Gi(a)rlish Number

♪ Rookie seiyuu, availability is first, acting comes in second ♪

Everyone. please meet the cynical sister to Sore ga Seiyuu!, Gi(a)rlish Number!.

Gi(a)rlish Number is another one of those workplace animes like SHIROBAKO or for more precise for this review, Sore ga Seiyuu!, this time it looks at the voice acting, light novel and anime industry through the lens of cynical narcissistic Chitose, in comparison to Sora ga Seiyuu's Futaba Ichinose optimistic ones.

The main group of seiyuu's Chitose Karasuma voiced by Sayaka Senbongi (Koutetsujou no Kabaneri as Mumei, Kitakubu Katsudou Kiroku as Claire Kokonoe), Koto Katakura voiced by Yui Ishikawa (Shingeki no Kyojin as Mikasa Ackerman, ... Qualidea Code as Canaria Utara, Owari no Seraph as Shigure Yukimi), Yae Kugayama voiced by Kaede Hondo (Handa-kun as Miyoko Kinjou, 91 Days as Luce Lagusa), Kazuha Shibasaki voiced by Saori Oonishi (Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka as Ais Wallenstein, Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata as Eriri Spencer Sawamura, Shiougeki no Souma as Hisako Arato) and Momoka Sonou voiced by Eri Suzuki (Amanchu! as Hikari Kohinata, flying witch as Chinatsu Kuramoto, Heavy Object as Milinda Brantini) felt like caricatures as the ACTUAL seiyuu's and their careers, such as Kazuha Shibasaki and Momoka Sonou being some recent veterans into the industry and knows all the pitfalls and perks to the industry (as Eri Suzuki and Saori Oonishi have been in the industry longer just by seeing their voice acting roles) compared to the newbies like Yae and Chitose. Though Chitose's parallel to Sayaka Senbongi a bit with Gi(a)rlish Number actually with Sayaka Senbongi being casted in Koutetsujou no Kabaneri as Mumei (a lead role), similar to her being one of the leads in the in-universe Gi(a)rlish Number plot. Koto Katakura as Yui Ishikawa felt like it was what happened with Yui Ishikawa in Shingeki no Kyojin and her gaining knowledge from the industry from a "hit anime" and that transferred into Yui Ishikawa's character. It's just LA's meta-thoughts about Gi(a)rlish Number and the obvious reasons of LA wondering about the voice acting industry.

Meta-talking aside, LA wants to delve into the characters themselves. Shall we?.

Let's start with Momoka and Kazuha, for the most part they are the sempai's to Yae, Chitose and Koto, they to have some cynicism in the form of their parental issues with being a seiyuu. Momoka and Kazuha have a bit of duality when it comes to their parental issues and becomes a major focus for the both of them. See Momoka's mother is a famous seiyuu and Momoka herself being brought up into the same industry as her, she is effectively put in the shadow of her mother when it comes to Momoka's job as a seiyuu, this contrasts quite well with Kazuha's more resistant parents especially Kazuha's father who dislikes Kazuha being in "fanservicey" acts with her job and wants her to quit, this kind of duality with both Momoka and Kazuha helps develop these characters for the most part and as much as it opens up both Momoka and Kazuha, their personalities are pretty much the same by the end of it. Next is Yae and Koto. Yae doesn't get the best character development with her being a rookie like Koto and Chitose and she effectively becomes the cheerleader to Chitose by her arc and not much else. Koto is the exposition fairy and mild comedic relief and also has the same position as Yae another cheerleader for Chitose. Now with all this Chitose this and that. It's time for Chitose, she is LA's favourite character and pretty much has the last half of the anime to herself along with the shady, don't give a crap Kuzu-P and his name is apt at that. Chitose gains a great deal of character development, all from how she see's the industry, as for her to gain popularity and not caring how she'll do it and quite the narcissistic, cynical behavior to go with it might LA add. Her character development really grows from what would happen if a seiyuu gains popularity but falls from grace quite quickly as the in-universe audience too quickly fades Chitose as a "main lead" from a "shitty anime". Thinking back on it though the circumstances isn't exactly the same, it reminds LA of real life seiyuu's like Yui Kondou to Asami Imai to Mari Nakatsu and hell even Ikumi Hayama who went through something like this fading from popularity after some main leading roles. Really Chitose's development as a rookie seiyuu and her experiences as one isn't all rainbows and easy pickings on the next roles she gets, bringing in the cynicism of the seiyuu industry.

Gi(a)rlish Number also jabs in how the current (as LA writes this review) landscape of light novel adaptations anime are been looked at also with the same cynical look at "anyone can write, but not everyone can act, what good are light novel authors if all they do make hack stories that gets made into anime boom" and very quick jabs at the light novel industry as well as the main anime the Gi(a)rlish Number cast are casted in is a light novel anime with abyssal production values due to...well Kuzu-P, on speaking of which.

Kuzu-P voiced by Kazuya Nakai gets something of a simultaneous character development along with Chitose bringing in the parallels to each other but for Kuzu-P on the producer side, his character development fall from grace and slow gains afterwards is nothing but what happens when a producer only cares about money and not the overall product of the anime and he'll drag EVERYONE one else down just to get his ambitions done with.....he does get "better" with the help of Chitose but only "slightly".

Really both Kuzu-P and Chitose reigns in the statement that yes the seiyuu industry is a rather harsh and brutal industry and that even "wasted potential" from a person with horrible personality can still have the potential to do great, cynical but uplifting for those in this brutal industry that we as the audience especially outside Japan, don't get an honest look at this brutal industry.

In terms of diomedea, the anime is full of moe, however LA will bring up this point about the moe and the cynicism "clashing" with each other. The moe in LA's eyes does NOT clash with the cynicism from the characters, if anything the moe helps highlight the fact that it is using moe which is a prevalent style in the anime industry to appeal to the demographic as being "cute and nothing else" to actually utilizing this same style to show that moe is being manipulative and cynical much like how the characters are being portrayed and their own cynical intentions of the "moe anime industry boom", it's not a detriment or clashes as it makes the point of using moe as their own antithesis to point out the cynical nature of the anime and it's own jabs at it's own industry. Ok with that rant out of the way, the moe aesthetics if anything is pleasing to the eye and the character designer QP;flapper with it's bolder, moe and colorful designs made the character designs overall one of the best things about the animation.

Well LA is gonna talk about voice acting in a voice acting anime, well what can LA say but favourite character = favourite seiyuu, it goes to Sayaka Senbongi as LA really loved Chitose's narcissistic and snarky attitude for the most part and used for all the jabbing at the other characters she did, but also given Sayaka range gave her a chance to do DRAMA at the same time. LA will quite honestly say that the voice cast did a 100% really, from Kaede Hondo to Yui Ishikawa, Eri Suzuki and Saori Oonishi and the more gung-ho characters like Kuzu-P's Kazuya Nakai and Namba Shachou voiced by Kenyuu Horiuchi, the CEO of Number One Produce and even Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as...himself???...huh they pulled a Sore ga Seiyuu with that one. Nonetheless, the voice cast is great in Gi(a)rlish Number and to be expected from an anime about voice acting!

Gi(a)rlish Number is another one of Wataru Watari's (Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru., Qualidea Code) original cynical creations and that blatantly shows, but having a cynical look at an industry that is more or less that is under wraps and hardly told to us about in greater detail but shown in a brutally honest yet cynical side of it's industry through the eyes and manifested in Chitose went through is somewhat refreshing take on the "workplace anime". Gi(a)rlish Number with some odd yet cynically encouraging theme of even a horrible person with a horrible personality wants to be in an dog eat dog industry like being a seiyuu can still have the potential to be a great one if one can apply themselves and move with the flow of the brutal and cynical industry they work in instead of being left behind.

[6.5/10]
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

The last thing I was expecting was a show about people. Rather, a show about humans. It's very common in anime, whether it's due to subs or the mediocre writing, that characters feel detached from what you would imagine people to be like. That's why it's so easy to "act" like an anime character, because the very concept is so cliched. Just become loud, abrasive, and energetic and talk about some pseudo-philosophy. For the most part, you just encapsulated every single action-anime protagonist. Or maybe be an understated cool-kid that pretends he doesn't care but really has a heart of gold. There, you got the ... other half. Obviously i'm over-exaggerating and joking, but to every joke there's a nugget of truth.

Why is acting like an anime character so easy? Why is "acting" like a person so hard? Well, because, to put it bluntly, anime characters are very rarely like people. Especially in anime shows. That's not necessarily a bad thing, you may not want to watch a show to see "people", but that distinct void is there. It's more common that these characters are just a combined jambalaya of quirks that could maybe fool you into thinking they are people. But if you ever extensively knew any real person, you'd know that a person doesn't fall under specific quirks as their entirety. Much like a cake, a person isn't just the frosting. Quirks are the frosting.

If you aren't following me, please read on. The point here is that for whatever reason, characters in anime are distinctively inhuman in the way they talk, act, and react to just about anything. I find it very hard to relate to an anime character. Of course, "an anime character" is a broad way of saying, "characters which I've seen in anime."

They are often incredibly exaggerated in a specific direction. Direction being a metaphor for personality traits. If a person is shy, an anime character literally can't speak to people properly. If a person is courageous, an anime character would jump in front of a train to save a hedgehog. If a person is mean, an anime character will spit in your cereal and cum in your eyes.

This exaggeration may make mundane situations more interesting for a lot of viewers, but for someone like me, it cuts off any relate-ability, which is a crucial aspect in creating likeable characters. Mind you, it's not mandatory, but in many cases, likeability stems from the ability to connect to the character you like. You can relate to a situation or a character. I've related to situations in anime, but characters have been difficult to me. No character that I've seen has had the depth of someone like Walter White, from "Breaking Bad", but more specifically, no character has had the personal relate-ability of almost any character from a show like "The Americans" or anything like it.

Depth does exist. But that depth is usually lacking emotions. Look at Monogatari. Relate-ability may exist, however, it lacks interest.

...

So Girlish Number is kind of a black sheep for me. Which is why it surprised me so much. It's a flawed show, yes, but the biggest thing I got from it were the characters. Just how fascinatingly real they were. Instead of that obvious over-exaggeration (which, truth be told, was prevalent in at least one or two of these characters), the show goes for calm, flowing dialogue that didn't try too hard to make you laugh or cry. It felt real.

For everything the show did wrong, and it did really drop the ball on a few things. Girlish Number finished with spades in the characters department. It's very hard to finish the show and try your best to act like some of the more developed characters here. Why? Because apart from quoting quotables, you can't really "act" like a person without exaggerating on quirks. I can exaggerate on these character's quirks. But that'd be like scooping off the frosting and saying it's a slice.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

[The Curious Case of Satire]

So this show follows a group of generally unlike-able girls as they venture into anime voice acting. This set-up, naturally, is rife with possible satire. If you noticed, I never really mentioned the story of the show because surprisingly it kind of drifts into the background.

This show, for as cynical as it was about the industry on occasion, never really developed much of a bite. The anime industry has so much inane and awful shit in it that for a show trying to be cynical and biting, it hardly did any of that. Which is a bit of a disappointment since I doubt there are many shows out there that would be critical of this.

The story is pretty much character oriented, rather than plot oriented. A bunch of unlike-able girls mediocrely voice-acting a shitty idol-bait anime is, as I said, interesting, but it never really goes anywhere. It was the backdrop to the character-driven story at the forefront.

...

That being said, there still is satire to be had. But instead of the industry being under the microscope, it's the concept. They poke fun at how shoddy the marketing is, how little actors have to go off of and how overworked the animators are. But by poke fun at, I mean gently tickle from afar cause this was some very easy satire.

Satire, at its most effective, is something that needs to have punch to be memorable. Look no further than South Park, and then compare that to Family Guy. The reason South Park is still making headlines isn't just because it's very "in the now", it's because it's utilizing satire to its maximum potential. The format is very simple and easy to reproduce, so the writers try to go whole-hog with creating some incredibly harsh criticisms of modern day life.

Here... not so much. What's a bit disappointing about the satire in Girlish Number is that the show isn't over-the-top enough to become obvious satire, so they instead have to pretty much have characters explain what's wrong. Which isn't really effective. In a few cases, you find yourself sort of high-and-dry when it comes to the shows more cynical segments.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Colorful Girls in a Bleak World]

I'd be remiss if I didn't dedicate a segment talking about juxtaposition and character design. In a show that's supposed to at least somewhat mirror reality with production, the show had this very odd choice of making the main characters, specifically the girls only, be extremely colorful doll-like beings in appearance.

I'm very torn on this subject because I feel like it either misses the point of the entire show, or perhaps bites a bit too close to the plate when it comes delivery. What I mean is that if it's the designers making these girls purposefully colorful and "magical" looking to parody elements within the show, then fine. However, the show never really discusses anything like this. It's left up to interpretation, and this kind of interpret-able writing and design choices aren't really thematically appropriate with the kind of story being told.

One of the characters, Momoka, straight up looks like a magical girl in most scenes. She belongs on screen with Madoka, not Chitose. Which really juxtaposes these cool-colored environments with these bright and vibrant characters. Especially since the males, for the most part, are left realistically portrayed design-wise.

...

The design folds hand-in-hand with the animation, which is thoroughly mediocre. Especially towards the end of the show, where it often felt rushed, visually. There was a lot of filler images and an abusive amount of still-images to convey time. These characters were made to perform (like idols, i'm guessing), and pretty much each one of their performances was just still-images of them "dancing" and "singing" with this elevator music playing the background.

I get creating a real song is tough. Especially making it believable. But this is just one of those things that if you put a bit more effort into the show you could be left with a more rewarding product. Songwriting in anime is another really easily parody-able concept and it was woefully ignored.

That being said, the animation does stand out on occasion. Especially when it comes to character close-ups. Which the show uses sparingly. What I mean is that the director brings the camera way up to the character's mouth and we get this shot of them speaking or reacting. Lip syncing is done very well here.

But... those shining moments are generally padded with poorly synced sequences and scenes that felt a bit empty in sound design. A character would place a coffee cup on the table and the sound of the ceramic hitting the wood would be louder than anything in the room for whatever reason. These audio issues could've been fixed with just a bit more editing.

This show criticizes and, to a certain extent, parodies rushed anime. However, it is a rushed anime. That being said, I don't hold it to that fault. A show can be something but still criticize it to an interesting and funny extent. This show, on occasion, does succeed.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Characters]

So lets talk about the most important part. The characters and their interactions, and in some cases, their stories made this show feel significantly more fulfilling than it had any right to be. Especially since a lot of the plot aspects felt kind of tedious. For example, these are voice actors and they talk about voice acting throughout the entirety of the show. Yet we hardly ever get to see them actually voice act! I, for the life of me, can't figure out why the hell they'd cut any voice acting from the show about voice acting!

In certain scenes certain characters would say like, "Oh X had a bad day acting today!' and we'd be thrown through a loop because we don't know if she's lying or if she's telling the truth. We didn't actually get to see the session! Not even a little!

...

That being said, the characters do truly shine. As I said in my introduction, these characters felt more like real people than just about any television anime characters I've seen. Especially Chitose, Shibasaki, and Momoka. Ironically, the most out-there characters with the nuttiest designs felt like the most grounded and human people. Their conversations were often very appropriate and natural.

When writing a conversation you want to make the scene flow. This is done through directing, editing, sound design, and dialogue. Girlish Number really does impress with the dialogue. In one episode, two characters headline for the entirety of it's running. They simply walk around a location you haven't seen before and chat. They talk about what I would expect people in similar situations to talk about and not once did I feel like I knew where the conversation was heading due to plot necessity. That's some damn good character writing.

The show is at its best when it has a slow-moving, dialogue driven, somber tone. However, it still does comedy well. While this show very rarely made me laugh out loud, I will say that it has some of the most relaxed delivery I've seen in a show that does try to be funny. Which is so rare, since most anime has this very abrasive reaction-oriented comedy that gets old very very fast.

In Girlish Number, characters would chat and if their conversation turned comical, then fine, if it turned serious, then fine. What matters is it felt believable. In a show about humans in a distinctly shitty industry, that's pretty much the best thing this show could've done.

...

The development feels pretty spectacular too. Since this show's focus is definitively on humans, then the development must not only feel natural, but feel realistic in execution. I may argue that it got a bit too corny towards the end, especially within the last ten or so minutes. But for the most part, Girlish Number knew exactly where to bring its characters.

It, or I should say, the writer(s) understand that people are inherently flawed and don't just change because the plot demands it. Or that other people demand it. People are set in their ways. Since this is understood here, the development feels realistic to me. Our protagonist is pretty much an asshole. And not in the way where she's either over-exaggerated for comedic effect or so under-exaggerated that she's simply an asshole because people says she is. She's genuinely kind of a self-righteous brat that is unlike-able. The fact that this show does that so well makes her like-able though.

I much rather watch a show about a human being being a human being than some self-insert bullshit trying to pretend it's not a harem. Humans are very interesting creatures because they don't just harbor four different quirks. Even when this show does fanservice, and it does, it does so in a fairly tasteful way. The camera doesn't linger and it doesn't go places where it shouldn't. For example, there's a beach episode and instead of... well, being a beach episode, it went into the territory of being self-deprecating. Making fun of how fake it all was, with these voice actors acting like moe girls and how the fans eat it all up.

What's kind of ironic about all this, as I mentioned, is that these voice actors are in fact moe girls. Which makes me feel very strangely about the entire purpose of this show. The writer(s) can't be this unaware of the kind of marketing this show is criticizing it's doing itself. But then again, does this self-awareness have any merit? What is it saying? These are questions I don't know the answer to, and as I said again, these open-to-interpretation ideas don't belong in a show like this.

...

This show constantly addresses the idea of being aware of your own personality. Especially in our protagonist's case, where she's an asshole, and becomes aware of this. But that's a part of her human nature. That's who she is. If she were to change, or try to, what would that do?

These dilemmas sit very oddly in a show like this. It's main marketing point is that it has cute girls being voice actresses. Yet it offers so much more in terms of actual character than it does animation.

...

Much like real people, conversations have this looping feeling in this show. Not like French-new wave looping, but more like previous conversations play a part in new ones. I get that that may feel like an obvious writing technique. What I mean, specifically, is that even minute details are brought back as in-jokes and references. Not by the writers to the audience, but characters to characters, which really surprised me.

Tonally, the show stays consistent, but it often doesn't really know where to take certain secondaries. While most of the primary characters are developed quite well, the secondaries either feel like caricatures or nobodies. Which is a minor flaw in the character writing. We have people, in-show, that act so over-the-top and nuts that it may be funny, but doesn't really fit in context with the rest of the show at all.

Much like the battle between design and message, the battle between human and character is also prevalent.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Conclusion]


So it's far from a perfect show. It's definitely a surprising one, however. What I was expecting was a show about cute girls being voice actors. I was also expecting it to be a more biting of a parody than what it ended up being.

What I did get, however, was a very scenic and poignant show about human nature and the way people are. Imperfect. Every member of the main cast is imperfect. Some more so than others, but in the end, they all have their flaws. The ending was a bit too cornball for me and I would've loved it much more if they ended on a bittersweet note.

Chitose was a great standout, with Shibasaki and Momoka being honorable standouts of the main cast. While their designs were absolutely strange in the world, their humanity shined through. The character melodrama was surprisingly well-handled for an anime, too. Maybe it was because I was coming off some incredibly lame and corny melodrama-filled shows, but I was thoroughly impressed with just how realistic the reactions were to certain situations.

Nothing felt over-exaggerated for drama. Everything felt perfectly in place for the kinds of situations these characters found themselves in. That and the character development was extremely well-handled, with some absolutely amazing uses of dramatic stingers that honestly took me by complete surprise.

Perhaps that's the benefit of watching a slice of life. You are watching character interact and really aren't expecting anything until it's delivered. To entertain my cake metaphor, a slice of life is wholly about characters in certain situations. But I feel like the slice may be referring to the characters themselves, too. A character can be many things, and relateable is definitely an important aspect to many characters. Especially ones that are there to be realistically there, int he real world. Much like a slice of cake, there need to be multiple layers to have something be truly filling and not overwhelming in taste. Too much frosting it becomes too sweet. Too much bread it's too dry.

I wish that this show had more time invested into it because I feel like it could've been much better. However, for what it was, it was surprisingly engaging towards the middle half and to the end. Girlish Number utilizes the frosting, bread, and cherry. By the end, I felt happy with my slice.

Ironically this anime is about the harsh truth of making anime, and that not all of them will be good, but there is a lot of work put into making one.
So IMO they kind of had a weird sense of humor by basically making fun of their own anime.
IMO this anime is bad.
But like i said , since i know the amount of work that was put in, i will give credit where credit is due. I like the Character design and art. The animation was decent. But that is about it. The anime is boring AF. We have to w8 all the ... way to the last 2 episodes for something to actually happen, and even that is very short lived.
It was very hard for me to go all the way through to the end of the anime, but i made a pact with myself to watch any anime i start all the way to the end, even if it is bad. I came across a few anime that started kind of bad but it got really good later on.