January 12th. Yuta arrived at the office before nine. Perhaps because nobody had stayed late the night before, quite a few people had come in early.
"Good morning, President."
Everyone greeted him as he walked in.
Before long, someone asked, "President, did you not sleep well last night?"
It was Yuzuki who noticed.
Yuta nodded but didn't explain.
The truth was, after watching Radiant Warriors' first episode, he felt like the second season's chances of winning were looking shaky.
Of course, even if they lost, the only real consequence would be Aoi being forced to give up her dream and accept her family's arrangements. The impact on Starfall would be limited.
But now that he knew her situation, he couldn't help worrying about it.
The ratings data should be available by morning. He just didn't know what the numbers would look like.
With that on his mind, he sighed and headed into his office. He'd arrived early, but with ratings data consuming his thoughts, he couldn't focus on anything else.
Yuta turned on his computer and just sat there waiting.
A knock at the door.
The door was open. Yuta looked up and was surprised to see Yuzuki.
"President, I prepared a hot towel. Would you like to put it over your eyes for a bit?" she asked with genuine concern.
Yuta blinked. He hadn't realized Yuzuki was this thoughtful. He'd never noticed it before.
After a few seconds of hesitation, he said, "Thanks."
Once she handed him the towel, Yuzuki quietly left the office.
Yuta closed his eyes, tilted his head back, and placed the warm towel over them.
A hot towel over the eyes helped relieve eye strain. How well it worked varied from person to person.
Some people might even react badly to it, but Yuta had no issues.
A few minutes later, he removed the towel. He was about to get up and return it to Yuzuki when he noticed that someone had entered his office without him realizing.
Aoi was here.
Normally she didn't wear makeup, but today she had put on some powder. She couldn't help it. Yuta was under a lot of pressure, but as the person whose fate was actually on the line, hers was even greater. She'd been up all night with insomnia.
When she'd checked the mirror that morning, the dark circles under her eyes were bad enough that she had to cover them up.
She had seen Yuta resting with the towel over his eyes and hadn't wanted to disturb him. Now that his eyes were open, she got straight to the point. "The ratings are in."
"And?" Yuta tensed up immediately.
"A 0.2 gap." Aoi sighed as she said it.
"We lost?" Yuta's heart dropped.
But almost immediately, something felt off. Aoi was sighing, yet there was no real disappointment in her expression. It was as if the result didn't bother her at all.
"We won, didn't we? Tell me we won."
"I never said we lost."
"Oh thank god."
Yuta exhaled with relief.
Aoi pulled a sheet of paper from her bag. It showed a table with the ratings data for both Clannad S2 and Radiant Warriors.
To be precise, the second season had won by a margin of 0.23% in average ratings. But that number was the overall average.
Looking at the detailed data on the chart, Yuta spotted a very serious problem.
Season two's first episode had maintained fairly stable ratings from start to finish. The fluctuation was minimal.
Radiant Warriors had much bigger swings, and the trend was upward.
In other words, the second season might have won episode one by 0.23%, but episodes two and three were a different story. The gap would likely shrink with each passing week, and eventually Radiant Warriors could overtake them.
They couldn't just sit back and let this happen. Something needed to be done. But the content of Clannad couldn't be changed. If they wanted to boost ratings, they'd have to find another angle.
With that realization, Yuta's expression grew serious.
"We only led by 0.2 in the first episode. They'll probably close that gap by the second or third episode," Aoi said.
"Yeah, I think so too." Yuta nodded in agreement.
Aoi looked at him, hesitated briefly, then said, "Maybe in a couple of days, you could post something online? Rally the fans and remind everyone to tune in on time?"
"A rally, huh?"
Yuta wasn't sure if it would work, but at the moment, there didn't seem to be a better option.
It was worth a try.
...
January 17th, Wednesday.
Yuta logged into Starfall's official social media account and posted a message.
"Dear viewers, this is Yuta Shido, president of Starfall, as well as the director, scriptwriter, character designer, music composer, and producer of Clannad."
"Tomorrow night at ten, the second episode of Clannad S2 will air. Normally for an anime, disc sales matter more than ratings. But this time, ratings are very important to us too, because they have a direct impact on someone's future."
"I can't tell you who that person is, but they mean a great deal to me. So I'm asking for your support. If you can tune in on time, it would mean the world to me. In return, I promise to keep giving my absolute best to bring you more joy and more emotional moments."
"Thank you."
After posting it, Yuta didn't feel any calmer.
In theory, he had some pull with fans by now.
But could a single social media post really get a massive audience to watch the show?
It seemed like a long shot.
Some people were naturally contrarian too. The more you told them to watch something, the less they wanted to.
Or maybe they were already watching, but after seeing his post, they'd decide not to out of spite. That would be incredibly awkward.
Those were his concerns, but the post did stir up quite a bit of discussion.
"A very important person? Who?"
"An anime that affects someone's fate? What's that about?"
"So the second season really is competing against Radiant Warriors?"
"I'm with you, Producer Shido."
"I was too busy last week and missed the premiere. But if Producer Shido is asking, I'll make time this week no matter what."
...
The rally was out there. It might work. It might not. Until episode two aired, nobody could say for sure.
At least episode one had a 0.23% lead. Even if episode two's ratings tightened up, they probably wouldn't get overtaken that quickly.
If this rally had an effect, he'd double down next week. And if it didn't, he'd come up with something else.
No matter what, they had to find a way to push those ratings up.
_______________________
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