I think that Shirobako should be required viewing for anime fans. Not because it’s a timeless classic that shapes the anime field before it, which is the usual criteria for deciding what is required viewing. Not even because it happens to be an incredibly good show, although that certainly helps. The moment I realised how important it was that anime fans should watch Shirobako was when I saw some forum chatter after the latest episode of Rage of Bahamut was revealed to be a recap episode. The first few comments were people complaining about why the creators thought we would have forgotten anything after only a month and a half and why don’t they just put out a normal episode for once. The following comments though were people realising that the studio had just a scheduling snag and had to rush out a recap episode so they could catch their breaths, referencing the latest episode of Shirobako as why they thought this. Suddenly people understood what went into their anime being made and it didn’t just magically appear.

Shirobako is an anime about making anime and depicts that process in a way that feels very real. The tone was set from the start when it pretended it was yet another PA Works anime about a afterschool club as a bunch of highschool girls sat in a clubroom together eating doughnuts and talking about their short anime movie they made together, only for it then to cut very suddenly to a tired and depressed looking lead character behind the wheel of a car as she drove a load of storyboards to an agitated animator’s apartment. When Shirobako set out to tell you how anime gets made, it made the promise to itself to tell that story complete with the pains and self-doubts that come from such a process. An animator collapses from overwork. A production assistant turns into a miserable self-loathing arsehole after watching his dreams get crushed by the realities of anime production. Promoters barge in to try control the cast hiring process. Some people give up and go make cakes for a living instead. This shit is real.

This might all come off as edu-tainment if it wasn’t presented in a generally hilarious manner. The crushing realities of attempting to find episode directors for your episodes is presented with the main character trudging through the streets of Tokyo with storyboards in hand, calling out for animators like the little matchstick girl calls for people to buy her matchsticks, until she spots Sunrise studio full of Zakus and Gundams animating their material (teaching us a little lesson about the glories of in-house animators). Sponsors barging in on production decisions is illustrated through a most marvelous scene where the director and senior anime staff are trying to decide on which voice actresses to pick for their lead roles, only for 3 angry men to yell about their companies actress being far more suited for the role for reasons that have nothing to do with the actual role (their reasoning being “she’s popular”, “she can sing” and “dat ass” respectively).

More importantly than the humour though for getting us to care is putting the human faces behind the production. Without understanding our lead character’s dreams of making anime then watching her struggle to get everything put together, we wouldn’t get that invested when she initially fails to make the mark. As ridiculous a character as the director might be, seeing him rediscover his mojo after the collective collapse that was his magnum opus Jiggle Jiggle Heaven and get as visibly invested and excited about his latest anime still brings a big grin to your face. Seeing our wannabe voice actress collapsed in front of the TV at home, drinking cheap beer and bitching at the TV as a young voice actress complains about how it’s hard for her to balance school work and acting wouldn’t hurt so much if they hadn’t characterised her so well so we understood her dreams and current predicament.

And then there’s Tarou. The eternal fuckup yet ever optimist that is Tarou. The one character for whom even the people in the show regard as a running joke. Where new staff members are greeted with “well they can’t be as bad as Tarou”. Where awful animating is responded with “I might as well get Tarou to draw these”. Where poor production work is sent back with “at this stage I would prefer to work with Tarou”. And yet he retains that outer glee, even if it slips up ever so slightly when he realises how far his dreams might be for him. You can never doubt his enthusiasm nor his effort and in his heart you know he’s a good person. And yet he’s still the worst of fuckups. Which is why I feel so strongly attached to the man and his awful haircut. In my darkest moments when I’ve fucked up, despite my best intentions and hardest of efforts, I look around me and think “oh no, I’m Tarou”. And yet Tarou keeps trucking. The director of Shirobako has said that he based Tarou off his younger self, while the director in Shirobako is based more off current director, so you know somewhere along the line Tarou eventually makes it. Tarou is inspirational in those moments when you feel weakest.

There can be a huge disconnect between the people who consume entertainment and the creators. This is magnified significantly when you talk about anime where there are so many layers between us English speaking fans and the creators in Japan, between language barriers and translations and so on. Shirobako may be about a fictional staff creating fictional anime, but it makes them feel so human and their trials so real that it makes you feel closer to anime as a whole. There’s enough real-life referencing in the anime that you can kid yourself that this is really what happens and you come out the other end feeling like you understand far more about anime. So next time you see a recap episode or one where the animation has gone completely to pot, you realise that somewhere lies a Tarou who fell asleep on a train and accidentally took the storyboards to Okinawa. That the same Tarou will someday go on to direct an as good as Shirobako will make you feel a lot less aggrieved at the offense a recap episode might have otherwise brought you.