The Fall 2014 Anime Preview Guide

SHIROBAKO

Nick Creamer

Rating: 4.5

Aoi and her friends have a dream. As fellow members of their high school's animation club, they're working hard to finish their production in time for the school festival - but their dreams aren't anything so small as that. No, they want to work on real anime - Aoi in production, Ema making key frames, Shizuka as a voice actress, etcetera. And as Shirobako begins, they make a pledge to each other to meet in Tokyo one day, and work together again in pursuit of their dream.

Cue “two and a half years later.” Aoi is overworked and underfed, racing to pick up key frames of her new show Exodus as the radio drones about “the bursting of the anime bubble.” That idiot Taro was supposed to be on top of episode three's climax, but he dropped the ball. They could shift the labor to episode four's animation supervisor, but that might destroy the whole production pipeline. Can they just overwork themselves to make the deadline? And what about the tension between that animator and episode three's director? Will they make it in time for dubbing? And the first episode went so well, too…

Shirobako is filled with industry jargon and rapid verbal back-and-forth. Characters talk over each other, with occasionally graceless exposition laying out an entire language of industry terms. These terms are important. Shirobako wants you to understand its world, understand the reality and weight these characters are living under. It doesn't glamourize the anime industry - that early, abrupt “two and a half years later” cut is as much a statement of purpose as it is a joke in its own right. This isn't the show where five high school girls laughingly pursue their dreams. This is the show where people learn that dreams are jobs too, and jobs can really, really suck sometimes.

I really enjoyed this first episode. Grounded dramas in general are a big hit for me, I find the reality of the anime industry fascinating, and any show about actual adults doing actual adult things is a welcome change. The production here is solid, and outside of the occasional (necessary) awkward bit of exposition, the dialogue feels very natural, as well. This world feels real, and that by itself is its own hook - no matter how small the stakes, you can easily invest in drama that feels like it matters on its own terms, matters to the characters involved. I'm not sure where Shirobako will go from here, but this jaded-yet-earnest debut makes me eager to find out.

Shirobako is available streaming on Crunchyroll.

Hope Chapman

Rating: 3.5

Shirobako is a nice little reminder of just how bonkers it is that we get 30+ anime series a season these days. Making an anime is hard work! It requires the coordination of dozens if not hundreds of people across multiple buildings to bring a story to life through still frames, sometimes out of order as different episodes all enter (or re-enter when something goes wrong,) different stages of production at different times and aaaaaagh! Who would ever choose such a stressful life?

Well, the folks behind Shirobako would, and they want you to know what it's like (peppered with the addition of K-ON-type girls post-high-school.) This is an educational behind-the-scenes-of-anime-production show that...already assumes you know how the animation process works. Hm. There's a weird barrier of entry here in Shirobako's approach. It's the exact opposite of the "anime studio" episode of Paranoia Agent that explains the process, terms, and jobs in animation as it goes along, even though that isn't the story's main goal. The process, terms, and jobs are are the main goal of Shirobako's narrative, as we watch the new magical girl project, "Exodus," launch from Musashino Animation to a successful first episode airing and the harrowing post-production woes approaching for episodes 4-7...but those elements are not explained for any head-scratching animation noobs that might be in the audience. The assumption is that you're already a huge otaku (I sure am!) and know what the animation process looks like (I sure do!) so the story can revolve around the minutiae of production and the little people who make it all possible.

It's a nicely animated show and pleasant to watch, but it works much better as a "day-in-the-life vicarious fantasy" than a character piece so far. Most of the characters are broad, fluffy, conflict-lite anime stereotypes given at most one personality trait, (we'll be generous with leading lady Miyamori and say she has two.) Still, this is an original series about anime production by people who produce anime, so it's not a surprise that they'd want to portray the struggle and triumph of their work ahead of any more complex musings about themselves or the people they work with. It makes sense as an approach, but it's not for everyone. I definitely had a sense of being talked down to, being told "look how cool we are!" while raising my eyebrow at how bright and clean and smoke-free the animation building was.

There's nothing but potential here, and it'll be interesting to see where it goes, but for viewers seeking a more realistic character piece exploring the animation process, this is probably not going to be that. While it is honest about the technical aspects of production, it's also a pretty rosy, simplified, idealized view of a nerd dream job when it comes to the human element. For what it's worth, I couldn't get K-ON (maybe Tamako Market?) out of my head while watching. There's nothing wrong with K-ON, but it is divisive, and that's definitely the pool we're playing in for Shirobako's characterization.

SHIROBAKO is available streaming on Crunchyroll.

Rebecca Silverman

Rating: 2 (out of 5)

If you have a lot of interest in the behind-the-scenes process of animating TV series, you will no doubt rank this higher. If you're simply more interested in the finished product, you are instead likely to find that Shirobako drags a bit in its first episode. The story follows Aoi, a bright-eyed young assistant at Mushashino Animation in Tokyo. Two and a half years ago Aoi and her four friends made a vow to one day all work on an animated film together in a professional capacity. (They've already produced an amateur work as part of their high school club activities.) Each girl has a different interest within the profession, and they hope to one day combine their talents in the real world. Now Aoi is a professional, but something has gone wrong with Mushashino's most recent TV anime, a moe show about idols: some of the scenes for an upcoming episode are still in storyboard format and the regular animator cannot fix them. Thus begins a mad scramble to get things in order, which involves asking an overworked animator for her help once again. If nothing else, the episode does an excellent job of illustrating just how high pressure the animation world is. The animator in question clearly is in bad physical condition from her constant leaning over the lightboard (although there's also an indication that her ample chest is part of the issue; this is played more for the fanservice but is pretty plausible) and when she agrees to take on the extra work, we see that she has worked herself sick – something that Aoi doesn't appear to notice until it is too late, an indication of just how much the job consumes her. We do get glimpses of the other four girls from the club, but really the focus is on Aoi and the seemingly impossible, high-stakes job of getting the episode in order so that the entire cour doesn't suffer from one screw-up.

As I said above, if you're into the more technical and production based details of animation, this is pretty fascinating. If you're not, it comes off as a bit dull. Despite the beauty of PA Works' animation when characters are moving and the generally impressive amounts of detail in the backgrounds, most of the episode is people talking, and we primarily see them from the neck up. Everyone does look distinctive (for the most part), but differing body types are lost if we're just watching them converse. Some 3D cars in a somewhat implausible race scene are a bit jarring, but the only truly odd moment in the animation is when a character is supposed to be jiggling his foot/leg up and down: he instead looks like he's bouncing in place.

Language fans may be a little off-put by the subtitles' use of “donut” instead of “doughnut,” but apart from that, I was pleased to note that no effort is made to dumb down animation terms or to awkwardly define them. The cast of characters is very large and everyone is identified by name and job with the apparent assumption that we will remember who they all are, which is frustrating. Hopefully the story will switch its focus back to the five girls from the beginning in order to streamline the amount of characters, if only for ease of remembering. Shirobako gives us a lot of information and is fascinating, but it also drags and can be a little overwhelming. If you're looking for something easy and quick, this perhaps is not the place to find it.

SHIROBAKO is available streaming on Crunchyroll.

Theron Martin

Rating: 4.5 (of 5)

Review: Back during the early 2000s the Animation Runner Kuromi OVAs lampooned the helter-skelter process of producing an anime series while also showing some serious insight into how anime actually get produced. This newest offering from P.A. Works treats its story more seriously, and has all of the visual quality and precision animation that the studio has become well-known for, but the net result is essentially the same: a detailed, behind-the-scenes look at anime creation, including the diverse personalities and hectic scheduling involved.

The story opens with five girls in their school's Animation Club busily working to finish an anime for a school festival. Some are striving to be voice actors, others writers, and others artists or producers, but they all vow to reunite after high school to produce a project professionally. Two and a half years after graduation finds Aoi as an assistant (essentially equivalent to Kuromi's role) at Musashino Animation, where former clubmate Ema also works as a key animator. Everyone is excited or anxious about the debut of Exodus, a magical girl series that is the studio's first lead production effort in several years, but production problems are also looming about the third episode which may create a domino effect on later episodes, too. As Aoi helps to resolve those problems, she gets a further education in what all needs to be done to keep a project like this on track, and the possible consequences of pushing too hard.

If you have no interest in the behind-the-scenes process of anime creation then the first episode of Shirobako (whose name is a reference to the white boxes used to transport finalized animation) probably will hold little interest for you, as while it does have its share of character development and pretty visuals, the minutiae of production is practically everything following the time skip. Those who do have such interest, though, should find this to be a delight, as it quickly and smoothly establishes a large cast of distinctive characters without resorting to cheap gimmickry and gives a clear sense of roles and relationships; you may not be able to keep track of everyone's names, but their assignments will not be in question. And while it probably plays up the dramatics of Aoi's driving a little bit, doubtless most or all of the scenes seen here are anecdotal; Miyazaki, for instance, was known to cook for his animation staff when deadlines were tight on big projects.

The animation industry is such a peculiar business that doubtlessly the writers could come up with enough material even without using the stories of the five girls as a framing device, but that should provide an added bonus going forward. With high production merits, good characters, and great insight, this is a highly-promising addition to the fall season.

Shirobako is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.