The first episode of Shirobako was entertaining in more than one way. I enjoyed the human interactions, but I also enjoyed the look inside the world of anime production.
In making a characters/seiyuus page for the show, I was able to include the job titles of each character, from director to line producer to animation director to production assistants -- 24 characters after only one episode! Click on the image to go to the full page.
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To understand what each job does, have a look at this page, which I used to standardize the translations of the job titles.
The cast is an interesting mix of new and experienced seiyuus, featuring the newer ones (mainly in the top row of the table). I can't say I was that impressed with the voice work. It was good enough but no better. But the story and the characters came through.
There is lots of positive comment about this show, both in Japan and overseas. Overseas commentators are praising it in relation to the last P.A. Works show, Glasslip, which most people didn't like. I'm here to say that I think the first episode of Shirobako was good, but Glasslip was a masterpiece from start to finish. I'm the only person who says that, but I believe it strongly and (I'm sorry to say) will keep saying it.
There is speculation as to which real-world anime staff member is being portrayed by each character in the show. I think there may be more than one referent for some characters. The president of the anime production company at one point is making curry for the staff. I've seen a short about Ghibli in which its founder Miyazaki Hayao is (rather ostentatiously, I thought) making ramen for his staff:
And here is an image from Shirobako:
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In making a characters/seiyuus page for the show, I was able to include the job titles of each character, from director to line producer to animation director to production assistants -- 24 characters after only one episode! Click on the image to go to the full page.
To understand what each job does, have a look at this page, which I used to standardize the translations of the job titles.
The cast is an interesting mix of new and experienced seiyuus, featuring the newer ones (mainly in the top row of the table). I can't say I was that impressed with the voice work. It was good enough but no better. But the story and the characters came through.
There is lots of positive comment about this show, both in Japan and overseas. Overseas commentators are praising it in relation to the last P.A. Works show, Glasslip, which most people didn't like. I'm here to say that I think the first episode of Shirobako was good, but Glasslip was a masterpiece from start to finish. I'm the only person who says that, but I believe it strongly and (I'm sorry to say) will keep saying it.
There is speculation as to which real-world anime staff member is being portrayed by each character in the show. I think there may be more than one referent for some characters. The president of the anime production company at one point is making curry for the staff. I've seen a short about Ghibli in which its founder Miyazaki Hayao is (rather ostentatiously, I thought) making ramen for his staff:
And here is an image from Shirobako:
As others have said, the president looks like the co-founder of Madhouse, Maruyama Masao:
