Shirobako Movie

Four years after the production of Daisan Hikou Shoujotai, the once renowned Musashino Animation—commonly known as "Musani"—is in a dire state. The abrupt cancellation of an ambitious project left the company in financial turmoil, causing most of the staff members to resign. Since then, Musani has failed to create any remarkable works and gradually lost its luster. Despite her wavering optimism, producer Aoi Miyamori is unwilling to let this situation continue. Luckily, her opportunity comes in the form of SIVA, an original feature film scheduled to release in 10 months.

Meanwhile, Aoi's friends are also facing problems with their own professions: animation supervisor Ema Yasuhara is struggling to keep up with her tight schedule; reporter and voice actress Shizuka Sakaki is discontent with the lack of anime roles; screenwriter Midori Imai has been unable to find inspiration since her previous failure; and 3D artist Misa Toudou is concerned that her excessive passion hinders her career.

While the anime industry is one full of setbacks and uncertainties, the five girls are all hellbent on persevering through the arduous path ahead—which just might bring them a step closer to accomplishing their shared dream.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Miyamori, Aoi Main

Kimura, Juri Japanese

Yasuhara, Ema Main

Yoshimura, Haruka Japanese

Sakaki, Shizuka Main

Chisuga, Haruka Japanese

Imai, Midori Main

Oowada, Hitomi Japanese

Toudou, Misa Main

Takano, Asami Japanese

Yano, Erika Supporting

Yamaoka, Yuri Japanese

Ogasawara, Rinko Supporting

Kayano, Ai Japanese

Kinoshita, Seiichi Supporting

Hiyama, Nobuyuki Japanese

Kunogi, Ai Supporting

Izawa, Shiori Japanese

Andou, Tsubaki Supporting

Hayama, Ikumi Japanese

Yamanaka, Takahiro Producer

Nagatani, Takayuki Producer

Aoi, Hiroyuki Producer

Yoshie, Terushige Producer

Reviews

Jun 5, 2023

Mr_Popepo

Recommended

I think the movie premise had a lot more potential but felt a bit rushed and production quality was lower than the original series even though it was a movie.

It's more gritty than the original, it doesn't shy away from the reality of life and how you have to roll with the punches with the ups and downs and how people tend to just accept their circumstances that they're in and it's difficult to push beyond to reach farther heights. Money is what makes the world goes round, passion and comradery is not enough to keep people working together and you have to be realistic ... with the situation you're in. Not a spoiler, you'd only understand it if you watched the movie, but it's ironic that this movie had the same issue with their final project that they complained about...

Anyways it felt like another arc but in movie format and the time constraints didn't do the movie justice but still an overall enjoyable watch, if you liked the original series.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Aug 10, 2021

rtil

Mixed Feelings

The Shirobako anime has garnered a respectable fan base over the few short years since its debut, and it's been well deserved. Shirobako brought the meat and potatoes of anime production to audiences with a fun cast of characters and a meaningful story to go along with it. Despite having an almost overwhelming number of characters, it managed to juggle all of its themes together in 24 well paced episodes.

Fans were delighted to hear of a movie sequel just as meta as ever - an anime movie about making an anime movie. But can this film accomplish what the TV series did in just ... 2 hours?

The film starts 4 years after the events of the series, with an overworked and jaded Miyamori Aoi, still chugging away at Musashino, gutted from years of more bungled productions. It begins to explore another harsh reality of the industry - when the passion fades, your dreams seem too far gone, and you start questioning if you even enjoy your work anymore. Aoi forces herself to put on a smile and keep herself going every day. It's a poignant hook, much like the first episode of the series where it ends with a character fainting from overwork.

However, as Aoi & co start picking up the pieces to put together a crew to make an anime movie, Shirobako begins retreading familiar territory at a frightening pace. There's a few new faces, but mostly old ones. Inviting, but stunted. The film rarely takes a breather as it hops from one plot point to another.

Near the end - 3 weeks to the release of their movies theatrical release - Aoi vows to re-take the ending as the production team agreed it felt rushed and lacked a satisfying crescendo. I find myself having the exact same sentiments about this movie. I was actually shocked where it ended - despite it running 2 hours, by the time you're feeling the film is entering its 3rd act, it's over.

Happy end aside, I can only recommend this film to Shirobako fans. And maybe that is who it's intended for. In fact, I imagine if anyone came in to this film blind they would be utterly lost. There's too many callbacks to the series for this to stand on its own.

While I'm disappointed to give this a mere 6/10, I feel I may actually be generous here. I did not dislike this film, but I think it could have been a lot better, especially as a 2nd season rather than a film. It needed more room to breathe and explore the wonderful cast and intricate workings of animation production.

Wishful thinking, but I hope someday we get to see the Musashino crew again under better circumstances.

If you love Shirobako, this one's worth a watch. Otherwise, go and watch the series, and then come back here if you loved it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jan 10, 2022

CataOrShane

Not Recommended

Funny

I watched Shirobako, the 24 episode anime, back in 2015 and I loved it! It was great to watch an anime about making anime and learn more about the industry. I gave it a 8/10.

When Shirobako Movie was announced I was absolutely thrilled. The animation is stunning. For 2 hours you'll get to watch many different animation styles and despite being different, everything just clicks and works. Anytime it changes, it's noticeable of course but it doesn't break immersion. Instead, it will amaze you to see so many different ways to do animation in a single sequence of scenes. It's like this movie is ... a tribute to the animation industry.

The voice acting was pretty solid and the soundtrack was also pretty enjoyable.

So... why such a low score? I struggle to enjoy movies longer than 90 minutes. I'd say that 60 minutes in I was having fun and enjoying the building up to the "meat" of the film but the truth is for me the pace slowed down so much that I lost interest in whatever happened afterwards. I'd rather have the movie speed up the beginning to focus more of the process of film making because by the time it got there, I was already tired of watching the movie.

My advice is to watch this movie but at 1,5x speed. I wish I knew that at the beginning, maybe I wouldn't struggle so much to pay attention to the film.

It's unfortunate but the pace killed this movie for me. It gets a 4/10 ):

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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