As August drew to a close, Rei looked at the overwhelming criticism of Gabi flooding the internet and felt as though he had been transported back to his previous life.
Yaggamy: "Viewers: I'm so glad they made it safely to the blimp and no one important died. Sasha: Hold my potato!"
Boyoboy7: "I expected Gabi and Falco to get captured when they got on the ship, but I seriously did not expect her to kill Sasha like she is just a soldier mook.
Now I am scared for the fate of the remaining veteran Survey Corps members. Seems like no one is safe."
axl625: "Gabi: I'm going to end this Potato Girl's life."
ParticularCod6: "Well, she was the devil for not even giving half the potato after it was offered to her. F."
UnPhayzable: "Attack on Produce."
jasta85: "If they had tossed Gabi off the blimp right after that I wouldn't have even been mad. Sasha is probably my favorite character along with Mikasa."
InvaderDJ: "That's what's frustrating. I know it is needed for the plot. I know this is building up to something. But as a viewer I just want to scream at Jean or Mikasa to throw her off the blimp. Cut off her head or something. She's only going to get worse and now they're bringing her to Paradis. If she gets a Titan she might be the main antagonist of the series."
Korasuka: "Always suspected she'd do something. Her protagonist parallel and mirror of Eren's powers were far too prominent to ignore."
PainStorm14: "Screw Gabi. I can't stand her."
MilktoastKing: " The number of layers here is insane: Sasha spared Gabi's life when she was taking shots in the street, but Gabi later gets revenge and kills Sasha. Conversely, Jean tries to take Falco's life before his thunder spear misses (either by the steam or subconsciously), then on the airship Falco misdirects Gabi's second shot and inadvertently spares Jean. This stuff is wack."
Back then, when the Attack on Titan anime first aired, Rei had furiously criticized that very character online himself.
And Rei understood clearly that, despite the fierce backlash against Gabi, fans did not actually believe the anime's overall plot had collapsed. If anything, Attack on Titan had been considered a masterpiece surpassing Fullmetal Alchemist by manga fans in his previous life, right up until the final battle arc. Fans had high expectations. How bad could the ending really be?
Most fans had assumed Eren's world-destruction arc would mirror the ending of Code Geass.
In truth, the overall direction of Attack on Titan's plot was sound. The reason the manga drew such heavy criticism in his previous life was that it ruined its characters' integrity. Not just the protagonist: even major supporting characters like Armin were reduced to lovesick idiots.
It was like Jujutsu Kaisen. Satoru could lose a fight, but then say "I wasn't even going all out," and his entire mystique would collapse, turning him into a clown.
As for the actual truth behind Attack on Titan's ending: Eren used the Founding Titan's power to manipulate time and memory, engineering the Titan that had devoured his mother years ago, all to ensure his future self could inherit the Founding Titan's power.
The same logic applied to his influence over his past father's attack on the Reiss family. All of it, just to secure that power in the end.
Was any of it necessary?
Did retconning already established past events actually improve the plot's direction? The answer was no.
It severely damaged the characters' integrity instead. Eren had originally walked the path of freedom and vengeance because his mother was killed. Now it turned out that every misfortune his family suffered had been orchestrated by his future self.
The reason the anime version in his previous life had avoided that same criticism was simple: the anime's production team wasn't foolish. They had quietly cut most of those elements from the script.
Rei had done the same in the this version of Attack on Titan, removing every last trace, and without compromising the original plot's direction in any way. Every employee at Illumination Animation Production who watched the ending called it a masterpiece.
The principle of never gilding the lily is a golden rule in creative work, anime included. Layering too many of these retroactive plot patches doesn't make a story feel deeper. It only makes the creator look self-indulgent.
So now, watching the wave of online criticism questioning Attack on Titan's plot direction, Rei felt no panic whatsoever.
As long as the later parts held up, the earlier controversies were nothing to worry about. What popular work had ever reached the top without turbulence along the way?
Fans raged when Jiraiya died in Naruto. Fans raged when Ace died in One Piece, and when Luffy forced Usopp off the ship. In the third season of Attack on Titan, fans had raged when the Commander died. In the second season, when Hannes fell. In the first, when Levi's entire squad was wiped out. Rei had been criticized through all of it.
But a work's popularity grows precisely through those controversies, accumulating layer by layer until it finally breaks through.
When the resentment fades, fans look back at those same story beats differently. Alongside their frustration with Rei as the creator, they find other things too: a deeper appreciation for the characters' choices, and a clearer understanding of what the story was really saying.
"Still," Rei muttered, scratching the back of his head, "I should keep a low profile for now."
Fans were seething, Japan's media were gleefully anticipating the subsequent plot of Attack on Titan, and his peers across the internet were quietly hoping that Shirogane's half-hearted effort would crash and burn.
Every word and action from Rei right now would be deliberately misinterpreted. If that spread any further, it risked leaving a genuine black mark on his professional career.
He closed the webpages criticizing the Attack on Titan anime's plot and turned his attention to something far more important.
The weekly issue of Dream Comic Journal.
Last week, Miyu's manga Reincarnation had landed only a few thousand votes short of the second-place ranking. Honestly, that gap was negligible for a journal with tens of millions in weekly sales. It came down entirely to which serialized chapter was more compelling that particular week.
Even a marginal improvement in plot quality could flip the rankings between the two works.
Today was Friday, the release day for the latest issue of Dream Comic Journal. Tomorrow was the announcement of the voting rankings.
It had been years since Rei felt nervous about the Dream Comic Journal rankings. He was always first. That had simply been the reality.
But today, he was nervous.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the ring he had bought half a year ago.
Whether Miyu's manga successfully claimed second place was tied directly to whether she would accept his proposal, and whether he could finally give her this ring.
Rei thought for a moment, put on a mask, stepped out, bought the latest issue of Dream Comic Journal from a nearby bookstore, then scanned the QR code on the back page, logged into the website, and cast his votes for both Attack on Titan and Miyu's Reincarnation.
"Come on, Miyu."
At that same moment, Miyu sat in Rei's home study, the journal open in front of her. After casting her votes for both their works, she did something she hadn't done in a long time: she logged into her creator account and publicly called on her fans to vote for her manga.
"I hope tomorrow brings good news." Miyu felt uneasy.
It was supposed to be an afternoon for working on manga, but she couldn't bring herself to pick up the pen. Her mind kept wandering.