the anime of the season has already been decided
i only watch one anime per season. this is not because i'm very busy and don't have time, it is because they only make an average of one good anime per season. figuring out what it actually is without wasting too much time on garbage, however, is a delicate art. sometimes it's relatively easy, like if there's a sequel of a show that has previously passed muster (for example last season, which had the second season of made in abyss). otherwise, you must make your way to one of the last bastions of taste on the internet and perform a reading of the vibes to determine what will be worth watching.
fortunately, i've gotten very good at this, and the only thing i've watched so far this season already looks to be the clear winner. it is the show where cute girls do do-it-yourself, unambiguously titled "Do It Yourself!!" with two exclamation points. i am always impressed when they manage to find a new topic for one of these shows to cover, it feels like they've already made one for every sport and hobby, including some that aren't even real nor ever will be (girls und panzer).
intrigued already by the novel subject, i was also captivated by the distinctive art style when i started watching it. the animation is a bit janky at times, but in turn they manage to put in the extra effort at all the right moments. pure soul. there also seems to be boundless potential for later shenanigans involving the main character, a chronically clumsy crayon-eater who by all rights should be kept away from any sort of dangerous tools by any means necessary. did i also mention the main character's name is also literally "yua serufu" ("your self" for any who have difficulty interpreting japanese bastardizations of english)? this is the exact kind of stupid shit i show up for.
now they could have easily left it at that. plenty of people would show up to watch a criminally clumsy girl and her colorful group of friends do-it-themselves and save the ailing club or whatever without any extra seasonings. but instead they decided to spice things up with some simultaneously heavy-handed yet subtle worldbuilding in the background, establishing an entire underlying theme of the conflict between modernity vs. tradition, high-tech vs. low-tech, consumerism vs. craftsmanship, and dare i say optimalism vs. suboptimalism. there might even be some class struggle involved. this isn't going to be just any old show where cute girls do stuff, it's going to be a meditation on the role of technology continuing in the vein of heidegger's 
the question concerning technology, mumford's the myth of the machine, ellul's the technological society, maybe even progressing to and beyond industrial society and its future. all of this is evident from the very first establishing shots of the show, where they choose to prominently feature both airborne delivery drones and an automated bus of some sort, showing us that this show about good old fashioned woodworking and stuff is in fact set in... the future.
however, it isn't just any future. it's the unambitious, lame near future that seems plausible to anybody right now, with technology that currently exists but hasn't been widely deployed yet. incidentally, the fact that it seems so plausible practically guarantees that it's unlikely to happen. don't blame me for this, that's just how predicting the future works: "the future ain't what it used to be". i just read a thing that says amazon has cut their home delivery robot program, but i digress. of course the future never arrives all at once, and we see this in the show as a contrast is set up between serufu, who seems to still be living in "our" time (their past), and her childhood friend and neighbor, purin.
in the scene where purin is introduced, she is announcing her successful admission test results to the more exclusive local high school to serufu, across the gap between their houses from her bedroom window. the designs of the respective houses make it immediately obvious how the characters are coded: purin's house is sleek and modern whereas serufu's is older, more traditional, using shingles and with a big external AC unit. note also how in the shot, purin is on the LEFT and serufu is on the RIGHT. this is an essential detail.
the next time the contrasts come into play is later on, when we see the relationship between the high schools serufu and purin attend. it is almost entirely due to this one shot alone that i had to call the worldbuilding heavy-handed at times. obviously serufu's school is small and shabby while purin's is huge, modern, new. but look also at how it appears like purin's school is about to physically engulf serufu's, or the fact that purin's school is so absurdly tall that most of the students in it literally look down on serufu's school. incredible.
there are also the school names to consider, as always. i'm not sure there's too much to read into the names at face value other than the fact the both share the same radical for water on the left and their meanings are indeed both associated with water, one means like lagoon and the other hot water. but in homophonic wordplay terms, which the Japanese do love so very much, the name of serufu's school "gatagata" is also an onomatopoeia which can mean rickety, decrepit or ramshackle. i had a bit more trouble with the other one but the name "yuuyuu" brought to mind 優 (yuu) which means superiority or excellence, and turns out if you repeat that character twice you get this word 優々 "yuuyuu" which means graceful or refined.
why is serufu on the left in this shot? good question. their hands were probably tied because in japan they drive on the left (which is on the right in this shot)the contrasts continue when serufu and purin encounter each other again after the first day of school. the automated bus (i swear to god i've seen that exact design somewhere before, like in this fever dream MUJI presentation i once saw) is apparently a school bus, but seems to be only for students of the fancy school. so, serufu comments on how nice it would be to ride it while still seemingly content with pushing her bike up the hill, demonstrating the dignity of real manual work, sweat and poverty. really this bus exclusivity thing seems to be nothing but a Certified Dick Move on the part of the fancy school because recall, the schools are right next to each other. also, when purin gets out, she seems to be the only one riding.
after a brief confrontation that is on-the-nose enough to skip in this analysis, serufu and purin go off into their respective homes. naturally purin's house has some kind of faceid nest camera unlock automatic sliding door type thing, and when she gets inside she is greeted by an annoying octopus robot, as opposed to the three beloved eclectic pets that greet serufu after she manually slides her front door open. then, serufu's mom serves her a delightful homecooked meal. we don't see purin's parents or dinner on screen but you just it's gonna be something like vegan chicken nuggets mournfully scooped from a talking air fryer in a dim kitchen, washed down with some oat milk in front of the computer screen, if it isn't just straight-up bugs and soy. meanwhile, her parents are probably still at work at their high-powered jobs that allow them to afford so many modern amenities and a fancy school for their daughter. perhaps they are attorneys who specialize in automated bus pedestrian injury lawsuits. then, purin burns the midnight oil doing some kind of 3D computer bs in her brightly-lit, sterile white room while serufu is comfily asleep with her dog at a reasonable hour.
order is restored, purin on the left and serufu on the rightand all that leaves us only halfway through the episode. we only see purin one more time, as she looks down with a look of curiosity at serufu strolling to the uncle ted shack that houses the DIY club. there is also a brief flashback right before, where serufu recalls a bench associated with fond memories of a closer relationship with purin, which is now conspicuously absent from purin's yard for whatever reason. i hope for some kind of lurid backstory in future episodes behind the disappearance of the bench and the souring of serufu and purin's relationship, but that doesn't really matter because now serufu has her DIY project. interestingly, the episode then ends with some previews of the future club members working on various projects, most of them who aren't yet introduced. one of them is seen hanging out with purin, but purin herself doesn't appear at all. i think this is quite clearly setting up purin as the "final boss" of the show, with the main struggle being serufu's attempts to convert her over to the side of tradition and craftsmanship. once it is done, maybe they will finish off by banding together to take on the incipient lame future. hopefully they do not come to some kind of compromise involving technology that is kinda related to DIY like 3D printing. it is not at all suspicious how purin keeps talking about it and also how "purin" sounds like "print". we are not going to find out in a later episode that purin's family name is "suridi".
oh man, i also forgot that the 3rd season of irumu-kun is airing this season.