Shirobako!! Stuff We Like!! Quick Review & Commentary

It's a new day, so lets start it off with Shirobako.
A Rosy, Robust & Jubilantly Exciting Anime Production 

Shirobako (24 Episodes Single Season)

Shirobako, an anime that gives us a somewhat rosy, but none the less solid and satisfying take on what goes on behind the scenes and the people responsible for making anime. Aoi Miyamori, our light bronze haired female lead takes the role of a production assistant and later a production manager, so we get a general oversight of characters she has to manage, keep track of an up to date with & with the problems that arise we get an introduction to each character in the studio, who they are, the details of their job and how that relates to the problem that needs to be fixed to meet deadlines. Also we get nice insight on 4 other of her friends that serve as additional main characters, though Aoi Miyamori seems to be our main gal for the majority of the show.

Seeing that Shirobako had heart warming moments within a group of friends busty with their daily lives with the spare time they had was very encouraging, Shirobako warranted more investment right off the bat. At Musashino animation, where pretty much all of our 5 main character eventual congregate to, is a anime production studio that contracts itself to produce anime while it airs, which is quite common since it's less expensive. This of course brings deadlines & that's where our problems lie, with the people involved and how Aoi Miyamori helps to understand these people & their problems, to eventual arrive at a solution.


It took me a while to warm up to this one since it's setting is in a professional environment (Around 4-6 episodes), so proper public social etiquette in a workplace environment is generally maintained throughout the majority of the show, so other than our 5 female characters, who of course, are all to busy to give us much of more interpersonal relationships, for the most part the rest of their coworkers we don't get to know much about, regarding who their personal history, though we do get somewhat decent brief takes on their involvement in the animation industry and where their hearts & minds are at. Though additionally we do get a juicy amount of work place drama and that's where this anime gets interesting and a lucrative animation production style that also has some nice flair to it. Although off on a slow start later on though this show does start to gel together as a cohesive whole & character relation ships get more robust and interesting to create almost the equivalent of a love child for Mushishino's creative minds and labourers, which of course is an anime series.

Along with the slow start, the production style and general use of camera angles and shots really came out as occasionally dull in the office environment, though to the creators credit, at the later half of the series, is when the more robust and progressive struggle of making an animation really started to gel together and the people at this studios more and more seemed to come together to be somewhat semblance to a family. As I've referenced in my one punch man review, the somewhat moderate use of the stale tripod look of the majority of the day to day interaction scene. Personally I also wish this series was produced slightly more photo realistic, with more vivid & dynamic lighting, grimmer contrast etc. because since this anime is in the industrial/cooperage side of things in terms of the setting, the indiscriminate, polite and soft did for the majority looked nice and clean, as well as sharp though I had hopes it'd evolve into something else. Again with the more idealistic and rosy take of the animation industry.

Despite Skirobako having numerous great 3d Cg scenes, such as fighter jets in flight, silly joyous filled car races or roller-coasters, when it comes to the majority of the show, meaning just day to day character interactions with your dialogue, it just has somewhat stiff tripod look that my mind more so accommodate or compensate psychologically for me to accept as more realistic. In Shirbako, when characters move, the shot just transitions to another tripod views following the walking character, instead of more sparring use of motion panning or handheld trailing shots. Just a less interactive experience in general, when motion is used they never actually involve any of our character which is disappointing. I'd also like to see more use of camera focusing that transitions, to capitalize on a more realistic feel. All together combined with this animations more softer pulp look, at times it seemed a bit flat, though still it's clean line work and nicely diverse colour pallet, along with nice and lighting was great throughout. 

Yes handheld shaky cam shots are hard to pull off in anime, especially if the movement doesn't translate any sense of nuance or emotion, though if this anime were more photo realistic such as the short film the Garden of Words (Though respectfully that animation clearly had a larger budget), though the more realistic cinematography if applied to Shirobako, could give it a more slick and grim feel and benefit the general setting in a good way, which by the way is in the city and in an animation production studio, I feel the setting would be maximized if it had more of an industrial/Commercial/ suburban look. like many of todays Japanese cities do. though the general architecture and city scenes are really quite good, ranging from subways, shopping centres to market, good stuff in depicting more realistic settings. It would be really something special if they took additional step and further developed more scenes with more lineage to actual cities and architecture of today to some of the outdoor scenes, none the less, they still did a splendid job in this regard. 

One thing that this anime lacks is a sense of complex textures, regarding skin or clothing, like Kabaneri of the iron fortress in some cases and even to a greater extent keyframes and outlines of structures and buildings for the most part seem somewhat too clean and matte for a city environment, I mean were not in Singapore are we? even then this anime doesn't really best reflect the reality of what a city looks like irl, heck even one punch man did a better job regarding this, Shirobako just did a decent job at that, though there were some very stand out scenes in Shirobako such as at night when we see Aoi Miyamori driving, it's not enough to really sell me on it. Interiors on the other hand are actually very good, nicely slick and chirp, but seemed juxtaposed on how simply designed the characters actually look, with very little use of more intricate textures regarding clothing and skin. But in well lit places the characters and environments in general slightly lack sufficient weight, mass and still seem to buoyant, again just take a look at the garden of words, even Ghost in the Shell 1995, Kyoto animations or Kara no Kyoukia. In short I want to emphasize that despite Shirobako actually being above average and quite good I've seen better and that doesn't necessarily makes it's flaws less obvious. I feel they should have payed slightly more attention and emphasized a more cinematic feel and cinematography in general, since most of this anime cuts and scenes are medium short shots and didn't have more flexible use of more variable shots.

This anime also has a monotonous use of waist up medium short tripod shots, with pretty much no use of trailing shots or background angle movement or motion in general, though on occasion there are some lateral motion profile shots following them on the sidewalk etc. Though I have to say that actual portrait shots were very well used in displaying more intricate and subtle facial expressions nice stuff. Another issue relating to that is the lack of medium long shots actually showing our characters legs in motion or even standing is quite lazy in my opinion, just compare it to an aniplex studio animation who's well known for being good at motion and movement, just take Sora no woto, markedly better in displaying quick, snappy movements regarding facial expressions and body movement, rather than just your traditional exclusive lip flapping and blinking that we get from slice of life shows such as this one. I get it, slice of life productions are much easier since for the most part all you have to do is simple movements, lip flapping and blinking, but seeing what others are capable of, such as death parade, Sora no woto or even Space dandy, the mild lack of intricate transient movements is what made this anime somewhat have a  dull look and feel at times, with it's slightly choppier movements, I feel more emphasis on sakuga is needed. The funny thing is in the actual anime, one of the characters actual explained how it can be difficult and time consuming to animate legs (horse legs), which feels almost like an obvious way of saying " yeah we slacked off a bit when producing this show" regarding body movement etc. 

Thankfully as I've said, Interiors are very well done and the setting very well depicted the more coperate/industriall look and feel of an office environment, particularly the furniture and office supplies are very well designed, which helps achieve a more realistic sense of "function" in this anime. Lighting, contrast, textures and reflections are actual very decent regarding indoor scenes, my initial criticism more so applies to outdoor scenes and the actual character models themselves. Don't get me wrong, there are many anime producers who are actually minimalist when it comes to camera movement, though they do it in a way where there's a variety of distances they use in shots and as well as a variety of different angles as well as making environments more textured with intricate timbres. Though since using a majority of tripod shots can be good, on the rare sparring occasion when you do use motion it can be far more paramount. Yes an anime that has too much motion panning and handheld camera trailing shots can be gimmicky and distracting, though if used under a certain threshold/saturation point both grounded scenes and occasional moving scenes can compliment and synergize very well. Also the general colour pallet is well used, with more softer mid tones, which definitely sets the mood for this anime, though to me it feels somewhat a little, ever so slightly too comfortable, though still refreshingly vivid and markedly dynamic in terms of  it's use of general variety in colour none the less. Line and keyframe work are nice and clean as well, overall pretty consistent episode to episode, though there are indeed mild drops in quality on occasion

Such is the case with the minimalist Mamoro Hosuda when it comes to camera movement, so yes it is a balance, though Shirobako just seems a bit too safe and conservative regarding motion for my tastes, coming from someone who grew up on Miyazaki films, as well as shonen such as Naruto, Bleach and Dragon ball z (And being a fanboy of Clannad of Kyoto Animation). Again, to quote myself it's that sense of motion, freedom that breaks away from the traditional stale tripod look and starts looking like a genuinely cinematic production, with multiple moving pans and cells in the background depicting transition and movement, that are information filled, with different nuances, histories, human use and abuse etc. Cinematography just only in anime. Sadly it's what this anime and many others lack. Though again this understandably so has more casual humour and more pulp drama and general workplace interactions, so a more serious setting may negatively effect such things, since moe anime generally befits from more simple camera use, though this anime again is based upon what happens in the real world, the industry, so I personally I believe it would benefit instead of being a detriment and that you could have both more dramatic and pulp interaction while at the same time have more socially intense environments. This anime tends to lean in the more casual latter category. Though indeed the generally simple and clean looks does loan itself to the general setting and indeed has some charm.

General Sfx is decent, for example they didn't go to far as to record distinctly different types of fabric on clothing rubbing together to hear the sound of friction, in fact, since the clothing in this animation are just simple keyframes splashed onto with colour with Cell shaded cg work, you can't really articulate or depict the actual fabric they are wearing, unless it's really obvious such as something like jeans or a T-shirt & don't get me wrong since this is a somewhat coperate/slice of life show they don't necessarily need to, nor does pretty much anybody actually does so, The general quality of sound is great though. Though in my mind it would increase the realistic nuance effect this anime could have. the accompanying musical score is quite dandy and splendid, selections of blues, jazz, an amount of classical for more casual light hearted scenes and of course pop music, specific music is accompanied with specific scenes, which have specify moods, which is always nice, rather than monotonous elevator music to simply fill in the silence. I personally luved the first ending theme and the second opening theme alot. For me I'm part of the group that appreciates the use of ambient noise and resonance, again for me this creates a sense of flow and purpose to scenes and their atmospheres, I'd personally like to hear the low hum of an ac or computer, or a feint buzz from a lamp or light.

When it comes to Character models and how the the synergy between the dub is quite good stuff. Despite being a tiny bit generic and having more common and generic minimal usage texture on the char models, I found with the huge variety of characters this anime has, all of which are uniquely different and stylish, I feel they did a great job regarding this. Though I would criticize this anime, like many others for being somewhat similar and monotonous regarding the fashion sense of our characters, none of which that are diversely different from one another. The dub is pretty decent and well off, maybe a little generic and a tiny bit "safe" at times, Shirobako's VA's none the less did a good job in being expressive of their roles, good selection of Va's too. Again there's such a large cast that I won't even begin to describe or comment on which of them I particularly liked or didn't as that would take far too much time, though I will tell you that from the first episode I did see and wonder who characters were wanting to learn more about them, as always, this is a plus, though sadly due to the professional and coperate nature of this show we simply don't get more meaningful stand alone episodes for the majority of characters due also to the sheer quantity of them. I mean this anime is longer than most anime in general which generally just get a single cour of episodes, this had two cours, 8 hours so I personally don't understand why they didn't invest more moolah into some of the more interesting character and showcase the complexity of their personalities better.

Now production aside and no more ranting about it lets talk about why you should watch this anime.
Despite it's flaws, they are only minor/mild flaws that affect this story, as again I left rather quite satisfied when finishing the last episode of Shirbako. The progressive and eventful nature of trying to be disciplined when meeting deadlines and character interactions between co workers is what made this anime interesting, again it's as if this is a family trying to create something together and all the negative and positive emotions alike that follow when trying to fully realize a vision. A nice solid amount of meat with day to day interactions, issue's and heated confrontation of employees, where this anime shines is in it's workplace environment and interactions, people struggling to keep up, making causal buddies, getting drinks or having a smoke together, the difficulty of being critical to personal friend that are also co workers, or Aoi patiently maintaining her composure and keeping it professional while dealing with difficult people, people relating to one another, sharing causal jokes and their own personal endeavours & struggles when fighting to keep up in their humble beginnings as key framers, tweeners or or voice actors etc.

It's this sense of robust moderate relationships that drove this series forward. Also learning about the technicalities of organizing animators amongst commissioning other types of employees, shows to be a very difficult process for this type of animation studio. We get to see the drama and politics of it all as well. Though I have to gripe about how this anime only briefly and over idealistically characters and the industry is depicted, yeah it's looks all nice and shiny on the surface, but like a shallow kiddie pool you can't necessarily try to dive into it without feeling unsatisfied. Along with the fact that even for a slice of life like show, this anime lacks the emphasis on and over arching narrative or goal it needs to compensate for the lack of fleshed out characters personal lives and history. We do get to learn of the struggles of each employee has, such as being a hand drawn animator vs a cg animator and their struggles to stay relevant or being a aspiring voice actor and dealing with competition.

Though in the real world the industry isn't quite as it is depicted in Shirbako, in real life working at an animation studio is like working at a sweatshop, it's just as stressful as hard labour and even more so if your animating on the clock and need to meet deadlines. I wanted to see a hard day to day time consuming and stressful environment affect these characters social lives and relationships with their kids, partner or even their dating lives and how they deal with it all and manage to go forward. I also wanted to see the B.S people have to deal with when making anime or even albums of music, movies or t.v shows and dealing with the P.R and marketing crap, in light of that we only get to see a glimpse of this. I feel if this anime more realistically and thoroughly emphasized the struggles of people working in this anime industry, it would have maximized the effect of finally completing an anime series that they were satisfied and the success of it all. Though none the less, the struggle was indeed depicted well enough to make the end result feel satisfying and worth the B.S. Though this is why I was more critical of the animation style, it's because this is supposed to accurately depict what goes on in the real world, so if they went for a more grim and realistic setting such as Garden of Words has, much of this series high points would have been maximized. If Studio musashino say had it's back against the wall in terms of it's standing with public consensus, they possibly potentially try to go against the grain and try to prove to people that they are still relevant, if this was more emphasized it would have created a more more political environment which would have increased the pressure and in the end made this anime more interesting to watch.

One of my favourite characters in this series is Seiichi Kinoshita, simply because he really reminds me of what being a creative is like, the way he's over the top, theatrical and fanatical about creating anime reminds me of many other creative minds, people who write or imagine things like a 3 year old  yet at the same time make their creations complex and complicated. It's how he tries to encourage people into getting to believe in a vision that's possible and to be essentially the creative lifeblood of a creative team and environment bringing excitement to the table.  It's also his childish, irresponsible and lazy nature that's very reminiscent of very talented people I know. Other than our initial 5 female main characters, their are also a good other 3-5 characters that also were given good insight upon and that I found quite interesting, as always quite nice, though again it's that extra step I feel they needed to take in order to make this anime shine. Speaking of, this a 2 cour anime, so a nice generous 8 hours of content, though slow and somewhat of a grind to watch episode to episode, it's the same sense of grind that has a sort of progressiveness to it, which attributes well to the creative environment of an animation studio and the product they are trying to make and produce. This isn't the most re watchable series ever, but it's pleasant and splendid over all tone and characters are something that I don't mind to appreciate to watch it every now and then to feel satisfied.

In addendum, it's a good anime with decent potential, I looked at it expecting different things, though this anime fell a little short of my expectations, it instead showed me a potentially equally compelling take on peoples lives at the Musashino animation studios and how they are all essentially like a big family. It's still a production I'd place well above the majority of other anime series, despite being critical of it's production, those are more mild criticism that didn't necessarily break this anime, In fact it's still solid and it's art style is fulfilling enough for me to give this anime an 8.25 out of ten which is still pretty decent, as I felt this anime did have some very genuine moments of comfort and happiness and an overall upbeat tone. No this anime's story nor animation quality is not quite worthy of penetrating the ranks of other Q inductions so it'll still go up on the Stuff We Like Page.

Shirobako is simply a more optimistic, rosy yet refreshingly colourful take on todays modern anime industry, with nice insights on the past and the glory days of cell animation, briefly covering the transitions people and the industry had to make, with a variety of everyday struggles a typical anime studio and it's people would have to deal with.

Highly Recommended & Appreciated (Will go up on the Stuff We Like Page)