This is a theme/setting which I don't see explored too much in anime. There's plenty of slice-of-life anime in various flavours, but there seems to be precious little about the mechanics of actually doing hard or technical work and going about the daily grind. Something about the straightforwardness of a working stiff trying to save up money and accomplish something tugs at my heartstrings.
There were shades of this theme in Welcome to the NHK (and one of the many reasons it resonated with me), and although I'm only a few episodes into Planetes, it looks much the same. Hachi's borderline pipe dream of buying his own ship and his all-too-human flaws like playing the lottery and being caught up in get-rich-quick schemes remind me of similar problems I've had, though any further detail would be blogposting.
Even something extremely melodramatic like Beastars has introduced this recently since the main characters have graduated/dropped out of school and now need to live as adults. It's just so compelling, despite all logic that it should make for bland stories.
Has anyone else noticed this theme in other anime? Is there something to my ramblings or am I just projecting too hard?
Pic unrelated.