"Through its distinctive angle on the bond between youkai and humans forged by the Book of Friends, Natsume Yuujinchou, airing in the autumn cour on Tokushima TV, is without question the strongest dark-horse this season outside the four national giants."
"Natsume Yuujinchou: a kind of story the Japanese anime market simply hasn't seen before. It debuted with a 9.3 - the highest first-episode score in the last two years."
"Yume Animation… Yume Animation again. Six months ago, Voices of a Distant Star surprised us. Now Natsume Yuujinchou is doing it all over again."
"The most striking premiere of the last two years. A never-before-seen theme, a fresh entry point, and a different way to tell a youkai story without falling into the usual clichés."
"Six months ago, Voices of a Distant Star's BD sales came within a single step of toppling even the national networks' flagship titles. Half a year later, Sora Kamakawa returns with Natsume Yuujinchou. Can he finally finish the feat that slipped through his fingers back then?"
Those lines began popping up on Tuesday, sprouting across review sites, industry columns, and the accounts of people who normally didn't praise anything without biting first. The tone was so enthusiastic - so openly enamored - that some fans started to doubt it: had Sora Kamakawa hired a squad to push the show?
But if you looked at it coldly, it was easy enough to understand.
Natsume Yuujinchou wasn't airing nationwide; it was restricted to the four prefectures covered by Shikoku's regional signal. No matter how good it was, it wasn't "stealing" audience from other regions, wasn't taking bread out of anyone else's mouth. There was less commercial interest tangled into the discourse, less lobbying behind the scenes - and precisely because of that, the industry veterans could afford to be more direct, more honest.
Even so, there was one side that swallowed every compliment like a thorn.
Only one.
Makito… and the entire team behind The Dragon King Next Door.
Natsume Yuujinchou premiered on Sunday night. On Monday, word of mouth began to ferment. By Tuesday… the comment section on Maki's personal account was already packed with people arriving with smiles at the ready - fans of Yumi Noriko, fans of Sora Kamakawa, and a swarm of spectators who just wanted front-row seats to humiliation.
"Oh? I thought the great Kantoku Makito was supposed to be a monster. So why are there so many negative comments after the premiere? And the ratings… only 4.15% on Seiun TV? That's it?"
"I said it from the start: Season two of Chronicles of the Cloud-Sea War only blew up because it coasted on season one's credit. This genius didn't want to believe it - still went out of his way to provoke Sora. Now he's a joke."
"And you, Yumi Noriko's little lapdogs, what are you acting smug about? If I remember right, that Sora guy said he'd beat everyone in ratings here in the region, didn't he? Where is it? Natsume Yuujinchou is at three-point-something. You're talking like it's already god-tier."
"Hahaha, relax. The season still has more than ten weeks left. With Natsume Yuujinchou's quality and this word of mouth, the ratings will rise and it'll pass that ugly Dragon with one hand behind its back. We just came to mock you early. If it annoys you… perfect. That was the point."
"You… win once and you're already crowing? Wait until the writing collapses and the ratings crash. I'll come back to every one of your comments and rub it in."
"You think it'll collapse and it collapses? Give me a break."
"Heh… don't forget that Sora Kamakawa isn't even twenty. Barely any experience. And he's juggling directing, scripting, and music too? You really think he's some saint? I'm calling it now: Natsume Yuujinchou will crumble later on, its score will drop like a rock. If I'm wrong, I'll record a video of myself eating a giant bowl of whatever my dog leaves on the floor."
"…"
"Damn. I knew Makito's fans were unhinged, but this is something else…"
"Saving this. I'll be back in three months to collect that banquet."
The fandom war had been there for a long time. Even before the premiere, Yumi Noriko's followers and Natsuyuki Shirasawa's fans had been clawing at each other across forums and social media. Now, with Episode 1 of Natsume Yuujinchou being praised everywhere, it was obvious someone would want to "slap the other side in the face."
When Makito checked his phone and opened his own comments, it took less than thirty seconds for his face to redden.
Never underestimate the madness of industry fandoms. The venom they can distill, the bizarre angles of sarcasm, the way they manage to hit exactly where it hurts… it's almost creative, in a sick way.
"Yumi Noriko… Sora Kamakawa…" he muttered, dragging in a hard breath like he was trying to hold the rage inside his chest.
This wasn't just "internet teasing" anymore - not like it had been two months ago.
Natsume Yuujinchou had opened with a score high enough to become a national topic. Industry figures were praising it publicly. And stacked on top of the history between him and Sora Kamakawa, Makito could see - with cruel clarity - the scenario that terrified him: if Natsume Yuujinchou truly surpassed The Dragon King Next Door in ratings within Shikoku's four prefectures… then he was finished.
A well-known Tokyo Kantoku, airing on Seiun TV. Someone who'd provoked before the premiere, with the confidence of someone who believed himself untouchable.
And then, in the end, defeated by an eighteen-year-old rookie Kantoku from Tokushima.
If that image stuck, it would be dirt for life. A joke that wouldn't die. A "fact" reporters would shove into every interview for years.
And there was an even more dangerous point: losing to the other three national-network flagships was acceptable. It was part of the game; broadcasters had competed for decades, and everyone was used to winning and losing.
But losing in ratings to a regional production outside the main axis… that, in Seiun TV's upper management's eyes, could mean only one thing: loss of trust.
…
Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, in Tokushima City, Yume Animation's headquarters received visitors.
Two of them.
The first came with a bridge and a surname.
Thanks to Yumi Noriko's connections, the head of the local branch of her family's animation group showed up in person, wanting to discuss licensing and official merchandise cooperation. Even setting aside the fact that she was the heiress - looking only at the market - the noise Natsume Yuujinchou had caused after its premiere smelled like opportunity. And when you paired that with what Voices of a Distant Star had done six months earlier… it was hard to treat it as an "isolated case."
Their intent was simple: renegotiate the licensing contract and raise the project's priority classification.
Because a merchandising distributor isn't someone who grabs a contract and sits down to count money. Before anything reaches the public, there are sales channels to secure, shelf space to buy, inventory to negotiate, promotions to fund, partnerships with stores and events to stitch together. And all of it begins with a cold spreadsheet decision: how big a bet does this anime deserve?
The higher the classification, the bigger the investment.
Flagship titles from the national networks typically entered contracts at A-rank or S-rank before they even aired. When merch dropped, it was nationwide distribution - ads in otaku districts, banners, booths, entire stores dressed up like the show was already tradition.
Nothing like what happened with Voices of a Distant Star when its BD released: some shops didn't even have a square inch left for a poster.
If that distributor was willing to put money and infrastructure behind Natsume Yuujinchou, Sora Kamakawa obviously wasn't going to refuse. The talks moved quickly, and the new agreement was sealed without delay.
The second visit was different: a well-known regional processed-food company came with a straightforward proposal - place one of their products inside the anime, let it appear on screen, run an ad through integration.
The fee wasn't outrageous. In the end, the negotiation landed at "only" a few hundred thousand yen.
But for a studio counting every coin because the inheritance was chained to debt… it was money falling from the sky.
In-animation product placement was just a handful of cuts. Have Natsume stop by a supermarket to buy something for Nyanko-sensei, hold on a package for a second… and that was it. Practically zero cost, clean profit.
Both visits were good news.
And it left Sora Kamakawa wearing a smile he didn't even try to hide. The exhaustion was still there in his body, but his mind felt lighter. He worked with more drive, more energy, as if that small wave of approval - and, more than anything, the feeling that the project was finally "standing on its own" - had given him back something he'd been missing these past months:
Breathing room.
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