"Didn't KantokuSora say the second season of AD would have a major story explosion? I haven't seen anything Klike that yet."
"It's a romance anime. The male lead and the heroine have already confessed to each other, so I feel like there isn't much left to depict. Judging by the current pace, the protagonist should graduate from high school in another episode or two. What are they supposed to do with the story after that?"
"Actually, I don't think the second season of AD is focusing that much on romance anymore. It feels like it's spending more time portraying family details. Nagisa Furukawa and her parents, Youhei and his sister, Okazaki and his father…"
"I think it's pretty interesting. Especially Youhei's daily comedy scenes. That guy makes me laugh so hard. How can someone be that unlucky and still that funny?"
"He's clearly the comic relief. The moment he appears, I already want to laugh."
"And what are those light orbs supposed to be for? Every time a character's storyline ends and their emotional knot is resolved, one of those orbs floats into the sky. There are already eight or nine of them now. What connection do they have to that robot and that girl in the lonely world shown at the beginning of every episode?"
"No idea. But I don't think we need to overthink it. AD is obviously different from Steins;Gate. The plot isn't that complicated. Those light orbs will probably make sense once the anime focuses more on the girl in that lonely world. Still, I do feel like the story is moving a little too slowly."
"The leads already confessed in high school, so they should hurry up and show them getting married. I really like works about married life."
"I keep feeling like KantokuSora is setting up something huge."
"I'm really looking forward to it now. KantokuSora said this anime wouldn't lose to Re:Zero or Steins;Gate, but based on the current story, it clearly hasn't reached that level yet. That means there must be a massive turning point later. With the current structure of the characters and relationships, I honestly can't see what kind of story development could give KantokuSora that much confidence. But the harder it is to guess, the more excited I get."
"Isn't it possible that was just marketing talk? To be honest, I believe KantokuSora has the ability to create an anime that surpasses Re:Zero and Steins;Gate, but it's impossible for every single one of his works to reach that kind of level, right?"
"If it were anyone else, I'd also think it was marketing. Just like those anime Kantokus who say, 'This is the final work of my life,' or 'If the Blu-ray sales don't break x copies, I'll retire forever.' But when it's that old devil Sora… even though I hate how painfully tragic he makes his stories sometimes, there's one thing I have to admit: every boast he's made so far has come true. So I'll wait and see how the second half of this season performs."
"I'm stockpiling episodes right now. I already watched the entire first season, and the Southern Alliance Network has several rebroadcasts planned for this cour, so it'll be easy to catch up later. KantokuSora's works have to be watched all at once to feel satisfying. Last cour, following Steins;Gate weekly nearly killed me. My brother bought the Blu-rays and watched everything in one sitting. He said it felt amazing. I'm learning from him this time."
"Hahaha, as long as you still like browsing NatsuYume, forget it. You won't be able to hold back. When the time comes, the entire site will spoil the later plot for you."
"…"
"Open the anime section of the forum now and it's flooded with information about Sora. Wasn't there news two weeks ago about some extreme female fan trying to sneak into the luxury condominium where KantokuSora lives in Tokyo just to take pictures of him, only to get caught by security?"
"With KantokuSora's current fame, he should count as a real celebrity in Japan by now, right?"
"At least in the hearts of anime fans, he's practically a god. Extremely productive, creator of masterpiece after masterpiece, good personality, handsome, and almost no scandals. He has a huge number of female anime fans in Japan."
"That's true. I went to an anime convention in Tokyo the day before yesterday, and out of every ten female cosplayers, at least seven or eight were dressed as characters from his works. Rem, Ram, Emilia, Kurisu Makise, Mayuri Shiina, Suzuha Amane, yokai from Natsume Yuujinchou… they were everywhere."
"Try insulting KantokuSora online and you'll understand the combat power of his female fans. Some hater tried attacking him on the NatsuYume forum before. He got torn apart so badly he ended up deleting his account."
The anime market in July was, overall, very stable. It was nothing like the previous two cours, when a pile of major productions competed against one another until Steins;Gate finally broke away in the later stages and unified both public discussion and reputation across the market.
The early episodes of AD's second season were still lingering in the school arc, functioning more as a foundation for the season's later developments than as the true dramatic core of the story.
Inside Yume Animation, however, reality was completely different. Over the past month, the company's more than five hundred employees had all entered a brutal production mode, as if everyone were burning through their reserves at the same time.
The release date for the film Your Name had already been set: February 6 of the following year, at the beginning of the major holiday cinema season.
The premiere date for Attack on Titan's first season had also been confirmed. It would begin airing in April of the following year.
The production budget for Your Name alone had already surpassed 130 million yen, and that did not include later marketing costs.
Attack on Titan's first season, meanwhile, had an investment of over 150 million yen. Its promotion would mainly be handled by the Southern Alliance Network.
Attack on Titan was still relatively manageable. The first season would have more than twenty episodes, and the broadcast itself would last half a year. On top of that, there was still more than half a year before its planned premiere. In practical terms, producing a little over twenty episodes across more than a year was not exactly an impossible race.
Your Name was different.
For a high-investment animated feature film, eight months was an extremely tight schedule. Because of that, production had been divided into several simultaneous sections.
The climactic scenes and the most crucial animated sequences would be led directly by Sora. Some secondary sequences would be handled by Sumire. The less essential cuts would be handed to veteran animation Kantokus under the main team. Hundreds of employees were split into several production groups working in parallel. At the same time, the company began cooperating with top-tier companies in Japan and overseas.
The cost would be high. There was no doubt about that.
But the final quality would not suffer because of the compressed schedule.
Everyone was busy.
At the end of July, Yume Animation released partial information about its two new works to the Japanese animation industry, including their official titles. Naturally, the announcement also came with colored key visuals drawn by top industry artists within the company, based on the character design drafts.
In the first image, high above the sky, a boy in a military uniform appeared with a furious expression, gripping two blades in his hands. Around his waist hung a mechanical device releasing steam. From within the device, a steel cable shot outward, aimed at a gigantic humanoid monster with no skin, its exposed muscles a raw, bloody red.
Above the illustration, the words Attack on Titan stood out in bold, striking letters.
It was only one image, yet that single visual was enough to make countless fans of Sora feel an indescribable sense of pressure.
The second image showed the inside of a train. A boy stood by the window, looking out, and through the glass he saw a girl standing by the window of another train running alongside his own, staring back at him.
At the top of the artwork was the title of the work: Your Name.
Less than an hour after Sora's account posted the two original illustrations, the post had already surpassed one million views.
Your Name.
Attack on Titan.
The two titles quickly shot up to first and second place on NatsuYume's trending rankings.
"Attack on Titan? What is this? From the original artwork, it's people using steel cables to fight giants?"
"Damn, I woke up from a nap and thought I was seeing things. KantokuSora is making a battle anime?"
"Giants, steel cables, and swords? What kind of insane setting is this? It looks amazing."
"Are you all only paying attention to Attack on Titan? Did no one notice the information about Your Name? It's releasing during the February holiday season, and that poster with the two trains side by side instantly brought back the trauma I felt when I watched 5 Centimeters per Second."
"An animated film for the holiday season… is KantokuSora really that confident?"
"Why wouldn't he be? The performance of 5 Centimeters per Second last year was excellent. He's no longer a newcomer in the film industry. With that kind of track record, theaters and cinema chains should be willing to promote his films."
"Exactly. What does he have to be afraid of? KantokuSora has fame, a team, and money. As long as the quality of his work is strong enough, who can intimidate him?"
"It's not that simple. The main issue is that, in recent years, a lot of excellent works released during the holiday season still ended up with poor results because they couldn't compete with overwhelming marketing campaigns. I have confidence in KantokuSora's creative ability, but for a movie to sell well in theaters, quality alone isn't enough."
"You people are mythologizing the importance of capital and money too much. In the end, the most important thing about a film is still whether it's good. If KantokuSora's work can maintain the quality of 5 Centimeters per Second, then even during a competitive holiday season, its results definitely won't be bad."
"A long battle anime and a romance anime film. KantokuSora really can handle any genre."
"That's what you call genius."
"I'm already restless. Hurry up and let the second half of this year pass."
"Don't say that. I still want to properly enjoy the weekly broadcast of AD's second season. I'm very interested in KantokuSora's two new works too, but a meal has to be eaten one bite at a time."
From the moment the production information for the two new anime was announced, the nationwide promotional campaign for both works officially began.
Over the next few days, Sora kept a close eye on the online public opinion surrounding his productions.
To his surprise, this time things were not like before. There was no sudden flood of paid accounts and professional haters trying to smear him.
Had the four major networks admitted defeat?
Sora blinked thoughtfully.
But after thinking it over, he realized it was not impossible.
Over the past six months, the four major networks had accumulated massive investments. They had hired four well-known Kantokus in the industry to create heavyweight productions, yet all of them had still been crushed by Steins;Gate.
With the power of the four major networks, it would be entirely possible for them to invite more famous names from the Japanese animation industry to target Sora again.
But what would be the point?
If Naofumi and the others could not compete with Sora, would simply replacing them with someone else solve anything?
Going head-to-head with Sora while he was at the height of his momentum would only waste energy and time.
The most cost-effective strategy would be to wait until the day he showed signs of decline. Only then would attacking him with full force be worthwhile.
"But they may have to wait quite a while for that."
After understanding this, Sora let out a soft laugh.
He could not judge whether the Southern Alliance Network would continue developing well in the future, or even whether it might one day surpass the four major networks. After all, he was only a minor shareholder.
But there was one thing he knew for certain.
No matter how the Southern Alliance Network developed, at least in the animation division, Sora's current goal was clear: to be first among all works airing in the same period.
As long as one of his works was broadcasting in the Japanese animation market, he would naturally fight for first place.
July ended, and August arrived.
In the new month, AD's ratings began to rise slightly.
In truth, in Sora's previous life, the two-season structure of AD's anime had been built by extracting the emotional climaxes of more than a dozen branching routes from the original game and compressing them into a combined animated narrative.
The reason for this structure was tied to the central axis of the work: only after collecting every orb of light would it be possible for Nagisa Furukawa to survive at the end.
In Nagisa Furukawa's route in the original game, players had to experience several endings in which she died, clear every character route, collect every orb of light in the game, and unlock a series of hidden achievements before finally reaching the perfect ending in which Nagisa Furukawa, the protagonist, and their daughter Ushio could live together.
In his previous life, Sora had spent nearly a hundred hours completing that entire process, reading through more than a million characters of text before reaching the ending.
When all of that was compressed into just over fifty episodes of animation, it was inevitable that some parts would feel less deeply developed than they could have been.
Even so, the viewers who had followed AD up to this point had already begun to notice that the narrative focus of the second season was no longer romance.
In fact, by around the seventh episode of the second season, many of them had already sensed it.
On the surface, it looked like a romance anime.
But at its core, it was portraying the lives of each character.
The love story between the protagonist and the heroine in the first season had never been the true heart of the work. What would truly elevate it to another level lay in the second half of the second season, when the two would graduate from high school, form a family, get married, become pregnant, have a daughter, and then, after a devastating family tragedy, the protagonist would be saved from the lowest point of his life by that very daughter, only to fall once again into the abyss because of the cruel fate that befell her.
The ending would be healing.
But the journey toward it would be devastatingly painful.
Love was only the beginning.
What came after it was life.