Time. October arrived.
Inside Yume Animation, no one could pretend everything was normal. The entire studio seemed to run with an invisible tension locked in its chest - as if, beneath the everyday chatter and the constant clatter of keyboards, there was a clock counting out loud.
Episode 2 of Natsume Yuujinchou had been finished the day before. On paper, that was a huge win. In reality… nobody's mind was on it.
Because what would decide the project's fate wasn't the second step.
It was the first.
Five days until the premiere.
And the question no one said out loud - yet everyone kept repeating internally - was always the same: Will the audience like it?
Even the staff at Yume Animation treated the bravado Sora Kamakawa had thrown around online as a calculated sacrifice. A brand-new Kantoku, far too young, burning his own name to shine a spotlight on the show. It moved them, in a way. It was ugly, it was dangerous, but it was also a way of taking responsibility alone - like he was saying: If this goes wrong, throw your stones at me.
Still, even with all that courage, nobody in that building was delusional about "beating Tokyo."
No one truly believed Natsume Yuujinchou would crush the four flagship productions from the capital's major networks in ratings and scores. What the studio wanted - what actually felt achievable - was simpler and far more concrete: at the very least, within Tokushima TV's coverage area, across Tokushima and the neighboring prefectures of Shikoku, to become the most-watched local anime of the season.
That… had to happen.
From October 1st to the 4th, weekdays turned into a conveyor belt. Twenty-one prefectures, dozens of big and small stations, premieres of anime and live-action dramas in rapid succession. The whole country seemed to hit "play" at the same time, every channel trying to grab viewers under its own banner.
Then, on Friday, October 4th, at 8:30 p.m., HaiOn TV launched its quarterly title: The Demon Lord's Reincarnation, a production that had swallowed 34 million yen in investment.
The next day, the first numbers came out.
National average: 4.22%.
Shikoku region: 4.34%.
On Saturday, at 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., two premieres landed back-to-back: Seiun TV aired The Dragon King Next Door; right after that, Shirakawa TV released Card, its suspense-mystery series.
The Dragon King… opened with a 4.15% national average and 4.31% in Shikoku.
Card posted 4.33% nationally, but slipped to 4.11% in Shikoku.
It was obvious: Shikoku's audience didn't have the same appetite for deduction and mystery. Even so, The Dragon King Next Door was especially well-known there - not because of artistic merit, but because of its friction with Kantoku Sora's new project.
And attention is attention. Fame runs both ways.
Natsume Yuujinchou had gained national eyes because of that clash. And for The Dragon King… the feud had been perfect publicity within Shikoku. Love it or hate it, the region knew the name.
October 6th. Sunday.
In Tokyo, Maki paced inside his office, irritation gnawing at him like rust. Three of the four major quarterly bets had already aired Episode 1.
And The Dragon King Next Door was sitting in third.
4.15% national ratings.
If that night, at eight, Aobane TV premiered Akane no Sora with a number higher than 4.15%, then what did that mean?
That The Dragon King would start the quarter… in last place.
It was true that final performance was calculated after all thirteen episodes, based on the average. It was true that a series could grow, regain ground, build word of mouth, and flip the board.
But starting weak was a slap. And Makito couldn't stop thinking about it.
Why?
The investment behind The Dragon King was the largest of the four - and yet the numbers hadn't come in the way he expected. Sure, there were easy explanations: it was an original, without the built-in popularity boost of a famous manga or game, unlike The Demon Lord's Reincarnation and Akane no Sora.
But… what about everything else?
Was Natsuyuki's script lacking? Had she been right in that script meeting when she insisted that character should die in Episode 1? No - maybe if they'd listened, ratings would've dropped even further. Or had the animators gotten lazy on a few cuts? Was there a flaw in the soundtrack delivered by the partner music company - something missing in impact?
Thought after thought.
Makito turned over everything… except the part that actually hurt: he couldn't admit there might be any problem with his direction.
In the end, he forced himself to swallow the anxiety.
Let's watch two weeks. It's just a weaker launch. That's all.
He pushed away the urge to gather everyone and "teach them a lesson." It would look petty. It would split the team. And he knew it.
…
Back at Yume Animation, Yumi Noriko lifted her eyes from the comment section on her own account. Her fans were celebrating: The Dragon King's premiere had landed below the other two networks, and people were taking advantage of it - biting, mocking, piling on line after line.
But Yumi wasn't thinking about that anime.
Her heart was somewhere else.
In Natsume Yuujinchou.
At ten o'clock tonight, Episode 1 would air on Tokushima TV. And within the broadcast area - Tokushima, Kōchi, Ehime, and Kagawa - nearly two hundred million people would have access to the signal and be able to watch.
She liked Natsume. She liked it genuinely.
And since three weeks ago, when she'd seen the completed Episode 1, her conviction had turned into something close to faith: This is special. The script alone had already been moving. But once it became anime - once music, timing, and the seiyuu's charged performances were layered in - it became something else entirely. Something that slipped into a place words alone couldn't reach.
But… would the public feel the same?
That answer only exists after broadcast.
And Yumi's nerves had nothing to do with money. The investment mattered, sure - but that wasn't what tightened her throat.
What scared her was more intimate:
The fear of loving something… and watching that thing be denied. Laughed at. Diminished.
She stood up, left her office, and stopped in front of the Kantoku's door. It wasn't closed, and the voices inside spilled out naturally.
"Sora, did you see it?" Sumire asked, checking papers on the desk, her expression serious even without looking up. "The three big quarterly pushes… Seiun, Shirakawa, and HaiOn."
"I did," Sora answered, as if he were talking about weather, not war.
Sumire lifted her gaze.
"So? What did you think?"
There was a taut line behind the question. It wasn't curiosity. It was… need.
"Do you still have confidence? That Natsume Yuujinchou can beat those shows in ratings here across the four prefectures?"
Sora went quiet for a few seconds. His mouth curved into a small, light smile - but it wasn't bravado.
"If Akane no Sora, which premieres at eight, is at that same level… then we won't lose."
He rested an elbow on the desk, thinking calmly.
"Now… crushing them right at premiere is unlikely. We don't have money for promotion. Here in the four prefectures, Natsume doesn't really have the same recognition as those four big productions. But… two weeks later…"
He didn't finish the sentence, because he didn't have to.
Word of mouth takes time. Reputation ferments slowly.
…
At eight p.m., the last big "festival night" of October's first week began.
Aobane TV premiered Akane no Sora.
At that exact hour, the NatsuYume forum erupted: hottest topic, most-searched keywords, the highest number of posts, praise pouring in from every side. Ratings data wouldn't be known until the next day, but the platform released something much faster - and, often, much crueler:
The audience's initial score.
Within an hour, it appeared.
9.0.
Above Card (8.8).
Above The Dragon King Next Door (8.7).
Above The Demon Lord's Reincarnation (8.3).
And more than that… it had crossed the great wall of 9.0.
Number one among the premieres of October's first week.
Outside Shikoku, almost everyone was talking about it, calling Akane no Sora "the likely dominant anime of the season." And honestly, Episode 1 really did have a rhythm and structure that left viewers with that rare sensation of a pleasant surprise.
Worse - its impact felt far stronger than The Dragon King's premiere, which had aired burdened with expectations… and delivered less than it promised.
Time kept passing, minute by minute.
And soon, the clock pressed up against what truly mattered.
Ten p.m.
The scheduled hour for Natsume Yuujinchou was approaching.
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