Shirobako | First Impressions

Right so, I have started on Shirobako – an Anime that came out during 2014 (If you didn’t already know). As of the time of me writing this, I would have already started on episode 3 and I must say, I’ve been enjoying it thus far.

I won’t be going in-depth today, as I just want to give my opinion about the Anime based on the 2 – 3 episodes that I have seen. For that, you can check out my official review on the Anime whenever I get around to doing it.

Story-wise, it’s made obvious right off the bat, that this Anime was about people coming together to create their own Anime. So pretty much, it’s an Anime about the making of another Anime, which the story revolves around. I think that part alone is very interesting and isn’t something you see too often, however, for me, the story as it stands right now doesn’t exactly pull me in and make me want to keep watching.

This is in large part due to the characters. Two characters, in particular, will stand out to you due to the amount of dialogue they have in the first two episodes. The first being Seiichi Kinoshita, the Director of the Anime they are producing.

He is a very nervous and indecisive character. He is the type to push deadlines further away just to get what he wants last-minute, he also does this thing which you will see towards the end of the second episode where he comes up with this idea – and wants it animated and put in. However, they (the studio), are short on time and may not have the time to do what he wants. So in a way, he nervously pushes it on them, but has his character is also indecisive, he cannot for the life of him, come up with a decision – that really doesn’t sit well with me.

Next character being Aoi Miyamori, who is the most prominent main character and who was the person who has so far gotten the most of the screen time. From what I can tell, she’s a very positive kind of person, always willing to think positively. Towards the end of the second episode when the Director was ‘deciding’ whether or not to re-do a certain part of the animation, he asks Aoi, and Aoi being the positive person, she says the animation team can do it – even though they have roughly 4 days remaining.

Although, that sounds great and all. She’s a person making ‘big’ decisions, but then you realize that her position within the studio itself is a first-year production assistant. I personally do not think you should have a production assistant make a joint-decision for the rest of the production team.

But yeah, those are my negatives so far, for the Anime. Obviously, I am only 3 episodes in and I still have a good 21 episodes to go – a lot of things can change during that time.