Remember how I said last week that I was excited to see if voice actor chick would be in the next episode and get a role? Well she wasn’t. So let’s just get that out of the way. Instead, make way for what ACTUALLY happened in the episode. So…here we go.
So we start out with the vocal cast of Third getting together to introduce themselves. We then meet a random girl who we’ve never seen before who is new to the voice acting world who happens to be the main character.
And this right here is what irritates me. Basically the argument has been “oh it wouldn’t be realistic if a new girl got the main character role” well here’s the thing. This girl IS new. And they’re using her to show how hard it is to be a new voice actor getting a lead role.
They could have EASILY done this with the ACTUAL voice acting chick I give a single shit about. Instead they feel that they should give HER the character development I wanted to see on the other girl.
And here’s the weirdest part. I think they actually want you to like and actually CARE about this girl. I don’t. I Really really really don’t. I don’t care if she is having trouble with this role. In fact, I want her to fail SO BADLY that they give the other girl her role. That’s the only thing I remotely care about this chick. We’re 18 episodes in and you’re trying to push another character’s development onto a different character and it’s stupid.
Anyway where was I before I ranted? Oh yeah. Afterwards Miyamori is off to try to get a certain dude to paint a scene for them. And being drunk, he agrees.
The next day they show up to talk to him about the job and he doesn’t remember making the agreement with her. And then he does. So there’s that.
He still doesn’t want to do it until he hears that the old guy who runs the company asked him to do it. Then for some reason he’s okay with it.
The last part of the episode revolves around the company they asked to do key animation sending it back to them and it sucking.
The episode director from…Taitanic shows up and basically tells the director “fuck you” i approved all the changes.
And as quickly as that, he quits as the director of that episode.
So now Miyamori is getting incredibly overwhelmed with a bunch of stuff and doesn’t know what to do.
Oh! Maybe something interesting will happen like she’ll have a nervous breakdown and have to have an arc where she-
NOPE
Blonde haired chick is back from her sick parent to save the day. end of episode.
It’s like….this episode was kind of interesting, but I’m just so pissed about the voice actor girl thing. I just…I so don’t care about this girl who’s having issues. I really really don’t. I wanted it to be Shizuka because…you know she’s the character I’ve been rooting for since episode 2.
From what I understood this show was supposed to be a show about making anime that would be equally divided into 5 as it told each of these girls stories and hardships. But it’s not doing that. It’s the story of fucking Miyamori and oh yeah, those chicks are in it something. Hang on.
There you go. I present you with a circle graph of the character time spent onscreen. Seems a bit uneven don’t it? Well that’s only because it is. And the more time I spent with Miyamori, the more I do not like her. She’s like a chocolate bar. Really nice every once in a while, but I don’t want to eat 5 of them for dinner.
Miyamori is not main character material. I’m just going to flat out say it. She can handle 1/5 of the show but she cannot carry a show by herself. It took me a long time to realize this. I really wanted to like her. I really tried. I just…I got so bored with her. As of this point I really am just waiting for the voice actor girl to come back and become more prevalent.
This episode in itself wasn’t BAD i’m just…i’m getting tired. I do not care about ANY of the new characters. I don’t like the new production assistants, I don’t like the new stupid chick who won’t fucking talk because god fucking knows why
This is the overall problem Shirobako has and why Animation Runner Kuromi is much better. In ARK you meet pretty much 8 important people. You learn about the animation process, and you have a good wacky time. And the key thing. You spend JUST enough time with them that it leaves you wanting more.
In Shirobako you PAINFULLY, SLOWLY, learn about every single little detail that goes into making anime with the dozens and dozens and dozens of fucking characters. I’m at episode 18 and they’re STILL introducing characters. At this point, I know 2 people’s names. That’s really it. I can’t connect with anyone because I can’t even remember who half of them ARE. There are characters that they talk to as if they’ve known forever and it takes me about 5 minutes to go “oh shit, that was the guy from 4 episodes ago”.
I get what this show is trying to do, I really do, and if I wasn’t beginning to get fucking anxiety every time I watch it waiting for the voice actor girl to come onscreen and get a role, i’d be able to enjoy it more. But I can’t deal with Miyamori’s “Aceness” yeah. her bosses actually call her their “ace’. I just…. I don’t care about you Miyamori and I never will.
I’m going to keep watching it, and i’m going to keep covering it, just..my god show. Seriously. Come on already.
Episode 6/10
-Hideki
Just throwing this out there… you literally hate on every single episode of this anime, and especially on Miyamori. She literally has done nothing wrong. Miyamori is the main character. I thought that was fairly obvious after 18 episodes, but apparently not? If you hate her that much, just drop the show. It’s not her fault that your favorite character isn’t getting the spotlight, and neither is it fair for you to call every episode bad just because it doesn’t satisfy what you want. I’m really disappointed too that Zuka hasn’t gotten a role, but it isn’t making me hate the show or give every episode <6/10. Personally I'm really enjoying this show, but you shit on it every week! If you hate it that much, just drop it! Even if all the anger is in the "heat of the moment," which I have been told before, literally every week's review is the same: "Voice actor chick didn't get a role, I hate Miyamori for no reason, how dare she excel at her job, episode 4/10."
I haven't said much this entire time since I'm enjoying this anime and that's all that really matters to me, but this is ridiculous. You shit on the show every week, and it doesn't deserve that.
I love this anime and is enjoying it very much too. <3
I'm just reading this review for the laughs at this point.
To be honest, I agree with him, and let me explain why to you.
For seriously years, when a main character is perfect we have called it to attention. With Shirobako this is legitimately a problem. This is an anime about people who are struggling to get into the anime industry and understand what it’s about, what it takes. I disagree with Hideki that Zuka is the only good character, but each character has their own issues. Each character struggles. Miyamori literally disrupts that and his problems have seemed like legitimate complaints every week, even if he has failed and dropped to ball to always elaborate, if you read his old posts it’s easy to see. But me personally? I think that having a show about growth and making Miyamori someone who does not need to grow, who is literally succeeding at every turn while her friends fail is very very unrealistic. This is a show about the industry! We aren’t learning anything from Miyamori, she already has the flagrant success that all of us who want to work in anime dream about.
I just don’t get why someone having an opinion you don’t like warrants you getting so upset you call them shitting on the show. Just like you’re entitled to defend it, I genuinely think the show is good except for Miyamori because she breaks the theme of the show. I’m not learning anything from her, I’m not doing anything but going ‘there you go again! good for you, always succeeding and teaching me nothing about anything’. Plenty of people hate Shinji Akari but still love Evangelion, plenty of people have hated shows for less. Honestly, I think it’s valid for hating a character who ruins the idea of learning how to get into the anime industry by being already there, regarded as great, and watching everyone else fail around her generally while she succeeds. It feels cheap. I want to see Miyamori struggle and she never really does, and I think that’s a problem. Her only flaw is having so many choices, so many desires, she doesn’t know what to do. And I find that really exhibits poor writing, that a character’s biggest flaw is to be too good and perfect at it all.
I’m just confused, because I generally write these kind of reviews for many shows and even ones people like, but no one has ever said I’m shitting on a show before, haha. I think the difference between this and Hideki’s Vanadis review is very different.
I definitely see what you’re saying about Miyamori being abnormally perfect for this show, and the way you present it makes sense. But I still don’t think she deserves all the hate that Hideki is giving her. I’m not upset because his opinion is different from mine. I’m upset because pretty much every week, especially recent weeks, is just “fuck Miyamori, fuck this show, fuck everyone.” Every single week is just a rage review, and I even checked past reviews to be sure. The only episodes Hideki DIDN’T hate besides the first three are 9 and 12, and that’s out of 18 so far. I mean, why cover the show when you hate everyone except one character?
I have enjoyed some of Hideki’s reviews, so I just want to clarify that I’m not trying to attack anyone personally. I did enjoy Hideki’s reviews of Koufuku Graffiti, Girlfriend, and Denki-Gai no Honya-san. Oki, I have also followed your reviews for a long time, but I’ve never had much of a problem with them. No one has ever said you’re shitting on a show, because you don’t. Even though you analyze and criticize, you’re not just pouring hate into a review! But with these Shirobako reviews, all I see is complaining that there isn’t enough Zuka and therefore every other character must suck. “I hate Miyamori, I don’t care about anyone else, who gives a fuck about Yano’s problems.” This anime has over fifty characters, so the last thing a review should be about is how great 1 character is and how insignificant the other 49+ are.
You should probably go back in time and read my Blood C review. . . lol, but I was 18 at the time I wrote them, I think? significantly younger and a lot weaker at getting my point across then.
If this is your reasoning, let me personally apologize as Team Leader for the blog. I’m in charge of helping communication and when it falls apart, that’s on me. Hideki, simply, has issues with the show and when he talks to me or Midnight (the two who also watch it) he gets his point across so well we usually agree. What he doesn’t do is verbalize those same points here, and we’ve failed to realize that. For Hideki, his constant need of Zuka is because he’s clutching to the parts of the show he found very entertaining and amusing, and forgetting about everyone else. He has talked about many characters to me, but consistently he dislikes Miyamori and loves Zuka.
The reasoning for these, I think, is very personal to him. I can’t speak for him but he loves the anime industry and has always wanted to be a part of it. He actually joined this blog to become more acquainted with it! So to see an anime about anime, he was very excited. He empathizes of course, with the girl who wants to voice act like he does. She fails, and meanwhile the person who is supposed to be most comparable to us is succeeding left and right and that feels disjointed and wrong. Personally, as someone who also wants to be in the anime industry the recent episodes of Shirobako haven’t pissed me off, they’ve made me nearly cry, because it hurts to see basically the entire idea is ‘trying hard doesn’t matter, being unnaturally good is what counts’ and so it’s been hard for me to like Miyamori.
From now on I will be looking over Hideki’s posts a little more to make sure he communicates with you, the reader, as to what he likes and does not like. He has really good ideas but sometimes just makes sure to emphasize the rage because of our blog name. Sometimes that’s bad, woops, but I can tell you now as a watcher I understand his hate of Miyamori and unfortunately he’s taking it out on the whole show. If anything I think once the injustice Zuka suffered is dealt with, he will calm the fucking hell down. (you have to admit it was so fucking stupid they snatched the role from her just to introduce a new character who was in the same position as zuka but just happened to get it instead. heart shattering. disappointment. I’m broken). And thank you, haha, I’m glad you enjoy my reviews!