So yeah. Remember how I said that I was really excited last week for this week’s episode of Shirobako because it would be about the voice actor chick and her audition? Yeah, well, it technically WAS, but the entire episode was a giant cocktease with a craptacular finale. What exactly do I mean by that, you’ll see.
So first off, we see that the voice actor girl is at an audition trying out for a character. hearing her voice they decide she’d be good to try out for another character (excitement rises a little)
After the audition, the director and Miyamori have to go see that cloud guy again to see if he’s made a decision to help them inbetween his fapping to clouds. He still doing that?
Even so, he agrees to take the job.
Now, I know some of the people who watch this show think the mohawk guy can be annoying at times, but Musani hires a new production assistant. And this guy isn’t funnily annoying like mohawk guy. This guy is a DOUCHE.
And then..then we get to the meat of this show. The only problem is, it’s rotten meat. As the next 10 minutes is about a desk of guys trying to decide on a cast for the show. While the people from Musani that we know, aka the director and his co-workers all want to cast people who sound great for the roles, but the others are more worried about their own self interests whether it be music appeal, famous names, or boobs. No. no i’m not making that last one up.
Until finally, FINALLY after about 10 minutes we finally get to the role that the voice actor girl auditioned for. So when her names pops up by the director, they discuss the possibility of her……and then decide against her.
Wait…ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?! You’re telling me I just sat through a desk full of guys talking about NOTHING for ten minutes in the HOPE they’ll EVENTUALLY get around to casting the character that I like and they DON’T EVEN CAST HER? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?! So the whole time i’ve been excited for this episode has been a red herring. Oh fuck you show.
Now I know they’re going to do 1 of 2 things.
- They’re going to cast her as a minor character later on.
- Their first choice is going to drop out and she’ll have to do it.
Either way. Fuck you show. So far EVERY SINGLE PERSON is getting further in their dream, EXCEPT THE FOR THE ONLY ONE I CARE ABOUT.
Anything that happened after this part I really didn’t give a shit about…but…I guess I should finish up the ep recap.
So um…yeah the girl in college who helped out Musani with research during Exodus now gets a part time job doing research there
and then um….what the fuck else happened…um..
oh yeah. and then to add insult to injury she finds out she didn’t get the part and it turns out that all her friends are working on the show and she’s not. Tee Hee FUCK YOU EPISODE.
End of Episode.
God fucking damn it I hated this episode. This was one of the worst episodes in a LONG TIME. Besides finding out that cloud guy will help, literally nothing is added in this episode. It’s literally a myriad of guys yelling at each other at a desk for 10 minutes. Seriously, it reminds me of an earlier episode of World Trigger.
And then, to top it all off, the thing we’ve been waiting for doesn’t even happen! And I’m assuming they’re expecting me to be okay with that? Like a “It’ll be okay, she’ll get a role eventually you’ll see!” No, I do not care. I’ve been waiting 14 episodes for her to get A SINGLE ROLE. And you assholes are a bunch of jerks. Fuck you guys. You can take your self righteous garbage and shove it up your ass. I don’t even care if you guys “give” her a role later. You ruined it. Congratulations. I was really looking forward to this episode too. Thanks guys. It’s like I was a kid opening a present on Christmas morning and instead of a 3DS You gave me a tiger electronic wrist watch.
Fuck this episode. I’m out.
Episode 2.5/10
-Hideki
I respectfully disagree. Just throwing this out there….. What exactly were you expecting from this episode? Were you expecting Zuka to get the role, the committee to be well-behaved and compatible, and the group of friends to get to make an anime together? I thought it was one of the best so far because it was so realistic. Getting a first job is really difficult, and I can imagine it’s even more so when competing with veterans in the field. Of course, I too was really disappointed when Zuka didn’t get the job, but that’s how real life is. While Zuka didn’t get the role, the director even said she had an astonishing amount of confidence for a newbie. Even though she didn’t succeed this time, Zuka has already made a lot of progress since her last audition, but it’s not like her attitude shift would magically earn her a job at her very next audition. And while the selection process REALLY annoyed me (those three guys were a pain), that’s also kind of how real life is. People always try to push their own agendas, and while it was aggravating to watch, it was also very realistic.
I’m not really sure what you were expecting from this episode, but I personally think you’re criticizing it way too much. I thought this was one of the best episodes in a while. It was stressful, it was hair-brained, and I definitely said “Oh, come on!” to my computer a few times, but overall it was starkly realistic and very well-done. Even if you weren’t very happy with the episode (and I get it, since I was too), a 2.5/10 is unreasonably low and not a fair evaluation.
Look, I understand that realism is important. But Shirobako for Zuka has been nothing but realism. In fact, it’s nothing but saddening and lacking hope. Why would they not just say, offer a small role to her? instead she is completely shut down for any and all progress and that’s the thing, it’s not growth anymore, now it’s just constant ‘THIS IS HOW THE REAL WORLD IS’. I think it’s almost belittling to imply that his desire for one character to succeed means he wants to belittle the hardship in the rest of the show. Voice acting is not a piece of cake and it’s not as simple as getting a role. There’s SO MUCH MORE for Zuka to be dealing with even when she finally gets a role, the delaying and undermining her until the series end isn’t satisfying or even necessarily realistic.
I get your argument, but it’s not really too critical of someone to desire their favorite to succeed and face new struggles. Hell, he understands the issues himself and has had his own let downs.What is so bad about saying ‘ My favorite character has repeatedly been dodged by this show and it upsets me to see her unable to succeed when so many other people I feel are less qualified seem to’? I don’t think it is. I really agreed with Hideki on this one. Me personally? I find the entire concept of developing an anime about a team and having one sole member never succeed in breaking into a role when all the other’s do? Absolutely disheartening and against the theme.
Like I said, voice acting is far more than getting a role. She will have to deal with performance, issues with scripting conflicting with that performance, editing,line and mouth editing performance, and finally critique- from EVERYONE! I just don’t feel the show can realistically show all of those things in the light they need to be shown in, now that they’ve consistently made her real struggle about getting the role. People are recast in roles all the time, the struggles are more important once you see from inside the industry. Shirobako is a story about from inside the industry. We’ve all been the person outside of it, and I think it’s sloppy to show the show repeatedly from someone outside of it, rather than give the introspective look of the inner workings a spotlight like in every single other character’s story arcs. It just makes Zuka’s failure clash because she remains basically an outsider in a story about the INSIDES of the industry.
I see what you’re saying. Everyone else seems to be succeeding, but Zuka just isn’t. I agree, and understand what you mean when you say Zuka is the only one still outside the industry while the rest of the characters are inside. I still think it’s extreme and unfair to say “fuck you show” to the entire thing though, since this anime has a LOT of really interesting insight into the anime industry. But I understand what you’re saying. I didn’t even consider the hardships if Zuka had gotten the job, so thanks for mentioning that. 🙂
Oh he meant that purely aesthetically I’m sure, he’s just mad. Give him a week and a Zuka centric episode and he’ll chill out. lmao
haha yes Eva. I’m more saying ‘Fuck this show’ as in the episode, not dismissing the entire series due to the episode.