Hataraki Man

Information of Anime

Hiroko Matsukata works for a magazine company that gets dirty on pretty much any field.  She's a hardworking woman that does anything to get the best information possible.  Using her own will, she becomes Hataraki Man, Japanese for working man.  However, she lacks a balanced love life due to her boyfriend being tied up with his own work.  With so many days & counting on having no-dates, Hiroko gets her job done.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  This section does contain some spoilers.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

Basically, it's about the life of Hiroko.  A lot of it is focused on her work life as she has little time for her personal life.  Her boyfriend calls off dates they plan to have together at the last moment due to work.  In her work, she seems to want to produce the best information possible in her articles.  Because of her seriousness in her work, her co-workers call her Hataraki Man.  In her assignments, we see all the hardships she does in the journalism world.  Although it focuses on her life outside of work, most of the stuff comes from her work life where most of her time is spent.  The show also focuses on other people that Hiroko interacts with as a client or co-worker.

In the final two episodes (actually two & less of a quarter), Hiroko is faced with a big personal life problem which is her boyfriend wanting to break up with her.  The reason for this would lead the show's ending where her passion for her work is way she's taking things very far to become a Hataraki Man.

My Personal Review

Hataraki Man isn't a show for everyone.  It's short & focus a lot on the average working woman.  It's most likely aimed to the working class women in their 20 - 30s.  There are some from the male side as well, but not very much of it.

Animation

The character designs have that manga style to it.  Long faces & big eyes on the women.  The men have thick lips & beady eyes.  The best thing about the character designs is that all the characters have their own unique appearance.  In the fashion department, don't expect anything flashy as they are in normal everyday work clothing.  Also, they do match their ages well.

The backgrounds aren't very detailed.  It gives the show its appearance, but it's nothing flashy.  It's quite plain & doesn't have much life.

The colouring is dull, but colourful.  It doesn't have a lot of shading or toning & it looks like something from the late 90s.

The animation movements are natural.  They are some weird moments as well, but doesn't show itself much.  The most you will see is weird faces.  The movements aren't too great as you can see the choppiness & missing frames from running scenes.

Sound

The sound effect are natural & realistic.  If fact, they sound good.  The ring & vibrating of cellphones are very clean.  It's makes it look more like a live action TV drama instead.  But the silly sound effects make is sound like the show was from the 70s or 60s.  It's really corny.

The voices aren't too bad here.  The casting job is pretty good as the seiyuus role played their parts quite well in terms of character & age.

Not much music here.  Most of it is pop really & don't appear much.  Plus, they don't stick to your head.  At least for me that is.

Story

The show mainly has short stories of Hiroko's life.  You don't get to see much of her personal life since she hardly has one & she has been dying for sex for a long time.  We get to see how difficult & dangerous it is for her to dirty & juicy facts.  What makes this show stand out from the rest is how it focuses more on real life scenarios.  Plus, it focuses more on the working life.  There aren't a lot of anime shows like this at this time of age.  Although it's different, it won't attract a large crowd as it's more geared to a mature audience.  As the show goes deeper, we see how the life of other positions from other people are affected as well.

Overall Conclusion

Hataraki Man is a nice anime show that gives people something different in many of the current anime shows.  However, it's not something everyone will enjoy as it's pretty dry at times.  Because it's set in a working environment, not many people will understand the situations that arises in the show.

Hataraki Man receives a 7/10.  The show is unique & stands out a bit from other anime shows due to its theme.  However, it's heavily focus on the working environment & it's something that working people will understand.  School students will probably not understand the situations that Hiroko will face & may find the show boring.

Last updated on January 15, 2008