Anime: Doujin Work

Doujin Work is a show so clever, so elegantly familiar with what it's doing, that I'm almost tempted to believe that the low quality production is all part of the act.

Almost, but not quite. The show itself gives us the most obvious reason: money. Our protagonist enters the world of doujinshi for no other reason than to try and make a quick buck, and even her more idealistic friends in the business can be lazy, mean and petty. This steadfast refusal to glamourize its own business lets the self-referentiality of Doujin Work escape the tiresomeness that can too often be a result of such; on the contrary, its knowing wink is refreshing when accompanied with such self-deprecation. This show uses its insider knowledge to be sharp, witty, and altogether very funny.

Kudos also to the makers for including a genuine story progression in what is fundamentally a series of comedy sketches; there are even hints of character development along the ways as Najimi discovers an appreciation for what she's doing. I was however disappointed by the ending, at once too clear-cut for a sequel to be possible but without really supplying a satisfying resolution to all the plot threads. Nevertheless, this progression is a welcome improvement over the levels of story in, say, Lucky Star.

Where Doujin Work is worse than that, however, is in the production values; where Lucky Star's simplistic style was to some extent defensible as an artistic decision, this show's knowing smile and wink cannot quite conceal the fact that the animation is barely on the right side of acceptable. It is on the right side, mind, in that the poor animation is not enough to detract from the viewing experience, but nevertheless, one can do with a certain appreciation for low-budget production (a la the cult following for 1970s BBC science fiction) to get the most out of Doujin Work. But of course, the viewer with that peculiar aesthetic sensibility is also the viewer most likely to have an interest in doujinshi.

The voice acting is better than the animation, but then one notices there's not a lot of it; the writers have been careful to ensure very few people outside the main cast have any lines. The opening and ending themes are musically poor even by the standards of anime songs, but I can more readily believe this is a deliberate effect, and they do do the trick, evoking the simplistic, low-budget but charming and fundamentally enjoyable spirit this is aiming for. I should mention also the spectacularly poor ending "animation", but again, it's hard to believe that this wasn't at least partially a choice on the creators' part.

What we have, then, is a series where for most of the presentation the creators have been actively trying, or at least succeeding, at making it look bad. Doujin Work certainly won't be to everyone's taste, because on a superficial level, it looks simply terrible. But the viewer who is able to look beyond the poor drawing, who appreciates the show's specialized aesthetic, and perhaps has a bit of an interest in the subject matter, will find a real gem; self-conscious but never self-important, intelligent and above all, very funny. If you approach it with the right mindset, this is a very enjoyable show.

Filled with otaku references without becoming too obscure for a general audience.

With a title as Doujin Work, I expected something similar to Comic Party, or perhaps even a second Genshiken, but it doesn't really come close to any of them. Doujin Work manages to be a fairly enjoyable comedy show which borders on the line of relying too much on keywords only a seasoned anime watcher understands. There are so many inside jokes I'd only recommend it to seasoned anime-watchers who have occasionally touched a graphical novel and/or hentai games.
Nevertheless, this show manages to show absolutely no scenes which are offensive in terms of ecchiness, despite most jokes referring to that.

Animation[/u]: Childish comical designs, yet creative.

A first glance on the show tells us that the character design is 'cute' and even a bit childish bland in terms of animation. It doesn't really get much better, but there are times where they let the beast of creativity loose and then there are some surprising effects (yet still mediocre).

Sound[/u]: Did you ever see a dragging OP-song?

I'd never seen a show where I got bothered by the sheer length of an OP-song, but this show gets the props for that. The song is barely average, but somewhere halfway the song it feels like it should stop. Unfortunately, after it dies, they resurrect it and it goes on for another while before the episode itself starts.

The voices are good, with all voices fitting their characters perfectly and all voice actors doing their job pretty well.

Story[/u]: Not much of a story, but it progresses.

I doubt anyone would expect Doujin Work to rely on its story and that's correct. The story is just there to keep the series from stalling, so there are phases where the protagonist has to go through in order to advance. This results mostly in an episodic storytelling, where every episode exactly spans the phase-of-the-day. Note that these phases are quite realistic, so it's not like there are actual fillers in this short series and every episode adds to the progress of the show.

The comedy is mostly aimed at people who are already known with things like various subgenres in manga/doujinshi, eroge and particular aspects of those, like what impact a childhood friend, nekomimi, tsundere or yuri/yaoi have on people. If this paragraph is gibberish to you, this show is definitely not for you.

Characters: Unique characters means good comedy.

Doujin Work has created a set of good characters, each with a distinctive personality which work well together. It may be a bit farfetched to call them unique, but their personalities and the combination of characters are a good match and create a good atmosphere. Especially the addition of Tsuyuri is a real drive for comedy of the show.

Is this show worth watching?[/u]

Yes, it is. Despite its short length (15 minutes per episode, including OP/ED) this show is funny enough to make you sit through the series. The only 'drawback' is that you should already have enough knowledge about the entire business of doujinshi and otakuness in order to appreciate this series.