New Game!

The Manga Time Kirara series of Summer 2016 Anime, and the second consecutive season produced by Dogakobo, New Game! is a bit unusual... in that it's a Work Com, which means the cast are older than 18. To be specific, the premise is in a video game studio.

To me, the anime is good so far for the first episode, but it seems the other viewers have serious issues about all the impossibilities of it. Most of it, however, is justified by being in Manga Time Kirara itself, but I need to make further statements here:

1. Aoba is only a rookie in 3D. I think the job opening merely asked for an artist with experience in computer graphics, of which Aoba seems to fit the bill. My reading of the manga indicates her work is still mainly 2D in nature, but she does need to model the characters in 3D, thus the discussion on Maya.
2. Let's say Shizuku acts like a stereotypical moe otaku, and that's why the cast is all female.

But I have a feeling that the author does Gender Flip a few people of the cast to make it printable. Kou, Hajime, Nene, and strangely, Aoba, comes up to me as males...

Scientia et Libertas | Per Aspera ad Astra Nova

Just a heads up: do not expect Shirobako coming into this. New Game! is primarily a comedy, it just happens to take place in a game company. There is some discussion about game development, but it's brief and not very in-depth.

Oh my god, they're working until 9 PM. I'm getting unpleasant flashbacks.

edited 10th Jul '16 11:30:38 PM by FlowingCotton

Servant X Service is probably the closest recent series you can compare it to.

I read the manga, and of course I won't compare it to Shirobako. I found it ludicrous who people would consider a non-Forward Kirara series to be any serious.

Scientia et Libertas | Per Aspera ad Astra Nova

That wasn't directed at you, but rather anyone interested in watching the show.

Yeah, any implied unpleasantness related to working in the gaming industry is severely downplayed in New Game, and unlike Shirobako, it doesn't go out of its way to lampoon it. This is about cute girls doing cute things after all. ;)

Episode 2...

Bribing your way to make people forget that you smiled, that's a new one on me.

Episode 2.

• Aoba's affair with the original Fairies Story still comes up as a bit odd to me, although not "not girly" as I have stated previously. Still, 7 years before 2013 is 2006, a time when the PS3 is seen as an overly expensive console or a cheap Blu-Ray player. A 12-year-old girl using it for the intended purpose is somehow unexpected, although I don't have much evidence to say she actually falls into Gamer Chick.
• In this universe, Eagle Jump is located in Asa-ga-ya, and shares a building with Hobunsha. IRL, Hobunsha is in Koraku.
• Kou's sleeping in panties always reminds me of Mashino Shiina, although I'm not saying Kou is autistic.
• Eagle Jump's computers are either Dell Inspirons or XPSes, neither of them capable of 3D rendering. Don't tell me Dogakobo just uses the latter for their creative purposes...
• Looking at the ending credits, Aoba's Saya book is probably real, with the exception of changing Maya to Saya.
• CalorieMate bars. I have heard of a few Silicon Valley workers (high-level ones included) have been eating meal shakes for lunch in recent years, but I don't recall CalorieMate is being used that way in Japan.
• There's also a Photostole book on Aoba's desk. I don't recall Photoshop is needed for CG?
• I don't know why Hifumi sees When She Smiles so embarrassing. 1,000 yen is not Comically Small Bribe; it's the standard maximum for a Salaryman's lunch.
• Aoba's first task is to model the designed Non Player Characters. How much tedious work is that?

---

A lot of episode 1 discussions, surprisingly, was about Aoba's working hours, since it looks like her first day of work is 9am-9pm (which in Japanese labour laws means 3 hours overtime), but there're indications during this episode that while Aoba came in very early, her coworkers seems to start working far later than standard working hours—I'm under the impression that their usual working day tends to start right before noon... which is also unusual to me.

edited 16th Jul '16 9:09:59 AM by SamCurt

Scientia et Libertas | Per Aspera ad Astra Nova

Episode 3. This episode eventually turns more sentimental then it begins, especially when Kou's plans on Aoba seems to be unfolding a bit.

• I know Aoba's first impression on Kou is that she sleeps in panties, but making an imagine spot about Kou punishing her with that is a different matter.
• Is Hifumi starting to confusing between talking in text with actual text? (Although I won't be too surprised such people existed in Real Life.)
• The Eyecatch wasn't too obvious about what's with Hifumi's breakfast that kept her so long.
• Rendering. I wonder which company's still rendering Non Player Characters manually like this? I have a feeling the team spends most of their time rendering NPCs and monsters.
• The renders are actually in the style of Tokuno's other work Komorebi no Kuni ~le duche~
• I suspect Kou is holding Aoba to Player Character standards this time.

Scientia et Libertas | Per Aspera ad Astra Nova

I have seen people use emotes in writing when they forget that it has a higher standard than texting. And yeah, Kou's probably got bigger plans for Aoba beyond one NPC/day.

Looks like the next episode's going to play up Kou/Rin. I'm sort of hoping Shizuku will mess with them, even if it's just a little bit.

Holy shit this show is cute.

Especially Aoba, more like Wowba.

edited 24th Jul '16 8:22:17 AM by Uninstall

Fight for something, even if its meaningless.

Crunchyroll announced this series will be moved to Livestream from Episode 4. Previously it's delayed by one day.

Speaking of CR, I saw some CR comments saying Aoba broke the NDA to Nene in Episode 3—but I think saying she's rendering a villager isn't trade secret?

Scientia et Libertas | Per Aspera ad Astra Nova

I'm pretty sure they haven't actually announced Fairies Story 3 yet, which would be the problem.

Fight for something, even if its meaningless.

It honestly depends on individual NDA specifics. In other words, we have no way of knowing if she did. And I doubt the writer cares too much after the joke at the end of episode 2.

Saying "I rendered an NPC" for the game you're working on without stating the game is probably not an issue. If anything, it's revealing the game.

edited 24th Jul '16 8:34:49 AM by burnpsy

That said, Nene already guessed it (she suggested it in jest, but still) and Aoba's reaction confirmed everything for her so...no point in hiding it any more I guess. As long as she doesn't spill any details and Nene keeps her mouth shut, it should be fine.

It'll become a non-issue later, but I'll let the anime-onlies see that for themselves.

New Game New Episode!

Aoba is such a good girl and Rin is such a raging homosexual.

Fight for something, even if its meaningless.

On the other hand, Kou feels like Mashiro Shiina with better social skills. I don't just mean panties.

Scientia et Libertas | Per Aspera ad Astra Nova

RinKou's quite a lovely pair.

My spending style's similar to Aoba and Hajime.

I wonder who in the cast is the Author Surrogate? I know it must exist, but Aoba is too girly for this.

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I am pretty sure the college student Aoba talks to on the phone is the Author Surrogate. Someone on another forum said that this was written based on stories that a friend had told about working in the industry.

edited 30th Jul '16 12:19:05 AM by Memers

Well,

1. Tokuno worked in the game industry too (for 2 years), so some idea must be his.
2. Nene eventually joins Eagle Jump in Chapter 51 anyway.

Scientia et Libertas | Per Aspera ad Astra Nova

How far is the adaptation so far?

Chapter 10 at the moment, more or less.

So we probably won't even get to that point. At this rate we'll be at ~30 by the end.