"I had a few doubts about the anime Shirobako before, worrying it might be boring, but I didn't expect the first episode to be quite interesting."
"In Lin Zhiyan's previous anime, as, the number of characters appearing in the first episode was already quite high. This time, in Shirobako, there are even more characters in the first episode. However, despite the large number of people, it doesn't feel cluttered at all. That's a skill in itself."
"It seems like quite a few characters in the anime have real-life counterparts, especially 'Mr. Matsumoto,' who was drag racing with the main character at the beginning. He is clearly LSP's production department head, Kenichi Matsumoto, the one who secured the animation production rights for A Certain Magical Index and Natsume's Book of Friends."
"Can you even call that having a counterpart anymore? It's clearly the same person. Didn't you see he was driving an LSP car, and even his name is exactly the same? Is this a blending of the 3D and 2D worlds?"
"How should I put it? I feel it makes it more realistic. Besides, LSP's headquarters is in Musashino City. If a Musashino Animation company really existed in reality, having such intersections would be normal."
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"Speaking of which, which animation company is this Musashino Animation based on? I looked it up, and it seems such a company doesn't exist at all."
"I don't know if there's a real-life prototype, but the company's office building looks exactly like LSP's original office building. It must have been drawn based on that."
After all, it's only the first episode, so you really can't tell much about the plot yet. I can only say that it isn't boring, the pacing isn't messy, and the overall impression is quite good.
It's not just "Shirobako"; other anime are pretty much the same way.
It is rare for an anime to have a highly compelling plot or setting from the very first episode. Lin Zhiyan has made many anime, but only his earliest works, "Death Note" and "Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion," managed to have a truly captivating plot or setting right from the start.
However, although this "Shirobako" can't be said to be incredibly compelling from the first episode, the pre-broadcast promotion was very powerful, the impression it left after airing was quite good, and since many of the characters and items featured in the anime have real-life prototypes, it naturally sparked a lot of discussion among viewers after the first episode aired.
There are even topics on forums dedicated to discussing the prototypes of "Shirobako" characters, and quite a few people from the animation industry are participating in these discussions:
"Regardless of anything else, that Seiichi Kinoshita—his character prototype is definitely Supervising Director Kyoji Mizushima from the '03 'Fullmetal Alchemist' and 'Mobile Suit Gundam 00.' And as for the president of Musashino Animation, Masato Marukawa, his prototype is Masao Maruyama, the former president of Madhouse and a real senior in the industry. I've also heard he really likes to cook for people at the production site."
"Before the premiere of the anime 'Exodus!', the characters mention two other anime in their dialogue, 'Kara no Kyoukai' and 'A Certain Scientific Index'. They must be based on LSP's own 'The Garden of Sinners' and 'A Certain Magical Index', right? Though 'The Garden of Sinners' wasn't actually a TV anime."
"Speaking of which, I have a question. While many of the anime in the show have real-life counterparts, they've basically all been renamed. Why do 'L.S Produ' and 'K-On!' appear under their real names?"
"That's simple. 'Shirobako' and 'K-On!' were both funded and produced by LSP, so they hold all the copyrights. While 'The Garden of Sinners' and 'A Certain Magical Index' are also their anime, they have original source material, so the situation is a bit different."
"Actually, I'm more curious about who Taro Takanashi is based on. He's such a disaster. The protagonist is so unlucky to have such an unreliable colleague."
"But I have to say, people like that really do exist in the anime industry, and not just one or two. As someone in the industry, just watching him makes my blood pressure spike."
"The script was written by Old Thief Lin himself, so is it possible that he's based on some Production Assistant at their company, or someone he encountered when he was at IG?"
For the animation production team, high discussion volume is not a bad thing, especially since it isn't negative discussion anyway.
On the contrary, if an animation has no one discussing it, or if people want to discuss it but don't know what to talk about, that is when it's truly done for.
Therefore, although he could have directly announced which characters in the animation had real-life counterparts and who those counterparts were, Lin Zhiyan did not have this information released. He even specifically instructed his company's employees not to participate in discussions about this topic, wanting the audience to discuss it themselves.
Of course, not participating in the discussion is one thing, but promotion still has to continue as usual.
The animation continued to air on television at a pace of one episode per week.
The first episode mainly introduced the members of the main cast, explained the current situation of the female lead, and described the situation at the Musashino Animation company where she works. It also incidentally depicted a possible scenario in animation production: Taro Takanashi, the production assistant for the third episode of the anime Exodus!, messed up the collection of keyframes, forcing others to clean up the mess.
The second and third episodes mainly described another issue: during the production process, the supervising director, Seiichi Kinoshita, felt something wasn't right and decided on an impulse to scrap a small segment of animation and redraw it.
Such things are actually not uncommon in the anime industry; it's just that due to schedule constraints or perhaps simply finding it troublesome, some production teams choose to turn a blind eye even when they spot issues.
The production team for the anime "Exodus!" is different. Although the issue primarily stemmed from the supervising director, Seiichi Kinoshita, and the episode director was very resistant and complained quite a bit after discovering the problem, they ultimately decided—after some discussion—to scrap that segment and redo the animation.
After redoing the animation, the content turned out much better, and the effect was improved by at least one level.
The plot isn't complex.
However, many of the characters in the first episode are based on real-life people, and the same goes for many of the characters who appear in the second episode.
In particular, the scene in the sound studio in the second episode, where the voice actors for the three main characters of "Exodus!"—Mei Nakaharu, Suzuka Ito, and Kana Kasaka—appear, features designs based on the actual voice actors, making it a point worth discussing.
Furthermore, the events in the second and third episodes, like those in the first, serve as a stage for the female lead to showcase her sense of responsibility and initiative, while the details also highlight her high emotional intelligence, thereby further enriching the character design of the female lead, Aoi Miyamori.
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