Anime about making anime and manga can be a great way to learn about the process. After all, who knows more about what it's like to make anime than the people who make anime? Who has a better idea of what it takes to create manga than the people who make the manga these anime are based on? While these shows take some creative liberties and shouldn't be used as a sole source of knowledge, it's a good place to start. These series might feature aspiring creators - The Pet Girl of Sakurasou is about a group of high school students preparing for careers in the anime industry, and Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! follows a school club trying to create their own anime. Other series focus on the more professional end of things, like Shirobako, which gives viewers an inside look into a fictional but fairly realistic anime studio. No matter what stage the characters have reached in their careers, their enthusiasm and motivation is a joy to watch.
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Out of all of the shows on this list, Shirobako offers the most comprehensive and detailed look at the anime industry itself. The series focuses on five young women who all enter various areas of the anime industry together. The protagonist, Aoi Miyamori, becomes a producer, while her friends aim to be involved in voice acting, animation, story writing, and more. Through Aoi's eyes, viewers get to see many of the different elements that make an anime come together.
Moritaka Mashiro has always wanted to be a manga artist just like his uncle, but after a major personal tragedy, he decides to focus on a more practical goal - becoming a salaryman. When his classmate, a writer named Akito Takagi, sees his art, he proposes that the two of them create a manga together. Moritaka is reluctant at first, but he eventually agrees when he realizes that if they succeed, their manga might be adapted into an anime where his crush Miho Azuki could take a voice acting role. With heady ambitions spurring them on, the two middle schoolers resolve to become the world's greatest manga creators.
When Chiyo Sakura confesses to her crush Umetarou Nozaki, she runs into a big problem - he's ridiculously dense. He doesn't realize that she's asking him out, and assumes that she's a fan of his shojo manga and wants to be his assistant. So Chiyo unwittingly gets roped into a job she never asked for. But it turns out not to be so bad. Not only does she get to be closer to Nozaki, she also gets to meet a lot of delightfully bizarre people, and learn a lot about the process of creating manga.
Sorata Kanda is a seemingly ordinary boy who gets transferred to Sakura Hall, a dorm known for housing eccentric delinquents. While his new housemates are undoubtedly weird, Sorata finds himself forming major bonds with them. Why? Because they're all pursuing their artistic dreams, and they're giving Sorata the courage to do the same. While Sorata himself is aiming for the video game industry, many other residents of Sakura Hall are preparing to work for the anime and manga industry. Mashiro Shiina is a brilliant artist whose family wants her to pursue a more classical route, but all she wants to do is make manga. Misaki Kamiigusa is a talented animator, and Jin Mitaka is an aspiring writer who is putting off a relationship with Misaki until his talent matches hers. Meanwhile, Sorata's friend outside Sakura Hall, Nanami Aoyama, is trying to become a voice actress. The joy of this series is watching the characters define their dreams and reach for them.
Comic Girls is set in a dormitory for female manga artists, many of whom are teenagers. Kaoruko "Chaos" Moeta wants to draw manga about teenage girls, but because she doesn't socialize much, her stories are bland and uninspiring. Her editor sends her to this dormitory in the hopes of forcing her out of her shell and improving her creative work. There, she meets a shonen manga artist, a fellow shojo creator, and a teenage girl who writes erotica for adult women. Her friendship with these three girls is, well, chaotic, but it's a lot of fun.
Ichiro Kuga is a passionate manga artist who is having a really hard time keeping up with his responsibilities. Not only does he have to deal with tight deadlines, he also has to deal with money problems and his assistants quitting, take care of his younger siblings, and deal with the emotional fallout of his father's demise. His life gets a little easier when Shiori Goshiki applies to be his assistant because she's amazing at her job. But things also get more complicated. There's something not quite of this world about Shiori… and what's more, she claims to be engaged to Ichiro!
Kakushi Gotou is a manga artist who is known for fan service and raunchy jokes. This is fine until he has a daughter. He absolutely does not want little Hime to know what he does for a living, so he goes to elaborate lengths to pretend that he's a regular salaryman and enlists his assistants in the project. But there's an even bigger family secret that has yet to be uncovered.
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! is an inspiring look into the amateur end of the industry. Midori Asakusa adores anime for its ability to bring fantastical worlds to life, and she wants to create one of her own. But while Midori has her head in the clouds, her best friend Sayaka Kanamori has an intensely logical mind and the ability to raise the money to make Midori's dreams come true. The two team up with Tsubame Misuzaki, a professional model who is way less interested in that job than she is in drawing the human form. They create an animation club at their school, and get to work producing their very own anime.
Now that Chitose Karasuma is in college, she's determined to lead an interesting life. To that end, she storms a training center for aspiring voice actors. Despite her rudeness, she ends up getting a job - albeit one at a company managed by her brother. She's sure that she's going to rise to stardom immediately, but she keeps getting minor roles. If she wants to be truly successful, she's going to need more than just talent - she's going to need some people skills.
Ritsu Onodera is a literary editor who wants to advance his career on his own steam - something that's hard to do when his father owns a publishing company. He quits his dad's company and joins another one, expecting to be assigned to its literary department. Instead, he ends up working as a manga editor. As he's getting used to the tight deadlines and extra pressure that comes with the manga industry, he discovers that the editor-in-chief is none other than Masamune Takano, Ritsu's first love. Their relationship didn't work out the first time, and it made Ritsu swear off love. Masamune is determined to get Ritsu to fall for him again.
One important branch of the anime industry is doujinshi - comics created by fans! They aren't just fan culture - they're also a lucrative business, and many major creators get their start there - CLAMP being a noteworthy example. Comic Party is about two friends who try creating their own fan comics. Taishi is a massive otaku who drags his friend Kazuki to an anime convention. This is a somewhat terrifying experience for a newbie, but it gets him fired up about making his manga. He wants his friend Mizuki to join him, but she won't be won over nearly as easily as Kazuki was.
Futaba Ichinose is an aspiring voice actress who spends most of her time hunting for auditions and trying to make connections in the industry. As she tries to climb the ranks of her dream job, she meets two friends in similar boats - a child actress named Rin Kohana and an aspiring idol named Ichigo Moesaki who thinks she's a princess from another planet. The three of them support each other through the trials and tribulations of the industry. But Futaba's friends might not be enough to help her get through her upcoming performance review!
Genshiken is less about the anime industry than it is about the daily lives of the extremely nerdy members of a college club called the Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture. This club's activities revolve around manga, anime, video games, and other aspects of otaku culture. But the characters don't just consume the things they love - they also try to create them in order to sell them at conventions. So the series does shine some light on the indie part of the anime and manga industries.
