At the recent Tokyo Anime Award Festival event, a P.A. Works (Shirobako, Angel Beats!) panel was hosted that featured some of the producers for their Shirobako original anime. Some details were revealed about the future of the series and ideas about the possibility of a second season.
P.A. Works CEO Kenji Horikawa, voice actress Juri Kimura (Aoi Miyamori in Shirobako), Kohei Kawase of Warner Bros. Entertainment Japan, and Takayuki Nagatani from production company Infinite, were all on the panel where they discussed about the possibility of a sequel to the anime. Nagatani mentions:
“We wanted people who watched Shirobako to get a lot out of the show. If we could decide on a theme, there might be a chance”
Kawase continued on with:
The show was made by sampling what we could from the current age, but there are many things we haven’t sampled yet.
Members of the panel began discussing ideas that could be used in a possible sequel, including Horikawa answering a question about an episode that they would like to produce:
“We’ve got plenty of material to work off of…I want to see a story about Aoi going back to her hometown and teaching an anime class for children.
Despite talks about a sequel, the director of Shirobako, Tsutomu Mizushima (Girls und Panzer, Another), mentioned in an interview last July that a second season isn’t possible as his scheduled is filled for the next few years. He also notes that there is enough material to warrant a sequel.
The main cast of the Shirobako anime includes:
- Juri Kimura (First major role) will voice Aoi Miyamori, the production manager of Musashino Animation
- Haruka Yoshimura (Kouko Kaminaga in Akuma no Riddle) voices Emma Yasuhara, the lead animator at Musashino Animation
- Asami Takano (First major role) voicing Misa Todou, the 3D CGI director at the studio
- Hitomi Ohwada (First major role) as Midori Imai, Musashino Animation’s lead writer
- Haruka Chisuga (Tsugumi Harudori in Soul Eater Not!) as Shizuka Sakaki, a voice actress working with Musashino Animation
The production staff of Shirobako consisted of:
- Director: Tsutomu Mizushima (Girls und Panzer, Another)
- Series Composer: Michiko Yokote (Genshiken, RDG: Red Data Girl)
- Original Character Designer: Ponkan 8 (Original Artist of Oregairu)
- Anime Character Designer and Chief Animation Director: Kanami Sekiguchi (Hanasaku Iroha, Tari Tari)
- Animation Studio: P.A. Works (Angel Beats!, Nagi no Asukara)
Shirobako is an original series about creating anime. Specifically, it features a small group of cute girls aiming to tackle on one of Japan’s largest industries. The 5 girls work at Musashino Animation and each have a different and important role in the production of anime. The anime is a collaboration between P.A. Works with Girls und Panzer and Another director Tsutomu Mizushima. The anime began in October 2014 as a 2 cour series, ending in the Winter 2014/2015 anime season after a total of 24 episodes.
Here is a synopsis of the series from MAL:
Five girls chase their dreams. The story revolves around the everyday troubles and hardships that occur when working in the anime industry, and the results and conflicts that happen day-to-day among the group of girls.
There are currently no plans for a sequel for Shirobako, though ideas are still being thrown around. A reccuring theme from the panel and director Tsutomu Mizushima is that there is enough material for a sequel.
You can visit the anime’s website here: http://shirobako-anime.com/
And follow their Twitter here: @shirobako_anime
Source Article - Anime News Network
“Shirobako”, images and all associated brands and titles © 2016 P.A. Works, Tsutomu Mizushima, Ponkan 8 and Shirobako Production Committee