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It was now the middle of January, a delicate and pivotal time in the industry. The selection window for the Naoki Awards typically falls in April each year. This timing is intentional; many novels are published during the winter of the preceding year, and the committee schedules the awards for April to allow these works sufficient time for plot development and for word-of-mouth to spread among the public.
Naturally, novelists who have their eyes set on this prestigious prize almost always choose to launch their new series at the very beginning of the year. The difference in popularity between a work that has been serialized for a full twelve months and one that has only been out for a few months is staggering. Launching a book in the autumn or winter puts an author at a natural disadvantage for the Naoki Awards compared to those who debuted in the spring or summer. From this perspective, Parasyte, which began its run last November, was facing a steep uphill battle.
However, facts are stubborn things, and the reality of the situation was undeniable. Parasyte happened to hit a massive surge in popularity starting in January.
As Haruto's agent, Ms. Hime was keenly sensitive to this shift. Looking at the current momentum of the series, there was a high probability that Kiyozawa Library would officially submit it for the Naoki Award nominations.
"I wonder if it really has the strength to break into the top twenty," Ms. Hime mused while watching a program where several critics were discussing the series.
"It is such a shame. If Parasyte had been serialized in the flagship Kiyozawa magazine, its quality alone would have ensured even higher popularity by now. Combined with the high ratings from readers, it might have even had a shot at the top ten."
But as things stood, even though Parasyte was gaining ground at a frantic pace, there was still a gap between it and the heavy hitters in the Big Three magazines.
After all, a secondary magazine sells a few million copies a week, while a flagship magazine can reach sales of ten to twenty million. With such a massive difference in the baseline audience, the reach of the novels naturally varied. Regardless, she knew she had to inform Haruto of the situation so he could be mentally prepared.
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In late January, Reina paid her first visit to the animation studio.
"You were a bit late with your investment, so the company name was already set as Haru-Yuki Animation. Otherwise, calling it Haru-Yuki-Reina might have had a nice ring to it," Haruto teased as he watched Reina look around the office with wide, curious eyes.
"I do not particularly care about things like that," Reina replied, her expression remaining as cool and composed as ever. "Now then, why don't you show me the script for Puella Magi Madoka Magica? You and Yukino have been buzzing in my ear about it constantly."
"Don't be in such a hurry. I was planning to introduce you, as our new shareholder, to the staff first," Haruto said.
"That is unnecessary. I can meet them after I have finished reading the script," Reina replied, her voice carrying a hint of urgency.
Seeing the look on her face, Haruto didn't push the matter further. He reached into his desk drawer and pulled out the animation script and the storyboard drafts for Madoka Magica. Due to the immense commercial value and the potential for spoilers, Haruto had only given the staff the scripts for the first six episodes.
He was terrified that a loose tongue might leak the central premise of the show. Since this was his first foray into animation production, he was being exceptionally cautious, treating even the smallest risks with the utmost seriousness. He only released the scripts as the production reached each specific episode.
Reina sat down in a chair and began to read through the script with an intense focus. As she went through the first episode, her expression was one of confusion. To her, it looked like a completely standard, run-of-the-mill magical girl story.
In the animation industry, you could easily find over a hundred similar titles. Was this the kind of project that required Haruto to invest hundreds of millions of yen in production costs and another several dozen million just to secure a prime broadcasting slot?
She didn't say anything and simply moved on to the second episode. It focused on the daily lives of the protagonist and her friends alongside their upperclassman mentor, a seasoned magical girl. Under the protection of Mami, the veteran girl, they gradually learned about the secrets of the magical world, and the screen time for the adorable mascot, Kyubey, began to increase.
Reina still couldn't see any particularly striking merits. Certainly, the narrative was smooth and the character designs were charming, but by the second episode, the protagonist Madoka still hadn't become a magical girl. Was the pacing perhaps a bit too sluggish?
Then she reached the script for the third episode. Madoka and her friend, under Mami's protection, launched an attack against a Witch inside its labyrinth.
However, a plot development occurred that Reina could never have imagined in a thousand years.
Amidst a cheerful and hopeful atmosphere, Mami was suddenly ambushed by the Witch. Her head was bitten off in an instant, leaving only a headless corpse to fall before Madoka's eyes.
The tragic and cruel fate of the magical girls was partially revealed in that third episode. Reina's pupils dilated. She realized that this magical girl anime was nothing like the ones she had grown up watching. The art style and the tone were on two completely different wavelengths.
Even as a professional novelist, she was caught completely off guard by the twist, feeling a sudden surge of gloom and distress. How would the average viewer react when the time came?
She continued to the fourth episode, where Madoka's friend made a wish and became a magical girl just so the boy she liked could walk again. As a writer, Reina instinctively sensed that something was wrong with this development.
The way the foreshadowing was planted made her feel that things would definitely not go as smoothly as one would hope.
By the time she finished the scripts for the fifth and sixth episodes, Reina let the pages drop onto the desk with a sharp snap.
"So this is the true nature of the magical girls?" She took a deep breath and looked at Haruto, her heart racing with a mix of shock and awe.
This was the man she knew.
He could take a simple, cliché theme like magical girls, something that was rotting on the shelves of the industry, and inject this kind of radical innovation into it. This anime was terrifyingly deceptive.
"Where is the rest of the story?" Reina asked.
"The early stages of production do not require the later scripts yet, so I did not bring them to the office. Keeping the plot confidential is a top priority, after all," Haruto replied with a smile.
Reina's expression tightened for a moment, but she managed to suppress her burning curiosity about what came next.
"No wonder you have so much confidence in this project. Even with a production budget of hundreds of millions of yen, you insisted on spending dozens of millions just to get it onto the four major television networks," she said, letting out a long sigh. "If I were you and I had come up with a story like this, I would also be pouring every available resource into it without hesitation."
She set the script aside, looking a bit dejected.
"What is the matter? Is the plot still getting to you?" Haruto asked.
"No... I was just thinking. I am growing, but so are you. Every time I feel like I have finally grown enough to have a chance at surpassing you, you always take another giant leap forward and appear far ahead of me once again," Reina said, looking at him. But as she spoke, a small smile finally graced her lips. "Perhaps that is exactly why we became friends in the first place."
"I never look behind me; I only look forward. But no matter how far I walk, your silhouette is always there in front of me. Even if I wanted to ignore you or shut you out, I simply cannot do it."
Haruto was taken momentarily aback by her smile. He returned the smile but chose not to answer. He didn't quite know how to handle that topic.
Should he tell her to give up? That he possessed the memories of the masterpieces from another world, and no matter how hard she worked, it was impossible for her to crush him? Or should he give her some hollow encouragement and tell her that everything is possible if you just try hard enough?
He remained silent. Reina was not someone who would be broken by a setback, and she certainly didn't need the pity of others. If she chose to keep competing with him, she was a warrior.
If she ever chose to give up, it would be because her brilliant mind finally recognized the reality of the situation through intuition or logic. Regardless of the outcome, he felt she deserved his utmost respect.
As January drew to a close, the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of Parasyte were released. The death of Kana was now an established fact, leaving the fanbase in a state of mourning.
However, the plot did not slow down. It entered a segment that Haruto personally considered his favorite in the entire series.
The arc involves the pregnant teacher who was a parasite.
These two chapters were merely the setup for that arc, but the reader base and the popularity of the work continued to climb. By the time the fourteenth chapter finished its run, the vote count was incredibly close to the second-ranked work in the magazine.