Top 10 Anime About Making Anime & Manga

The anime industry is very difficult to break into, but with anime being as popular as it is, many fans hope to one day becoming a big name in the field. From writers to voice actors, anime is an appealing yet demanding career, and many artists express their frustrations with the industry through their art, creating anime that explores the light and dark sides of the profession.

Many anime explore the difficulties that its animators, directors, producers, and voice actors go through to make their art, but some do it better than others. Some use a light-hearted tone to present the processes as appealingly as possible, but others go hard on the darker side of things, warning newcomers and fans that the industry is not all sunshine and roses.

10 Shirobako

Shirobako — the name means “white box” — is a great female-led anime that passes the Bechdel Test with flying colors. The story follows a group of students who promise to work together on an anime one day after they graduate, and each takes a job in the industry to achieve their goals.

Shirobako is one of the most accurate anime about making anime. The main character, Aoi, works as a production assistant and has a hand in many of the departments that contribute to making an anime. The show follows the production of two types of anime, an original series and a manga adaptation, showing the difficulties and victories that the studio goes through to produce the work.

9 Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! follows three girls as they try to create short animated films despite the opposition from their school, peers, and parents. Each of the main girls has a specific talent that she brings to the table: budgeting, concept design, and actual animation.

Eizouken’s depiction of the animation industry gets a lot of things right, especially the tight deadlines and strict standards to which animators must conform. One of the girls, Kanamori, keeps strict rules and budgets that often mean that the artists have to compromise on their vision, but they continually pull together to create something beautiful.

8 Remake Our Life

An aspiring yet down-on-his-luck game developer, Kyoya, is transported 10 years into the past and gets the opportunity to remake his life. He befriends a group of talented individuals — an artist, a singer, and a writer — and sets about trying to become a successful developer. Not everything goes perfectly, however, and Kyoya has to confront his insecurities while helping his friends overcome their own.

Together, the group makes different kinds of short films and a visual, novel-like game using an anime style for the characters. Remake Our Life shows the ugly side to production as well as exploring what motivates artists, how they work together, and what it takes to create something great.

7 Bakuman

Artist Mashiro and writer Takagi attempt to publish a manga together, battling their personal insecurities as well as Mashiro’s fear of overworking. Overworking is a serious problem in the creative industry, and Bakuman explores the topic delicately, examining why manga takes such a long time to make and why creators sometimes have to take hiatuses.

The story is heartfelt and sincere, with two friends teaming up to create something they can be proud of while sticking to their principles. They also team up with Azuki, an aspiring voice actress, whom Mashiro promises to marry once their manga becomes popular enough to get an anime adaptation.

6 Comic Party

Inspired by Comiket, a famous anime and manga convention in Tokyo, and originally a dating sim video game, Comic Party follows Kazuki as he attempts to create and sell doujinshi (self-published) manga alongside his friends. Despite opposition from his childhood friend, Kazuki assembles a team and goes through the difficult yet rewarding process of making manga.

Kazuki’s childhood friend has difficulty accepting his new career, but seeing his passion and attending some conventions with him is enough to sway her to his side. Unlike many anime in which the main character is overpowered from the start, Kazuki starts out moderately talented but does not rocket into popularity overnight, instead struggling and trying his best to create work that he can be proud of.

5 Seiyu’s Life

Sore Ga Seiyuu is an anime about three newcomer voice actresses — Futaba, Ichigo, and Rin — who struggle to make it in the world of anime voice acting. Finding little success and limited roles, the three friends start a radio show to boost their popularity.

Many voice actors deserve more credit for their work, and this show delves into exactly why that is. From the first frame of the show, the actors are shown doing their best to work while dealing with demanding producers and competition from much more famous actors. The characters are cute, and the story endears the audience to them, making them easy to root for.

4 Genshiken

Genshiken, short for “The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture,” follows a group of otaku (Japanese slang for geeky or nerdy types) as they explore anime-related hobbies such as going to Akihabara, playing video games, and cosplaying. The Second Generation of the club is led by yaoi fan Ogiue, who draws manga and often recruits the club to help her complete assignments.

Genshiken’s portrayal of otaku culture has much in common with other slice-of-life anime such as Lucky Star and Welcome to the NHK, putting otakus in the leading roles and shining a favorable light on the club’s hobbies.

3 Barakamon

Handa, a famous calligrapher, moves to a remote island to develop his own style of calligraphy after being told he is too “textbook” to make it in the art industry. Handa is childish and temperamental, but he comes to admire the people of the island and gets along with Naru, a reckless young girl who gets into trouble around Handa’s house.

Several characters on the show besides Handa are also interested in the art industry, especially Tamako, who is an aspiring manga artist. This good-natured anime is a fun, relaxing watch, as Handa improves his art and gets to know the people around him whom he thought strange and old-fashioned at first.

2 Girlish Number

Chitose is an overly confident voice actress who blames the industry for her lack of fame until she gets a role in an idol anime alongside four other actresses. Chitose is self-absorbed and wants recognition, at one point imagining herself on a red carpet surrounded by adoring fans, and often acts badly to her peers due to her cunning and brash nature.

Girlish Number does not pull its punches when it comes to examining the anime industry, and it often brings up the darker side of it, presenting the producers and directors of Chitose’s show as meddling and greedy people who will bully their workers into doing as they are told.

1 Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-Kun

A great romance anime for even non-anime fans to check out, Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun follows Sakura as she tries to get manga artist Nozaki to notice her. Nozaki’s manga plays a huge role in the series, as it allows Sakura to get closer to Nozaki by becoming his assistant and introduces many fun characters that help Nozaki with his work.

The anime explores the difficulties of being a manga artist in a humorous way. For example, Nozaki tries on different cosplay costumes to understand how his characters feel. As Sakura tries to confess her love to Nozaki, the artist is more preoccupied with making good manga and often prioritizes his work, remaining oblivious to Sakura’s feelings.

About The Author

Leah Clarke
(76 Articles Published)

Leah Clarke is a List Writer for Screen Rant. She loves to talk about movies, anime, and TV shows. She is always writing action, fantasy, and comedy screenplays. She takes Japanese lessons and is studying for a master’s degree in scriptwriting.

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