Two days later, the final episode of Steins;Gate officially aired.
Overall, the episode served as a proper conclusion for the series, tying up several threads that had been left hanging throughout the story. For instance, the anime had repeatedly mentioned that Suzuha was Hashida's daughter seven years in the future, but the question of who his future wife was had never been answered.
In this episode, she finally appeared.
From there, the story almost felt as though it was rewarding the audience for all the pain they had endured. Sweet little moments came one after another, every important character made an appearance, and even Makise, now living in the Steins;Gate worldline, continued to be troubled by hazy memories from other worldlines. They were memories that did not quite belong to her, yet they did not feel like ordinary dreams either.
She even dreamed of the scene where she kissed Kōren in the Alpha worldline.
Because of that, Makise approached him in this new reality and asked whether it had truly happened.
Facing her, Kōren confessed to her once again in this worldline.
"I love you, no matter what world we're in. What about you?"
The final episode of Steins;Gate ended beneath the setting sun, with Kōren and Makise silently looking at each other.
And with Makise saying one final line to him.
"Close your eyes."
On that Friday night in late June, Steins;Gate officially came to an end.
The episode closed with a 6.24% rating, breaking its own record once again, just as many people had expected.
That night, countless fans of Steins;Gate were left with a deep, lingering melancholy. The ending of a masterpiece was always like this. People felt relieved that it had reached such a complete and flawless conclusion, yet at the same time, they were reluctant to say goodbye to those characters and to that world.
That same night, Sora's account officially surpassed twenty million followers.
The Southern Alliance Network also used the final episode of Steins;Gate as an opportunity to insert a special variety program related to the series. During the broadcast, they revealed several original settings and story details that Sora had not included in the anime. Those materials had been provided by him to the network and, in a sense, worked as a different kind of promotion.
With that, the spring anime season also came to a close.
A year earlier, the four major networks had been full of ambition. They wanted to suppress the Southern Alliance Network and, more than anything, bring down Sora. To achieve that, they had created a series of plans, invested in major productions, and tried to surround him from every direction.
One year later, the result was there for everyone to see.
In anime, they had been crushed.
In television dramas, they had been beaten without mercy.
The entire market had watched it happen.
Over the past six months, Sora had practically stepped on the heads of the four major networks to make his name known throughout the Japanese television industry. More than that, he had created a precedent for countless creators.
As long as someone had enough talent, even the four major networks could be reduced to clowns.
After Steins;Gate ended, the Japanese television industry entered a relatively calm period.
The four major networks had no significant moves planned for the next season. Whether in dramas or anime, there were no true blockbuster productions on the horizon.
Especially in the animation sector, the only major popular title left was still the second season of AD.
After all, anime such as The Mystery of the Black Detective, Crimson Scales, and The Demon of Time would all be ending this season. Perhaps those works would receive second seasons in the future. Their results might not compare to Steins;Gate, but any anime with ratings above 5% was already considered an excellent performer. Producing a sequel to capture another wave of profit was perfectly normal.
But even if those second seasons happened, they would not arrive anytime soon.
Sora had money, staff, and, on top of that, an absurd speed when it came to presenting new works. He could connect the second season of AD seamlessly after Steins;Gate. But how many others in the industry could do the same?
The four major networks seemed to have given up resisting for the time being. In the new season, there were no obvious moves against the Southern Alliance Network or Sora.
That allowed the Southern Alliance to go all in.
The promotion for AD Season Two was pushed with almost aggressive intensity. Within just a few days, news about the series gradually began to dominate the entire Japanese animation market.
The trailers had already been released.
Based on the previews alone, audiences could more or less guess that the second season of AD would tell the love story between the male lead, Takasaki, and the heroine, Furukawa Nagisa, as well as their daily life after marriage.
At first, many people did not think a story about a couple in love sounded all that interesting.
But the creator was Sora.
And with him, there was always the chance that something unexpected would happen. After all, Sora had a habit of taking seemingly ordinary, popular themes and turning them into something new.
At that moment, the Japanese viewers of AD had not yet shifted their perspective.
The first season had indeed been about the romance between the male and female leads.
But who had decided that the second season had to continue exploring romantic love?
The true theme of the second season was family.
Only, at that point, the fans of AD had not realized it yet.
At Yume Animation, after exchanging for his two new works, Sora immediately began preliminary production on Attack on Titan and Your Name.
For an animated film or a television anime, once the plot was already known, writing the script itself was not an especially heavy task. The difficult part came before that: the early storyboards, character designs, background art direction, visual style, and all the foundations that would support the work.
In the case of Your Name, things were relatively simpler.
The backgrounds, character style, and overall visual atmosphere shared similarities with 5 Centimeters per Second. All he had to do was gather the team that had worked on the film the previous year and let them continue in that direction.
But Attack on Titan was different.
The amount of material and detail that needed to be designed was enormous.
Although the first season of Attack on Titan had been widely praised in his previous life for its art style and animation, the truth was that several combat sequences had not been as fluid as they could have been. Considering the current standard of Japanese animation production in this world, many of those aspects could still be strengthened.
Times changed, after all.
With the new projects confirmed, Sora's schedule became packed.
Once the preliminary setup for a work was complete, he could explain the requirements clearly and delegate later storyboards, coloring, and other tasks to his staff. But during the initial preparation stage, he had to be involved in everything personally.
While preliminary work on the two animations was underway, the person in charge of the animated film department at the Noriko Group, which had maintained a strong working relationship with Sora, also came to him to discuss another collaboration.
The previous year, the two sides had worked together on 5 Centimeters per Second, and each had earned hundreds of millions of yen from the project. Even for a company of Noriko Animation's scale, that was not a small amount.
Now, Sora was preparing to produce another animated film, and he had made it clear that he intended to release it during the following year's New Year season.
It was a bold decision.
And also a gamble with an extremely high ceiling and a dangerously low floor.
Looking at the films released during Japan's New Year season over the past few years, the outcomes had tended to be extreme. Either they earned staggering profits, or they suffered equally painful losses.
If Sora's new animated film could maintain the same quality as 5 Centimeters per Second, then considering his current influence and drawing power in the Japanese anime industry, the proposal was genuinely feasible.
In any case, with Sora's current popularity, even if the work did not explode spectacularly, the chances of losing money were far too low.
The problem was that time was not generous.
They had to discuss the release slot, align their willingness to cooperate, negotiate broader details, and, at the same time, push forward the preliminary production of Sora's two new works.
By late June, he was so busy that he could barely catch his breath.
Even so, he still had to make time to appear on Southern Alliance variety programs to promote the second season of AD.
For the summer season, the Southern Alliance Network's new drama was once again an original production by its own internal team, and even the network's own staff had little confidence in it.
Previously, the network still had two hit animations by Sora airing at the same time. Now that Steins;Gate had ended, only the second season of AD remained.
Although the first season of AD had not achieved results as dazzling as Steins;Gate, Sora's name alone was enough for the network to pour all of its promotional resources into the anime.
Across major otaku shopping streets in various Japanese cities, posters of AD's characters began occupying display windows, billboards, and storefronts, backed by heavy marketing and strong financial support.
After the end of Steins;Gate, many fans who had suddenly found themselves with nothing to watch also started catching up on the first season of AD.
And so, June quietly slipped away.
When July arrived, the state of the television industry did not differ much from outside predictions.
In the drama sector, the Southern Alliance Network was practically knocked back to its original form.
The premiere of its new drama recorded a 3.89% rating.
To be honest, that was the Southern Alliance Network's usual level before Sora.
After all, the audience understood very clearly that the one with real strength was Sora, not the Southern Alliance Network's production department. It was only natural that many viewers were unwilling to buy into the network's new drama.
The opening data for that season's dramas was like a bucket of cold water poured over the senior management of the Southern Alliance.
Fortunately, in the animation sector, because several highly popular titles had ended earlier, AD Season Two had no real rival that quarter.
The first episode of Aobane TV's main promoted anime for the season only reached a 4.68% rating. Compared with the 5.23% rating of AD Season Two's first episode, the gap was not small.
AD's position in the ratings ranking helped preserve at least some dignity for the Southern Alliance Network.
Even so, it was inevitable that various Japanese media outlets would mock the network. They said that a large television company valued at tens of billions of yen actually needed a young man to support its public image. Without Sora, all of its internally produced works were so ordinary that they vanished into the crowd. If he abandoned the Southern Alliance one day, the network would undoubtedly suffer a devastating blow.
Faced with these provocations, which were clearly encouraged by the four major networks to sow discord, the senior management of the Southern Alliance did not react at all.
Yes, what the media said was correct.
It was dangerous for a television network worth tens of billions of yen to rely on a single young man to support its ratings and performance.
But what were they supposed to do?
Was a genius like Sora someone the industry could replace just because it wanted to find another one?
Besides, Sora had an excellent history of cooperation with the Southern Alliance. He was also a shareholder of the network.
As long as the executives in their own house did not pull some idiotic stunt, perhaps he would not part ways with the Southern Alliance even after his contract expired.
Therefore, although AD's ratings so far were far below those of Steins;Gate, with no better option available that season, the promotional resources given to AD Season Two were no less than what Steins;Gate had received before.
After several consecutive weeks, the first four episodes of AD Season Two had already aired.
In essence, the plot of those four episodes did not differ much from the style of the first season.
There was comedic everyday life, characters carrying sorrowful pasts, and then the male lead Takasaki and the heroine Furukawa Nagisa working together to help their friends resolve those problems.
The process could be sad. It could bring viewers to tears.
But the ending, more often than not, followed a painfully bitter line.
And yet…
Although the quality remained as stable as ever, many anime fans still did not feel the same breathtaking impact that the later part of Steins;Gate had delivered.