Writing about Turning Girls almost feels like a critical trap. It’s generally left out of the history (and filmography) of 2010s aestheticians-master Studio TRIGGER. And there’s a reason for that; despite sometimes being branded as a product of the studio, it’s more apt to say that Turning Girls is a show by people who happen to work at TRIGGER’s office. To wit; of the entire staff, only the director (Masahiko Ootsuka) has worked on anime before or since. The rest of the motley crew behind Turning Girls was a collection of office workers, secretaries, janitors, and other incidental office personnel. It looks it, too. The “anime” is really more of an audio drama with accompanying still drawings--you can count the number of frames in most episodes without much trouble. Each episode is only about five minutes long and you can easily knock the thing out in half an hour. The resulting whatever-it-is was dropped onto Youtube in 2013 with little fanfare on Anime Bancho (a channel that hosted a number of shows like this before abruptly going quiet in August of 2018). English subtitles of dubious officiality were affixed to the series sometime later, and there it sits, quietly racking up views from the curious or simply the bored.

Turning Girls’ plot--such as it is--is an example of a work comedy sanded down to its most essential elements. Our four main characters (all of whom work in the same office) are Nana, a nice domestic type nearing her 30th birthday. Kai, a goth who’s into metal and extreme alternative fashion. Chiwa, a dilligent office worker who also happens to be closeted yaoi fanatic, and Kaerun, an obnoxious indie idol who also works at a maid cafe` and is in possession of a truly ear-splitting voice. The four are apparently loosely based on their voice actresses, which is either gentle ribbing between friends or an example of intra-office bullying.

In general the show is rather, well, mean to its characters. Our four leads put up with their day jobs to pursue their passions, all of which are pretty “weird” by usual societal standards, something the show goes out of its way to mock. Chiwa gets the worst of it early on. Episode 2 revolves around her fantasizing about pairs of boys around her office. First her manager and a berated underling, then a pair of twin boys (yikes), and culminating in idle fantasies about the hot and cold water in the water cooler hooking up.

Similarly, Kai’s focus episode-of-sorts, 4, sees her inviting her coworkers to a metal concert. A scene she’s apparently somewhat famous in for for her elaborate costumes. Of course, she gets arrested for disturbing the peace and her coworkers can’t be assed to help. The show does occasionally let a tiny bit of sincerity poke through in these moments, such as here:

But these instances are rare.

Kaerun’s episode is downright hard to watch. Being entirely a single unbroken stream from her webcam onto NicoNico’s livestreaming service (or whatever the equivalent may be) during which various uncomfortable things happen. She loudly sings an off-key overly-cutesy song, gets in a fight with her mom, gets her stream raided by 2channel trolls. You get the idea.

The finale (well, last proper episode. There is a 7th but it’s an odd post-show wrap-up thing) is pretty rough too. Featuring the comparatively normal Nana getting broken up with and fired on her 30th birthday, her “friends” arguing over who hates her the most, and then having a princely doctor back off the moment the clock strikes midnight (which instantly ages her into a grandma).

You get the general idea.

Honestly, on the whole, the show is a bit of an annoying experience. Certainly, taken the way it was presumably meant (as an elaborate in-joke between friends), it’s fine, but that doesn’t actually translate to a particularly compelling watching experience and the entire thing just feels way too black to be actually funny. Conversely, it’s too brief to feel like it’s really meant to mean anything. If you’ve ever caught a close friend making extremely dark jokes on Twitter to cope with going through a bad spell, Turning Girls is that feeling extended to a 30 minute anime.

It’s a bit of a shame, too. Since we do get a few great gags like Kaerun trying to turn up at a death metal concert.

And the aforementioned hot water/cold water yaoi. The art’s pretty nice, too, even having a surprisingly strong aesthetic for something with next to no actual animation. Still, these comparatively minor strengths don’t make this series recommendable. It’s a black comedy that simply doesn’t have the time to build up the good faith to make that dichotomy actually mean anything, so it just ends up feeling annoying and meanspirited. The real shame is that despite its own insistence otherwise, the characters who star in Turning Girls actually are likable, if weird. Given more time or even just more care, it's quite possible a good comedy series could've come from this, but Turning Girls just isn't that series.

To the people who made it, Turning Girls might mean something. For everyone else, it is exactly what it appears to be, a Youtube oddity that is more bizarre than worthwhile.

And if you liked this review, why not check out some of my others here on Anilist?