The Meta of Creating Anime About Anime

Anime about creating anime. Does that term really make sense to all of you? Especially with the sort of limitations behind the production of anime like that? At least not until recently where we’ve had more anime about anime production recently. You know, with Shirobako, Eizouken, and we could count a lot of other anime with media changes with New Game along those lines too. It usually requires some medium changes to make the anime and the anime itself to feel different. For instance, Eizouken makes a lot of work that are similar to Miyazaki and other pieces of famous anime. Shirobako also has its own medium change and style from the outside and the inside. I wonder how all of those styles will weigh in on how each series was produced in their own right with a lot of direction and focus to make them work.

The larger thing in motion I wonder about is how to show the passion that animators have for what they produce for their work. I mean, these anime in the name are animators working on animators that are working on animation, right? How does that passion break through to us audience members? Also, what about how does one get the audience in the anime to feel how a fan feels as they watch? Well, obviously there needs to a lot of fourth wall breaking, right? One of the best examples I can think of is Eizouken where parts of the anime leaked to the viewers which shows that great immersive experience. It shows how into it all the people watching where and how they were so blown away by it all. Or something like in Shirobako where moments that didn’t need to be flourished are flourished in great ways.

What is the real meta that I wonder about? How much of what we see from the production staff is genuine versus what the animators really think? We all know the stresses of production and how long it can take to produce an anime? How genuine do you think the experience is regarding that pressure of work and the long hours vs what its really like? Like, I don’t think that what Paranoia Agent shows is accurate at all but I feel like the animation process can feel like that to people who are behind schedule. There is also a lot of honesty that goes into the production behind something like Eizouken who shows the three members of the Eizouken Club working long hours, sleeping in their production studio, and all sorts of things for them to finish their work. Shirobako never dives that far into an anime’s production so it feels much more idealistic, but is it? How are all of us supposed to how genuine the experience we are presented?

In the end there feels like a lot of meta in series about production, what it wants to present to the audience in how anime production can appeal to people, how anime affects people from what they produce to the after product where they can improve something, and so many other things. There is a lot of things that I just think about when an anime is about producing anime like these things. How much does the meta go? Things like pay checks and ownership writes seem to be leaned around or stepped around while the longer hours of anime production are not. What do the committees that give studios money for their production tell studios for what to say and what not to say for this production habit? There is a lot of meta in the story of the meta for all those things? How deep does the rabbit hole go?