In Sora Kamakawa's previous life, an anime could become a hit if it aired on a major platform like B Station. But if the same series were released on a weaker platform with little influence, then more often than not, it would vanish into obscurity. No matter how good the work was, if the platform lacked reach, anime fans simply wouldn't have any channel through which to discover it.
And in Japan, while Natsume Yuujinchou had already proven that it could achieve remarkable results even without broadcasting on a platform at the level of the four major television networks, if it had actually aired on one of them...
then it probably would have already established an overwhelming, crushing advantage over every other competitor in this season's anime market.
Sora understood that point very clearly. Now that he had resolved his debt crisis, there was no way he would not begin thinking about the four major TV networks when it came to the future development of his career.
This season, he and they were competitors.
But in the future...
that might not remain the case.
"If..." Sora said as he looked at Sumire, "the average BD sales for Natsume Yuujinchou can surpass The Dragon King Next Door, Card, Reincarnation of the Maou... maybe even Akane no Sora..."
"Then tell me... do you think our company's next anime might have a chance to catch the attention of one of the four major TV networks and be broadcast there?"
Broadcast... on one of the big four?
The moment those words left his mouth, even the calm expression on Sumire's delicate face visibly rippled.
In the anime industry, each of the four major networks only had one flagship anime they heavily promoted each season. After all, resources were limited.
Even if you counted the other series they aired in late-night slots or in time blocks with little visibility, the total number of anime shown across the four major networks each season was only a little over ten.
And yet, across Japan, there were hundreds of anime studios of every size.
To have your studio's work broadcast on one of the four major television networks was the ultimate dream for countless people working in the Japanese anime industry.
If you weren't a major studio, a famous production team, or a well-known Kantoku...
you simply had no chance at all.
Sumire had never even thought about something like this before. Even in her own career plans, even if everything went smoothly and without mistakes, she had never imagined that before turning thirty she might get the chance to participate in a project of that level.
And yet Sora's words now made her thoughts sharpen in an instant.
This... wasn't impossible after all...
"If Natsume Yuujinchou's BD sales really are that strong, then Kantoku, your idea might not be impossible," Sumire said after a moment of thought.
But to be strong enough to surpass Akane no Sora?
At that thought, her brows drew together slightly, and her tone became more serious.
"If Natsume Yuujinchou wants to surpass The Dragon King Next Door in the BD market, then there's actually a decent chance of that. But if it wants to surpass Akane no Sora..." She left the rest unsaid, but Sora already understood what she meant.
The Dragon King Next Door had stumbled a little this season in terms of reputation. Its own fans were dissatisfied with it, whereas Natsume was the exact opposite. With one rising and the other falling, there was definitely a real chance that Natsume's BD sales could overtake it.
The same was true, more or less, for Card and Reincarnation of the Maou.
On the surface, those works were only slightly behind Akane no Sora in ratings. But the anime industry was a winner-takes-all world.
A lot of anime fans, when buying merchandise, had to consider both money and time. And because of those limits, many of them only chose to support the title in first place.
So even if the ratings gap between works was small, the BD sales gap could become extremely obvious.
Given Natsume Yuujinchou's current influence and momentum, it might even have a chance to compete with those two works for a higher first-week BD sales ranking.
But Akane no Sora was different.
Its production quality was already very high. Its reputation was excellent. On top of that, it had Aobane TV helping to promote it, along with all kinds of capital support behind the scenes. Natsume Yuujinchou, by contrast, had only gotten this far because fans had spontaneously spread the word online, acting as unpaid promoters through pure enthusiasm.
To expect that, with only that kind of grassroots support, Natsume's BDs and other merchandise could sell even better than Akane no Sora, the number one anime nationwide this season...
would be underestimating the power of capital in Japan's anime industry far too much.
"Still," Sumire said, her eyes settling on Sora, "even if Natsume Yuujinchou ultimately can't beat Akane no Sora in BD sales, I honestly think that by now, you've probably already entered the sight of the senior executives at the four major networks who oversee anime."
After all, ever since his debut, Sora had already created two works.
And both of them had stirred up major waves in the industry.
Both had ranked at the very top of their season in terms of ratings, reviews, and reputation.
There was no way the four major networks wouldn't be paying attention to him.
At that point, the conversation between the two of them came to a quiet and mutual end.
Because so much of this was still only speculation, and discussing it in detail without any solid basis would accomplish nothing.
But both Sora and Sumire understood one thing very clearly.
If Sora truly wanted to work with the four major TV networks - if he wanted them to be willing to broadcast his anime nationwide on their platforms -
then Natsume Yuujinchou's BD and merchandise sales had to be extraordinarily, undeniably strong.
The four major networks were commercial television stations.
What they cared about was business.
They were not in the business of producing art films.
Reputation and scores were nice, but ultimately they were hollow compared to the real thing.
Money was what mattered.
If Sora could not prove the commercial value of his works, then every guess he and Sumire were making right now would amount to nothing but empty talk.
...
Over the next three days, the first BD volumes of Reincarnation of the Maou, Card, and Akane no Sora were released one after another.
Each of them stirred up varying degrees of commotion in Japan's anime merchandise market.
And during that same period, episode seven of Natsume Yuujinchou aired smoothly as scheduled.
In this episode, the little fox spirit - one of the more beloved youkai from the original work - finally made her appearance.
This time, the story was told largely from the perspective of the little fox, who took the form of a young girl and set out on a difficult journey in search of Natsume, the benefactor who had once helped her. Along the way, she endured hardship after hardship.
What this episode brought the fans was a different kind of warmth and emotion.
And, true to form, the ending once again left many Natsume Yuujinchou viewers teary-eyed, with people flooding the forums and demanding that Sora hurry up and release a figure of the little fox.
The next day, the final four-prefecture viewership rating for that episode settled at 4.69%...
still slightly higher than episode seven of Akane no Sora, which had posted 4.52%.
But the trend was obvious now.
Natsume Yuujinchou's ratings were no longer leaping upward by 0.4% or 0.3% a week like they had been during the previous stretch.
Whether it was Sora or the professionals in Japan's anime industry, everyone could see it.
Natsume Yuujinchou's ceiling in terms of ratings had most likely begun to appear.
Breaking through the major 5% ratings barrier was, in all probability, no longer within reach.
Under normal circumstances, Japan's anime industry had a fairly rigid benchmark for labeling an anime a true phenomenon: in its broadcast region, it needed to exceed a 5% viewership rating, while also meeting strict standards in reputation, scores, and commercial value.
Even though Natsume Yuujinchou had an excellent reputation, there were still anime fans in Japan who simply could not get into it. The growth of any work's popularity always had its limits.
Of course, if Natsume Yuujinchou had been a longer-running series - if it had aired for multiple cours - then with enough accumulated time and rising popularity, it still might have had a chance to break 5% in those four prefectures.
But that kind of scenario was not within the scope of what anime critics and industry commentators in Japan were considering right now.
They only looked at the present.
A few more days passed.
Then, the first-week BD sales data was finally released for the twenty-three anime titles that had launched their first BD volumes across twenty-one prefectures over the past week.
Naturally, nobody cared about the insignificant bottom-tier titles.
What most people cared about was simply the sales ranking of the five works that mattered most: the four flagship anime backed by the four major networks, and Natsume Yuujinchou.
Just how strong was Natsume Yuujinchou in the BD market?
Could it actually drag one or even several of the big-four titles down in the BD sales rankings this season?
As for the result...
the title in first place turned out exactly as everyone had predicted.
This season's clear critical and reputational winner, Akane no Sora, ranked first in first-week BD sales for volume one, with total sales of 45,637 copies.
That figure was far stronger than the first-week sales of volume one for Chronicles of the Sea of Clouds War Season 2, the top anime of the winter season half a year earlier.
Which only showed that the overall quality of anime this season was far stronger than it had been during the winter.
But the title that ranked second...
left many people in the anime industry silent for a long while after seeing it.
Some had guessed it might happen.
But when the number truly appeared in front of them, people still could not help but feel shaken.
Natsume Yuujinchou - First-week BD sales: 38,521 copies.
This anime...
broadcast only on Tokushima TV...
had really managed to break thirty thousand first-week BD sales nationwide.
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