Shirobako

Number of Episodes: 24 & 2 (truly great) OVAs

What Wikipedia says: Aoi Miyamori and her four best friends, Ema Yasuhara, Shizuka Sakaki, Misa Tōdō, and Midori Imai, were all part of their school's animation club, promising to make an anime together. Years later, Aoi is now working as a production assistant for the animation production company, Musashino Animation, where Ema also works as an animator, while Shizuka, Misa, and Midori are working as a voice actress, 3D computer graphic, and an aspiring writer respectively. The story mainly focuses on Aoi and her team at Musashino Animation as they work on two different anime projects; an original anime series and a manga adaptation, facing the various obstacles that each project brings with them. 

The title Shirobako refers to videos that are distributed to the production staff members prior to their release. These videos were at a time distributed as VHS tapes enclosed in white boxes and are still referred to as "white boxes" (thus the meaning of shirobako) despite the fact that the white enclosures are no longer in use.

What KoanMan says: Shirobako, written by Kenji Sugihara, is very different from most anime - it is more reality documentary, and very educational. Interestingly, Shirobako means the white boxes that contained the VHS video tapes used by production crew. As such, it s a detailed and comprehensive look at the duct ion of anime, and the pressures and challenges faced in the delivery of an animated series. KoanMan found this fascinating.

There is, however, no action until you get to the Specials (OVA's), which are also extremely well done, each creating an entire world, defining characters and providing a satisfying story, and each Special is unrelated to each other, except that they are made by the same fictional Musashino Animation.

In the body of the series the characters are well drawn, and exhibit all the traits and foibles likely to be well-known in a cloistered industry. The affably gastronomic Musashino Animation President, Masato Marukawa, the production and various animation staff, and the dedicated newby and later production desk Aoi Miyamori and her eager anime club friends, and the capable though, at times distracted and procrastinating director, Seiichi Kinoshita, are all uniquely interesting.

The real series director Tsutomu Mizushima has captured the mood well, with good music, steady pace and provides a tantalising view of a world that KoanMan realises must exist to create the Japanese animation the world watches, though had honestly never thought about, nor encountered directly.
 
So How Does it End? (Spoiler free): The series itself ends in a satisfying way, with room for another season. On the other hand the OVAs leave the viewers hanging and wishing for more. I would still watch them though and dream about what could have been.  

Overall Grade: No action, but KoanMan still gives this an A. 

Addendum by tTPO: This is a compelling series for anyone who watches anime. It gives an insight into the creative process and there are many thinly veiled references to real life series, studios and people (a bit like Robert Altman's 1992 movie The Player did for Hollywood) which further increase the enjoyment of the series. tTPO got some but am pretty sure there were still many more that were missed. The story does not need much artificial assistance to keep moving - the tight deadlines that are part of the anime production process keep the pace and drama up from beginning to end. tTPO would lump this in a rough trilogy of series (the other two being New Game and Re: Creators) that come at the creative process of anime / manga / games from slightly different angles but are all watchable, complimentary and give insight to the creative and production process. 

In any case tTPO also gives this an A.