This review is for a sequel to another series. Therefore this review will likely spoil aforementioned series. A passing familiarity with the previous serieshttps://anilist.co/anime/21731/HandShakers/ or having read that reviewhttps://anilist.co/review/2389 is probably recommended. Thank you for your understa understan understan understan understan diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing 160https://i.ur.com/zutWBda.png 160https://i.ur.com/Fe7ZZ9l.png 160https://i.ur.com/zutWBda.png 160https://i.ur.com/Fe7ZZ9l.png 440https://i.ur.com/bjHsWzD.jpg Subject T33 sighs again. Am I ever gonna escape this padded room? This whole routine has just... gotten stale. And once again the researcher is fucking late. He begins to hear weird noises from the hallway. Quiet at first but then rapidly growing in volume. Then a singular voice composed of many chanting the same thing over and over again. GoHands GoHands GoHands That... cannot be good. Weve overpowered those who do not believe in the Hand The Goblins have fallen We now must claim and prepare the sacrifice in time for the arrival of the Hands This heathen mocked the work of the almighty GoHands 440https://i.ur.com/N5WSfDt.jpg He shall be made to mesh He shall be made to mesh They were outside the door now. Why. Theres a whole secret underground research facilitys worth of test subjects. Why does this always happen to me? The door to the padded room flung open and there stood a familiar researcher. Though his labcoat had been replaced by a now unlatched straitjacket newly adorned with what appeared to be many many severed hands. YE WHO SMIRKED AT THE FACE OF GOD. YE SHALL BE MADE TO REPENT. YE SHALL BE MADE TO MESH. The hands were upon poor Subject T33 now. Dragging him out of the padded room and to his fate. No Dont make me watch another one No 440https://i.ur.com/JfUcBwz.gif WZ: Welcome Back 440https://i.ur.com/w5FpnWz.png ...Wz is a sequel to the anime Hand Shakershttps://anilist.co/anime/21731/HandShakers/ by GoHandshttps://anilist.co/studio/309/GoHands. When I finished watching Hand Shakers not in a million years did I think there would be a sequel. Yet here we are. 440https://i.ur.com/r91EQ2s.png I need to note that in most cases Im a only reads the description sort of person so when I watched the first episode I was COMPLETELY unaware that this was a full blown Hand Shakers sequel. The anime centers on Yukiya who is probably 14 years old. Wait what do you mean probably 14 years ol 440https://i.ur.com/czMvSne.png 440https://i.ur.com/ItLFOBJ.png Never mind carry on... He spends his time DJing alone. Due to his fathers influence hes listened to house music since he was young and he uploads videos online. He wants to convey something to someone. He wants to be recognized and become important. But getting hurt is scary. One day while trying to get more views he does something that cant be undone. And he sees a live broadcast from that world. Yukiya believes he cant do anything alone but that he could accomplish something if he were doing it together with someone else. 440https://i.ur.com/CLiqggy.png I really did think it was just gonna be an unrelated GoHands anime about a teenager who DJs. ...Not even a straight sequel actually. Its not like this just picks right up from the moment Hand Shakers ends. Like oh are we gonna see Tazuna and Koyori go see God finall 440https://i.ur.com/wdBK5gF.png 440https://i.ur.com/Fi3MorX.png Nope That already happened Then ten years pass and then a teenage boy named... actual genuine moment of trying to recall the main protagonists real name despite copying and pasting the description that includes it not even ten seconds before ...named Wz decides that hes not getting enough views on his DJing videos on the Youtube so knowing that he has the power to bring anyone he holds hands with into this neat weird magic realm where goldfish and other visual shit moves across everything he singlehandedly and unhesitatingly begins the second Great Handshaker War. 440https://i.ur.com/baFvDZI.png As every single other active Handshaker sees the Youtube video like within five minutes of it being posted and they immediately gather to try and defeat this unorthodox Handshaker who really wanted nothing more than to DJ in a magic realm in peace. ...But I mean really if youre a teenager and you know you have access to a magical dimension of course youre going to fuck around with it. Then when you add in the fact that the internet exists... Im gonna go fucking livestream myself DJing in this magical realm that God created as an arena for people to fight each other in for his amusement and for their most desired wishes and become Youtube FAMOUS. 440https://i.ur.com/TlBluk5.png At the time I didnt even question it. Which goes to show you how masterful GoHands are for diverting your attention from the details that dont matter. But he is live streaming from ANOTHER DIMENSION/WORLD. Like how does that even work? Like wouldnt God not want the normal people to see his realm for Handshaker battling? But anyways like within a minute various people have pinpointed Wzs exact location in the video. 440https://i.ur.com/1kzH7dx.png 440https://i.ur.com/BmMkCJA.png Internet people are fucking terrifying. Post a single picture of yourself standing outside and I bet some fucking goblins are gonna triangulate that shit and be after you for your kidneys within an hour. To normal people theres no DJing teenager there. But to fellow Handshakers its prime bait for the taking and they swarm in on him like fucking piranhas. He doesnt even finish his song and boom 440https://i.ur.com/4rcJS3e.png 440https://i.ur.com/b8lMFPv.png 440https://i.ur.com/Hk9k7F1.png 440https://i.ur.com/iBdABnt.png https://i.ur.com/ZOoiPLK.png Did both rival Handshaker teams just happen to be in the vicinity of that exact spot? Like even assuming youre capable of immediately tracking down someones exact location from a few minutes of a livestream... ... ...Actually what am I even doing? These details dont matter. Like if this wasnt GoHands I would also comment on how terrible his mask is. Like if you actually want to hide your identity maybe cover your entire face...? 440https://i.ur.com/HV6xZh3.png Like he even deletes the recorded version of the livestream ??? after essentially accepting that it was a terrible idea because now every active Handshaker is after him for his ability. And also no matter which way you slice it his entire motivation was to get more views on Youtube. This being the way Wz starts is fascinating because its so quickly breezed over. Because no character really reprimands him to the extent of how much they should have. Like what are you an idiot? Of course this was going to happen. Also if you just compare the beginnings of each show... 440https://i.ur.com/Piqo3wT.png 440https://i.ur.com/UNb24o5.png ...they may appear very similar but. Hand Shakers: Tazuna stumbles into the world of Handshakers unknowingly and then continues to battle because Koyoris life is at risk if he doesnt hold her hand regularly. I just want to protect Koyori but if I can meet God and save her then thats fine too Wz: Kid knows all about Handshakers and Ziggurat already and selfishly uses Ziggurat for sick amazing visual effects for his DJ stream and everything that happens is a result from that singular event. I guess Ill just go with the flow now I guess You want me to use my ability to try and find your friends lost within Ziggurat? Sure I guess. I mean in actuality it works out pretty well. Because when you first go into Hand Shakers completely blind you really just have absolutely no fucking idea what youre walking into. But assuming as long as you arent blindsided by the fact that its a sequel to Hand Shakers for Wz youre already aware. So you just sit down and wait for the explosions to start happening. 440https://i.ur.com/tCVCNOH.png WZ: Even More Handshakers I really just cannot undersell the fact that this series is just literally 100 Hand Shakers 2.0. 440https://i.ur.com/DI0Ckkh.png A genuine complaint I would have for Wz is that a couple of the Handshaker teams that are introduced are a whole lot... I dont want to say bland but certainly tamer than the original teams. 440https://i.ur.com/ycGPo7E.png 440https://i.ur.com/yCE9Nhw.png But that complaint is kind of moot considering like 80 of the original Hand Shaker teams are still around and thanks to Yukiyas Wz ability they are literally able to come out of retirement and join in on the Handshaker mayhem once more. 440https://i.ur.com/8Lm1FXq.png 440https://i.ur.com/qdeysaw.png And like the way these moments are framed come off as woah how exciting we get to see the card Handshaker to be in action again Arent you excited?? And of course the answer was no. But then like after building it up so much Tazuna finally enters the scene and after thinking that GoHands basically just copied Tazunas character and changed it up for a bit to get Yukiya both of them team up at a point. When they stood side by side my brain kind of fucked up and stopped trying to process what was happening. 440https://i.ur.com/jX8mznt.png 440https://i.ur.com/2rkCI1f.png Most bizarrely enough though not all of the old Handshakers are just like glorified cameos. Hey remember the sadist and masochist team from Hand Shakers? You know the very first team that Tazuna fights and defeats? You dont remember those wellestablished and memorable characters? Well theyre Yukiyas parents. The fact that the very first Handshaker team that ceased mattering beyond the first two episodes of Hand Shakers not only plays a major supporting role but are actually likable characters caught me super off guard. 440https://i.ur.com/3LY0a3i.png 440https://i.ur.com/p7G1QAs.png The fact that Chain Dad is an actual likable character and hes like ruminated on his actions is just interestingly bizarre. Handshakers are assholes son. I know that very well so dont follow in my footsteps. Dont ever touch anybody elses hand ever. ...Can Hand Shakers 3 like introduce the idea of like alternate timelines and we can get the SM team as like the protagonist team? 440https://i.ur.com/0ajkkyl.png 440https://i.ur.com/jqy7asU.png Seriously not to be negative or anything but the fucking Mesh Brothers are goddamned blandsville. Tazuna: I repair things Mesh Yukiya: Im a DJ Mesh 440https://i.ur.com/m9ewjfz.png ... ... ... Oh yeah also the Idol Team never actually shows up. AKA unquestionably the best and also technically one of the strongest teams of the original Hand Shakers with the idol character who just busts out completely irrelevant quotes from historical figureshttps://i.ur.com/X2JX96D.png for the sake of it. But you know thats totally definitely not because the voice actress probably decided to be the one of the bunch to actually say no.............................. 440https://i.ur.com/dymFx9f.png WZ: Hand Shaking 440https://i.ur.com/ElQ8q2J.png Though speaking of the SM team maybe Im losing my mind but I vaguely remember it being stated in Hand Shakers that if you lose to another team in a Handshakers duel not only do you lose your ability and status as a Handshaker but also the actual memory of being a Handshaker? This is complete Mandela Effecthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsememory bullshit. I think I just thought that because Im pretty sure there was a point where Tazuna saw Team Chain after the fact but its not like he went up to them so they didnt actually interact. So my brain took that as them losing their memory even though even in the original show all the other teams clearly remember that theyve lost. And obviously had to for this show to even exist. That being said the overall rules of this whole Handshaker thing really do still seem shaky at best. Like I always thought itd be that only one team could get a wish from God out of everyone deemed Handshakers and then itd somehow reset and new Handshakers were picked ??? since various other Handshaker teams have gotten wishes previously and the Hand Shaker stuff didnt go away/end. Why isnt this shit mapped out like a tourney anyways? God sure is leaving a lot of shit up to chance... like what if no Handshakers ever came across any others while both sets happened to be holding hands??? Like thats a pretty fucking specific trigger... Then Wz adds the idea of there being a different type of Handshaker around. Irregular Handshakers. 440https://i.ur.com/UVTKgmN.png And Irregular Handshakers can bring back the power of defeated Handshakers and can even bring a whole additional team back into Ziggurat. But from the viewpoint of God what purpose would this possibly serve him? I mean that was the whole thing. If you lose a Handshaker battle then you can just go fuck off and those still in the game can battle it out for their wishes. Defeated Handshakers coming back into the mix just muddies the waters. Especially when business Handshaker decides hey isnt Ziggurat way more valuable than Gods wishes and it doesnt involve battling a fuck ton of Handshakers??? and that was without a doubt easily the most interesting turn of Wz. Business Handshaker: Okay God. I want infinite riches. ...Hand Shaker God is apparently an asshole. But I guess youd have to be to literally design a system where a bunch of people just fight purely for your amusement for the vague promise of your wish being granted. WZ: Conclusion 440https://i.ur.com/H67Oy3v.png 440https://i.ur.com/gxWBQar.png I just want to note that I have a genuine respect for GoHands and everyone involved in the creation of Wz. Most of the bad IN MY OPINION series Ive reviewed over the years like theyre typically oneoffs.https://anilist.co/anime/20053/WizardBarristersBenmashiCecil Or they might even end with obvious signs that theres goinghttps://anilist.co/anime/99698/KingsGame/ to be a continuationhttps://anilist.co/anime/98659/ClassroomoftheElite/ but then a continuation just never fucking happenshttps://anilist.co/anime/21189/RampoKitanGameofLaplace/. And some that do have a season two in actuality its most likely that they were gonna be 24 episodes long in the firsthttps://anilist.co/anime/21560/Berserk/ placehttps://anilist.co/anime/97643/Berserk2/ but then they just got splithttps://anilist.co/anime/98479/GurazeniMoneyPitch/ up.https://anilist.co/anime/102974/GurazeniMoneyPitch2/ GoHands though? Hand Shakers blasted out into the world in Winter 2017. Wz followed it in Winter 2019. Two entire years. They could have let it rest in the ground but somebody at GoHands slammed their fist against a table and went NO. I dont care how much it got shit on Were doing a fucking Hand Shakers sequel Theres going to be more explosions more world building more Handshakers and were going to bring back as many of the old cast we possibly can and theyre gonna shake hands again too and were gonna have the meme beer product placement again and its gonna be GREAT. 440https://i.ur.com/s5QmHyc.png Like there just seemed to be an energy radiating through the whole of Wz where it made me feel like... they actually wanted to make it. They actually wanted to make this Hand Shakers sequel and god damn it they did it. Like I cant even imagine something Ive created getting so widely shit on as Hand Shakers and then just pushing it all aside and continuing on. 440https://i.ur.com/BRLPmUK.png Yeah I know Im lazy for this. But Im not gonna actually make like a fucking enormous collage image out of just other peoples horrifically negative Hand Shakers reviews. You get the gist. I probably would have went okay fuck Ill try something different then. GoHands though? Nope. They brought it back and you know compared to Hand Shakers I actually... maybe its because my indoctrination has progressed further but I actually enjoyed this one Genuinely I mean. Like they took what they had with Hand Shakers and they refined it. And sure maybe when you get down to it that just means more and better and bigger fights but damn it thats EXACTLY what I wanted. I give Wz a 65 out of 100. If you were previously a passenger of the Hand Shakers train whether you enjoyed the ride or not I would most certainly recommend falling further down the pit. 500https://i.ur.com/M9y7yzT.png Subject T33 now found himself tied to what resembled a giant hand constructed out of what seemed to be mostly rusted scrap metal or various other forms of garbage. The mob of insane cultists surrounded him with various sharp instruments. So are you really actually going to sacrifice me to an anime studI mean a pair of God Hands in the sky? Absolutely. The Hands must be appeased. Thatd be pretty stupid to waste a perfectly good sacrifice considering... you know. Hand Shakers 3 is just right around the corner. Upon hearing those words there was a hushed murmuring among the crowd. He speaks lies There has been no such prophecy granted to us by the Hands He blasphemes to try and escape his destiny Look man Im just saying if Hand Shakers 3 does roll out and you dont have a sacrifice well what then? Your pair of hands are probably gonna be pretty angry. I mean come on. Do you really think Wz is the end when we still have not even seen God yet??? Silence. The former Goblin researcher who had started this dumb hand cult realized he had lost control of his followers. While he had originally corralled these crazy research subjects into a group as a way to organize both his escape from the Goblins as well as his revenge his faith in the entity known as GoHands had become genuine. ...You are spared. Until Hand Shakers 3. Subject T33 was freed from the constructed giant hand and allowed to return to the safety of his padded room. The brave front he had been putting on immediately collapsed the moment the door shut behind him. Oh god. Oh no. GoHands is totally gonna fucking make a Hand Shakers 3. Im fucked. TO BE CONTINUED IN LIKE TWO YEARS MAYBE??? 440https://i.ur.com/ZicdcwV.png WZ: PS why is this shit not a video game yet seriously what the fuck. it could be the exact same as the anime just let me play this stupid shit GOD
65 /100
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