Miyuki Sanada decides to become an animator! Harsh lessons and even harsher financial realities await, but will Miyuki's passion be enough to make her dream come true? Miyuki Sanada had just been going through the motions until one night she came across a certain late-night anime that made her feel true passion for the first time in her life. She was so impressed by the production that she decided to become an animator herself! But was that really such a good idea? Harsh lessons and even harsher financial realities await as Miyuki strives to make her dream come true.
In this volume Miyuki finally gets out of the initial month-long slump, producing some work that is accepted by her superiors. And right when you hope that it'll go a bit better from there on, the volume ends on yet another emotional downer because we just can't have much positivity in all this sordid affair. In the background, we find out more about Maria, another girl who's interning with Miyuki, and, sure enough, she has her own mental baggage the size of a truck.
While it didn't feel like a ton moved here, I need to scream about the fact that they actually discussed that you don't have to undersell your work for doing what you love, which never gets talked about in creative professions. I genuinely wasn't expecting it, and the exploitation of animators and manga artists is something that gets such little exposure that I'm so happy that it happened. This is definitely one to watch, especially with that.
This feels like it’s both a love letter to animation and the world’s biggest cautionary tale to stay the hell away from it. Low pay, high stress, no respect.
Miyuki’s continues determination takes a bit of a bruising again this volume, but she’s a strong heroine who never gives up, even if she doesn’t have much defining her outside of her work as an animator (perhaps another comment on how much of her life is now her job).
Besides some more interesting character stuff with director Kujo, I noticed tons of mother drama for three separate characters this time around, plus we get the backstory on our heroine’s rival (of sorts) and it’s pretty tragic.
Still a really good series; Miyuki’s little victories are so satisfying, and if she ever really truly makes it, the catharsis after this many volumes of pure struggle should be something else.