YMMV / Hand Shakers

• Bile Fascination: The series (and its sequel) got attention for its bizarre combination of 2D animation, CGI, and photorealism. Probably the reason it got picked for Anime News Network's weekly streaming reviews for its season.
• Broken Base: Viewers are split on the animation style and overall visual look of Hand Shakers. Some have given praise for the mixture of animation on photorealistic backgrounds, while others found the backgrounds and the unwieldy CG camera work so overstimulating that it can cause motion sickness.
• Cliché Storm: Aside from the more questionable plot points (like the Brother–Sister Incest between Riri and Masaru) and the central conceit of battle partners having to hold each other's hands, the show's writing doesn't do much to distinguish itself from every other shonen battle anime out there.
• Ham and Cheese: Many viewers highly recommend watching it dubbed in English, as while the Japanese voice actors try to make the material work, the English cast doesn't even bother and leans into the nonsensical nature of the series. Even one of the Anime News Network critics recommended viewers to watch it dubbed over subbed, for this reason, while also pointing out that the show is such a visual mess, reading subtitles would be difficult anyway.
• Moe:
  • Koyori is mostly an Emotionless Girl, but When She Smiles, it's absolutely adorable, as shown in Episodes 5 and 7.
  • Chizuru is an adult woman with the appearance of a child, but her honest dedication to her work and likeable personality makes her utterly adorable.
• Narm:
  • The title of the show itself, a truly unfortunate case of Gratuitous English. Good luck convincing the uninitiated viewer that it's not about overeager businessmen who shake hands after every deal they strike...
  • A Hand Shaker's weapon is called a Nimrod. It makes sense because the classic meaning of the word is "mighty hunter", but most people will likely think of its modern meaning of "moron".
• Nausea Fuel: The anime has been known to cause this, not because of anything disgusting, but due to the poor compositing of hand-drawn animation over CGI backgrounds. In fact, the poor special affects combined with the constantly moving camera has been reported to actually cause nausea in some viewers, along with headaches.
• No Yay: The double serving of shotacon-based Brother–Sister Incest between Riri and Masaru.
• Signature Scene: Tazuna and Koyori's second fight with Kodama in Episode 9, due to it being shown prominently in the opening sequence.
• So Bad, It's Good: Many viewers see Hand Shakers as one of the best nonsensical anime comedies ever in the winter 2017 season despite the anime trying to take itself very seriously. Every aspect of the anime such as characterization, plot, and even the animation quality itself isn't taken seriously and is something viewers would laugh at in every second. The English dub makes the anime more enjoyable with extra hilarity to boot.
• Special Effects Failure: The anime's overall style heavily relies on combining 2D animation and CGI, which doesn't always work in its favor. Some scenes are so poorly composited that it can be literally unwatchable at times, as the special effects combined with some rather wild camera movements have been reported to cause headaches and nausea in several viewers.
• Subbing Versus Dubbing: The Japanese voice actors are giving their all to make the material work. The English voice actors on the other hand have no such pretensions and instead run with the ridiculous storytelling. Reviewers have recommended watching the dub as it adds unintentional hilarity.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously: The series might suffer from unwieldy animation, generic plot and awkward pacing, but that doesn't stop the voice actors from giving it their all. Special credit goes to Soma Saito, who delivers a sympathetic and quirky performance as Tazuna.

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