Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Shirobako
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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I keep waffling on whether to stop reading these reviews, and really I admit that I should. But it seems like Rose basically figures out how to relate the episode to her own life and struggles, and if successful at that, then the episode is decent and if not, then it's not as good. I get that there's a story of growth and disillusionment with dreams vs reality, and themes of growing up, etc. But at the end of the day, Shirobako IS a show for anime otaku about MAKING anime.
It's why they show you names and job roles for a hundred different characters even tho 90% of people won't REMEMBER all of them. It's why they go into (for an anime) painstaking detail about various phases of the process. It's why it matters that Ema stares at herself eating sour foods and locks her two friends in "the cage" to watch them do it. It's a good show BECAUSE it has themes and characters that people can relate to their own dreams and lives and see themselves in, BUT in in the end just like "Girls Und Panzer" was aimed at tank nerds, Shirobako is all about speaking to anime industry fanatics. (with possibly some clever nods to industry friends thrown in for "giggles") |
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Swissman
Posts: 768 Location: Switzerland |
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I just have read her latest review (ep. 20). I don't see where Rose writes exactly how this episode relates to her own life and struggles.
Well, this is your personal interpretation of who the audience is supposed to be and not a fact. Look here what this prominent japanese non anime otaku thinks who should watch Shirobako and for what reasons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaFP1LpBsEk |
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Via_01
 Posts: 551 |
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For me, Hiraoka is much more than the office's jerk. I believe he represent quite well how cynical a person can become after working on the industry for a long time and being disillusioned by it. Maybe Hiraoka went through the same experiences as Aoi did, and just like with Exodus!, the shows he so earnestly worked for, those that gave him hell and made him believe that they were doing something fantastic, didn't sold as well as they should, or maybe didn't even sell at all.
After going through that, it wouldn't be a stretch to believe that he may have developed a cynical and fatalist mentality: that it doesn't matter if they put a lot of effort or if they try to make it a really good experience, it's not going to translate on sales, which means that fans are not appreciative of their work. This becomes apparent when he tells the newbie animator how unnecessary/useless what she's doing is, but when she goes check on Ema, Ema responds that there's no way fans wouldn't notice. "Maybe they'll notice, but they probably won't care" is probably what Hiraoka thinks. This, I believe, represent a sentiment inside the industry, but also outside of it, because there are many people that complain about the anime industry growing stale (which is true), but simply don’t appreciate whenever a moe show, or a harem show, or any of those shows they consider to be the rabble of the industry try to do something different, because they are still moe/harem/etc, and they are convinced that them doing something different is not going to mean a damn thing. But I’m probably reading too much into it. But Hiraoka he's not lazy per-se: he just does the amount of work he considers to be necessary in order for the show to have success, and no more than that. On that note, I want to also defend Tarou (what?!), because even though he's pretty incompetent about his job, at least he tries and is still enthusiastic about working there, a quality that I doubt will disappear soon, so maybe he's not really a jerk on the making as Rose said. Finally, I’d like to say that Hiraoka being a jerk to Midori (and how dare he, because Midori is also my favorite girl), isn’t as much a sign of sexism but another way Hiraoka has to vent his frustration on someone. If Midori had been a handsome guy and her/his teacher a female, I believe Hiraoka would have said the same thing. Now, sorry for rambling for so long, but for a while his character has given me a lot to think, so I wanted to talk about it a little. |
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SailorTralfamadore
 Posts: 499 Location: Keep Austin Weeb |
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That's because I haven't for about six reviews or so. 
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Rogueywon
Posts: 251 |
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Interesting thing with this show is that, leaving aside the whole "making anime" thing, it's probably the most realistic depiction of a "grown-up" workplace I've seen in anime.
Workplace scenes are pretty uncommon in anime, unless the setting is either exotic (eg. detective work) or tinged with fantastical elements (eg. Maou-sama). Of the shows that have tried workplace settings, such as Wagnaria/Working! and Servant x Service, there's a real lack of shows that have actually rung true. Admittedly, the two I just mentioned are comedies that play for laughs, but they also seem to portray not an actual workplace, but rather an otaku's idea of what an actual workplace might be like. On the other hand, even though I work in a field completely unlike the one you see in Shirobako (public transport planning is my thing), a lot of the stresses, dynamics and office politics from Shirobako ring true. The enthusiastic young graduates (with the old-timers running a private book on how long it will take them to burn out), the veteran who leaves abruptly for a totally unexpected career change, the over-cynical (and slightly-too-young) burn-out, the unreliable third party contractor, the prima-donna customer... these are all things I've seen in real life (some of them on a regular basis). Shirobako is, despite its near-total lack of sex/nudity/violence, one of the most adult shows I've seen for a long time. |
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Valhern
 Posts: 916 |
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I mostly agree with the reviewer, this episode was great, I don't know if the best (Tarou almost died tho, it could be), but definetely a great watch.
I was really expecting for a Midori-centric episode, since her job is a job I'd like to have, too (although Ema works the same for me), and it indeed delivered. Until now, Hiraoka crossed me off obviously as the cynic type and I expected that him wouldn't like Miyamori's positeveness, but then he goes and takes Midori? Dude, I actually expected Midori to make him eat her scripts, so I very much enjoyed how she redefined why is she working in anime and what has to do to keep improving. Hiraoka's reaction to Midori is indeed sexist, I mean, he looks quite like the self-esteem crusher, and he took advantage that Midori got into a job without even applying to it, apparently just because she's a cute girl (come on, don't tell me this is the most common assumption on almost every female working on a company) even though she did and still works hard. If it wasn't sexist, Hiraoka would've leashed out the same comments on Madoka or anyone else for being incompetent to his standards. But I loved the way it wasn't over-exposed and Midori just flipped him off like no big deal. Another plus was Kunogi and Ema's take on all of this, like the comments about the viewers and how worth it is to work your ass off. Though I do wonder how in the hell was she able to ask Aoi for an adress, or how she even got there. Also I liked that Kunogi decided to not bother Ema with her insecurities when she was clearly sick, and even so after all Ema does accept that her intentions are clearly good and takes her as a new friend. And like I said before, Tarou almost got killed and Hiraoka now is working with him, if the first one had happened we wouldn't have got to the second one so it's okay. |
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minamikaze
Posts: 221 |
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Hiraoka's remark to Midori was certainly mean-spirited and sexist, however as Via_01 (and the review also) said, it was due more to his jadedness than Hiraoka just being a jerk for its own sake. It doesn't excuse his action in the least, but I personally think he lashed out at Midori due to envy and frustration. Hiraoka's earlier annoyed tongue-click when he overheard Maitake talking to Midori about the assignment he gave her, combined with Maitake's previous assertion that he does not take on students would seem to suggest that Maitake (or perhaps another senior person in the industry) had refused Hiraoka's request to become his student in the past. Being refused like that when he was still apparently hard working and idealistic, may have have led to his disillusionment (especially if he had been struggling) - leading him to believe that everyone is just looking out for themselves. Not knowing that Midori is not actually a formal student of Maitake, Hiraoka cynically assumes that Maitake does not take on students ... unless they happen to be cute girls. That Hiraoka snaps at Midori out of envy and frustration, as opposed to just vindictively trying to crush the new girl's self esteem because he is a sexist jerk, obviously does not justify it, but it might finally provide a potential reason for his ever-present cynicism. His envy and resulting frustration also explain why Hiraoka ended up being in the snit which led to the fight with Madoka, which (not coincidentally) occurred right after he had seen Midori talking about her writing exercise with Maitake for a second time. There is a nice cause and effect flow there. Another example of that flow is, that just before running into Midori and snapping at her, Hiraoka had just left the room where Aoi was asking everyone why they were in the industry, a question that had originated in the meeting about how to the end the the show since the manga was still running, and also a question that was very likely irritating to the disillusioned Hiraoka. It is right then that he ran into Midori (the object of his envy) and took his frustration out on her. As Maitake said to Midori when he tells her to redo her assignment, a fight scene should not consist of just the blow-by-blow observations. When he assigned it to her he said to include the causes. 
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Dan42
Chief Encyclopedist
 Posts: 3782 Location: Montreal |
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OK, I just finished episode 19 and near the end they show various framed backgrounds by Ookura on the wall, as he is finishing his "ruins" scene while talking to Aoi. So I notice a few backgrounds from Ghost in the Shell, and then... THIS IS A BACKGROUND FROM JIN-ROH!!! There's no way I could miss that, being a huge Jin-Roh fanatic. And that's when it hit me. "Ookura" is a thinly veiled reference to Hiromasa Ogura. And look at that, the Encyclopedia even has him credited with Background Art for ep 19... meaning that Ookura's ruins image really was painted by the man he represents! This is Awesome!
Of course at the end of cour 1 it was impossible to miss the Hideaki Anno reference when Aoi visits "Kanno" to beg for animation work. But now with this Ookura=Ogura... I wonder how many such references to real-world animation legends I've missed. |
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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The appearance of the episode director that tried to escape via the air vents is definitely based off of Takashi Ikehata
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Hameyadea
 Posts: 3679 |
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With only about 4 episodes to go, I would like to see if the old promise the girls made in the Animation Club days would be accomplished by the end of the series. Only Yasuhara Emi hasn't managed to land a job as a seiyū, and unless she'll get to voice a secondary character (or even a tertiary one), it doesn't seem likely that the whole group will work on the same project, let alone create one.
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reanimator
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You have no idea how many real life anime staffers are based from Shirobako. I think roughly half of the fictional staffers are already identified by Japanese fans as they figured out name puns. Since you're talking about "legends", you definitely missed late Yasuji Mori reference who mentored Hayao Miyazaki and legendary animator Ichiro Itano. Speaking of "Kanno", the voice actor really nailed Anno's voice perfectly. |
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CoreSignal
 Posts: 727 Location: California, USA |
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Totally this. Its been a looong time since I've seen an anime that actually does a fairly realistic depiction of professional working adults. Along with the fact that the characters are well-written and that it's about making anime and the industry in general (which is rare), and you have the makings of a great show. |
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bobob101
 Posts: 201 |
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My favorite scene of this episode you didn't mention was when Shizuka didn't want Aoi to mention her job as a voice actress. It showed maturity and a sense of pride, she wouldn't want to take the easy way out of her with getting a job. Also, the scene at the roller coaster was really funny. I still don't know why that guy wears his baseball outfit to a bar though. Lastly, I love how similar the watching a premier of their show is to the first episode. It really speaks to how much change and development occurred over a year at Musani.
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Yttrbio
 Posts: 3652 |
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Is "this is what I do" really the easy way out? I mean, it's easier than not doing it, I guess, but making connections is how you get jobs, typically. How many times has Aoi been sent after someone because of an existing connection? It may show a sense of pride, but it seems really far from mature.
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Metalraptor
 Posts: 27 |
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It just goes to show, no person that loves cats can be completely bad.
Regarding similarities between cast and characters, I just wanted to point out a few that Shizuka Sakaki have with her voice actress Chisuga Haruka. 
Now with all do fairness, she could have changed her hair so that it looks similar to her character's, but I'm doubting that. Names similarities: Chisuga Shizuka Both have a nickname derived from her family name: Chissuu Zuka And both are upstart seiyu that have stared in a limited number of roles. Which makes me wonder if the other girls are based on real people. On a related note, I keep expecting something to happen that will give Shizuka a part in the Aerial Girls Squad, since all of the rest are contributing to it. |
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