Shirobako (anime recommendation)

This post is part of 52 anime challange - I'll be recommending one anime/manga per week that I've recently watched. I won't be writing about stuff that I've watched long time ago and that I don't fully remember.

 

Anime series presenting the workplace rarely really depict the profession and the experiences associated with it. Often, the job becomes just a setting - much like school in the case of the vast majority of series presenting high schoolers.
So usually, instead of 13-17 year olds, we get 20-25 year olds. School desks and breaks are replaced by cubicles/desks and gossiping with a cup of coffee, so that ultimately we don't get a more mature story.
That's why Shirobako fascinated me, because it's an anime about work, where the main focus is on work and the problems associated with it.

Description: (without opinion)

Over the course of 24 episodes, we follow the lives of 5 female main characters who promised each other during their school days that they would create an anime together. The protagonist we see most of the time is Miyamori Aoi, a production assistant working at Musashino Animation studio. It is this anime studio that we will follow through the remaining episodes.
The series depicts the production of two anime. The first is the original series, which we follow more or less from the middle of production. The second one we follow from the very beginning i.e. from pre-production and this time we are dealing with a series based on manga.

Plot:

Mentioned earlier, the strong point of this series is realism. Shirobako shows the work in the anime industry and really focuses on each step that leads to the final product. We observe all the stages from the point of view of the PA (production assistant), which is the person in charge of each episode in terms of managing people, consulting them with each other, and making sure that each stage of the production of a given anime episode runs properly. Thus, we are able to get a broad picture of the creation of an anime process.
The story mainly focuses on the production of the anime itself. There are situations in which the characters' free time is presented, but work definitely plays the main role here. And this is not a complaint, but a definite advantage.
Despite the series' focus on work - side plots and character problems (related to the anime's production, of course) have been skillfully woven into all of this, splitting up and quickly returning back to the main plot.

Characters:

The main characters have various professions: PA, keyframe animator, 3D artist, voice actor, screenwriter. It was extremely clever to present each of the heroines at different stages of their careers, despite their similar age. In this way, the authors show the various difficulties and doubts that young people face at the beginning of their careers.
The problems are ranging from finding a job in their trained profession, getting to hate their work (due to repeatedly creating the same 3D models all the time), to the problems with improving their own skills and artist's block.
I'm only talking about the main cast because the number of characters is huge and the spectrum of problems is even bigger.
Still, the characters are distinct and unique, and most of them avoid fitting into typical archetypes. They are living characters that we get to know over time, whose depth cannot be described in a few words - quite like real people.
It is praiseworthy that the characters are introduced gradually - with subsequent events we observe their character, their approach to work, to people, the way they behave and what we can expect from them.

Presenting problems at work:

As I mentioned before, the characters feel alive and although we see them mostly in work-related situations, they have private lives and are not just NPCs spawning in the work.
The series shows the real problems that people face not only in Japan but also people from around the world can relate to them. Starting from lack of faith/motivation in your job and moving on to doing the bare minimum due to bad experiences in the past, to job hopping, communication problems in the team, lack of appreciation or unrealistic deadlines. Anyone who has been working at least several years, although it would be more fitting to say - anyone who has worked in several different companies, will be able to easily relate the situations from the anime to themselves.
We also see different approaches. For some (mainly the younger members of the team), work is still something fascinating and they want to keep climbing the ladder and constantly improve their skills. The more experienced ones do their own thing and get back to their lives after work, although there are different approaches among the veterans as well. In the end, there are also the non-standard personalities - those who left their jobs in the anime industry to follow other dreams, as well as those who have rekindled their love to anime.
Ultimately, Shirobako presents a huge spectrum of human problems and approaches to work and work-life balance, and it does so in just 24 episodes, despite the fact that the main theme is still the anime production process.

Art/music:

Definitely deserving of praise are the character designs, which despite the large number of characters, look really good, diverse and interesting. Most characters also have a set of several different clothes, which look phenomenal.
In terms of animation, everything is correct, although due to the specificity of the series, there is not much room to show-off. The only thing I can think of, is the facial animations - there are some really good scenes involving facial expressions.
I liked the sketches, keyframes, 3D animation and all the other elements that make up the fictional anime created inside “Shirobako”. The creators did not spare themselves in this respect and as a viewer I could follow the whole process of creating a fictional anime, which was really interesting.
In terms of audio - it's cool. The OST was mostly calm, sometimes the anime played with silence and more dramatic tracks, but overall this OST was a neutral part of the series for me, which I didn't pay attention to.

Summary:

Shirobako is something I've been missing for a long time when it comes to anime. I was positively surprised and enjoyed myself during all 24 episodes.
Shirobako's strength lies primarily in its simplicity, which was well dressed and presented.
When watching Shirobako, one must be aware that the main added value is the thoughts and dilemmas of the characters looking at their future career paths and the stories of veterans clashing with their past.
While I don't doubt that a 20-25 year old viewer will enjoy this production, I'm not sure if people in their early teens or early 30s will enjoy it as much.