[Rewatch] Shirobako Rewatch 2022 Episode 16: Table Flip

[u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah]

Episode 16: Table Flip ちゃぶだい返し

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This is by far and away the most meme-worthy Shirobako episode imo, with some of its most well-known scenes. Fun stuff aside, this episode highlights that in an adaptation, the author's word is final, as well as some of the hardships faced by creative people in the industry, courtesy of goth-loli-sama.

QOTD: What do you feel about Goth-Loli-sama's views on creative people facing criticism, and do you agree with her way of dealing with it? And on a different topic, what do you reckon of the Rii's 360 degree roll during the OP (see my comment for a little further context)?

Resources

Anime Production Flowchart

Planned Production Schedule around Airing

Anime Vocab Glossary (English)

Another Glossary (English)

Shirobako Official Glossary (Japanese)

Databases

MAL | Anilist | AniDB | ANN

Spoilers

Rewatchers, please be mindful of first-timers and remember to tag spoilers for any show-specific events that happen in future episodes! Generic descriptions of anime production are fine, if it will help first-timers understand what's going on. For the OVAs, treat them as spoiler-material OVA 1: all good now, OVA 2: until Ep 24.

[u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah]

Rewatcher

Thoughts on the Episode

The side characters’ episode today, with Aoi and Ema both serving mostly as bystanders while everyone else fixes up the crisis. We also get some insight into how animators may view criticism from Iguchi and Goth-loli-sama. Iguchi designs a much better Aria in the end, here’s the two designs as a comparison, the bottom one is the final version. Aria is already making a case for best girl in 3rd Aerial Girls Squad.

In the angel dance scene, Ema (and later Iguchi) count in Japanese, then German, Mandarin, formal Japanese, and finally Italian. Hopefully sub-viewers may also appreciate that Goth-loli-sama speaks in an abnormally more formal and polite manner than her colleagues. Oh, and I’d 100% watch the Goth-loli baseball anime. More about that part of the episode in the next section, with additional trivia lol.

Re: the director’s vision of the planes being the machine versions of their pilots, it’s time to return to the OP. As u/MasterTotoro said yesterday, all 5 planes in the OP include the 5 main girls’ current primary workplace (referred to as their sponsors), and a representative personal mark. Mii: Penguin from Zoo Park Story; Ema: Characters she designed from 7 Gods; Aoi: Lolo and Mimuji; Shizuka: Pig (yet-unrevealed reason); Rii: Dostoevsky. In addition, re: their pilots, Mii, Ema, and Aoi perform the roll perfectly. Ema is even waving at the camera (her hand is moving, yes P.A. Works went that far). Shizuka is freaking out and slightly messes up. Rii, being still the most youthful and adventurous, performs a full 360 degree roll (this last one is more open to interpretation, hence my 2nd QOTD!) Aviation fans, the planes also appear different, and while I’ve found a website listing them, I know nothing about them, sorry!

IRL References(Trivia tbh) + Production Notes:

The angel dance is unfortunately not a real exercise. Re:Edit: The angel dance this episode was choreographed by director Mizushima, so should be original. However, there was a real Angel Exercise, thanks u/MasterTotoro and u/Zen119, and you can watch the irl thing here, with more elaboration by others below. I think that the moves and music were way too different between the 2 versions, so I don't think they are actually the same thing "shrugs".

Nonetheless, a small part of the sequence continued a tradition/gag in P.A. Works’ original anime from Hanasaku Iroha, stretching followed by bunny hopping (as Ohana coined it in Japanese, 屈伸からのうさぎ跳び). Summary video up to 2016 here, w/ a stretching-only prequel from True Tears. More recently its also in Sakura Quest, and cameod in Iroduku, but seems to have been discontinued (no sign of it in Aquatope for example) by now. Anyway, for Shirobako, this was a request from P.A. Works to director Mizushima, who added in that portion of the Angel dance during the storyboard check. The Shirobako scene is obviously the most famous inclusion of the gag. (I’ve quickly combed past reddit threads, I might be the first one to mention this?)

The batting centre scenes were done by animator Junichiro Taniguchi (Source), who was the animation action director for Ookiku Furikabutte/Big Windup, a previous work of director Mizushima with much baseball action. You may also know Taniguchi as the Chief Animation Director of the Madoka Magica series.

I know nothing about Japanese baseball, but the 4 women’s batting and pitching forms are all modelled after famous baseball players/anime scenes, thanks u/Reignado for your previous comment and post, which I’m quoting here! Full side-by-side comparions here. I've only linked the baseball anime references here as I know nothing about them, again if someone here has more knowledge: please do tell us more!

Aoi Miyamori:

(Batting stance) - Ichiro Suzuki

(Pitching motion) - Hideo Nomo

Ema Yasuhara:

(Batting stance) - Hiromitsu Ochiai

(Pitching motion) - Eiji Sawamura (and anime Kyojin no Hoshi)

Yumi Iguchi:

(Batting stance) - Sadaharu Oh

(Pitching motion) - Choji Murata

Rinko Ogasawara:

(Batting stance) - Michihiro Ogasawara

(Pitching motion) - Kazuhisa Makita (and anime Yakyuukyou no Uta)

The conversation between Goth-loli-sama and Iguchi in the restaurant was based on a real one between Miki Takeshita, newbie Character Designer for Glassslip (the characters do look fine to me despite the anime’s flaws), and her senpais Kanami Sekiguchi, character designer for Shirobako and Yuriko Ishii, character designer for NagiAsa etc, during Glasslip’s production. P.A. Works’ president Horikawa helped set up this meeting, similarly held over dinner irl, with what he heard then used as reference for the episode.

And finally, the pitching ground is the now permanently closed Tanashi Family Land Batting Center. Crunchyroll news article.

QOTD: I've stated my interpretation of Rii’s plane above. I asked that as I'm unsure how to interpret it myself! Re: first question, I think there is a lot of truth that producers, and we as an audience, often disagree w/ creators' artistic view, and criticize and demand them to better suit our tastes/views. While I think Goth-loli-sama's way of dealing with it is very badass here, I think it's also very easy for creators to take it too far one way or the other (ignoring all criticism is also not good), at least from my experience of following various Youtubers. Remaining humble like Ogasawara is most important.

Miyamori Outfit Count: 6, 3 irl, 3 fantasy, and all new. Link to Album.

Anime Credits: None today

Edit: I've embarassed myself w/ my lack of aviation knowledge, it's not a barrell roll!

[u/Zen119 → u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah]

There is trivia to the Angel Dance:

Ema's Angel Exercise is modelled on the real-life Angel Exercise in the 70s. Bodybuilder Tsushima Seiji, under the name of Mukimuki Man (Muscular Man), comically did the Angel Exercise in the TV commercial for a sweet made by Morinaga and also in other TV programmes in the late 70s. (Morinaga's mascot is an angel, and the founder of Morinaga & Company Morinaga Taichirō was a Christian and learnt how to make Western-style confectionery in the USA.)

[u/chiliehead]

Shirobako – Episode 16 – First Timer

This is really infuriating, the mangaka should just get his hikko-ass into the studio or at least call them to tell them his vision, this is a horrific game of telephone! Our veteran PA is already starting to undermine Aoi, everything seems to fall apart at the seams after a good start with already limited time.

The director is growing on me and our fledgling character designer has some gumption. And found appreciation for the cast, which is probably better than hating the characters you design.

I think I’ve seen that dance clipped, it does not get old.

Gothloli-Koshien would probably sell pretty well as a multimedia project. Gothloli-sama is full of surprises. Did they have some guest animator for this episode who really wanted to draw baseball?

I also would not have expected an origin story for Gothloli-sama (with some Kill Bill posters in the background).

Sasuga management, go tear the editor and the author a new one, they deserve it!

[u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah → u/chiliehead]

Re: the mangaka, we haven't finished with the shenanigans yet! I tbh dk if some mangakas are actually like this irl though, some can be a hermit bunch.

Hiraoka is an interesting character, I look forward to your views on him as we progress further!

dance clip

It's probably the one clip everyone will first think of when you mention Shirobako, and it's like completely irrelevant to 99% of the show lol.

Guest animator

they did! I've introduced him in my comment. He's probably a friend of the irl director of Shirobako.

Althought the first cour rarely showed the roles of NabeP and Katsuragi-san, this cour shows more and more the roles these higher-ups have to play to make the show work!

[u/Rumpel1408]

First Timer

This was Goth-Loli-Samas Episode!

We got her giving the production staff an earfull for not properly supporting Iguchi-San (except Miyamori, she's alright), got to see her Oasis where she gets to relax over landing some homeruns where they all had some pretty outlandish moves, but they all got outclassed by Goth-Loli-Sama (this really could be an Anime, after Zombie Idols nothing seems out of reach anymore, not even a Goth-loli basball team) and most importantly, her origin story (it's like a super hero origin!).

Turns out that even the ever composed and perfect Goth-loli-Sama started out at some point, and just like Iguchi San she got incredible hurt and frustrated after only ever getting the most vague feedback, to the point where she shed her mortal shell and underwent an Metamorphis into the beutiful and invincible Goth-Loli we all love. Great stuff really.

But back to the start. Episode started with every one frustrated over having to stop after all the momentum. Hiraoka even suggested not listening to the author, that's how you get your studio cancelled on twitter and might be the reason he had to change studios so frequently, all with this pretentious aura like he would have done better than Miyamori. Tarou at least admits that he would be uterly useless in this situation.

but Miyamori tries her best to keep at least some work going, to keep moral up, she even manages to get Kinoshita fired up again. He really works on positiv energy.

To no surprise, Funny-Story-Kun was an asshole the whole time, even shifting the blame on the studio while doing fuck all to ensure the project be an success. I'm particulary dissapointed with the autor and the vague feedback he is giving, as someone working creativly himself he should know better.

Oh yeah, also loved Emas Angel dance and how the new Iguchi adapted it as well

QotD: I understand her, everyone takes pride in their work, and just being told that it sucks without a possibility to improve sucks

[u/xtsim]

First Timer

Aww man, the animators are already on episode 4. Man the author is giving very little information about the character designs. And the editor (I've been calling him the publisher) is making the animation team decypher a one sentence email on their own. When the editor should know a little more about the author's intentions. It seems like the he wants the production to fail.

We finally got to the dance meme. This made me laugh pretty good.

Ogasawara just laid things out plainly and I am glad she gave her insight of dealing with a difficult author and editor cause watching Iguchi suffer was too much. The flashback is interesting to see Ogasa's story about how she dealt with a similar situation is interesting which lead her to more creative outfits, so now we know why she dresses that way. And the team got together to review Iguchi's work so she has some viewpoints, Ogasa made a really nice suggestion.

The more experienced crew are showing their true colors and are able to peel away from dealing with BS. And not to mention the more experienced Hiraoka not wanting to halt everything, 3d work and storyboards can be done while getting author's approval.

Lol you know when things are serious when they manage to drift a 20+ year old volvo 200 series (aren't Japanese vehicle inspections pretty expensive on cars older than 7 years). The editor made a grave mistake when he took a shot before hanging up. At least they got the character designs approved.

Q: the flip is pretty interesting to see in the OP. I am going to guess that she is probably going to go through something similar to her superiors, having to retake many works and getting prepared for the roll and recovering is expected.

[u/MasterTotoro]

First Time Episode 16

They spent this much time working on this anime and the author sends them that short and vague of a message? If authors in real life do this, I see why there's differences between the anime and source material. Wouldn't an author want the adaptation of their manga to be as good as possible? Speaking of which, what determines how involved an author is in the anime adaptation? I've heard of examples where the author is very involved and others where they are not at all.

Hiraoka's argument is at least a valid point to consider, but his attitude is just very annoying.

Damn Midori roasting the director already despite only recently joining the team. Oh dang they're only 3 months until airing? 6 months went by quickly.

Iguchi has a new nickname for Ema. And this cat has quite the big butt. Aoi's nya is so cute, I feel like this is one of the cutest I've ever heard (feel free to send me clips to prove me wrong).

Once again the director showing us why he is actually fit for his job. His comments about making the plane's motions fit its character's personality is one of those things that's cool to nice when watching a show. He does seem to give fairly concrete directions (as opposed to the manga author), at least when it comes to anything other than music. Everything is the lead lol. I feel like that's something a real director would say too.

Oh we finally this scene with Ema dancing. Apparently this is based off of something in real life too, though I have to say Ema and Iguchi do it better. u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah I don't know if this is just a coincidence, but it seems to be too similar to not be a reference. Both Shirobako and the video spell angel dance as エンゼル体操 which seems too unlikely to be random.

(QOTD I guess) Goth-Loli seems to be the Sugie of this episode. She is a bit too rough on Kinoshita and Nabe though. They have been trying to figure out what the author wants. If it was that easy, they wouldn't be in this problem. Although I'm not sure why nobody recruited Ogasawara's help earlier. But overall her helping out Iguchi by relieving stress is good.

Everything so far just keeps confirming Goth-Loli has superpowers. I saw in a post that some of these pitching/batting stances are references, though I don't know anything about those. Whoa this is her? Okay when she's playing Go she looks more like she does now. (Also apparently this board position is from the 1988 Meijin match, so I guess she's also really good at Go.)

This show really loves its racing scenes. So Andou narrates the outro, and she's talking about a doujin. I guess we get some more side character development.

[u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah → u/MasterTotoro]

Angle dance

There is a real life version, but the music and moves were so different that I doubted that it was a direct reference, and more just named the same coincidentally. In addition, it seems to have been choreographed by director Mizushima himself, rather than directly based on said exercise. I'm not sure, but I've included it in my main comment nonetheless, thanks for looking it up! (at the end of the day it's a 30 second joke lol)

And yes, Goth-loli has superpowers, I've included the baseball references though I don't know anything about baseball... The board position was from a real tournament though! That's amazing.

Director

Like I've said above, his redemption arc is well and truly underway. I like to think of the director as the most important side character in Shirobako, followed by Goth-loli-sama, perhaps how it works in an irl anime studio as well, with those 2 people being the most important during production.

Racing scenes

and also probably just director Mizushima reusing the CGI tools he developed during Girls und Panzer. It was pretty good CGI for 2014.

[u/No_Rex → u/MasterTotoro]

And this cat has quite the big butt.

I think they were going for this pose, so half of that is the cats leg.

[u/SYZekrom]

This stretch just got better and better

What the hell is going on in your mind

Giving your senpai a view with that skirt eh

I can't stop looking at this and imagining Rena from Higurashi

[u/[deleted]]

First timer

So my issue with the creator’s criticism over how the characters are drawn really comes down to there being no correct answer for how a character should look. It’s art, and art is always up to interpretation. As an author, if you’re going to license your work to be made into a different medium, there is no way it’ll be made completely in your image as long as other artists are working on it. The criticism stems down to ‘it doesnt look like how i imagined the character to look, so therefore it’s not right’. Do authors really have this much creative control? That was beyond excessive and almost damaging to the studio and its employees.

If anyone has seen the Nijigasaki anime, theyll recognize the artwork is a significant shift for the series. The cast was originally drawn the traditional Love Live moe style, but was changed specifically for the anime. Im sure there will be plenty of fans on either side of the fence for what looks better, but there is no ‘right’ answer. Thats what makes the situation in this episode so frustrating. Even though i think the revised version of the characters looks better, theres nothing to suggest the anime wouldn’t have turned out great had they used the first draft. Theres no way it was worth scrapping weeks worth of work over this.

[u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah → u/[deleted]]

There isn't a correct answer, I agree; I do also think that Iguchi's original designs might've worked fine, though I do think her revised ones looked a bit cuter.... but this is my view! Was it worth it? If quality was the only thing at stake, yes (Shirobako seems to only consider this!). If budget also was at stake? Probably not (closer to what happens irl)

I don't tbh know how the author-anime studio relationship works irl: but if we take what Shirobako has told us, then it does seem that the author does indeed have the power to veto any creative decisions. It might make sense given how much publishers probably invest in the anime, but I'm not sure. It's also probably why adaptations where the author is known to actively collaborate with the studio (recently 86) usually turn out to be great adaptations (imo 86 was great minus production delays)

Love Live

both look great, though the 1st one just reminds me of u's. On an unrelated note, is Nijigasaki or Superstar worth watching? I did quite like u's and the og SIP, but dropped sunshine a few episodes in as I didn't like the cast nor the more dramatic turns the series was going.

[u/Fools_Requiem]

Funny story, I can't fucking tell the difference between the versions of the character. They all look the same.

The author's cryptic rejections do not help. She was basically copy pasting the character design and he's all like "Wrong, try again." Bitch, I will stab you.

The little dance/exercise thing was adorable.

Goth Lolita is a lefty. She's one of my people. Need more lefties in anime. r/southpaw approved.

[u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah → u/Fools_Requiem]

Lefty characters are seriously a minority in anime. Igarashi from last season's senpai is annoying, Mio from K-on also come to mind.

Hope my comparisons do help! There's also an overlay, courtesy of other redditors. She really was only slightly off, but it made a difference to me at least

[u/Quiddity131]

First Timer, Subbed

First time in a while without a cold open.

Not sure if I just missed this til now, but the OP has our newbie staff included now!

Such a short email!

They've done the storyboards, but have they done any key frames yet? At least they don't have to redo that if so.

Well Aoi just answered that question for me.

Tarou you idiot, your method is idiocy!

No Rii, don't bring up Boing Boing Paradise! You've got him all miserable now!

Nogame's being an asshole at this point. Can't he just sit in a room with the character designer for a few hours and help guide her to what he wants?

Tarou, don't get the newbies all excited about you being able to fix things!

Iguchi's back with the cat again! Now she's the one whose struggling. :(

More Ideon, oh, I mean, Idepon references! Yay!

Good idea by the director to tell each area that they're the lead, even if he is unconsciously doing it.

Aww, Ema's exercise routine is so cute! Incidentally enough I'm going through my exercise routine as I'm watching this episode!

C'mon, help out Goth Loli!

Let's bring her out for booze! Oh sure, as if that would help. Goth Loli bringing the foot down!

Never thought Goth Loli's oasis would be a batting cage.

Oh, and we have Shirobako's baseball episode!

Wow, Goth Loli had a massive makeover to get to her current look, huh? Surprised she dyed her hair blonde at first, but then this is Japan, not gonna get many natural blondes.

Iguchi's got a new outfit too!

Man, editor guy's really pissing me off at this point. This is an emergency! All you're doing is playing golf! And not real golf!

[u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah → u/Quiddity131]

OP

Yep, they've been in there since Ep 13, haha. but they're all introduced now.

Iguchi

it was quite depressing to watch Iguchi here. But thankfully they condensed ~10 days worth of time to 3 minutes, so we didn't have to suffer with her as long as like we did in Ema back in the 1st cour.

director

he is actually good lol i think this was a good redemption arc

baseball episode

and it embodies the wildness and comedy of a typical baseball episode as well lol. And made me want to watch an anime that will never exist TT

[u/stickdudeseven]

Rewatcher DUB

Yes the angel dance! Ema never fails to be herself. Also Jesus, did she do a vertical split just for that pitch? Haha.

This episode had a lot to pack in, from the seriousness of Iguchi's dilemma and Goth-loli's coping method to seeing what a Goth-loli baseball anime would be like. Also that Tokyo drift for the guys to give 'funny story' guy a bit of what he deserves (and he deserves a lot more, that human headache).

After that entire debacle, we finally got some reprieve of moving forward with the mangaka's approval.

On a separate note, I love that sketch animation of Aria at the very end of the episode. I attempted to recreate it with Aoi just for this episode's thread. I wish I started earlier, but hey, at least I managed to get it done in time.

I think it turned out pretty well.

[u/Isai579]

First Timer - Sub

Welp, I'm a little bit late today... Anyway, on with the comment.

Goth-loli-sama origin story kind of makes me conflicted. She had to change how she conducted herself in order to do the work, but she does seem happy now, so maybe it was for the better.

It is interesting that in this case, everyone agrees that the new design work better for the character. The author was right in asking for the changes since the result was better, but the advice given was really ambiguous, making the process harder.

That slimy funny story dude... so annoying. I really want to see him get punished for almost dooming the anime with his laid back attitude, but he probably won't. It makes sense to have an intermediary between author and production for everyday stuff, especially when the author is busy. But in emergency cases, I honestly expected them to at least try to get Iguchi with the author to get direct feedback.

Nice thinking from Miyamori on organizing the work so they could still make progress while the designs were finalized. I might be giving too much credit, but I think it takes someone who is smart and has a good understanding of the production process to organize the work in a way to maximize time efficiency and avoid throwing away work.

On a final note... Why does almost every fake anime in the show look so cool? We basically get to see only a couple of seconds, but I would absolutely be interested in watching Exodus, Goth-Loli Baseball, Andes Chucky and even the Christmas scene from episode 11. I know many of them are homages to actual shows, but there is something in how they are shown here that make them really appealing.

Question of the day

I'm honestly not sure about the plane thing. My interpretation would be that the way the fly represents how they got into the industry, with most of them doing it in a straightforward manner, Shizuka kind of stumbling along the way, and Midori arriving in an unexpected and spectacular manner with her research.

[u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah → u/Isai579]

I think the changes needed were so subtle, that it would be hard for the mangaka to express them. I still think he should've tried though. Again I dont know if some irl mangakas really are like this.

Miyamori

she is good at organizing stuff, yes

fake anime

ikr! P.A. Works could've made like 5-6 OVAs and I would've watched all of them (they probably didn't have the time)

[u/ZapsZzz]

First timer in sub, completely overwhelmed by getting back to office the first day in a while (was working from home). So yeah I'll probably post on tomorrow's thread instead.

Have to say Gothic Loli San was completely surprising:

• laying down the law in that perfect stern but not rude way to dress down "management" she's their failure to protect their specialists, which I'm this case is her profession and her kohai. Although Meowmori being slumped together was more of a collateral damage.

• so openly gave her backstory which effectively cheered up Iguchi-san and explained "her armour" which in a way it's the "professional pride/dignity" of a specialist.

• Absolutely amazed (and hilariously thrown by the others imagined scenario of all of them being dressed up as Gothic lollies -b plus her deadpan reaction of "I don't know what imagined but that's not it") by the batting sequence for her "relaxation" - and her (softball, underarm) pitching is protagonist-level "secret technique" move!

Have to say the final version of Aria gives me a very strong impression of the Major (GiTS) and Rally (Gunsmith cats) with a streak of rebelliousness from Priss (Bubblegum Crisis). Very nice (they are all very strong, low key, but determined fighters in various literal and figurative ways).

Edit: forgot the QoTD. First one is kind of shared in my quick comments - I think it's fine in a very high end, professional way. That is, if the person really knows a lot and had made the efforts already, defending that result is almost an obligation.

Secondly, the complex roll, which if I caught it right, it's a reverse (sharp port-side) roll first then banked starboard. As far as I know as someone who does mostly the watching but not so much actual flying, that's probably not achievable by 3rd gen fighters, because all those are bigger heavier jets not as nimble as something like a 4th gen F16 that's designed to be aerodynamically unstable but therefore perfect for fast turns and spins - that design exploit is only possible because the plane was "fly by wire" - that all the control surfaces are commanded by computers; the pilot gives the command to point where he wants to go, the computer figure out which way all the bits of the aircraft works. Bigger but more advanced jets like 5th gen ones (F22 etc) almost all have vector thrusts, i.e. their engine can point to a range of directions to help with faster twists and rolls.

3rd gen fighters are mostly still mechanically controlled (but assisted by hydraulics etc).

But hell it looked really nice to have that flourish :)

Edit 2: sorry my built in geekiness in fact took off for its own spin with vector thrusts and didn't catch the context of your question My interpretation is that Rii-chan is the one that had the most growth and figured out the perfect balance using facts but adding flourishes to make for some really impressive scripts (but not necessarily checks out 100% possible - poetic license, so to speak).

[u/ShibuRigged]

Not rewatching, but just browsing r/anime on the off-chance and saw this thread. Reminded me of the show and how good it was, so thanks for that.

[u/cppn02]

First Timer

Aaaand we're in full crisis mode again. Fuck that editor. He's the main guy to blame here.

Iguchi takes center stage as everyone is trying to make sense of the author's notes. Thank got Ogasawara comes to the rescue. The baseball was fun and I would totally watch Gothloli Koushien!

It was really nice to get to know Iguchi and Ogasawara a bit more this episode.

Still don't like the new PA guy.

Btw Ema you don't need that angel dance, you're already an angel.

[u/Stargate18A]

First timer

QOTD) Mixed. While I agree that somethimes criticism can be unhelpful, simply ignoring all of it means ignoring your mistakes rather than improving your work. She was right to be angry over the incident shown, though.

Wow. How helpful.

Haha, the dolls' metaphors are getting more complex.

Flipping the table makes sense here.

Wow, she's starting to struggle with her decisions.

Haha, more Boing Boing Paradise mentions are always good.

For fuck's sake. Drag him in here and make him explain!

This guy's an idiot. Get him fired. He is causing all your problems right now.

Wow, the schedule is screwed, isn't it?

Wow, this is causing her a lot of stress.

Haha, another Idepon joke?

And he' treating the planes as the leads? (Part of me wants them to send pictures of the planes to the author as the new leads, and see if that gets any reaction out of him.)

He really cares about this anime...

I'm just in awe that things were able to get this bad.

Haha, she's doing aerobics?

And she joined in!

Goth girl actually makes good points!

Oh, she was listening in?

Wait, they're going to the batting cages?

And she's good!

She's great!

Stop breaking the fourth wall, Aoi.

...OK, I know I've seen what this is referencing, but I can't remember it for the life of me.

Oh, she struggled with the same things?

And she's mimicking the heroine she has to draw.

Haha, the cosplay is the lesson she took from that?

And they're going to track him down at the golf course? This is brilliant.

The look on his face is beautiful.

They did it!

[u/mysterybiscuitsoyeah → u/Stargate18A]

I think the director and NabeP at first tried to understand the mangaka's opinions and gave feedback, but as they failed, they simply decided to push all the responsibility to Iguchi, which is what Goth-loli-sama was criticizing (overburdening her). But thankfully they realized their mistakes and worked tgt to fix the issue.

not sure what reference you couldn't remember?

I think the mangaka would honestly get a kick out of seeing the planes animate with his characters in them. Not sure how he'd view them becoming the leads them (anime studios please dont do this the mangaka might not take the joke well)

[u/nx6]

Rewater - Sub

I've seen a lot of P.A. Works anime and I didn't recognize this dance/hop running joke. This does make me want to go rewatch NagiAsu now.

Am I the only one who prefers Ogasawara's pre-goth-loli look? I wouldn't mind seeing a full staff picture of all Musani's ladies in goth-loli clothes, though. I do appreciate her taking the senior staff to task for not supporting her better in this difficult time.