Shirobako – Episode 12 – Learning a Thing from a Veteran Animator

Since I didn’t cover the last episode for the first half of Shirobako, it’s time to find out if Musashino Animation will finish the final episode or not…

While Aoi managed to find someone with Kano’s help, it’s surprising that the person she should be looking for was working for the company all along. It happens to be Sugie Shigeru, a veteran animator with a lot of experience. I think the problem that most veteran animators face these days is that while they are famous for a lot of hits during the early years of animation such as the 70s, trends change. It just happens that not too many shows incorporate animals (besides cats and dogs), especially horses into Anime. Because he never gotten used to the newer style of drawing Anime, he mostly stood on the sidelines teaching new animators and doing freelance work.

Although this is unfortunate, it’s a harsh reality that veteran animators face. Because of this, I think new animators lose some things in the process since they simply don’t know how to animate certain things that are uncommon without spending the time studying it such as horses. This can explain why Aoi had a difficult time finding someone do that scene. To me, it was a good idea for her to ask him to do the horse scene since it broadens the experiences for other animators that haven’t drawn things like horses. While they managed to complete the final episode on time, I won’t be surprised if Shigeru start holding classes so he can teach some his techniques to new animators.

While this episode marks the end of Exodus’s production, it has been an interesting experience to see how anime is made. While some of it was idealistic, it shows that working on an anime production is not easy since deadlines are very tight. Although the second half brings in new people to Musashino Animation, we will finally get to see how Anime adaptations are made. People tend to look down them because it’s not faithful to the source material, not satisfied with certain arcs being changed or left out and other reasons. I think the second half will be interesting to watch since we will finally get some idea of how animation studios typically handle adaptations and the challenges surrounding them. After all, adaptations are a different beast since a studio does not have much creative freedom compared to original work. Furthermore, they are only given a certain number of episodes (typically 12-13) to focus on the main plot. ¶