Although Tokyo Movie Shinsha's reputation isn't particularly loud domestically—at least nowhere near star companies like Kyoto Animation or ufotable—it is nonetheless a very capable animation production company.
Besides the detective conan series, this company has also been responsible for the production of well-known industry animations such as the Lupin III series and Cat's Eye.
Even though Akira was equally unfamiliar with the company, thanks to his current absolute memory, he managed to spot its presence in the OPs and EDs of many animations he had seen in his memories.
For example, D.Gray-man, Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple, Baki, Dr. Stone, Kamisama Kiss, and so on—
...
The classic and popular works mentioned above were all produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha.
And, of course, Rent-a-Girlfriend.
In any case, putting aside that last animation for a moment, Tokyo Movie Shinsha, which currently holds the detective conan series, is undoubtedly a top-tier animation production company in the industry.
Almost all of his knowledge regarding the internal workings of an animation production company came from an original animation called Shirobako from his previous life.
Now that he had the chance to enter a real animation production company—and a top-tier one at that—he was naturally a bit curious.
Unfortunately, Tokyo Movie Shinsha's meeting rooms were located on the first floor, while the production departments were almost all on the second floor and above.
Hmm—
So after entering the company, Akira didn't see much of what he wanted to see before being led directly to the door of the meeting room.
They arrived a bit earlier than the scheduled time, so there was no one in the meeting room yet.
"Please wait a moment, everyone. I'll go notify the Chief Director and the others right away."
After Kitamura Shunta settled them into their seats, he left with those words in a hurry.
Ten more minutes passed before Kitamura Shunta reappeared, but this time he was accompanied by four people, and the dressing styles of the four were very distinct.
Two of them were wearing suits, dressed very properly, like white-collar workers in an office building.
The other two were dressed more casually, in everyday leisure wear, even appearing slightly unkempt.
"Hello, I am the Chief Director for this Conan movie, Kodama Kenji."
"I am the screenwriter for this Conan movie, Furuichi Kazunari. Pleased to meet you."
"I am the producer, Yoshioka Masahito."
"I am the representative of the production committee, Nishimura Masayuki."
The first two to introduce themselves were the ones dressed casually, while the latter two were the ones in suits; it seemed a subtle distinction could be seen from their positions.
Akira and the other two followed suit with their own introductions.
At the same time, he curiously observed Kodama Kenji for a while.
Chief Director Kodama Kenji appeared to be a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties, with short hair and glasses, wearing a fairly kind smile on his face.
Unfortunately, although the man was a well-known director with considerable talent, he was still somewhat unfamiliar to him.
If it were someone like Anno Hideaki, he would definitely have taken a few more looks.
Once Kitamura Shunta handed out the prepared materials, Kodama Kenji spoke with a smile: "Mochizuki-sensei and Shimizu-san are truly young and promising. I've already heard your single, 'Marigold'; it's indeed very beautiful. You truly live up to being Izumi-san's juniors."
"In any case, we'll be counting on you for the theme song this time."
"Yes, we will do our best."
After the simple pleasantries ended, Kodama Kenji looked toward the screenwriter beside him, Furuichi Kazunari.
Furuichi Kazunari looked to be about the same age as Kodama Kenji, with medium-length hair that clung to his scalp, giving him a rather artistic look.
Receiving Kodama Kenji's look, he spoke to them: "First, I'd like to ask, have you read the detective conan manga or watched the animation?"
"We have." ×2
Akira and Rin nodded together. Seeing this, Furuichi Kazunari also smiled and said, "Good, then explaining things will be much simpler."
"The movie we are producing is called 'captured in her eyes.' You can take a look at the materials. The story this time tells..." The man combined the materials to give them a detailed explanation of the movie's content, which was basically the same as the plot in Akira's memory.
Once Furuichi Kazunari had finished introducing the plot, Kodama Kenji spoke again with a smile: "Then, based on the content of this movie, my thoughts for the theme song are as follows—"
After roughly hearing the requirements, Akira basically had an idea in mind—yeah, submitting 'because of you' should be no problem.
After stating his requirements, Kodama Kenji concluded: "Considering the production schedule, we hope the demo for the theme song can be submitted by December at the latest. We'll be counting on you for that as well."
"I understand."
Akira nodded again.
It was only the beginning of October now; this timeframe was more than enough for him.
With that, the briefing session came to an end.
It wasn't long, lasting only about half an hour.
Though it seemed simple, it actually was simple, because this was just the preliminary work, mainly providing the basic materials and inspiration for the songwriters.
Once the demo was created, there would likely be a series of adjustments and revisions.
However—
"By the way, what exactly were that producer and the production committee representative there for? They didn't say a word the whole time, did they?"
Leaving the Tokyo Movie Shinsha building, on the way back, Akira asked in confusion.
Haruka explained: "If they had spoken, it would have been more of a problem."
The presence of those two was to supervise the content of the meeting, preventing any unreasonable demands or things that didn't align with commercial interests from arising.
If they started speaking, it meant such a situation might have occurred, and things might even escalate into an intense argument. "I see."
Akira realized upon hearing this, then added with some regret: "But it's a pity. I thought I'd be able to take this chance to visit the animation production."
At the end of the meeting, he had somewhat expectantly requested to tour the animation production, but he was politely declined.
And the other party's troubled expression had made him feel a bit embarrassed instead.
"That's naturally not allowed."
Mentioning this, Haruka also said with a wry smile: "First of all, just as they said, animation production is very busy, and they don't have dedicated reception staff. It's hard to spare people for extra hosting."
"Furthermore, song promotion and internal animation production are two completely different departments. Generally speaking, they don't let the two come into contact."
"Usually, only the original creators and the investors are allowed to visit."
"Is that so—"
Akira rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
If that's the case, it seems he'll only be able to visit a corresponding animation production company when Fsn gets animated.
Meanwhile, Rin, who was beside him, listened quietly to Akira's words, her eyes flickering slightly as if she were also thinking about something.
After Haruka drove them to the apartment building, she returned to the company alone.
And after he and Rin got into the elevator, Rin suddenly asked him: "Um—Mochizuki-kun, are you very interested in animation production?"
"Yeah, I'm quite interested."
He nodded, then asked with some confusion: "What's wrong?"
"Actually—"
Rin hesitated for a moment and said: "My father is the president of an animation production company, so—"
"If you don't mind, I can take you to my father's company for a visit."
—Huh?"