Turning Girls

Turning Girls is just a cute little comedy web series about the struggles of adulthood. If you have an hour of free time, like cringe comedy/slice of life, and don't mind EXTREMELY limited animation, give this series a quick watch for some quality laughs.

Granted, one of the reasons TG didn't do so well in the west is because its comedy is mostly geared towards Japanese women in their late 20's. But I still found it totally fun and (usually) relatable.

8/10.

That might seem high for a series with like... ZERO production value. Fair criticism for an anime, sure. But if I tell you a little story, ... maybe you'll begin to forgive Turning Girls' non-existent animation:

This series aired Summer of 2013, when Studio Trigger was busy with the production of its first TV anime, Kill la Kill. Earlier that year, Trigger also had concluded producing an ONA for Anime Bancho called "Inferno Cop". Limited by time and budget, Trigger allotted *2 hours* to make each episode of Inferno Cop. TWO HOURS AN EPISODE.

And yet! This first web series was a rousing success, even overseas. So Anime Bancho requested another web series while Kill la Kill was in the works. What to do? Spend even LESS time per episode?

Then-- an idea. All the female staff at Trigger were gathered together and asked, "Hey. Can you make an anime for us?" The answer: Turning Girls.

Although Otsuka is formally the executive director, the series was written, drawn and directed by the women at Trigger. None of them were animators (and... it shows). But the comedy is gold. It maintains that absurdist Trigger charm. And as audio director Hiromi Wakabayashi states, the characters are an honest reflection of the staff who worked on it. So the comedy and dialogue feel very genuine.

Anyway...

While you can count the frames per episode on your fingers and toes, everything else about this show is mad impressive. Handing this project over to non-animators was a bold strategy, but it really paid off. The comedy is on point. The writing is clever. And it stands as a show made by women, for women, in a male-dominated industry. That's freakin' awesome.

turning girls is a work done mostly by the female employee of Trigger. It depicts the turning point of women. That turning point from being a beautiful maiden in its twenties to thirty. It is as they say a sour battle.

Turning girls is a rather simplistic anime with a rather simple focus. Being only shorts from 5 minutes, you shouldn’t expect much development and world building. This anime rather focus on presenting the problem more comically. I think they totally nailed in in the first 6 episodes. I had a good laugh. I would never pick this anime to watch, but because it is made ... by Trigger I’d put it on my list anyway, I’m glad I did.

Characters:
I want to say the girls are rather pathetic. Or at least that is what they are supposed to be. The presentation of the girls and their “roll” in the anime is done so good. I think the female staff achieved what they wanted to do in the anime.
Keiro, an semi-unemployed self-proclaimed idol with a loud voice is one of my least favorite characters. She is simply so loud and annoying. That was exactly the roll she had to fulfil so job well done. Her name Is directly a pun to her being a frog idol (frogs often say “kero”)
Nana being more the likeable character gets continuously hit on. Her character feels soothing and kinda attractive.
Kai is calm in the outside but a goth on the inside. Her name is also a bad pun to the music she likes, punk/kei music.
Chiwa is secretly into boy love. Her episode was so damn weird.

Animation:
As I said, the animation is in very simple. It looks like they make use of sprites, kinda like Inferno Cop but with a little bit more movement. As animation or movement isn’t the focus of this anime I can forgive them for that. The colors are pastel like, thus giving a very calming vibe.

Sound:
The voice acting was what done right. Trying to convey awkwardness or cuteness with rather simplistic animation to back it. I think they have good voice acting. The ending songs was also good, total bop.

The experience from watching this short is just dry weird comedy. If you like dad jokes this is your pick. All in all it just takes 28 minutes, just a bit shorter than a regular episode.