One other random thing that struck me was how it seems like everything in her office is still done by hand. In many ways, Japan's office culture is remarkably conservative about adopting new technology, but I have thought that most magazines would have moved to word processors and digital printing by the time this manga began eight or nine years ago.
It looks very much like a stereotypical journalist's office from pretty much any film or TV programme I've ever seen. They seem to have laptops in the show, but clearly Hiro likes to write her reports down. But then I don't know how magazine offices work these days - I will admit to being a bit confused as to what the target audience of Jidai is, as it looks like some kind of Hello! style glossy tabloid when they show cover shots but it seems to have potentially more serious content judging by this episode.
So anyway, yes, I've joined in the backlog watch as I've been meaning to watch this show for years and never have!
I liked this shot when the smoke blew back at Hiro, even if it is done with CG.
While the "gimmick" of the show is a bit of an eye-roller - the insinuation that to work hard you have to act like a man, basically - and the overall production values are fairly basic, this was a pretty solid first episode, mostly thanks to Hiro being such a likeable protagonist. The writing accurately captures the stereotypical office dynamic for sure.
I hope that the characters are explored well throughout the series, particularly Tanaka. While he seems to be something of a "villain" in that he's comparatively lazy, I hope the show chooses to explore the fact that yes, there can be more to life than work - especially since Hiro's work/life balance is so poor.
