Baja no Studio

Peek into the daily lives and adventures of pet hamsters. If you're looking for shows similar to Hamtaro then check out KyoAni's Baja no Studio franchise. Tottoko Hamtarou: Anime Dechu! is an OVA with four short episodes while Baja no Studio only has one episode. 

If you're looking for cute shorts with animals as protagonists, then either one is something for you. Both of these are very cute little shorts, where animals are the main-characters, with a hamster in Baja and birds in Inko Colors. Plus, both of these are about friendship too. Baja is a bit longer, has some neat little fantasy elements in it and it has a lot of amazing and incredible KyoAni animation and can be watched just for that alone. Inko Colors is much more simpler, but it does feel a little more grounded than Baja and for what it is, the animation looks pretty nice too. 

Shirobako is mostly focused on people working in the anime industry, and has occasional scenes where the main character's dolls come to life and talk to each other. Baja no Studio and its sequel are sort of the opposite: the story is told from the point of view of an animation studio's pet and most of its interactions are with figures of two characters from the anime the studio is producing which become sentient at night, when nobody else is at the office. Daytime scenes feature the director and the rest of the staff working on their project; nighttime scenes feature Baja's adventures and the rivalry between the other two. read more