ハケンアニメ!

by Mizuki Tsujimura, 辻村深月

「どうして、アニメ業界に入ったんですか?」
時間に追われる過酷な現場で、
目の前の仕事に打ち込む仕事人たちが、
追い求めるものはいったい何なのか?
監督・プロデューサー・声優・アニメーターたちが登場。
辻村深月が紡ぎ出す最高に刺激的なお仕事小説。
人気声優の花澤香菜さん、小林ゆうさんも絶賛!


(ストーリー概要)

1クールごとに組む相手を変え、
新タイトルに挑むアニメ制作の現場は、新たな季節を迎えた。
伝説の天才アニメ監督・王子千晴を口説いた
プロデューサー・有科香屋子は、早くも面倒を抱えている・・・。
同クールには気鋭の監督・斎藤瞳と
敏腕プロデューサー・行城理が手掛ける話題作もオンエアされる。

ファンの心をつかむのは
トウケイ動画「サウンドバック 奏の石」か?
スタジオえっじ「運命戦線リデルライト」か?
今クールも、熱き戦いが始まっている――。

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Manga, Japanese Literature, Graphic Novels, Light Novel, Comics

622 pages, Paperback

First published August 22, 2014

About the author

Associated Names:
* Mizuki Tsujimura
* 辻村深月 (Japanese)

Tsujimura is an award-winning novelist, she is best known for her mystery and children novels. She studied at Chiba University and won the Naoki Prize in 2012 for Kagi no nai Yume wo Miru (I Saw a Dream Without a Key), and in 2018 she won the Japan Booksellers' Award for her novel Kagami no Kojo (Lonely Castle in the Mirror).

Japanese name 辻村 深月

Reviews

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was going to be just your lighthearted novel that you love, finish, put to the side, and promptly forget. Boy was I wrong.

Not about the lighthearted part though. The novel is about three women and their place in the anime industry: Arishina Kayako, producer for Studio Edge, who has to deal with pretty but flaky boy director Oji Chiharu; Saito Hitomi, a director for Tokei Animation, who works herself to the bone for her passion and who slowly realises an animation team is a group of people working together; and Namisawa Kazuna, fan favourite genga artist who has given up on womanhood and bears the otaku badge like a shield against normies. These women and their relationships with the people they work with propels the narrative forward as strongly as the loving descriptions about their work and the industry.

Not gonna lie, I'm a big fan of anime and I couldn't say if this novel would alienate anyone who would love to see badass women (not only the three mentioned btw, but we also have a group of voice actresses, a figure sculptor, and even a cheery mum) in the workplace but have no idea when it comes to the passion these people have for entertainment that some people think at best is childish and geeky. But at the end of the day, the feeling of inspiration we get from something--whether it's a TV show, a book, or what have you--is probably a universal experience.

These are characters who found something they loved which saved or changed their lives, and decided to do their best when working in the industry to produce content that might affect other people in the same way. It was great to see three different perspectives on the creation of an anime: the person in charge of the actual thing whose creative vision propels the series forward, the person who is the 'worker ant' that creates the drawings to help flesh out these ideas, and the person who makes sure everything runs smoothly and that the director can do their job. I don't know much about the anime industry and as the author herself said, it changes very quickly, but this is an interesting look behind the scenes.

As someone who works hand in hand with the post production team for TV shows, I found the descriptions of crunch time where no one sleeps and watching the pilot on air with bated breath very real and nostalgic. I want to work with these people and do what I'm passionate about.

All in all a great read and I recommend to people who like well-developed characters in a surprisingly female-centric narrative and of course those who love anime.

Eta: the translation is actually pretty smooth, explanations for Japanese terms and traditions were unobtrusive and not awkward. A couple of weird formatting mistakes (very minor) but overall a great job. Vertical's doing awesome work with these translations and I love them.

[LG (A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is divided into four chapters (think of them as parts, if the idea of long chapters horrifies you - on the plus side, there are scene breaks that serve as good reading stopping points). The first three are devoted to particular protagonists while the last is an epilogue.

The first chapter deals with Kayako, a producer, who finds that working with the director she most idolizes isn't exactly the dream come true she expected it to be. The second chapter deals with Hitomi, a director working on the sort of series she dreamed about making when she first fell in love with anime. She struggles with getting everyone on her team on the right wavelength - her producer seems more focused on glamor and profits than anything else, and she can't seem to communicate well with the show's primary female voice actors. The third chapter deals with Kazuna, a key animator who finds herself roped into a marketing project she resents and doesn't feel particularly suited for.

All of these characters' paths cross at one point or another, and by the end all of their stories become tied together.

A while back, I went through the "novels" portion of the Right Stuf site and picked out a few relatively appealing non-light novel titles. This was one of them. I honestly wasn't expecting much. The description didn't give me much of an idea of what the book was about, so I figured it'd be a fairly dry sort of edutainment, interesting enough to read through once but destined to end up on my "offload" pile. Instead, I ended up loving it.

This book was basically a love letter to the anime industry and all the people involved in it. I can't find the spot right now, but at one point Kayako was told that there are no bad people in the anime industry (the cynical part of me raised an eyebrow), and that was how Tsujimura opted to depict that world. There were people whose goals and styles didn't gel well, but in the end every show and movie was a team effort that everyone involved wanted to see succeed.

Tsujimura didn't completely ignore the bad aspects of the industry. The terrible pay, punishing schedule, and long hours all came up. It bugged me that, for the most part, the characters just shrugged these things off as the way the industry worked and would forever work - Kazuna, in particular, seemed to think that just getting to draw was enough, and that proper compensation was a secondary concern. I liked that Hitomi admonished her for that tendency later on, but I never got the impression that the characters thought that the industry as a whole needed to make some changes. So while the "love letter" feel of the book was nice in some ways, it was also a bit problematic.

I found the start of the first story to be incredibly stressful and aggravating. Oji, the director Kayako had idolized and was now working with, acted like a giant spoiled man-child, so intent on his vision that he couldn't seem to delegate anything. Then he disappeared without a word, not even telling Kayako, the one who was supposed to work most closely with him, where he went or when he planned to return. I wondered whether the book would be nonstop "will this show get finished on time?" drama, but this was mostly a slice-of-life workplace story. The pacing was slower than I expected, and the emotional beats softer.

One of the things that Kayako, Hitomi, and Kazuna all had to figure out was how to connect with and trust other people. Seeing Kayako and Oji slowly figure each other out and learn to work together was fun, and I loved watching previously more one-dimensional characters blossom in Hitomi's chapter. There was, thankfully, more to the jealous female voice actors and slick, profit-focused producer than there initially seemed to be.

The story I most enjoyed, however, was Kazuna's. At the beginning, she was a stereotypical otaku, only interested in 2-D people and worlds and turning her nose up at anyone who didn't share those interests. Then she was roped into helping the local tourism section plan a stamp rally - the town was used as the inspiration for many of the locations in one of the anime series Kazuna had worked on. She found herself paired up with a cheerful jock of a civil servant who'd had little previous exposure to anime, about as far from the kind of person she normally interacted with as possible. I wasn't expecting this story to become as warm and touching as it did.

I appreciated the way Tsujimura set this book up. By focusing on women, she could touch on some of the issues they dealt with that likely wouldn't have been part of their male colleagues' experiences - I wouldn't call this an "issues" book at all, but Kayako had to handle some off-putting comments about her gender and appearance from Oji, Hitomi encountered a situation with fans and the media that I doubt a male director would have had to deal with, and Kazuna struggled with an otaku self-image that didn't allow her to feel comfortable with even the possibility of femininity.

And since Tsujimura chose three women as her main characters, rather than just one, she could present multiple different kinds of industry work as well as multiple different kinds of stories. Kazuna, for example, really wanted a romantic relationship, while romance didn't even enter Hitomi's mind. One thing I'd particularly like to note: romance didn't automatically equate to women abandoning their careers. And heck, one particularly popular person in the industry turned out to be a single mother.

Even though I felt like this book presented an overly rosy picture of the anime industry, I loved it all the same. I'm really glad that this impulse buy ended up working out so well for me.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

[Genma496 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man, I didn't expect I was gonna like this book so much. I read Yami-hara by Tsujimura before and I thought it was decent, but this just hit me right in the heart. It has a similar appeal to Imosae with getting a glimpse into the inside of an industry like this, but the characters were all just so enjoyable and the way all of their stories were wrapped up was great. Definitely made me a lot more eager to read more of Tsujimura's works.

[kurogane shiroikaze · Rating 4 out of 5]

A look in to the enigmatic industry of anime, full of its own peculiar quirks and nuances, from the viewpoint of three different women, each playing different roles in the industry.

Firstly, the viewpoint of producer Kayoko Arishina, who basically orchestrates much of the background work of an anime production offers the most overall view of how many facets an anime production contains.

Moving on, director Hitomi Saito focuses on much of the creative struggles behind the minds of those who breathe life in to anime works and zooms in on the nitty-gritty that happens in an anime production studio.

Finally, animator Kazuna Namisawa offers a more hands-off take of the industry and instead shows a view of the daily lives of the people who break in to the industry on the most basic job possible, and provides much of the humanistic side of the industry feels.

Out of all the 3 heroines, Kazuna's story felt the most compelling to me because of how the author shows the process of fans falling in love with the story and chase the dreams that result from the passion born from the same love. Kayoko comes 2nd with the depiction of her struggles with the behind-the-scenes work. Lastly Hitomi offers a more utilitarian view of how the same love that propels this entire industry, comes to life, from the lens of her role as a anime production director.

While certain liberties have been taken with the details, but everyone's story definitely has a core that strikes the reader's hearts, especially adult fans like me who have grown up watching anime and endlessly fascinated with how things work behind the scenes of each show we watch.

The book also isn't just a dry-cut view of the production process too, the vividly written characters of the book definitely sticks out and the intermingling of each character's "world" forms a lot of the best parts of the book for me.

While I don't think I'd recommend it outright to every anime fan, this book is still a worthwhile read by its own, especially for those who'd like to get a picture and a deeper appreciation of how the medium is unique and a look at the industry that drives it.

[Mashenka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly recommended for us, anime lovers, and overall people who are acquainted with Japanese culture. It might be a more difficult read if you’re not that knowledgeable, otherwise.

Despite that, Anime Supremacy is such a beautiful and well-written book! Unlike other novels, I couldn’t stop reading until I finished it in a couple of days. Had I been on holidays, I’m afraid I would have finished it in one-sitting.

I think the book could have benefited more from alternating points of view instead of having one chapter dedicated to each character. When I finished the first chapter, I found myself missing Kayako a lot, and the small glimpses from her in Hitomi’s chapter didn’t feel enough. Hitomi’s chapter, in the other hand, felt rather conclusive and good. However, I was again extremely saddened when Kazuna’s chapter came to an end and her point of view didn’t appear in the final chapter that wrapped up the whole story. Even the small mention in the end didn’t feel enough for me, while Kayako and Hitomi got “an ending”.

I think these thoughts come from how well the main characters were fleshed out, making me —the reader— fall in love with them and their stories, craving for more. I really miss them already, and this is a feeling that can be equated to how I feel after watching a good anime: feeling sadness over not getting to see more of these amazing people.

I think this book was perfect for me and it came at the right time when I was searching for something light to occupy my mind with happy emotions.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like I now have a thorough understanding of the anime industry. I appreciated that the main characters were women, although the field has been traditionally dominated by men. Tsujimura brought the storylines together at the end in a satisfying and believable way. Now I am eager to see the movie!

[Gabe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super good! The ending pulled everything together. It was fun and interesting the whole way through, with snappy dialogue and really memorable characters. The scene where the director decides he's just done with an interviewer and starts saying whatever is really funny. It has a good translation, too, with only a few awkward parts.

[M.J. Lineham]

I worked in anime and at Japanese game companies, I love Shirobako, I love Mizuki Tsujimura, so this is a book made for me, right?

I mostly enjoyed it, and felt that it came together in such a wonderful way that, if the ending wasn't so great, I think I'd be less warm to it.

My main issue is how selfish and inconsiderate many of the characters can be, regardless of their importance to the plot. There is thankfully a lot of growth, but if some of this happened in the real world, they could have a hugely negative impact on the production of the anime, lives of colleagues, and professional relationships. It was frustrating to see some of the characters understand this, but not accept it.

I did find it to be a love letter to anime though (even though it glosses over how difficult of an industry it is) and I felt Mizuki's love for the medium shine through. It's no wonder Lonely Castle in the Mirror got an anime movie. I also love that it has three women as our core protagonists, and that they have different careers, to help highlight the workings of the industry from different angles. There's a lot of overlap in their journeys which I enjoyed seeing.

It's a book written for anime lovers by someone who clearly appreciates anime, but I think anyone could more or less enjoy it.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't want it to end, but it did, and it felt like a hug 💌

Anime supremacy! is a story about three women - a producer, a director and an animator. They all fell in love with anime differently, they're inspired by different things, work in different places, face different obstacles, but you feel a connection between them. You feel the same love for what they do. They want their project to succeed. So they do whatever they can and beyond to create something special.

This book is a long warm hug to anyone who loves anime. It's very well researched and you'll learn a lot about the industry! And if you're a working woman, I think you'll find main characters and many of their struggles relatable. Like when you have to work with someone on a completely different wavelength, or when you lose yourself in your work. You'll probably find what resonates with you. But like the synopsis said, it's a kickass ode to work. And more often than not that's just what you need 🌟

[Katsuro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good one!
The novel follows three women who work with anime--one producer, one director and one animator. Though I say "novel," it's more like three novellas, one for each protagonist, plus a short epilogue.

All the characters were interesting and colorful without becoming one-dimensional, and I liked how several characters from one woman's story turned up in another woman's. This is a novel that deserves way more attention that it's received here in the west. My one issue with the writing is that the author is way too fond of replacing "said" with some other word that expressed nothing that wasn't already made clear by the spoken line. But that's my one problem with an otherwise very good novel!

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find it interestingly timed to read this novel. Even though I’ve been wanting to read it for ages, the fact that I did so not even two months after the deadly fire of Kyoto Animation is almost a way of paying homage to the women who worked there - and in the anime industry in general.

The novel does a good job of getting down to the nuts and bolts of this crazy industry. To show it by way of the women who work in it puts it in a light that, I believe, makes it all the more unfiltered than it would have been if the protagonists were male. In a way, the novel kinds of reads as an anime in of itself, with all the insane and, at times, humorous scenarios the protagonists find themselves in. I guess that’s life imitating art in that regard.

It was a fascinating read; one that I look forward to reading again someday.

[Agatha · Rating 5 out of 5]

a story about women in the animation industry: a producer, a director and an animator as they work in an industry dominated by men.

this has been resting on our shelves for quite some time and i'm glad i was able to finish it (i started reading this one in october).

i've said this even though i haven't finished the book (and now that i have) it still stands that it will be (is) on my list of favorite books, probably up there with shion miura's the great passag, simply because they tell the story of people with jobs i dreamed of having.

my in another life moment/s as seen in my favorite books, if you will.

[Hiền Nguyễn · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 câu chuyện dưới góc nhìn từ 3 nhân vật với vai trò là nhà sản xuất, đạo diễn và hoạ sĩ hoạt hoạ cho thấy những góc khuất của nền công nghiệp sản xuất anime. Vừa có chút thực dụng nhưng cũng tràn đầy nhiệt huyết, đam mê và truyền cảm hứng.
"Những điều không cần thiết cho việc học thì bị coi là vô nghĩa và dễ dàng bị vứt bỏ. Những thứ không hữu ích cho đời thực thì bị cự tuyệt hoàn toàn. Người vung tiền thì được tung hô, kẻ đam mê văn hoá 'phi chính thống' thì bị hắt hủi... Thế giới này quá thiếu tinh tế để mà phát hiện và quan tâm tới cái tôi của mỗi cá nhân."

[Liliana Acosta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anime Supremacy was a really fun book to read not only did it make me laugh it also teached me a lot about anime and a little bit about its inner workings. I could relate to all ofthe main characters one way or another but I have to say that my favorite was Kayako Arishima. I can't really explain why but I really reallly liked her. I would recommend this book to anyone who is even remotly interested in anime or even just japanese culture.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 really. I liked the way the 3 perspectives were linked and then came together at the end. Although I was the least interested in the first perspective so that made the start of the book a little slow for me. I liked it more as it got going. I learned some interesting tidbits about the anime industry.

[inside_the_hard-boiled_wonderland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this. Not going to lie, this one started a bit too slow for me. The attention to detail was too much at the start but I did get why, eventually. It slowly paints us a picture of the behind the scenes of making an anime series. As detailed as it may seem for me initially, I eventually realized that what's in here is just the tip of the iceberg and with all the supporting characters mentioned, I could tell that there's really more to it and I'm in awe how the author was able to condense it using the point of view of 3 women each holding a different task and title.

I loved the passion for anime that this book exudes especially the different ways the characters grew to love anime and eventually came to work for companies dedicated to making it. The conclusion to each chapter was always a joy to read, very heartwarming. The clashing personalities were very entertaining as well, I think it captures well the dynamics between people who have very different approaches in things but are assigned to work together, so there isn't really much choice but to compromise and push through without losing sight of the common goal. It reminds me of a particular work group I was a part of before.

I hope they make an anime based on this book ☺️. I think the banter between characters would be very funny and relatable plus the hinted cute romance between a few of the characters, I imagine, would be fun to watch as well 😉🥰💚.


P.S. I didn't know there was already a movie made! 2 yrs ago 🥹😅

[Rebeccareadsbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who's never really had an interest in anime before picking this book up, this book was really enjoyable! The prose was simple and beautiful, and all the characters were well-written and complex. This was a lovely book to read in between classes at school.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not expect to love this as much as I did. This book made me appreciate all the wonderful and hard-working people whose work and passion make anime a reality.

Oh, and Kayako and Oji’s chapter was my favorite.

[emil · Rating 4 out of 5]

and i thought Tsujimura was solely a mystery writer!!! this was so good, just wish there were more bridges between the stories.

[Châu Võ Phạm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good

[Hamid · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Emi · Rating 4 out of 5]

アニメ制作に関わる人たちのお仕事小説。こんな風に一生懸命仕事できるっていいな。

[Ethan Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Passion given written form.

[heb · Rating 5 out of 5]

mizuki tsujimura, I enjoy your work so much

what would it be like to read without the middleman of translation?

[Jelina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing piece of work. I love how the main character's each had a clear voice and viewpoint; the way their stories intertwined was just Superb. Definetly one of my new favorite novels

[Irina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is AMAZING! Its really interesting how we see a (slightly fictional but probably accurate) view of the anime industry and how people get to make an anime. I really liked reading about the stories of the characters involved and how they grow through their experiences into more aware and mature people.

There are some parts of the story where the translation was a bit eh, in the sense where certain words or phrases could have been picked better. But aside from that its a great read! Would definitely recommend to people interested in the anime industry.

[Ngan Sai Gon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nếu là một fan anime thì đừng bỏ lỡ cuốn sách này. Thông qua 3 câu chuyện của 1 đạo diễn, 1 nhà sản xuất và 1 họa sĩ hoạt họa, quá trình thai nghén và ra đời của một bộ anime đã được kể lại.
Đâu là cách thức một bộ anime đi từ kịch bản lên màn hình, và từng bước đi vào trái tim khán giả, giành được vị trí ngôi vương? Tất cả đều được tác giả Mizuki Tsujimura viết lại một cách hấp dẫn.