Before Re:Zero aired, Sora was nothing more than a so-called genius teenager who had only just begun to make a name for himself at a major television station in Tokushima.
Back then, no matter what kind of project he wanted to produce, he still had to sit down and negotiate everything with the partner broadcaster first. Genre, format, scheduling, target audience - none of it was something he could decide on his own.
But now, things were different.
Even if Sora chose not to make a third season of Re:Zero, no station in the southern broadcasting alliance would reject a legitimate animated story he brought to the table. The success of the first two seasons had completely changed his standing.
As he looked at the 180 million Emotion Points that Re:Zero had earned him from season one through season two, Sora let his thoughts sink into the system space and began to think seriously.
There were only two ways to use Emotion Points in the system.
The first was the lottery.
The second was direct exchange.
Judging from his previous experiences, the actual value of works obtained through the lottery usually ranged from three to ten times the amount spent. Voices of a Distant Star had represented the lower end of that range, while Re:Zero's first season had practically set the upper limit.
Still, he had far too few examples to calculate the real odds with any certainty. The only thing he knew for sure was that every lottery so far had brought him a positive return.
At least until now.
This time, choosing his next project required caution.
In theory, throwing everything in at once and gambling it all would be the most thrilling option.
But Sora was never going to do something that reckless.
Titles like Spider-Man and Iron Man from Marvel were insanely expensive in direct exchange. If he dumped all 180 million Emotion Points into one massive gamble and ended up pulling one of those, he would be stunned on the spot.
It had nothing to do with the quality of those works. It was simply a matter of market fit. In his previous life, those kinds of stories had never been especially famous in the animation and comics sphere of East Asia. Their real dominance came from film. But Sora didn't have a movie production team, nor the funds, manpower, or technical capacity to recreate that kind of cinematic spectacle in this world.
The same problem applied to works like Kochikame, Chibi Maruko-chan, and Crayon Shin-chan. Their exchange values were just as high, but they were also deeply rooted in a specific cultural atmosphere. If he brought them into the current market, maybe they would work… or maybe they wouldn't. Even Sora couldn't say for certain. Deep down, though, he felt there was a real chance they would fail to take off.
In the ideal scenario, he would go all in and somehow hit a miracle pull - something on the level of Dragon Ball, Naruto, One Piece, or Bleach.
But that was only the ideal scenario.
In reality, there were too many possible outcomes, too many variables, too many risks.
So Sora decided to use the majority of his Emotion Points - 120 million of them - for a direct exchange. That would give him a guaranteed cornerstone for Yume Animation's next move.
As for the remaining 60 million…
That would be the risky part.
The gambling part.
There were many works he could exchange for with 120 million points, but among all of them, only a few truly matched his own taste and, more importantly, suited the preferences of the fanbase that Re:Zero had just built.
Sora thought about it for a long time.
And eventually, the answer became clear.
A masterpiece centered on parallel worlds, looping causality, and fractured timelines.
Steins;Gate.
The shared appeal between Steins;Gate and Re:Zero - that same sense of returning, repeating, and struggling against fate - would at least ensure that his existing fans could accept it. The audience that loved Re:Zero would almost certainly embrace this kind of setup as well.
And in Sora's heart, Steins;Gate had always ranked even higher.
Across forums, websites, rankings, and recommendation lists from his previous life, it almost always appeared somewhere in the top ten. It was one of those rare works that stood the test of time.
Yes, its opening was slow. It took its time building momentum. But now Sora had the popularity, influence, and financial backing to support that kind of storytelling. He could afford to let the plot unfold at its proper pace.
With the direct exchange decided, 60 million points remained.
After thinking it over, he split them into three parts.
Twenty million per lottery draw.
Three separate attempts.
Sora was never the type to drag things out once he had made up his mind. The moment he decided, he acted.
The first lottery began.
A curtain of light flickered before his eyes. One title after another flashed by, blurring together as if an endless stream of possibilities were racing past him.
Half a minute later, one name finally settled into view.
Grave of the Fireflies.
Sora's expression froze.
Great. A dead draw.
The moment he saw that title, his chest tightened. It was an incredibly powerful work, but also painfully tragic and deeply tied to a very specific historical and cultural context.
Not to mention, even putting aside the commercial risk of producing something so bleak, adapting it would be nearly impossible without stripping away too much of what made it special in the first place.
Just like that, 20 million Emotion Points were gone.
A real pang of pain hit him. For the first time, he genuinely regretted choosing to gamble.
But once the bowstring had been drawn, there was no such thing as taking the arrow back.
Then came the second lottery.
Soon, another title appeared before him.
A Silent Voice.
Sora's gaze sharpened.
Alright… he really did like this one.
A lot, actually.
But the problem lay elsewhere.
A school story centered on bullying, trauma, and guilt was extremely delicate subject matter. If he tried to produce it now, it was very possible he would end up at the center of a media storm. No matter how careful the adaptation was, the topic itself was explosive enough.
And at that moment, Sora confirmed something else.
The lottery absolutely could produce a negative return.
At the very least, A Silent Voice was not worth 20 million Emotion Points in direct exchange.
By then, Sora genuinely felt like his heart was bleeding.
Even his irritation began to rise.
This system really wasn't giving him any face at all.
"Forget it. I'll just treat this as an experiment," he muttered to himself. "By the logic of low critical hit rates, if the first two swings miss, then the third one has to hit big."
It was a stupid superstition, and he knew it.
Even so, his eyes shifted toward the final 20 million points.
This time, he was putting everything on the line.
Half a minute later, a title in English appeared before him.
Clannad – Season One.
Sora's pupils contracted.
It was that work.
It had to be.
His emotions stirred instantly, a wave of genuine anticipation rushing through him. But the second he noticed the words "Season One," that joy was immediately tinged with bitterness.
Only the first season?
Seriously?
Why not give him both seasons together?
With a long sigh, Sora withdrew from the system space. When he returned to reality, he was still wearing a thoughtful expression.
On the surface, this round of draws hadn't been a loss.
Among the three works he had obtained with 60 million points, even if Grave of the Fireflies and A Silent Voice were excluded, Clannad – Season One alone was worth over 100 million in direct exchange.
But that "not losing out" was only true on paper.
Because if he judged Clannad's first season on its own, the price was clearly inflated.
By itself, it was an excellent romance anime - delicate, emotional, and beautifully written. But there was still a clear gap between that and a true masterpiece.
The real apotheosis came in the second season.
That was when the series truly ascended.
That was when it became unforgettable.
And precisely because of that, the first season's price had been dragged upward as well. Its valuation of more than 100 million Emotion Points definitely carried an exaggerated premium.
Still, since he had already obtained the first season, there was no way he would leave the second behind.
The problem was the price.
More than 200 million Emotion Points.
Sora let out a tired breath.
It was absurdly expensive.
Of course, Re:Zero was still airing. And even after it finished, Blu-ray sales, overseas distribution, and the response from international audiences would continue bringing him a massive amount of Emotion Points. Once he added in the future returns from Steins;Gate and Clannad's first season, gathering that amount wouldn't be impossible.
Even so…
This still wasn't how he had imagined it.
This lottery session hadn't been nearly as satisfying as he had hoped.
If he had somehow struck gold and drawn something on the level of Dragon Ball, he would have taken off instantly.
But that was gambling.
Risk.
Chance.
Loss.
"That's just how it goes," Sora thought, shaking his head. "If you choose to gamble, then you have to be prepared to take the hit."
Deep down, he had already known.
The system was never going to be that convenient.
The lottery was a double-edged sword.
He had no real way to produce Grave of the Fireflies under his current circumstances.
A Silent Voice was too sensitive in terms of subject matter.
As for Clannad – Season One and Steins;Gate, both were two-cour series with stellar reputations and overwhelming critical acclaim.
The more he thought about it, the more it actually felt like a pretty good outcome.
In fact, the two works fit perfectly with his next objective: to firmly consolidate his standing in the anime industry and turn Yume Animation into a studio whose reputation wasn't built on just a single hit.
Over the next few days, Sora shifted the center of his work toward these two newly acquired projects.
Although 5 Centimeters per Second would not be officially completed until July, and Re:Zero still needed another two or three weeks before production was truly wrapped up, many departments in the company were already entering a lull.
The key animators, for example, were always among the first to begin work on any production - and often the first to finish the heaviest part of it.
The key animation for 5 Centimeters per Second was already nearly complete. The project had largely moved into post-production, effects work, and voice integration.
As for Re:Zero, only portions of episode twenty-five of the second season were still being rushed to completion.
In practical terms, some of the company's key animators were already idle.
That meant Yume Animation already had the ability to begin early pre-production on Clannad and Steins;Gate right away.
But before any of that could happen, there was one absolute prerequisite.
Sora had to finish the scripts first.
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