(24-ish episodes)
What’s it about ?
Work-com about the animation industry.
(A manga adaptation is also being released concurrently.)
Characters
Aoi, our protagonist, is a production assistant at an animation studio. Basically, this means a lot of running around (and driving very unsafely) to make materials go from a pair of hands to another in something that vaguely resembles the original schedule, all the while managing the egos and the good health of the people involved. Now, while she does have some bouts of clumsiness and uneasiness, she is actually quite good at it (and at least better than her screw-up of a senior colleague, the messes of whom she then has to clean up). And it’s obviously an entry-level position before she moves on to a more gratifying job higher up… or so she tells herself.
The episode opens with a scene set in her high school days, where she and her fellow club members produce an amateur animated film ; they vow to meet back and work together after they end their studies. Which, er, didn’t happen ; Aoi has clearly lost track of most of them. But hey, that’s what further episodes are for ! Hopefully they’ll be reintroduced properly later on, as here they’re all kind of a bit lost in a blur.
The studio’s main members are better defined, despite there being a ton of them. Sure, I sometimes lost track of who’s doing what exactly, but overall their personalities are easy to grasp and they work well one against another.
Production Values
As pretty as you’d expect from studio PA Works. They went to town on the gratuitous crazy driving scenes, but there are worse places to spend budget on.
Overall Impression
This first episode really takes its sweet time to come together. The high-school opener doesn’t really work as an introduction to the characters, and the introduction to Aoi’s job feels a bit off. (The long and gratuitous chase scene doesn’t help.) It’s only when the crisis comes in that it all falls together : suddenly the characters come alive as they stress under pressure, and the domino nature of anime production schedules becomes clearer. The stakes get higher, and it’s better at showing how these people interact that when things go smoothly.
I was quite worried for a while that this could be very boring and filled with flat characters, but the show recovered nicely. If it can keep that up, I’m on board.
