This time, my list is focusing on my five favorite anime that are set in the workplace. However, rather than being a top 5 list, this list is being presented in alphabetical order.
Aggretsuko
This is an original net anime that features a small and cute-looking red panda named Retsuko, and she was a character created for Sanrio (who is best known for Hello Kitty). However, she doesn’t fit the mold of the traditional Sanrio characters.
Retsuko is a single 25-year-old who works in the accounting department of a Japanese trading firm, and she has to deal with supervisors and co-workers who cause her stress. When her job or her life cause her to fill with rage, she goes to the local karaoke bar and vents her frustration through singing death metal. However, Retsuko tries to keep this a secret from everyone she knows.
The series is very relatable for viewers who are currently employed or who have ever held a job. Who hasn’t had a bad boss or annoying co-workers who cause no end of stress or anger?
The Devil Is a Part-Timer!
The Devil King Satan and Demon General Alciel, who have almost conquered the world, are stopped by Hero Emilia… and they end up in another world: modern day Tokyo. Satan and Alciel discover that they have taken on human bodies and that their ability to perform magic is limited. In order to survive, Satan takes on the identity of Sadao Mao, and gets a job at a local fast food joint, MgRonalds.
We get to see Satan spend a lot of time at his job at MgRonalds. The best bit that takes place at his place of employment is when a competitor, Sentucky Friend Chicken, opens up across the street. But, it turns out that there’s more to the manager of Sentucky Fried Chicken than meets the eye!
The Devil is a Part-Timer! has its serious moments, but it’s primarily a light-hearted comedy. While Alciel provides a lot of the humor, the other characters get their moments of funny dialogue that elicits laughter from the audience. When Lucifer joins the series, his NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) tendencies provide some more humor for the series.
I Couldn’t Become a Hero, So I Reluctantly Decided to Get a Job
Raul Chaser, who was working at passing his Hero Exam, ends up not becoming a hero because the hero program was suspended. The Demon Lord is gone and the demon empire has collapsed, so it was decided there was no need to continue the hero program. Now that his dream of becoming a hero is destroyed, Raul takes a job at an electronics store called the Leon Magic Shop. One day, a person wearing a hood comes in with a resume and demands to talk with the manager. When the person goes back with the manager, the resume is left behind. Raul looks at the resume and discovers that it says the person is the child of the Demon Lord. The person, who is named Fino, ends up being hired over Raul’s objections, and Raul is in charge of them. It is revealed that Fino is the daughter of the Demon Lord. For most of the series, only a few select people know that Fino is the Demon Lord’s daughter.
We see Fino having a rough time of it when she first starts working at the store. Since she was raised in the Demon World, she has no common sense on how to deal with humans. But as the series continues, Fino learns customer service skills, as well as how to be a good employee in a retail establishment. There’s also the aspect of Raul having to adjust to the idea of working with the Demon Lord’s daughter, since he was going through the hero program in order to fight against the Demon Lord.
The relationship and interactions between Raul and Fino are amusing to watch, and in a lot of ways, it’s kind of an exaggerated version of training a new employee. It’s an enjoyable enough series, though, and it gives a comedic look into the world of retail.
Servant x Service
The series is set in a Japanese government office building, and the main characters are new employees in the Welfare Department.
The main character, Lucy Yamagami, is enthusiastic and takes her work seriously. However, it’s revealed during the first episode that she has a more “sinister” reason for working in a government office building. When she was born, her parents couldn’t decide on a name, even after having people help them compile a list. Her parents decided to submit all the names on the list as her first name, and all of the names were allowed to be put on her birth certificate. Yamagami is trying to locate the person in the office who allowed that to happen so many years ago.
Her co-workers include: Yutaka Hasebe (the office slacker), Saya Miyoshi (the nervous employee who is working at her first job), Taishi Ichimiya (the clueless supervisor), and Megumi Chihaya (the temp worker who likes to cosplay and create doujinshi). The series explores these characters and the interactions they have with each other, as well as with other characters who drop by the Welfare Department.
As the series progressed, it went from being a simple comedy to being a comedic series that focuses on the relationships between the characters. Secrets are also a big focus of the series. Servant x Service does a great job of being a series set in a workplace that mixes humor, character interaction, and character development.
SHIROBAKO
The series starts out with five friends in a high school animation club producing an animation to screen at their school cultural fair. Aoi, Ema, Shizuka, Misa, and Midori swear that they’ll eventually reunite in Tokyo and make another anime together. Two-and-a-half years later, we see that Aoi is working as a production assistant at Musashino Animation, and that Ema is also working there as an animator. Shizuka is a newbie voice actress at Akaoni Production, Misa is working at a computer graphics studio, and Midori is a university student.
The first half of the series places a strong focus on Aoi and Ema as they’re just starting out in the industry, and we get to see all the issues that go on behind the scenes during the production of an anime. Shizuka is also seen trying to break into anime voice acting, but she doesn’t have confidence and gets nervous at her auditions. Misa is dissatisfied with her job, because she’s always given the same thing to do over and over, and she has no interest in what the company is giving her.
The second half of the series sees Aoi being promoted from production assistant to production desk, so she has to learn a new job and how to handle all the stress that comes with it. It doesn’t help that Aoi realizes that she isn’t quite sure what her dream is even though her friends all have goals and aspirations. The other friends also see changes in their situations as well.
This anime about producing anime has a good combination of serious and humorous moments, and it gives a kind of behind the scenes look at what goes into producing the anime that fans enjoy watching.
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Lesley's Anime and Manga Corner 