#diy!!

need to post this here too this is the foundation of this account

absolutely stunning art done for me by the amazing @aaronmethechisakisser for our secret santa

it is so beautiful

i love it so much my babys

my girl

my gays

my heart

Today’s anime dog of the day is: 

Do It Yourself!! - CGDCTT: Cute Girls Doing Cute Things Themselves

For anyone that isn't already watching this wonderful and warm slice of life series: what are you doing? Overloaded on crazy anime this season? Feeling like you've got a heavy and full schedule of series? Take a break, and watch Do It Yourself!! The perfect reset on the dense and packed fall season that follows a DIY club in their antics, and as I'll explain impassionedly with episode 6 as an example, gives a great perspective into DIY work and everything that makes it great.

The first thing I really enjoyed was the girls getting all excited over the hardware store. Getting to peruse all the various options and available tools like a fun DIY version of a kid in a candy store. It's definitely something that I can say is relatable. Walking past aisles of new and shiny power tools on sale, thinking of the great deals and all the things you'd be able to get done with a proper hammer drill, how nice that solder kit looks for making changing out/upgrading your keyboard switches (yes, I don't use hot-swap switches currently, sue me) way easier. Anyways, I digress, it's cute, it's apt, and a great little segue to place them into DIY mode.

We swiftly move into Rei's room though, which aside from being cute and organized has loads of DIY projects, some of which even happened in the anime already!

Once again, going past the purpose of cuteness and fun, I really love how the DIY element is integrated into the daily lives of the characters. It was used to create a warm and fun environment for Jobko where she could be happy and comfy in her homestay with Purin, and here it really drives home the "nothing goes to waste" mentality that can accompany DIY in general. So many little pieces like a tablet stand, or a chair, or even a little decorative board, it's really fun to see just how many pieces of DIY stuff litters Rei's room and how much personality it gives it.

After the girls have their fun and get into a sidebar conversation about Shoujo manga though, we get into the real DIY of the episode with the girls making seashell beach necklaces, coffee drippers, and tablet stands!

I love the level of detail they go into with each of the crafts. Using the correct tools, having little tips and creative additions, they do such a wonderful job of making the project engaging to the viewer, but also providing insight and accuracy to it. The tips about layers for the resin art? Really solid, and the little trick with the hair dryer? Loved that they added it. To go a step further though, Rei talks about bubbles appearing in the resin during the process, but you can actually use it to your advantage! Of course, you want the lower layers to be without bubbles, so make sure you pop them as they appear or heat up the resin before it cures so that it can work the bubbles out of itself. Anyways, with the wave part of the beach scene in resin work like Rei's, you can use the bubbles from the white resin as extra details/foam in the waves and it can look really pretty.

Moving on, we get to see Kokoro and Rei work away on some Coffee Drippers, and they do a solid job for the most part. They provide some solid tips for drilling symmetrical pieces of wood, and the tip about using tape to prevent burrs/rough entries on wood can be a good tip. My only gripe is that using tape to secure two pieces of wood for drilling through them is a bit flimsy compared to clamping, but at the same time I'm lazy and just use my one hand to keep stuff in place so I can't really talk😅.

They do a really solid job with the majority of the steps they walk you through, but have a few personal disagreements here and there. You don't really to drill holes all around the circle you're cutting out, just a single access hole will typically do for making a cut with a jigsaw.

This piece is probably the biggest offender though, and twofold at that. The simple issue is the translation. In Japanese, they call the tool a "Setsudanki" , which directly translates to "Cutting Tool", but most handypeople out there know it as a Chop Saw, not a circular saw. Chop Saws are static saws that are brought up and down on the material in question to "chop" them, as the name implies. A simple error, but one that should be corrected because Circular Saws and Chop Saws are pretty different. Anyways, the more complicated issue is they don't mention any protection or precaution for cutting metal that will spark. It can get hot if you get any on your skin so it's best to be careful when cutting metal with power tools. Again, maybe the advice isn't the greatest coming from a person that'll run a concrete saw without earplugs and only wearing sunglasses, but I at least want to encourage safety in others.

The learning doesn't stop with Coffee Drippers though, as Jobko walks us through their approach to making a tablet stand. As a quick aside I really love Jobko's character and how well each episode makes use of her. The perfect bridge between technology and practicality, she always finds a way to integrate the two in an inoffensive and positive way, whether neither takes away from the involvement of the other. Also, I just love how detailed they get with the technical drawings she uses. Walking a perfect line of pretty and practical, they're really detailed and wonderfully standardized, basically exactly what you'd expect of a proper technical drawing.

One little detail that they skip over though that's really useful is the gluing of some of the pieces. It's definitely not super structural given they don't clamp it or let it set, but it solves a really important problem when securing pieces together. She only uses a single screw on the piece in the image below, and that creates a problem on its own. It's a single point so the two pieces can rotate around it freely, which isn't exactly great for a product. Jobko solves this by gluing the pieces together as well as added security, good job Jobko👍!

So, case study closed, not only are these cute girls doing cute things, they're doing it themselves, and doing it accurately! It's really great to see and only adds to the overall warmth and fun atmosphere that the show provides. They find a perfect way to inject the DIY and creativity in a way that fits the girls wonderfully, ending the episode with setting up a little space in Rei's family shop for the crafts they made, and it really sells the best parts of this story.