Tempest.
Ryouga Fuji had come in person.
The ones receiving him were the newly appointed producer Souma Kurogane and Radiant Warriors' director Shin Mikazuki.
Radiant Warriors had truly had a rough run. It originally had the potential to be the number one anime of the January season, but Tempest's early self-inflicted wounds had bled away a ton of its popularity and cost it the top spot.
At the time, Shin had not been too bothered, because in his view, Radiant Warriors was built for a strong finish. As long as the later episodes delivered, the popularity would bounce back.
And the second half of Radiant Warriors really was solid. The production quality was top-notch, every episode was bursting with hype-inducing moments, and nobody at Tempest had done anything stupid since.
But Clannad season two had been more popular from the start, and once the mid-season twists kicked in, every new episode generated massive discussion. Even with Radiant Warriors firing on all cylinders, they just could not close the gap.
Shin and the others had pretty much given up hope. But then, out of nowhere, Clannad's female lead died.
Maybe there was still a chance.
An opportunity might be coming their way.
Ryouga had sensed this too, which was exactly why he had come to Tempest in person.
In the reception room, both sides took their seats.
Ryouga wasted no time.
"Mr. Shin, Mr. Souma, our chance might finally be here. I plan to ramp up promotion over the next few days and use this opening to crush Starfall's anime once and for all. On your end, how's episode seventeen looking? Any issues?"
"The story is solid. I can guarantee that," Shin said confidently.
Souma chuckled and said, "Starfall really went all-in. Killing off the female lead? Even we wouldn't dare pull something like that with Radiant Warriors."
Ryouga nodded. "I've seen tons of people online saying they'll never watch Clannad again after this. Starfall must have known this would happen. The whole thing is pretty wild, honestly. But their loss is our gain."
He turned to Shin and asked politely, "Mr. Shin, could I take a look at the storyboards for episode seventeen? That way I'll know how to focus the promotion."
"No problem. Let me go grab them." Shin nodded and left the room.
He came back shortly after.
But while he had the storyboards with him, his expression had soured.
"What's wrong?" Souma asked.
Shin handed the storyboards to Ryouga, then said, "I just heard that Anime Weekly ran an interview with Starfall's President Shido."
"Starfall is at the center of a media storm right now. It makes sense that Anime Weekly would want to talk to him," Souma said, not seeing the issue.
Ryouga, however, was immediately on alert. "Is there a computer? Let me see what's going on."
Souma went out and came back with a laptop. The three of them read through the article together.
An interview transcript could not possibly include every word exchanged between Yuta and Natsuki. But his explanation about the female lead's situation had been reproduced almost word for word.
Online, fans who had read the interview were overjoyed.
"Thank god, Nagisa can come back!"
"That bastard Shido is absolutely evil, but since Nagisa can be revived, I guess I'll stick around."
"I'll never forgive that bastard no matter what he says. But I'll keep watching. Maybe Nagisa comes back next episode."
"You guys need to stop yelling at President Shido. If our beloved President Shido cracks under the pressure and gives up, Nagisa might never come back at all."
"Please, I'm begging you. Say something nice about President Shido. Save the yelling for after Nagisa is alive again."
"Starting today, anyone who dares insult that bastard... I mean, anyone who dares insult President Shido is my enemy."
"President Shido is a good man. I'm watching next week for sure."
...
After reading through the audience reactions, all three men in the reception room were dumbfounded.
Were these not the same people who swore they would never watch Clannad again? All Yuta had to say was that the female lead could be revived, and they all flipped?
What happened to their principles?
Where was their backbone?
"Damn that Yuta Shido! He's obviously manipulating the audience. That's just dirty! The man is absolutely shameless!" Ryouga fumed.
"Agreed."
Souma chimed in. "He says he'll revive the female lead, but who knows when that'll actually happen? He's clearly just stringing the audience along to maintain ratings."
Shin kept his thoughts to himself.
Calling it audience manipulation was going too far. Besides, he had watched every episode of Clannad, and the Light Orb wish-granting mechanic really had been foreshadowed repeatedly throughout the show.
People just had not connected the dots before. Yuta had simply pointed it out. That was not manipulation. It was damage control.
As for stringing the audience along to maintain ratings, well, even though a lot of commenters were saying they would keep watching, whether that would actually hold up the ratings was another question entirely.
Shin's guess was that most viewers would only fully come back once the female lead was actually revived. Unless Yuta had another card up his sleeve.
After a moment's thought, he said, "Let's check what people on other platforms are saying."
Souma nodded and navigated to another site.
The interview had only just been published, but it had already been shared across multiple platforms, so reactions elsewhere were largely the same.
However, on one of these other platforms, a new topic about Clannad was gaining traction.
"By the way, did anyone catch the episode seventeen preview?"
"What about the preview?"
"There's a little girl in it. Absolutely adorable. She looks just like Nagisa. It's almost definitely Tomoya and Nagisa's daughter, Ushio."
"So episode seventeen is about Tomoya and his daughter?"
"Wait, seriously? Then I absolutely have to watch."
"Now I'm actually really looking forward to episode seventeen."
...
After seeing this new discussion thread, Shin understood.
So this was Yuta's backup plan.
Or rather, the backup plan had been in place all along. It was just that everyone had been too shellshocked by the female lead's death to notice. Now that the panic had subsided and people knew she could be revived, someone had finally paid attention to the episode seventeen preview and brought it to everyone's attention.
He had calmed the audience's nerves and activated his backup plan at the same time. Even if Clannad season two's episode seventeen ratings still dipped, it would probably only be a slight drop.
Radiant Warriors could pour all the promotional money it wanted into this window. Actually overtaking Clannad in ratings was probably still out of reach.
"So what do we do now?" Souma looked at Ryouga, voicing the question on Shin's mind.
Ryouga thought it over for a while, then finally said, "We stick with the original plan. Starfall handled this pretty well, but this is still probably our best shot. If we concentrate our promotional spending now, even if we can't overtake them in episode seventeen, episode eighteen might still give us an opening."
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