A while ago I asked my readers for some recommendations and you wonderful people obliged. One of the titles that cropped up more than once was Hataraki Man and since it had been on my to-watch list since forever I tracked down the full series. And marathoned it. Cheers folks.

I can see why it’s one of those sleeper hits because of its realistic setting, live-action feel and they way it appeals to the josei or seinen demographics, without limiting itself to either piegeonhole. As I said in my previous post a healthy slab of realism is a good thing, and Noitamin A has a history of being a good place to find it. This title also goes even further than the pleasant surprises of Clannad ~after story~ and Solanin in breaking through the glass ceiling of portraying life after high school. Win.

It’s a niche title nevertheless, mainly because the ages of the characters and the issues it addresses. I guess the bottom line is the stars of the show are at a similar age to the target audience, which is probably relatively small. I won’t be rude and say that most otaku wouldn’t be able to relate to the characters because people in this series actually have jobs, but the fact remains that most anime fans are youngsters while Hiroko…isn’t. Aiming for such a minority audience makes it more personal somehow, which appeals to me.

There’s a streak of knowing wry humour running through the whole affair yet it never unfairly judges the characters. Rather than coming across as stereotypes that are intended to elicit sympathy or derision they are shown as they are: ordinary people like us getting on with their lives as best they can. Within these humdrum trials of ordinary stuff happening to ordinary people there’s a lot of truth…and a lot of warmth too.

Since the payback from watching this series is through the attention to detail, the little things are what make it so wonderful. One scene shows Hiroko struggling to make dinner while her boyfriend Shinji sits back in the living room; for whatever reason the food overcooks, but Shinji sits back and decides not to intervene. It was Hiroko’s turn to cook the dinner and as such it’s her responsibility, not his.

Relationships succeed and fail on little things like this: from an impartial outsider’s perspective Hiroko was cooking for both of them so it’s in his best interests to save it from burning, whoever’s in charge of it that day. This doesn’t seem like much but it’s a symptom of the barrier that’s been building up between them: they are drifting apart without realising.

Since neither Hiroko and Shinji are unfaithful the only cause really is their devotion to work. The core of Hataraki Man‘s message is the personal price we, the young(ish) adults in society, pay for the emphasis we place on our careers. My view is that you work to live, not the other way around (if I were currently in a job that meant more to me than something that merely pays the bills maybe I’d thimk differently though). In their case it’s not a case of merely working each day; the time to push and put in 100% is now.

The results of this well-meaning philosophy of giving it your all are clear: Shinji is faced with (at least to me) the familiar dilemma of “is this what I want to do with my life, or is the risk of a change too great?” and his relationships suffer. Similarly Hiroko is so driven that the respect she gains from her co-workers is a poor substitute for having time to herself – the title refers to her ‘work mode’ mindset that kicks in when a deadline is due.

We’ve all loaded up on strong coffee and snacks to get a piece of work done but the way that this single-mindedness to meet the deadline at all costs was presented is very interesting: in Hiroko’s office it’s implied that when she’s in Hard Work mode a masculine side surfaces. Is this making some sort of pro-masculinity statement? Don’t women these days juggle work with childcare and other traditionally female tasks? Aren’t women just as hard-working and dedicated as men?

I must make it clear that I didn’t detect any misogyny or misandry here: rather, it’s a portrayal of one person making a conscious effort to temporarily be someone else in order to make a given situation easier to deal with. Tellingly, her favourite snack allegedly has a high oestrogen content…she values her femininity but puts it to one side when she believes the circumstances demand it.

I think that when Hiroko does this she loses something in addition to her femininity…her sense of perspective perhaps? She casts aside her sense of time and her awareness of everything that isn’t work-related, just to get the task in hand completed. The masculinity of this frame of mind stems from its single-mindedness: we blokes do after all suck at multi-tasking (reading the paper while sat on the toilet doesn’t count) so Hataraki Man mode is the manly display of a one-track mind.

Hataraki Man is indeed concerned with gender-specific difficulties faced in today’s world but the main point I got from the show was how modern life, and careers in particular, puts pressure on everyone. The eventual break-up between Hiroko and Shinji was mutual: both are workaholics and neither is more or less to blame than the other. Again, the series doesn’t judge or criticise: it tells things as they are and leaves the viewer to make up his or her own mind, and is much more mature and satisfying for that.

The length of the series works a little against it, however. The episodic structure gives way to a more complex multi-threaded plotline just as it’s winding up to a conclusion, but that’s Unfinished Manga Syndrome for you. The supporting cast are all really entertaining though: every one of them has his or her own story to tell and the on-screen chemistry plays out in a really organic and lifelike way.

The uneasy (yet strangely heartwarming) dynamic between Hiroko and the gruff Sugawara was a pleasant surprise too; there’s that openness left at the end but what I remembered most about him was that strange penchant of his for taking photos of empty skylines. Considering how a pervading theme of the series overall was that of putting your personal interests to one side for the sake of your career, those little moments where he lets his true, more sentimental, side reveal itself were just plain awesome.