Shirobako

Shirobako is a 24-episode anime television series produced by P.A. Works and directed by Tsutomu Mizushima. It aired in Japan between October 9, 2014 and March 26, 2015. A manga adaptation began serialization in ASCII Media Works's Dengeki Daioh magazine in September 2014, and a novel was published by Shueisha in January 2015. An anime film premiered on February 29, 2020. The title Shirobako refers to videos that are distributed to the production staff members prior to their release. These videos were at a time distributed as VHS tapes enclosed in white boxes and are still referred to as "white boxes" (thus the meaning of shirobako) despite the fact that the white enclosures are no longer in use. Plot Aoi Miyamori and her four best friends, Ema Yasuhara, Shizuka Sakaki, Misa Tōdō, and Midori Imai, were all part of their school's animation club, promising to make an anime together. Years later, Aoi is now working as a production assistant for the animation production company, Musashino Animation, where Ema also works as an animator, while Shizuka, Misa, and Midori are working as a voice actress, 3D graphics artist, and an aspiring writer respectively. The story mainly focuses on Aoi and her team at Musashino Animation as they work on two different anime projects; an original anime series and a manga adaptation, facing the various obstacles that each project brings with them.