I just started watching Shirobako after putting it on my to-watch-list for 3 years and holy heck i should’ve watched this as soon as it aired!!! Here are my thoughts on it though it’s a biiiit long so forgive me hehe. Might be a bit of a ramble too.
At the time it aired, it didn’t look any special and tbh it’s nothing special it’s just about every day life at work, but i’m at around episode 22 and i love it because it depicts every day struggles of people who have or had dreams in the anime production industry. I love how in times of high work loads and tight schedules, there’s this bit of magic that happens where a few people will do what they’re good at and bring everyone together to complete their product and you can see the relief in their expressions and voices and idk i just find that so touching. Every episode totally has my attention and sucks me in like I tried crochetting while watching, but I noticed I barely make any progress on my crochetting after an episode is done hahah.
I loved how they showed the rekindling of people’s desires and passion to do the work they intended to or loved doing in the animation and voice acting. I could really relate and emphasize with many of the characters in this anime as their feelings and hopes felt real and genuine like for instance, when they’re frustratingly trying to get everything done for a delivery of a new episode in a few days or when they finally finished all the work just in time for the whole anime they’ve been working on. There are so many characters, my gosh, and it would get so easy to mess it up and make them bland, but in fact each character feels real and like their own unique self. Yeah there are some characters who exhibit stereotypical personality tropes, but even they have a reason for being like that and it’s not done just for the laughs or such. There are so many different kinds of personalities and each person has their conflicting motivations or dreams. Even though there are some with desires or motivation that i would not usually understand, but they felt real and was expressed well-enough that I could relate to them just having that motivation if that makes sense. In short, they were relatable and I was able to feel what they feel as the story went along.
That aside, I am not a working adult yet, but I feel like this anime gives me a nearly accurate glimpse of how you can get swept away with your work and lose sight of your goals, but you aren’t always alone if you just look around and ask. It also showed me what it could mean to pursue what you love, because if you’re just doing work and your responsibilities because you just need to to get by through your whole life, then you really aren’t living. You aren’t getting inspired or excited about what could be done or thinking about the possibilities you can grab hold of and how.
There are some characters who i feel like share similar issues to myself like with self-confidence with Yasuhara Ema or what I want to do with my life with like Miyamori Aoi, and seeing how people give them advice or show them a better path to take gives me different perspectives as to how i could deal with my issues and gives me hope as well.
Also, ever since I watched Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi where they show the inner workings of a manga publishing company, it has sparked my interest for watching anime about how days go by in companies. I’m not sure but i just find it really fascinating how each person’s job relates to the other and with all of them done on time, they get the final product, and if one person messes up it carries on till the last person giving each person on the way hell hahah. Plus there’s just something magical and satisfying about watching people working well as a team to get their stuff done when they’re short on time.
I am yet to see how the 5 friends from the same high school are going to make their anime feature, but they are definitely getting closer to that goal and they’re all growing in their personalities and it’s lovely to see. Though I wish there would be more screentime for Mii-chan so we could see her grow more than just being content with her job, and i’m so looking forward to the moment Zuka gets picked in an audition! I’ll see how it goes on from here, there’s only 2 episodes left so I’m kind of doubting there will be much progress for the 5 girls on their anime and such. Oh and it’s nice to see some insight and background story into why that new production assistant at Musani who does whatever he wants and has a bad attitude is like that.
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