Review of Hand Shakers

This series is actually pretty amazing through the sheer fact of in how many ways it manages to fail. There is some promise within the general idea behind it and the two main characters aren't horrible, but the barfy animation, nausea-inducing perspective and laughably bad CGI immediately tell you that you're in for some bad time. The randomly-inserted fanservice and absurd BDSM themes in the first episode also stand as a clear warning of what's to come. What's maybe most laughable here is the unironic use of some of the most annoying anime tropes. We have brother/sister incest, a 30-years old woman looking like aprimary schooler, a Japanese idol whose dance animation felt as if they were ripped straight out of Stephen King's "It"... We have nonsense, cryptic intrigue using random historical and/or mythological terms, absurd motivations for the main villain... It is, essentially, a kind of "everything wrong with shounen anime" compilation or a guide on what to avoid writing a story.

On the other hand, it's outlandish enough to have a lot of "so bad it's good" entertainment value. If you watch it with full knowledge of what you're getting into, you can get a good laugh out of it. But, that's the only circumstance under which you should ever approach it - it is, by pretty much all possible measures, insanely awful.