Egao no Taenai Shokuba desu.

A Mangaka's Weirdly Wonderful Workplace — Truly, the life of a mangaka has its ups and downs, but it's, by all means, weird and wonderful for a rather hectic workplace.

If you know me well, I love exploring niche topics that are rarely shown in any medium, anime or otherwise. It's just so fascinating to learn from someone else's or some others' POV of jobs or roles that you don't really get to experience as a normie, even if ambitions do get in the way of dreams that have, on one or more occasions, made or broken you at that. And certainly, the lives of authors ... are no different at all, who are at the very creation of the worlds and characters that we can both experience on a love-hate basis. This is especially so for mangakas (i.e. manga authors), whom I feel have the hardest role as compared to novelists, who have only the writing aspect to matter (with the occasional illustrations that are always handled by someone else), with the mangaka having to do double duty with both the story and art itself.

And it's this setting that's the courtesy from the long-awaited return of mangaka Kuzushiro, since the adaptation of the Spring 2014 4-koma Yuri short series of Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san, to come back more than a decade later for yet another adaptation, with this Fall season featuring one of his more recent works, Egao no Taenai Shokuba desu a.k.a. A Mangaka's Weirdly Wonderful Workplace. And if you thought that was more than enough, there's the Yuri series of the mangaka's latest work, with Amayo no Tsuki a.k.a. The Moon on a Rainy Night, that's having an anime adaptation in the works, and with the manga having the best reception thus far of his biography, there's a lot to rejoice about for future Yuri anime going forward.

But back to the aforementioned show, where it truly IS the eccentricness of a mangaka's weirdly wonderful workplace...and no, I'm not making this up. A mangaka does not live on an island alone; he/she needs a team of people that can work as buttery smooth as possible alongside the mangaka themselves, because one haywire, and it could send the conveyor belt derailing to quite the catastrophe. This is very much the case for the fledgling mangaka Nana Futami with her shojo-centric manga "To Subaru", which centres around a teenage boy playing shogi, alongside her assistant Mizuki Hazama and her editor Kaede Sato, who supervises her at their publishing company Clover. And to say that there's not one day in which Futami is so overstressed about her own work that it worries both her assistant and/or editor, the Hitori "Bocchi" Goto-inspired lookalike is pretty much her usual personality of a nervous wreck who overcomplicates situations a wee bit too much, and Hazama always has to bring Futami back to reality. But that said, as much as Futami is a competent young mangaka at that, having realized her dream just out of high school alongside Hazama, who's her partner-in-"crime" to follow in her footsteps, these two can harbour quite the yuri relationship that's all hearty and wholesome...lest the lesbian vibes keep coming (since this is a trait of almost all of Kuzushiro's works).

The life of a mangaka is no easy feat at that, and for the many who keep trying, failing, and getting up again, it's one major test of will, to see how long just these people can hang on for dear life, in both the ups and downs through the manga creation journey. And for Futami, having already been defeated once by Clover's other editor, Masayuki Toda, who is devilishly unrelenting for his inflexibility, unsupportive nature, and forcefulness, which relapses her to being taken in charge by Sato, it's truly for the best, as editors are the ones next to the assistants in terms of understanding the mangaka under their belt, and the relationship between Futami and Sato is one like hell on earth but can also be very kind and supportive at times despite her serious demeanour. And like fellow friends in the industry, supporting one another can be the basis of "life and death" of not just the people around them, but their defining mangaka careers as well. One example of which is Arisa Nashida, who debuted before Futami, but like her editor Ren Takizawa, she and the former once worked for her as her assistants during her mangaka days, which, for some reason, were axed and relegated her to being an editor. These two young women also share an "intimate" relationship, but on a bigger scale since Takizawa is said to have been a very popular mangaka back in her young days, but it's also the fall from grace that helped shape Nashida's life as a growing mangaka at that time also, other than her persistent drunkness being a factor of her personality, as well as her cockiness through her complicated feelings that more often than not piss Hazama off. Alongside the other cast of characters that would help define Futami's life as a growing mangaka, the aforementioned "weirdly wonderful workplace" becomes a "she/her" pronoun that is all sorts of fun...if you can embrace the idea and put yourself in the shoes of how mangakas work in the first place.

For only the 2nd mainline production series since its creation in March 2022, the rookie studio Voil still has aways to go, but with this show, they've expanded their reach to delivering quality shows, even at the most bare-bones and miniscule, and it truly shows the calibre and potential the small studio has going forward. Even the music does fit the mood with the OST, and it's all the better for it. And if you know any better, any HoneyWorks Anisong is going to be great, and in this case, the OP featuring HaKoniwalily is just a vibe. Put that together with Sizuk's ED composition alongside Nagi Yanagi for the vocals, and this is a magical ride of a comic book coming to life.

Egao no Taenai Shokuba desu a.k.a. A Mangaka's Weirdly Wonderful Workplace, is a pretty niche show by its mangaka formation standards that'll alienate most viewers even trying to get some media literacy about how the job and roles are for a career that's all about storyboarding alongside arts and crafts. But if you fancy some story creation that's not all just for the Yuri vibes alone, then the anime is definitely right up your alley.

You don't need a plot when you're a mangaka (a la Bakuman); all you need is just a hinge of motivation to keep going and make the story you want to create. And that is the life story of mangakas and the workplaces themselves, which can be quite the uncanny, but delightful place to work in.

Egao no Taenai Shokuba desu, or simply Egate, is an anime with a lot to like and is the type of show that, in theory, would be right up my alley. However, to my great surprise, it ended up being a forgettable experience that never really drew me in. While the anime is fantastically produced, well-paced, and depicts a reasonably believable picture of a mangaka's life, the comedy elements fall flat, and I struggled to like many of the characters. I can see why people like this, but it’s not for me.

Egate centers around mangaka Nana Futami and depicts different parts of her professional life ... alongside her assistant Hazama (Ha-san) and her editor Sato. Being more of a Slice-of-Life anime, the plot lacks direction; the episodes simply show different, random snapshots of her life and work. Lacking a clear premise, the show can feel like nothing is happening, and the events may feel pointless, especially given the oftentimes boring comedy. I don't think this anime made me laugh more than once or twice across its 13 episodes because the jokes frequently fell flat or became way too repetitive. Furthermore, instead of developing the plot, story, or characters, Egate simply introduces new characters or elements, making it feel incomplete. While this does add some much-needed nuance, the show never gets past that "surface-level" feeling. In spite of this, I have to give credit to the atmosphere and light-hearted feel the anime gives off, especially in the later episodes. Couple that with great pacing, and you have a nice watch, provided you don't look at it too deeply.

In terms of characters, well... I don't like them. The main character, Futami, is honestly really annoying. Her "thing" is that she's socially anxious, but her actions constantly contradict this. It isn't that she grew as a person; it’s just pure contradiction. For example, she manages various social situations well, and when she doesn't, it’s portrayed as something "cute" that bothers neither her nor those around her. Moving on, the other central characters are Ha-san and Sato. Neither of them is particularly deep; they are purely tropey, with Ha-san being the orderly "no-nonsense" type and Sato being the awkward person misunderstood as cold. While Sato does undergo some character development, it’s nothing we haven't seen before. As I didn't really like these three to begin with, the anime was a drag in the beginning when it was just them. Later on, however, more characters were added to the cast, such as Nashida, Nekonote, and Touko. They all improved the overall feel of the show and brought some much-needed variety. Most notable was Nashida, who lightened the mood and was, in fact, quite funny. Sadly, her character became quite repetitive by the end. Even though the characters didn't feel real, they each had unique personalities and depicted different sides of the manga business.

As far as art goes, it was quite good. The characters all look gorgeous, albeit a bit basic. It’s easy to tell them apart, and they all match their personalities and voices. The backgrounds, angles, and general animation were all well above average. In the end, I was impressed by the quality from Studio Voil, a name I’d never heard of before.

Building on the art, the sound and OST production is where the show moves from impressive to actually really good. First of all, the voice acting performances were amazing. The cast did a terrific job portraying their characters; they sounded very expressive, and the mixing itself was high quality. Special props to Miku Itou (Futami's VA) and Yuu Kobayashi (Nashida's), who really blew me away. On top of this, the soundtrack had some high peaks, moving beyond just atmospheric background noise to take a central place in the viewing experience. For the most part, it was above average. As a whole, I was more than pleasantly surprised by the world-class sound production in this small anime from a "no-name" studio.

Now, this is where it gets confusing: how much I actually enjoyed it. While I can't deny that the anime is terrifically produced and managed to be a good experience at its peaks, I never got hooked for real. As I've said, I didn't enjoy the plot nor like the characters, so all I can really take away from it is its stellar production. While I tend to enjoy these types of chill SoLs, I need a deeper cast of characters and a plot that doesn't feel like it’s just stalling for time. So, no, I didn't enjoy Egate that much.

In conclusion, Egao no Taenai Shokuba desu is a mixed bag. On one hand, it’s boring and unlikeable; on the other, the production makes it worth seeing. While I do understand why a lot of people like it, I can't fully recommend it. I’d say watch this if you know you like mindless CGDCT shows, or if you're just curious about the production quality. Otherwise, skip it. For me, it’s quite forgettable, and since I didn't like it, I won't be coming back for a rewatch or reading the manga. I will, however, keep an eye on Studio Voil in the future, as they did a great job.

I started this anime expecting it to explore the daily struggles of female mangakas, their rivalries, backlash, and creative hurdles, similar to how Bakuman handled the industry, not necessarily as a direct copy but with enough depth to be engaging. While the all-female cast is refreshing, the constant quips get old quickly, and there’s almost no focus on the manga they’re creating nor the challenges they face beyond occasional delays in submissions.

The characters are decent, but the show lacks a core plot or clear goals for anyone. It feels like the same episode over and over, with the main character, Futami, being introverted and struggling ... to finish on time, only to be snapped out of overthinking by her assistant, Ha-san. This pattern makes up most of the show, with side characters who add little to the story besides filling space. Overall, this anime was a huge disappointment, and I’m dropping it and it definitely is not worth the time.