Anime about making anime - Shirobako Anime TV series Review

This was an interesting little anime (2 seasons) about an anime studio in japan. 

Being a game developer, I definitely could feel empathy and connection with the issues and perks about working in the entertainment industry. 

 The series start with a promise between 5 girls that they will all work in an anime production company to one day direct an animated motion picture of the short movie did they at the end of college.

Producers at Work

The series then focus on each one of them and their job, since each one has a different skill-set (one’s a producer, an animator, a voice artist, a CG Artist, and a screenplay writer).

Me if i was a cute japanese CG Artist.

It’s very interesting to see how each one of them is able to get a job in the animation industry (sometimes starting by doing something almost unrelated such as looking for references for the story/animation team), the difficulties on getting a job, Stable/boring jobs versus less paid but more fulfilling experiences (specially this one I believe is very true in the games industry), and also, how things can go wrong in planning, why crunch happens, what difficulties are there between production and the directors, series based on pre-existing material versus original projects, sacrifices people do daily on their personal lives and so on.

We are going to need 3000 more man hours to finish this project!!

I thought it was definitely very interesting to know about how animes are made in Japan, and the resonance it has with the industry I work in. So if you are curious about these topics, you should check it out. It’s not amazingly written or very deep, but it is definitely entertaining enough and never felt boring.

You should watch it if:

You are interested in knowing more about anime production or the entertainment industry in general.