brilliant idea was to enter an anime with Talos as the super hero at the upcoming Comet-A convention but the team needs to start their project now!

 As in the drama Midori has this 'gift' where others can see what she's thinking in her mind! It is kind of funny and enjoyable watching her ideas come to life, she quickly had many for the anime. Talos would become a much larger robot driven by humans with it's main weapon a massive chainsaw. It would end up saving the Shibahama school from destruction by defeating a huge creature named Crabtle. That's a combination of Crab and Turtle, at first the Robot club was against it but most seemed to approve of the project. The leader Kobayashi thought Midori's anime with their Talos robot was quite interesting but not his assistant Ono who went on a rampage. That scene discussing the anime was just alittle too long and perhaps the only one that dragged a bit in the movie.






 But eventually Ono was swayed by everyone's arguments and it's a go for the Talos versus Crabtle anime. That's the new looking robot above though it's not a real life one and the others were looking a what Midori was thinking in her mind. So that wraps up part one which was easier than I thought, part two is of course the next post. Ended up taking 137 screenshots, have 72 in this post which followed what I've written, many more are below. So the action will begin with screenshot #73 in the next post or what happens after this new Talos robot was created in Midori's head.





















































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