Because the main character’s name is Yua Serufu and she joins a DIY club. Geddit?

Okay, so clearly not the most subtle show out there, but you know what? I didn’t hate it. I was more or less expecting another “cute girls doing cute things” kind of show, and to be fair, that is kinda what it sounds like on paper – complete with the now outright laughably overdone premise of a failing school club whose only members desperately need to find X more people to join or it’ll be disbanded (or at the very least, defunded).

The good news is that the premiere gives me some hope that there’s a bit more weight to Do It Yourself!! than what it presents on the surface. For one, the girls aren’t drawn in that super stereotypical moe style that’s basically become synonymous with girls’ school club fluff. This is an anime-original series produced by Pine Jam, who have gone with a more sketch-esque art style that puts me in mind a bit of Science SARU works. Not quite as heavily stylized as that, sure, but still leaning more towards artsy than ultra-cutesy, if that makes sense.

Second, there’s an interesting setting going on here that I hope will be further explored in later episodes. While Serefu attends what looks like a regular Japanese high school and lives in a regular old-school Japanese house with her mom and several pets, her childhood friend and neighbor goes to what looks like a fairly state-of-the-art vocational school that studies cutting-edge tech, and she seems to live alone in a sleek, modern apartment with… I’m gonna say an octopus robot? There’s this very clear line being drawn between ultra-modern/high-tech and traditional/low-tech skills and lifestyles, but it’s all at this point totally unspoken, which I like a lot. As long as this aspect doesn’t get too preachy, I’d love to see more of it, and I’m curious on the whole to see more of the show in general.

Score: 7/10

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