Common Name: Girlish Number
Alternative Names: Gi(a)rlish Number
Score: 7/10, 3/5
Length: 12 Episodes
Genre: Slice of Life, Comedy, Drama
Summary: Karasuma Chitose is a newbie in the seiyu (voice acting) industry. She doesn't enough under her belt to be called a pro. She doesn't have the skill to get the big roles. In spite of this though, she still has the gall to whine about it being the industry's fault she's not popular. When she's finally given the change at a big role, it might just turn out her whining wasn't entirely unfounded.
Review: I frequently like to argue that the anime industry is absolute garbage, so one would assume that I would fall head-over-heels for a show that makes the same argument. Over the course of show, we see a plethora of problems with the anime industry that are not only believable, but have definitely happened to animes past. Everything from using cheaper, inexperienced voice actors to horrible mismanagement of company funds and trying to adapt a light novel series that wasn't that good to begin with are some of the the obvious problems with the industry this show mocks openly and does pretty well. However, no matter how accurate and humorous the show's situations are, a whining protagonist is still whining protagonist.
Behold, our main character. Ain't she a gem?
Seriously, this is the show's main character. While it may not be entirely about her, she is this show's driving force. It's through her desire to be praised, liked, and respected that the show delivers it's messages. It's through her need to get better and keep up her air of superiority (one that no one buys by the way) that she seeks out help, makes friends, and somehow pushes them to improve themselves though she hardly changes herself.
I say friends, but what I mean is people who don't hate her despite her attitude.
While it's true that she is the star of the show, she isn't what makes this fun, let alone interesting. Aside from her brother's mysterious subplot, the only moments when this show really shines is when the entire cast is together in one place. There's far more energy to the group and the way that they work together than what any of them have on their own. Afterall, the rest of the vast is composed of a country girl who has a general disdain for everything, a girl whose competing with her voice actor parents, a veteran of the industry who never got anywhere, and the innocent moe girl with actual talent, so a solo act is kinda out of the question with this group. The thing is though, while the issue resolving gets a tad cheesy at times, the show is pretty well grounded in reality. I can believe that these sorts of things happen in the industry all the time, and there's definitely some merit to that. Does it make for an interesting show? Maybe for some, but it's definitely not for most people. The visuals are great except when they're intentionally bad. The voice acting and music is great except when it's intentionally bad. The plot could stand to not drag as much as it does, but it's not all that bad. So, I guess I'll let Chitose's own words sum up my feelings.
Thanks, Chitose, you dumpster fire of a human being you.