Gi(a)rlish Number

If you have spare time and the only thing in your backlog is isekai garbage No.10000, this deserves some time just for how meta it could be, especially if you are familiar with the world behind Japanese animation, like the voice acting world.


Let me start by explaining why some might have a low opinion of the series, calling it a waste of time. The gist of it is it tried to do 2 things at once, and both of them were not particularly well done. By well, I mean exploring uncharted territory or going in depth and exposing ideas that the audiences might not be ... familiar with.
Those 2 things are: revealing the inner workings of the voice acting and animated production world and emotional development of its characters. About half way through they switched from the former to the latter. The transition can be jarring while the exposition, tedious, especially the first few episodes. They consisted of mostly the unlikable lead and just people talking. Thus, for those still hesitating to watch it, let me lay the groundwork as to why it’s definitely worth your time.

The world of voice actors and actresses (VA), or Seiyuu as many of you might be familiar with, is quite insane particularly compared to the west, or anywhere else for that matter. That might be changing, as of right now, 2019, not that bad yet.
Because animation is mainstream in Japan and is as popular to young people as Marvel is recently, VA are treated as stars. For those who could recall, Lucky Star was one of the most notable shows to highlight the influence of voice actors. I remember Haruhi and Lucky Star radio shows actually reached the West through fan translation which made its way to YouTube. Seiyuu started to only fulfil the role of an actor and actress, but essentially the human faces of the shows, idols, to put in a term, kind of like how the cast of shows and movies are interrogated at ComicCon.

In case you have no idea how big VAs are because you are not interested in behind the scenes matters, as am I, you can go on YouTube and type in Seiyuu. What you find is something insane to me. These real human beings who merely did their job: providing voice to an animated work, have to carry the role of promoting and interacting with fans. It's ironic in a way, since animation is supposed to be fantastic, cater to escapists. The activities they are involved in include promo, PV shows, handing out materials, live streaming, radio shows etc... They are treated as movie stars in Otaku circles, as you can see from the comment section, which are in English. You can imagine how ridiculous they would be in Japan.


That brings me to Watari Wataru's Girlish Number. The reason why I provided context was for those who could be unfamiliar with the animated shows production process or VA's world, the conversations can be puzzling and boring. Watari dug into the heart of the facade of the industry, and it's not always entertaining if you don't know what he's trying to make fun of.

For instance, the scenario of a frivolous producer pitching his adaptation of a relatively popular novel into an animated show to the president who doesn't know enough about the product and subsequently producing a soulless, rushed and fragmented show slapped many projects in the face. I would imagine this to be a more common scenario than we think, only without the fun of the optimistic producer and the clueless president with a sense of humour.
The producer blatantly misuse the fund for a trip to Okinawa. On top of that, he coerced his staff to make abrupt changes. The most heinous of all is forcing the VA to do promotion, sing, present and do a beach photoshoot at the beach to promote and generate sales. He's deeply cynical and seemingly can't be bothered to care about anyone else.
Next is the managers. On the face of it, the managers got off the easiest. They provide support to the actresses, but most of the work is done in the background. As the show progressed, you can see the managers being helpless or incapable of solving the VA's emotional and personal issues, despite that being their primary duty. The worst one of all manipulates his customer to ensure her career advances, at the cost of her personal's feelings. He freaked out when her career options were in jeopardy, and rather than caring about her personal issues.
Then, we have the VA themselves. They are the main cast of the show, figuratively and literally. They all have varying personalities and backgrounds. It’s worth going through each of them.

If I have a lot of time and energy, I would love to go through each character, but I can only single out the producer, Kuzu (trash). Like the main character, Chitose, I shall only do what I feel like I can. Let's start with the most straight forward character:

Koto is the most idealistic character in the show. She's the oldest among the cast and is very friendly despite her long tenure in the industry on the back field. She was not given a significant role until the fictional show, and was about to give up on her career. Her Kansai accent whiplash throughout the show. If my Japanese is better, I might have been able to interpret more from when her accent is on and off, but a part of her character in the show is to guide her juniors in the industry through their own emotional troubles. It was hinted that she felt compelled to do so because of her regrets about colleagues who couldn't survive the trial and tribulation of the work of a VA, with one of them still working but at a different role as we later found out. She's surprisingly hopeful for someone who has been through that many years without success and was on her last rope. The strength and care she brings to the cast is slowly revealed as the show goes on. If you are familiar with OreGairu, she's the equivalent of Shizuka, but less comedic and cool.

Yae is the friend from the same acting school as the main character. She's a very wholesome and hardworking character, almost to the point of being without fault when it comes to cynicism. She's very nice and kind to everyone and cares about the main character deeply. In that, however, she's also aware of her general politeness and careful nature. She admitted that her words are cheap at the climax of the story. It is cynical in that she can't help but be nice to others, even if she might not completely think so.

Sonou is the first of those with a bit more meat in the cynical category. She's the daughter of a famous actress and director. While merely being in high school, she has had a successful career thus far. She was the first, other than the main character, to fully acknowledge the facade of being a VA and animation production. She knows the ins and outs of being a VA and kindly teach the newbies despite them being older than her. She's aware of the quality of the work she's working on but contend to follow her manager's plan. Couple with that, she's also put on a show during presentation and giving out products willingly despite also being in agreement that this is quite unusual elsewhere but the animation industry. In that, she clashes with Shibasaki who openly questions the work they are doing and its quality. The character's arc of Sonou is coming into term of being a professional. Sonou entered the industry after being asked to try out during one of her mother's project. It could be implying that she entered not only through her own curiosity, but also her desire to match up to her parents' success. Sonou felt lonely and neglected when her parents stopped giving her advice and dictating her decisions after she made her debut. Without being guided, she felt as if they are not interested in her future and feelings. I think her trouble is a pot of negligence, dislike being compare to her parent, feeling like her success came from her parents connections. That looks to make more sense when her issues are resolved when her mother, on the phone, acknowledges her as a professional but also as an actress of equivalent level, validating her efforts and shows that her parents are caring and guiding her in their own way.

Shibasaki is set up to be the opposite of Sonou. While Sonou is cheerfully cynical, Shibaraki is grumpily cynical. She came from a resort inn family in Yamagata prefecture (famous for its beef, give Aboard in Japan a look if you want to visit). Having to defy her parents and came to Tokyo to become an actress. Because of that, she felt that singing, dancing, and doing promotional works are beneath her role as an actress. I suspect the intention is to depict her as a failed actress who had to resort to voice acting. She's also very keenly aware that the work she is doing is utter crap, but soldier on anyway. She put on a facade for the shows and became stressed out over her current circumstance, with Sonou notably commenting on her sour expression during her work. Shibaraki's trouble with her career path intertwines with her family feud. Her return to home and reconciliation with her father concluded her trouble, giving her a sense of pride in her work and dispeling the burden of disappointment, both to her family and herself, for the rest of the show. My problem with hers and Sonou arc is that they are resolved within 2 episodes. I do like that they are quite focused and there's a healthy amount of build up in previous chats with the other characters to slowly reveal more about their issues. It's quite disappointing that in the 3/4 of the show, the two mysteriously troubled veterans issues are essentially vanquished, Sonoe without much fuzz. I expected more of a pay off, frankly.

Lastly, Chitose is one of the most cynical character in recent time. Her cynicism is quite different from what people usually think about cynics, but to me is the more common type of cynic. She's comically cynical. She can, or at least she thinks she can, see through the facade and lies of the VA profession and make harsh remarks about components of the animation production process. Most importantly, she sees VA not as a passionate project like the other Koto and Yae, but as a mean to be loved and famous. In that, she doesn't believe in the idealism of serving others, nor that humans should pursue higher causes. She's a slave to her frank and honest nature, accepting that she and humanity are selfish and self-centred. That's far more cynical than Hikigaya from OreGairu, who still hopes that there is something real if we strip away the facade.
In addition, the author also gives her a lot of guts and confidence. It's very refreshing to see such a scummy protagonist who's arrogant, lazy, unambitious, delusional yet possessed infinite charisma. I think many people might have known or met this kind of person, and if you have never met one... I think it's time to dust out the mirrors. People who were disappointed by the ending might have been so because Chitose didn't exactly suffer any traumatic moment and soldiered on with her selfishness and carelessness.
I think, however, there are a few little details about her that perhaps might be worth exploring or clarifying by the show. Her brother's rocky career didn't deter her entry to the industry. From the fact that she keeps listening to her brother's works and that she only confide in him her thoughts and feelings, I think she enters the industry either because she wants to be close to her brother, following his footsteps. Of course, this is only half of the reason if my conjecture is close to Watari's intention. The other half is she plainly just wants to be loved and famous. The second part might have developed as she got more success and gained more fame, which is also around when her head starts to inflate. While her self confidence was already sky high before she got her big break, she behaved according to industry conventions until she got the starting role. From there, she has something to cling on as a basis of her actually unfounded hubris.

I love her not only because she's refreshing, but also because she's a commentary about cynical people who could actually see the cynicism and take advantage of it but not enough to overcome their own self-aggrandise and frankly, laziness. It got to a point that it seems they used cynicism as an excuse for their laziness rather than being a real cynic. You can see her small moments of brilliance when she puts her mind on improving as an actress to not piss off her colleagues, because she wants to be loved. Her story kind of encourages people like her to work harder if their hubris ever gets them into trouble. Some critics have called it "fake it till you make it", which is fair enough. I would also add to that, Elon Musk for example has no experience in mechanical engineering, Jeff Bezos was not an experienced manager and businessman. They have experience in doing related activities, but they all learned the rope as they went along. It's better to have the hubris and dive into whatever the hubris is attached to as a form of “confidence”, than having it and not using it.
I also think Watari also sympathises with them, telling the audience to give these very annoying idiots a chance, because while they might be full of shit and pomposity, they ultimately are in the same situation as us, with a perhaps equally honest goal. You can see the cast gel together through her shameless behaviour and attitude. It gives a different perspective to hubris, and I can't think of many other works that dare to portray a very theatrical society like Japan in such a frank and snarky manner. This is the spirit of freedom of the doomer's Japan, where cynicism rules, but to the detriment of society but as fuel to drive people towards optimism and idealism after they have stripped themselves off of the lies that they told themselves.

In general, all of them are cynical in that they accept the VA ridiculous demand and have to put on a show their scope of training and responsibility. They follow orders and customs to please others around them, while always thinking the opposite. Not only that, they take horrible projects, with the knowledge that it is crap. As with Watari's thus far pattern. It is not a field of cynicism. Quite contrast in fact, just like Nietzsche, Watari sees fit that to justify idealism, cynicism is needed to strip down the facade, so that idealism can take over or be built.
As the story progresses, idealism kicks in, and possibly bored those who were excited about the previous cynicism. It was done through a literal goddess of idealism, Nanami, who is also cynically portrayed as a genuine airhead idiot who idolised the wrong “god”, so to speak. After all, idealists are the worst voters.

The producer, Kuzu, almost parallels Chitose, and shows how in Japanese society, the race for success pushes very honest and hardworking people into reprehensible behaviour and plans, all to succeed and repair their mental damage. I also love that throughout the story, him and the president are portrayed as silly idiots with immense power. But when it comes down to it, they are still idiots, but highly functional at the same time. Kuzu might have done a lot of damage, but he sets up almost everything in his project, balancing out the interest of the studio and the publisher. By balance out I mean pushing the limit, but that's what producers have to do to squeeze projects out at reasonable cost.

The president clearly has a lot of faith in his team, and is willing to act like he's going to hardball his staff to push them to do what he thinks would be good for their growth. He might not have been familiar with the trends, but his experience in dealing with people keeps his team afloat through trials and tribulations.

Those little and subtle details about the side cast is what I like about this over Shirobako which covers the same subject. That seemed like a story of and about the industry. This feels like a proper story, with the industry as a background character. I prefer this one, it’s still a story with a clear theme and its characters, while Shirobako is definitely more of a slice-of-life, about everything yet nothing.


Now, that's not to say I do not have problems with the show, even the plot and characters as a whole. The struggle of the big brother is not very well told. He's been given a lot of screen time but only during the final episodes did more of him open up. That's not the worst part. To me, the ending is the antithesis to the entire show. A damn concert? This is not an idol show.
Which brings me to the next point. The art style.

The colourful and eye pleasing characters design and animation, to me, kind of defeats the point of the show. The colour tone distracts me during heavier moments such as Chitose feeling isolated or Honou and Shibaraki going through their arc. In a world filled with greys, the colourful, detailed animations don't sit right. The characters' designs also don't add a lot to more serious moments when characters are in pain. Don't get me wrong, when Chitose is going through her growth period, the art did a great job bringing those emotions to her face. It's just, not the best. A good example of that done right is OreGairu season 2. Season 1 of that show did not have as much drama, and during more serious moments, the art style surprisingly brings out quite a bit of intensity but the colour palette didn't help much. Season 2 on the other hand did drama very well thanks to them upgrading the budget and changing the colour tone to be more, movie like? Realistic? Those colours helped elevate the rom com drama's emotional heavy moments. In this, it's pretty hard to take these characters' struggles seriously if the colours are so bright and cheerful, the characters design is from cute girls doing cute things animated show number 415.

There's a fine line to walk with that meta thing, seeing how the opening and the ending of the show is still very formulaic and lacking in any sort of snarky, out of box ideas to make the show more meta. I'm disappointed, to be honest. It has all the ingredients to be more meta, more revolutionary, more shocking to be out of the box. But in the same way that the plot outlines the failure of the animation industry to bring souls to the work, this, to me, did that very same thing. You might say it's intentionally contradicting, kind of like how Madoka characters design is deliberately cutesy and moe and its colour tone is very vibrant. I would say, this is just laziness. If the producers and director is in sync with the author's plot, this could have been a lot crazier than this almost opposite of the plot presentation. Did it add to the story? I wouldn't know to be honest. I can't imagine those who came for the cute girls doing cute things stay for the unlikable main character, and the cynics fully embrace the moment. I think only those who sit on the fence and fans of Watari would not have much trouble swallowing this. For me, however, the art is just not enough.'
Not only the art that's troubling me, and I rarely complain about music and sound direction, but I realised how brilliant the composer for OreGairu both seasons did with Watari's story tone. Girlish Number's mood is watery and bland due to the utterly generic and unmemorable music. When Chitose ran to the studio, I was waiting for something, anything to play to knock that moment out. All I got is something reminiscent of the usual cute girls doing cute things. Bland, generic, uninspired. I'm not sure if the sound and art directors, as a sign of rebellion to how the author is portraying them, intentionally ignore the tone of the story and go with what is the usual generic direction, masking his work as cute girls doing cute things to hurt its reputation and sales. If you are puzzled by why I am so disturbed by the generic music design. I would point to shows such as K-On, Haruhi no Yuuutsu, Evangelion, Bakemonogatari, Air Gear and everything by Yoko Kanno. Heck, even my arch-nemesis Shinkai has a very capable composer at his side that immediately incurs the mood, the emotion into the scenes, almost instantly. There's this very average and nonsensical show called Galilei Donna which is unworthy of its composer, who worked on Shirobako and Final Fantasy. I would have never made it to the end without his composition. Another piece of crap that was elevated by its music is the Deen's adaption of Fate Stay Night, who butchered the story and frankenstein it into something, but its music was extremely memorable, especially in contrast to the utterly forgettable Unlimited Blade Works TV series. All of these shows were better because the music is good. When the music is generic like this one, it feels like part of its soul is missing. I don't think I have ever been as disappointed in a soundtrack as I am with this. What a joke.

That being said, while I have dished out "cynic" and "cynicism" like Chinese factories producing consumers disposable craps, the entire point of the show is ultimately that while the VA world is full of cynics, the industry is all messed up, the value of individuals and their passion for their work is ever present. When Nanami is introduced and immediately jolts everyone with her infectious enthusiasm, you can see that Watari is ultimately an idealist, much like Nietzsche before him, while being less cryptic. It's a nice little lesson not only in the situation of the industry, or a funny depiction of it, but also one in the value of hardwork, professionalism and optimism. If I had more writing talent and time, I should have gone into a few scenes where they depict the ritual of the industry and the human face behind those facade, created to milk money of fans who don't really care buy into it anyway to run away from their own trouble. This is a little preview on how the show seems to me, and it's a damn surprising one, despite not being extraordinary, and well worth the time of those who are familiar with animation, and are looking for something a little different from the usual power fantasy garbage and more nonsense. Of course, this is not for those who are looking for a slice-of-life or are relatively new, it would just be a bore-fest, or worse, flies right over your head.


Small discussion:

I have given some thought to the entire package being very misleading. The trailer, poster of the show shows none of its main strengths, such as interesting cynical characters and fun writings. It seems to be a generic, cute girls doing cute things animated series. Combined this with the lacking in animation direction department, sound/music design and poorly throughout mood and tone of the series, it’s almost too meta that a story about making a half-assed animated show with some bright spot was half-assedly animated with some bright spot! Intentional or unintentional, it’s just too interesting not to discuss.

[SPOILERLESS REVIEW (with a little bit of spoilers, but there's a warning before it appears)]

Ok, so before I start, if you would prefer to listen to my review instead of read it, you can do so here as I know this might be a bit long. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiWxUTvu54M&t=646s

Idol anime, the window into the Japanese anime and music industry like nothing seen elsewhere. Idol anime are typically about the protagonist working their best perfecting their talents to become a successful idol, which in the end, they typically do. But this isn’t always the case, what if the idol isn’t successful in the industry and is crashing? This ... occurred with Wataru Watari’s 2016 light novel, Girlish Number. Today I will be talking about the high’s and lows of the anime adaptation of said manga.

To begin, I wanted to talk about some of the history behind girlish number, so you could get a feel of it. Girlish Number was originally written by Wataru Watari and was first released as a light novel on January 30, 2016, which would eventually come to an end in 2017. Later on, the light novel would revice two spin-offs by the names Girlish Number: momoka memorial, and Girlish Number Shura. Both of these stories don’t really contribute much to the overall story of girlish number, but can still be a fun read. On october 7, 2016, Watari’s novel was adapted by the anime studio Diomedea to produce an anime series of the same name. Girlish Number aired for 12 episodes and had mediocre feedback, resulting in a grad score of 6.88 on MAL. Was this score deserved? You’ll find out very soon.

To begin with the actual talk about the anime, I decided that I should probably begin with the characters to avoid confusion in later segments of the video. Girlish Numbers' main cast features Chitose Karasuma, Koto Katakura, Kazuha Shibasaki, Momoka Sonou, and Yae Kugayama. Chitose Karasuma is considered the lead of girlish number, she is a college student hoping to make it as an idol, in fact, most of these characters are college students. Chitose is known for her bratty personality and with amazing expressions, she is also known for her lazy, sloth-like personality, making her not really wanting to do any work. Will this come back to bite her? Koto Katakura is the oldest out of all the characters at the age of 26. Koto is known as being the otaku of the group and is also known for speaking in a regional dialect. Yae Kugayama is fairly new to the industry, similarly to chitose, she is known for being far too kind to the point where people say her words “hold no weight”. Momoka and Kazuha are known as the veterans of the group, they both are already famous idols who just happened to end up working on the same project as the other three members of the main cast. I really like the dynamics of the characters as they couldn’t be anymore different.

The next essential thing to this anime is its music and animation. I decided to combine the two of them as it's probably the part I have the least to talk about. To begin the anime adaptation chose to take a softer approach to its style, allowing some of the best facial expressions to do along with the comedy within the series. Compared to the manga or light novel, the anime seems to look completely different compared to its source material. Another thing to mention is just how different the characters look inside of the anime adaptation, I mean just look at manga chitose versus anime chitose. As for the music of girlish number, considering it's an idol anime, you would assume the music is on point, right? Well, you are absolutely correct! The anime adaptation features 6 unique songs featured throughout its 12 episodes, the most prominent being its opening, bloom, and it's ending, Ima wa Mijikashi Yume Miyo Otome. Personally, I believe the opening for girlish number couldn’t be any more perfect. The opening, Bloom, is as the title entails, blooming. The song is about wanting to be number one, sprouting the seeds of their career, hoping it will one day bloom into a famous idol. I guess you could say the same thing about my YouTube channel hehe. All in all, I believe girlish number did have solid animation and music.

Story (spoilerless)
The story of girlish number is about Chitose Karasuma, a college student aspiring to be an idol. The wikipedia description defines it as “College student Chitose Karasuma is determined not to do boring things as she enters the adult world. To this end, this bad-mannered beauty barges into a facility that trains would-be voice actors and actresses, somehow landing a job at "Number One Produce," a seiyuu agency managed by her older brother, Gojou. In Chitose's mind, she's poised for greatness, but finds herself at a loss when she continues to only get minor roles.” Essentially, Chitose is very lazy and self-centered, giving no care to the people around her. Since she is so lazy, she barely makes it in the industry relying on her brother to do most of the work, but will this all change? Another thing to mention is that Chitose isn’t really a singing idol, she's actually a voice actor, working in the anime industry. The story does take some breaks from Chitose to develop other members of the main cast, but I guess it isn’t essential for a story about Chitose.

Story (spoilers)
Alright so for those who are still here, let's get started. The story begins with Chitose’s debut as a Seiyuu. If I was to be brutally honest this first part wasn’t really my favorite as I thought it was a little bit bland to the point where I almost dropped the whole series. Not too soon after, we are first introduced to chitoses bratty personality, arguing with her brother and complaining about the roles he gets for her. Eventually, Chitose caught her lucky break, she managed to get a role of a main cast as the main heroine, but there was a twist. This was a harem anime, so there were multiple main heroines, so in reality, chitose wasn’t all that special. The other girls of this harem anime where all the girls mentioned within the characters section. In the next episode, we get even more of a glimpse at chitoses bratty personality, she starts flexing her main role to other rookie voice actors, even though we all know her role isn’t special. The main purpose of the episode was to let us get well acquainted with all the characters while also showing us the quality of the anime they're working on, which to put it simply, is terrible. So at this point we know that even though chitose has a main role, it's one for a low budget harem anime. In episode 3 the recording for the anime starts, which is when the laziness of chitose show. Since chitose put no effort into practicing for the recordings, her acting for them was absolutely horrendous. In this episode, we see Chitose realize how her laziness has affected her, causing her to reach out to her colleague, momoka, to learn how to properly voice act. As of episode 4, the budget for the anime really began to show, they weren’t on time with their production, leaving their fans disappointed. Also in this episode, the anime finally did debut, which ended up having a terrible launch, people hated it. Of course at the end of the day all she cared about was if she lost any followers over it. (also can we beat chitose in follower count, thank you)! As of episode 5, chitoses greed began to show, the anime was started to get sales and all chitose cared about was her paycheck. Meanwhile everyone was concerned about the sales of the series, all Chitose cared about was stuffing her face, showing the gluttonous side of Chitose. The end of this episode gave chitose exactly what was coming for her, a cyber troll attack exposing her for what she really is. The next episode shows how Chitose is still traumatized by her cyber attack to the point where she was too afraid to stare at a camera, although she brushed it off fairly easily. The other important plot in this episode was showing us how everyone was finding new jobs in the industry, meanwhile chitose is still slacking, with no new jobs. Episodes 7 and 8 are mostly development for Suzuka and Momoka, so for the sake of this review I’m gonna brush over it, but these were still some solid episodes. One thing I have failed to mention prior to now was that throughout the past 8 episodes, chitose was constantly reminded that if she keeps on being lazy, she would end up getting replaced in the industry as she was easily replaceable. This occurred when Nanami was added to the mix, namani was cute, kind, dedicated, essentially everything chitose wasn’t. Nanami began to jump in popularity eventually taking some of Chitose’s roles, and eventually even Chitoses manager. Episode 10 is about Chitose realizing the mistakes she's made along the way, causing her to become depressed. This goes on throughout episode 11, but in the process we learn that all the idols were dependent on chitose charismatic personality the whole time. It wasn’t until Chitose’s brother came to cheer her up that she returned to the industry. The final episode, episode 12, is about Chitose's huge turning point. Chitose decided to change in order to stay in the industry so her seed could bloom. In this episode, Chitose said something I will never forget, essentially, Chitose says she acknowledges that she's horrible, easily replaced, and bratty, but even so, she loves the industry and will give it her all no matter what. I can really relate to this, as a small YouTuber, I could easily be replaced by essentially anyone with a bigger subscriber count, but even so, I want to put all my effort into the best videos for you guys so that I can show my passion for this. The anime has a semi-happy ending as the anime they were working on managed to just barely make enough money to produce a second season.

Final verdict
The anime adaptation of Girlish Number seemed so different from its source material, but I would certainly say this was for the best. The anime redesigns I believe are far better then the source materials, making the anime even better. Although the story did have its ups and downs, but the quality of the ups makes up for the downs the anime went through. Some of the said ups can get really emotional, improving the watch of girlish number. As said earlier in the video, the music and animation are on point for the direction the anime was going, I don’t really see a way it could be improved one, the vibrant colors the anime has along with the amazing soundtrack, there is just no way it could get any better. All things considered, I decided to give Girlish Number a… 9/10! The only real reason the anime didn’t get a 10/10 was because there are some issues with the story, but nonetheless, this is an amazing anime and you should watch it too.

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 did came across a few anime that started kind of bad but it got really good later on.

Story: so the story is about Chitose who wants to become a actress but she is having a hard time landing a real good role and or a main role and just get stuck with the lesser known roles and what not so she is able to finally land a lead role in a anime but of course that wont come with out some hardships and also with dealing with the voice acting the hate from other people ect. so she pretty much learns to adept to everything while trying to get out of the mob roles and into the spotlight as a lead in ... a anime.

Art: i don't really knack on the art that much but ill say the art is really well done here nothing else to say here.

Sound: sound is really good actually loved both the OP and the ED here and also loved all the Voice actors here.

Character: Chitose is the one of the many female lead of the anime and well she is a pretty snobby and pretty much just wants to become popular also she can be pretty much a case to handle sense she just wants to become popular and noticed by everyone that's how i would describe as her in general i loved her she was a really good character even though with everything i listed. Koto i mean i personally could just describe her as happy go lucky and just a friendly face as for her character i didn't mind her that much just meh to me honestly. Yae is pretty much the person gets like really shy when she talks to the others and what not but again is a happy go lucky person in herself when she doesn't get shy like really quick like she does as for her character again like Koto i didn't mind her just meh to me. Kazuha is pretty much the person who doesn't really show much emotion if at all honestly that's the real easy way to describe her (she will show it sometimes though) as for her character again just meh to me. Momoka is honestly almost like Koto and Yae (but to a degree in terms of Yae) as just being happy and go lucky honestly as for her character i mean again meh i didn't mind all the characters i honestly just really loved Chitose in the anime.

Enjoyment: What i liked: i mean for the slice of life it does it really damn well and also the comedy in this was just straight up good and most of the characters in this were really enjoyable to me. What i didn't like: only real bad thing for this for me was the some of the characters in this i personally didn't care for but that's my only real gripe with the anime.

Overall: ill be giving this a 8 the comedy and the slice of life was done to a tee and just really damn good as to the character (that i liked) being just really well done here and the voice actors being really well here as well a anime that is worth the watch

I am a huge fan of Wataru Watari and I need to get that out of the way before I dive into my review. This doesn't necessarily reflect on my enjoyment or lack of enjoyment associated with this show and I have admittedly not touched the source material for this show. I will say, first and foremost, I have no idea why people enjoy the character that is Chitose Karasuma. She is awful, she is disdainful, she is prideful, she is a pain, and worst of all this doesn't really change by the end. They just continue to allow her to be the way she ... is because it supposedly makes her a good seiyuu. The supporting cast is alright, but none of them are particularly great as individuals. I think Kazuha and Momoka stand out as well-rounded characters, but we only get a semblance of true depth from these two as the rest of the characters are mostly passed over in favor of a more general plot that targets the shortcomings of the animation industry and the many pitfalls that both source authors and everyone responsible for adaptation.

The skeleton for a great series is present, but I found myself frustrated with the lack of enjoyable moments. It felt like I was waiting for a character to grow and possible become a reasonable human being, but instead they double down and continue to be a trash character. Parallel to the producer, Kuzu-san, who just so happens to also be a garbage character. The motivations for these characters to become rich or famous or respected, they're shallow. Is this realistic? Maybe in some ways, but the characters themselves are caricatures or portraits of real-life stereotypes. It could be said that this was intentional on Watari's part, again I have not touched the source material so I can't rightfully say whether this would be more or less clear based on the original work.

This series does give a good idea of a story that doesn't necessary fulfill the wishes of the audience, maybe it was never meant to. This series in ways gives me Haruhi vibes. Our main character is a selfish brat who has all the other characters at her whims. What made Haruhi much more interesting, however, is that Haruhi has the other characters on a string and if they do anything adverse to her plans the world could end. Chitose has none of this power and yet still manages to have the others cater to her moods.

Story gets a 5. It's right in between really good and really bad, so that means I'm neutral on it. I was able to watch the entire series without having an aneurysm but did I enjoy watching it? It's a question I'm not sure I can answer because I really enjoyed the take on life in the animation industry for all the characters, but the characters we followed made me grit my teeth at times. The heartfelt moments with Chitose, I honestly felt like she deserved to feel like crap. So maybe I got satisfaction from those moments simply for the fact that her brother's opinions were validated. Kazuha's upbringing being displayed was a highlight of the storytelling.

Art is good, gets a 7. Some animations were awkward as hell, a great example being the scene right before Chitose completely disrespects Gojo by saying he wasted his time trying to be a seiyuu, he waddles into the frame. A lot of the characters were clean and well-done, Nanami seemed to be a little less focused on in terms of design than the rest of the characters. She's young of course, but not much younger than the rest. Some scenes delivered very well, like Chitose running to the recording studio and falling, breaking the phone and getting soaked.

I give the show a 6, which I think is more than reasonable for something that is a subjective score. I don't think this is a great show, but I saw plenty of ways it could be an amazing show. As a viewer, I often look for character development and design as a cornerstone for how well a show is written. Believable characters create a believable story. This show started off with believable characters, but by the end the illusion faded. Chitose's importance was emphasized while her growth was stunted. Her attitude was in direct opposition to everyone else involved and she stood her ground at the end to applause and acceptance (besides the author's liaison who appeared to be the only rational being by the end of the show).

The main character is a very dislikable girl. She's constantly ignoring her own faults, overestimating her ability and trash talking others - not just her coworkers, but her seniors, her brother (who's the only reason she has any jobs in the first place, and the only funny character in the show) and the industry in general, considering she's actually terrible at her job. She refuses to put in effort or accept criticism, constantly complains she isn't making money in a career that doesn't pay even the biggest stars all that much, and generally acts like a small child instead of an adult. She never once ... seems to be enjoying herself and by episode 3 I was questioning why she bothered trying to be a voice actor in the first place. In fact, everyone seems to hate their jobs for the most part, and while it's understandable that it would be frustrating working on a bad quality and badly managed project, it doesn't make it any more enjoyable to watch. They try to keep you interested by making you feel bad for the cast, but they're all so uninteresting or unlikeable that I literally did not care. The filler episode was just mindless exploitation and complaining. Dropped it halfway though.

An anime about a self-entitled little girl who needs a reality check and to stop acting so self-obsessed. Everything the main girl - Chitose does is embarassing but also rude to all the other characters around her. Unwatchable. You spend your time feeling guilty for everyone as they have to deal with someone so full of arrogance. I tried to continue through and hope the story would develop her character. After 5 episodes I decided I couldn't deal with this girl anymore, which is dissapointingas the synopsis seemed so promising and the other girls showed so much promise as cute and engaging characters, but the ... show focuses on the worst written one.

Good anime but easy to forgot. I really like the artstyle even tho it was a bit shiny/ The topic is interesting, if we like the job of this show, i can't stop myself from imaginining the voice actresses when they had to do an anime about their job with a studio who do a ot so great anime. Characters are hard to remember we dont even have to remember their name. But i really liked the personality of the main character who is really funny. I'd like to say, yes this is not the best anime of the world but it's still nice to ... spend time.The first part of the anime is a little bit boring because it only deals with the development of one char not really useful for me, it wasn't really good to put that for the beginning, at least the second part is more interesting and better.


Animé sympa mais oubliable. J'aime beaucoup les graphismes bien que ce soit peut-être un peu brillant. Le sujet est intéressant, du moins si on aime l'univers du doublage, d'ailleurs je peux pas m’empêcher d'imaginer les doubleuses qui font un anime sur leur métier mais sur un studio qui fait un animé moyen. Les personnages sont facilement oubliable, a tel point qu'on retient a peine leur nom, par contre le caractère de l’héroïne est très drôle. Autant prévenir oui ce n'est pas le meilleur animé du monde mais c'est ok pour passer du temps, la première partie de l'animé n'était pas utile pour moi, elle servait qu'a développer surtout un personnage secondaire, la deuxième partie est bien mieux

The main character in this is the cheeky Chitose, an aspiring voice actor. She's a breath of fresh air in this genre where the leads tend to be very wholesome characters. It's not that Chitose is a bad person at all, but she's quite the arrogant, self-centered, brash individual. Her conversations with her brother, Gojou, is by far the most interesting thing in this anime because we get to see how far Chitose can go on thinking very highly of herself.

Girlish Number is a show about a group of voice actors, most of them just getting into the business. We get to see a little ... bit of their daily lives, talking with the producers, the recordings sessions and the conventions. The characters are interesting enough and the plot gives ample space for character development so it's always fun to follow this people around.

There's this one scene where the girls meet the author whose's work is the base for the anime they're recording and they do their very best to avoid him. I wonder if this particular scene comes from personal experience or was just a moment of brilliant inspiration. I wish there could be more awkward moments like that between authors and actors.