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jenstef's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I did not expect to love this as much as I did. This book made me appreciate all the wonderful and hard-working people whose work and passion make anime a reality.
Oh, and Kayako and Oji’s chapter was my favorite.
Oh, and Kayako and Oji’s chapter was my favorite.
sebbie's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Interesting to get a fictionalized look behind the scenes at large anime studios, nice characters but the book didn't really grip me
strawberry_peaches's review against another edition
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
littlearashi's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 really. I liked the way the 3 perspectives were linked and then came together at the end. Although I was the least interested in the first perspective so that made the start of the book a little slow for me. I liked it more as it got going. I learned some interesting tidbits about the anime industry.
thuskia's review
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
jelina's review against another edition
5.0
Amazing piece of work. I love how the main character's each had a clear voice and viewpoint; the way their stories intertwined was just Superb. Definetly one of my new favorite novels
familiar_diversions's review against another edition
5.0
The book is divided into four chapters (think of them as parts, if the idea of long chapters horrifies you - on the plus side, there are scene breaks that serve as good reading stopping points). The first three are devoted to particular protagonists while the last is an epilogue.
The first chapter deals with Kayako, a producer, who finds that working with the director she most idolizes isn't exactly the dream come true she expected it to be. The second chapter deals with Hitomi, a director working on the sort of series she dreamed about making when she first fell in love with anime. She struggles with getting everyone on her team on the right wavelength - her producer seems more focused on glamor and profits than anything else, and she can't seem to communicate well with the show's primary female voice actors. The third chapter deals with Kazuna, a key animator who finds herself roped into a marketing project she resents and doesn't feel particularly suited for.
All of these characters' paths cross at one point or another, and by the end all of their stories become tied together.
A while back, I went through the "novels" portion of the Right Stuf site and picked out a few relatively appealing non-light novel titles. This was one of them. I honestly wasn't expecting much. The description didn't give me much of an idea of what the book was about, so I figured it'd be a fairly dry sort of edutainment, interesting enough to read through once but destined to end up on my "offload" pile. Instead, I ended up loving it.
This book was basically a love letter to the anime industry and all the people involved in it. I can't find the spot right now, but at one point Kayako was told that there are no bad people in the anime industry (the cynical part of me raised an eyebrow), and that was how Tsujimura opted to depict that world. There were people whose goals and styles didn't gel well, but in the end every show and movie was a team effort that everyone involved wanted to see succeed.
Tsujimura didn't completely ignore the bad aspects of the industry. The terrible pay, punishing schedule, and long hours all came up. It bugged me that, for the most part, the characters just shrugged these things off as the way the industry worked and would forever work - Kazuna, in particular, seemed to think that just getting to draw was enough, and that proper compensation was a secondary concern. I liked that Hitomi admonished her for that tendency later on, but I never got the impression that the characters thought that the industry as a whole needed to make some changes. So while the "love letter" feel of the book was nice in some ways, it was also a bit problematic.
I found the start of the first story to be incredibly stressful and aggravating. Oji, the director Kayako had idolized and was now working with, acted like a giant spoiled man-child, so intent on his vision that he couldn't seem to delegate anything. Then he disappeared without a word, not even telling Kayako, the one who was supposed to work most closely with him, where he went or when he planned to return. I wondered whether the book would be nonstop "will this show get finished on time?" drama, but this was mostly a slice-of-life workplace story. The pacing was slower than I expected, and the emotional beats softer.
One of the things that Kayako, Hitomi, and Kazuna all had to figure out was how to connect with and trust other people. Seeing Kayako and Oji slowly figure each other out and learn to work together was fun, and I loved watching previously more one-dimensional characters blossom in Hitomi's chapter. There was, thankfully, more to the jealous female voice actors and slick, profit-focused producer than there initially seemed to be.
The story I most enjoyed, however, was Kazuna's. At the beginning, she was a stereotypical otaku, only interested in 2-D people and worlds and turning her nose up at anyone who didn't share those interests. Then she was roped into helping the local tourism section plan a stamp rally - the town was used as the inspiration for many of the locations in one of the anime series Kazuna had worked on. She found herself paired up with a cheerful jock of a civil servant who'd had little previous exposure to anime, about as far from the kind of person she normally interacted with as possible. I wasn't expecting this story to become as warm and touching as it did.
I appreciated the way Tsujimura set this book up. By focusing on women, she could touch on some of the issues they dealt with that likely wouldn't have been part of their male colleagues' experiences - I wouldn't call this an "issues" book at all, but Kayako had to handle some off-putting comments about her gender and appearance from Oji, Hitomi encountered a situation with fans and the media that I doubt a male director would have had to deal with, and Kazuna struggled with an otaku self-image that didn't allow her to feel comfortable with even the possibility of femininity.
And since Tsujimura chose three women as her main characters, rather than just one, she could present multiple different kinds of industry work as well as multiple different kinds of stories. Kazuna, for example, really wanted a romantic relationship, while romance didn't even enter Hitomi's mind. One thing I'd particularly like to note: romance didn't automatically equate to women abandoning their careers. And heck, one particularly popular person in the industry turned out to be a single mother.
Even though I felt like this book presented an overly rosy picture of the anime industry, I loved it all the same. I'm really glad that this impulse buy ended up working out so well for me.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
The first chapter deals with Kayako, a producer, who finds that working with the director she most idolizes isn't exactly the dream come true she expected it to be. The second chapter deals with Hitomi, a director working on the sort of series she dreamed about making when she first fell in love with anime. She struggles with getting everyone on her team on the right wavelength - her producer seems more focused on glamor and profits than anything else, and she can't seem to communicate well with the show's primary female voice actors. The third chapter deals with Kazuna, a key animator who finds herself roped into a marketing project she resents and doesn't feel particularly suited for.
All of these characters' paths cross at one point or another, and by the end all of their stories become tied together.
A while back, I went through the "novels" portion of the Right Stuf site and picked out a few relatively appealing non-light novel titles. This was one of them. I honestly wasn't expecting much. The description didn't give me much of an idea of what the book was about, so I figured it'd be a fairly dry sort of edutainment, interesting enough to read through once but destined to end up on my "offload" pile. Instead, I ended up loving it.
This book was basically a love letter to the anime industry and all the people involved in it. I can't find the spot right now, but at one point Kayako was told that there are no bad people in the anime industry (the cynical part of me raised an eyebrow), and that was how Tsujimura opted to depict that world. There were people whose goals and styles didn't gel well, but in the end every show and movie was a team effort that everyone involved wanted to see succeed.
Tsujimura didn't completely ignore the bad aspects of the industry. The terrible pay, punishing schedule, and long hours all came up. It bugged me that, for the most part, the characters just shrugged these things off as the way the industry worked and would forever work - Kazuna, in particular, seemed to think that just getting to draw was enough, and that proper compensation was a secondary concern. I liked that Hitomi admonished her for that tendency later on, but I never got the impression that the characters thought that the industry as a whole needed to make some changes. So while the "love letter" feel of the book was nice in some ways, it was also a bit problematic.
I found the start of the first story to be incredibly stressful and aggravating. Oji, the director Kayako had idolized and was now working with, acted like a giant spoiled man-child, so intent on his vision that he couldn't seem to delegate anything. Then he disappeared without a word, not even telling Kayako, the one who was supposed to work most closely with him, where he went or when he planned to return. I wondered whether the book would be nonstop "will this show get finished on time?" drama, but this was mostly a slice-of-life workplace story. The pacing was slower than I expected, and the emotional beats softer.
One of the things that Kayako, Hitomi, and Kazuna all had to figure out was how to connect with and trust other people. Seeing Kayako and Oji slowly figure each other out and learn to work together was fun, and I loved watching previously more one-dimensional characters blossom in Hitomi's chapter. There was, thankfully, more to the jealous female voice actors and slick, profit-focused producer than there initially seemed to be.
The story I most enjoyed, however, was Kazuna's. At the beginning, she was a stereotypical otaku, only interested in 2-D people and worlds and turning her nose up at anyone who didn't share those interests. Then she was roped into helping the local tourism section plan a stamp rally - the town was used as the inspiration for many of the locations in one of the anime series Kazuna had worked on. She found herself paired up with a cheerful jock of a civil servant who'd had little previous exposure to anime, about as far from the kind of person she normally interacted with as possible. I wasn't expecting this story to become as warm and touching as it did.
I appreciated the way Tsujimura set this book up. By focusing on women, she could touch on some of the issues they dealt with that likely wouldn't have been part of their male colleagues' experiences - I wouldn't call this an "issues" book at all, but Kayako had to handle some off-putting comments about her gender and appearance from Oji, Hitomi encountered a situation with fans and the media that I doubt a male director would have had to deal with, and Kazuna struggled with an otaku self-image that didn't allow her to feel comfortable with even the possibility of femininity.
And since Tsujimura chose three women as her main characters, rather than just one, she could present multiple different kinds of industry work as well as multiple different kinds of stories. Kazuna, for example, really wanted a romantic relationship, while romance didn't even enter Hitomi's mind. One thing I'd particularly like to note: romance didn't automatically equate to women abandoning their careers. And heck, one particularly popular person in the industry turned out to be a single mother.
Even though I felt like this book presented an overly rosy picture of the anime industry, I loved it all the same. I'm really glad that this impulse buy ended up working out so well for me.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
awickedgrin's review
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
ilikebeaches's review against another edition
4.0
As someone who's never really had an interest in anime before picking this book up, this book was really enjoyable! The prose was simple and beautiful, and all the characters were well-written and complex. This was a lovely book to read in between classes at school.
dee2799d's review
5.0
I thought this was going to be just your lighthearted novel that you love, finish, put to the side, and promptly forget. Boy was I wrong.
Not about the lighthearted part though. The novel is about three women and their place in the anime industry: Arishina Kayako, producer for Studio Edge, who has to deal with pretty but flaky boy director Oji Chiharu; Saito Hitomi, a director for Tokei Animation, who works herself to the bone for her passion and who slowly realises an animation team is a group of people working together; and Namisawa Kazuna, fan favourite genga artist who has given up on womanhood and bears the otaku badge like a shield against normies. These women and their relationships with the people they work with propels the narrative forward as strongly as the loving descriptions about their work and the industry.
Not gonna lie, I'm a big fan of anime and I couldn't say if this novel would alienate anyone who would love to see badass women (not only the three mentioned btw, but we also have a group of voice actresses, a figure sculptor, and even a cheery mum) in the workplace but have no idea when it comes to the passion these people have for entertainment that some people think at best is childish and geeky. But at the end of the day, the feeling of inspiration we get from something--whether it's a TV show, a book, or what have you--is probably a universal experience.
These are characters who found something they loved which saved or changed their lives, and decided to do their best when working in the industry to produce content that might affect other people in the same way. It was great to see three different perspectives on the creation of an anime: the person in charge of the actual thing whose creative vision propels the series forward, the person who is the 'worker ant' that creates the drawings to help flesh out these ideas, and the person who makes sure everything runs smoothly and that the director can do their job. I don't know much about the anime industry and as the author herself said, it changes very quickly, but this is an interesting look behind the scenes.
As someone who works hand in hand with the post production team for TV shows, I found the descriptions of crunch time where no one sleeps and watching the pilot on air with bated breath very real and nostalgic. I want to work with these people and do what I'm passionate about.
All in all a great read and I recommend to people who like well-developed characters in a surprisingly female-centric narrative and of course those who love anime.
Eta: the translation is actually pretty smooth, explanations for Japanese terms and traditions were unobtrusive and not awkward. A couple of weird formatting mistakes (very minor) but overall a great job. Vertical's doing awesome work with these translations and I love them.
Not about the lighthearted part though. The novel is about three women and their place in the anime industry: Arishina Kayako, producer for Studio Edge, who has to deal with pretty but flaky boy director Oji Chiharu; Saito Hitomi, a director for Tokei Animation, who works herself to the bone for her passion and who slowly realises an animation team is a group of people working together; and Namisawa Kazuna, fan favourite genga artist who has given up on womanhood and bears the otaku badge like a shield against normies. These women and their relationships with the people they work with propels the narrative forward as strongly as the loving descriptions about their work and the industry.
Not gonna lie, I'm a big fan of anime and I couldn't say if this novel would alienate anyone who would love to see badass women (not only the three mentioned btw, but we also have a group of voice actresses, a figure sculptor, and even a cheery mum) in the workplace but have no idea when it comes to the passion these people have for entertainment that some people think at best is childish and geeky. But at the end of the day, the feeling of inspiration we get from something--whether it's a TV show, a book, or what have you--is probably a universal experience.
These are characters who found something they loved which saved or changed their lives, and decided to do their best when working in the industry to produce content that might affect other people in the same way. It was great to see three different perspectives on the creation of an anime: the person in charge of the actual thing whose creative vision propels the series forward, the person who is the 'worker ant' that creates the drawings to help flesh out these ideas, and the person who makes sure everything runs smoothly and that the director can do their job. I don't know much about the anime industry and as the author herself said, it changes very quickly, but this is an interesting look behind the scenes.
As someone who works hand in hand with the post production team for TV shows, I found the descriptions of crunch time where no one sleeps and watching the pilot on air with bated breath very real and nostalgic. I want to work with these people and do what I'm passionate about.
All in all a great read and I recommend to people who like well-developed characters in a surprisingly female-centric narrative and of course those who love anime.
Eta: the translation is actually pretty smooth, explanations for Japanese terms and traditions were unobtrusive and not awkward. A couple of weird formatting mistakes (very minor) but overall a great job. Vertical's doing awesome work with these translations and I love them.
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