Girlish Number’s second episode wasn’t quite as entertaining as the first, but it had a lot more structural work to do, so I’m happy to be forgiving. My main concern now is exactly how farcically the show will present its take on the industry – too much absurdity and incompetence, and it just won’t feel like a world at all. But the dialogue is still very strong, and that does a lot of work by itself.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below.

The show’s presentation of the different roles in the production is more farcical and cynical, which may not be for the best. The show has to have grounding to have bite

The yellow-haired product manager is an aggravating fool. Not only is his presence annoying, but he’s so unprofessional it makes it hard to take things seriously in a dramatic sense

I love how realistically terrible Chitose’s main character is

Chitose’s earnest friend Yae

Katakura Koto is the other girl

This show needs an earnest person like Yui – the show can’t work without a genuinely committed, positive person showing how you actually have to engage with the world

A harem, so five heroines

Chitose so bitter

They’re going to debut as an idol unit

Yeah, the blonde dude is a producer

They’re also massively simplifying the production pipeline. It’s tough having Shirobako to compare this to

Yae’s fear of this public event is very understandable. And the situation, where they just rush through the program, is also a relatable one

“I hate talking about a project we haven’t even recorded yet.” Yeah, that does make sense. You can’t say you’re confident in your work or anything

The PV actually isn’t bad at all! The character designs are rough, but the animation is pretty reasonable

The characters do have different voices, which is important

Koto actually knows about animation, which helps – instead of showing us the animators, we have an animation buff

“None of the people I started with are left.” Dang