Hand Shakers


Hand Shakers is a Japanese action anime television series produced by GoHands with collaboration of production company Frontier Works and publisher Kadokawa. It aired from January 10 to March 28, 2017.
Reception towards the anime was largely negative, with criticism being directed at its overall quality. While the animation was noted for its complexity and fluidity, many critics felt that the overall saturated visuals and unorthodox camera angles made it hard to enjoy, as it can cause serious health issues for some viewers with epilepsy.
A sequel named W'z, which is set a decade after the events of Hand Shakers, premiered on January 5, 2019.

Plot

Hand Shakers takes place in Osaka in "AD20XX". The story revolves around Tazuna Takatsuki, a high-school student with a knack for mechanics, who accepts a certain repair request and visits a university research facility. There, he meets Koyori Akutagawa, a lone girl asleep on a bed. As though being led by something, Tazuna touches her fingertips—and a voice flows into him from a place unknown. Tazuna is left bewildered as a new world, Ziggurat, lies before him. Now together as Hand Shakers, the duo must fight to earn the right to confront God, where they will be able to make a wish. With "Nimrods", powers born from one's psyche after holding hands, the many groups of Hand Shakers must battle to defeat God.

Characters

Hand Shakers

Team Gear

;Tazuna / Tazuna Takatsuki
;Koyori / Koyori Akutagawa

Team Card

;Lily / Riri Hojo
;Masaru / Masaru Hojo

Team Shadow

;Chizuru / Chizuru Mitsudera
;Hayate / Hayate Azuma

Team Sword

;Kodama / Kodama Awaza
;Hibiki / Hibiki Moriyama

Team Cocoon

;Nagaoka / Daichi Nagaoka
;Mayumi / Mayumi Akutagawa

Team Chain

;Break
;Bind

Others

;Makihara / Nagamasa Makihara
;Musubu / Musubu Takatsuki
;Tazuna's father
;Tazuna's mother
;Tomoki / Tomoki Tachibana
;Shigure / Shigure Hanasaki
;Voice of "god"
;Dr. Akutagawa
;Dr. Akutagawa's Wife
;Koichi

Media

Anime

The project was announced in March 2016, but the project site was relaunched in July 2016. Kadokawa and GOON TRAX produced the music for the anime. The opening theme song, titled "One Hand Message", is performed by OxT, while the ending theme, titled "Yume Miru Ame", is performed by Akino Arai. The anime was celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Animate chain of anime character goods stores. The anime ran for 12 episodes. An unaired episode was released on July 26, 2017, titled Hand Shakers EX. Crunchyroll has licensed the series in North America. Muse Communication licensed the series in Southeast Asia and South Asia, and aired it on Animax Asia and later on its own Muse Asia YouTube channel.

Reception

The anime was widely panned by critics and audiences, who found its visual aesthetic unappealing and overstimulating. Reviewing the first two episodes, James Becket of Anime News Network described the series as “mystifying, maddening, and bizarre.”, noting is motion sickness-inducing art direction and bland, uninspired writing.

Note