The female host announced the name with clean, practiced precision.
At that exact moment, Yume Animation erupted in deafening cheers.
Sumire stared blankly at the enlarged image on the television screen, her eyes fixed on Sora Kamakawa's restrained yet striking smile.
Beside her, Yumi Noriko looked around at the company staff, all of them flushed with excitement, and found herself swept up by their passion without even realizing it.
At the same time, the massive screen behind the stage began displaying Sora's profile, credits, and past work.
Sora Kamakawa had been nominated for Best New Anime Director because of Natsume Yuujinchou.
But since the screen was meant to showcase his directing career as a whole, the first ten seconds of the reel began with footage from Hoshi no Koe.
And it opened on that sequence.
The final stretch of the anime.
Rinka Hayase shot upward from the alien mother planet and into the vastness of space, charging toward the stars while breaking through the pursuit of towering alien machines. Behind her, hundreds upon hundreds of missiles screamed through the void, their white trails slashing chaotically across the screen. Amid that suffocating storm of fire, the black mecha twisted, darted, rolled, and surged through impossibly narrow openings, moving at a pace so intense it made the blood race. Then came the decisive blow - the single slash that split the alien mothership apart.
That scene from Hoshi no Koe - the one with the highest animation budget, the fiercest visual intensity, and the most breathtaking sakuga - was projected just like that before a hall full of animation professionals, as well as the tens of millions of viewers watching the Shuto Anime Festival awards ceremony on television.
What... was that?
Sora Kamakawa already had many fans across Japan.
But there were even more anime viewers who had no real idea who he was.
Hoshi no Koe had made a name for itself half a year ago, yes, but a huge portion of anime fans had little interest in short-form works. They had heard the title before, but never felt enough curiosity to buy the BD. Yet now, seeing that insane action sequence for the first time, many of them felt their hearts surge with excitement.
"What was that just now? Why did it look so cool?"
"That director, Sora Kamakawa, made something like that before? Then why wasn't it way more famous?"
"Wait, Hoshi no Koe - that short anime that got talked about a while back - has scenes like this?"
"Damn, I'm buying the Hoshi no Koe BD the second this is over. A space robot war like that? That's pure genius."
Because of that explosive, unforgettable sakuga cut from Hoshi no Koe, a huge number of anime viewers who had never known Sora before now remembered him instantly.
A moment later, the broadcast switched to Natsume Yuujinchou.
The footage showed the scene where Hishigaki's name was returned to him.
The refined-looking boy brought his hands together and softly spoke Hishigaki's name.
The music was gentle. The art style was clean and fresh. That single shot carried such a healing atmosphere that it felt as though it could soothe the body and mind just by existing.
In less than forty seconds, the short reel introducing Sora's profile and past work stirred a powerful sense of curiosity among everyone present and among countless viewers watching from home.
Had those scenes really been made by an eighteen-year-old director?
By then, Sora had already risen from his seat and made his way up the steps onto the stage.
He accepted the microphone from the host and began his acceptance speech.
"It's a tremendous honor to receive - "
Back in Tokushima, inside Yume Animation, the staff broke into fresh cheers again and again.
During his speech, Sora made sure to mention everyone - from animation director Haruto to assistant director Sumire, naming each of the core staff one by one.
An anime might only send a handful of people onto the stage to accept an award, but its creation was always the result of everyone bleeding themselves dry, working late into the night, and pushing through exhaustion together.
And when it came to Sumire, Sora's thanks went on especially long.
He spoke openly about how, as a first-time director, he had started out knowing next to nothing. He talked about how Sumire had helped him through that process, how she had supported him from the stage where he could barely do anything to the point where he had now completed two anime properly.
Sumire watched the television without moving.
When she was younger, she used to imagine that one day she would stand on a stage like that herself, under the gaze of viewers across the entire country.
But after several years in the industry, the limits of her own talent as a director had forced that dream deep into the corner of her heart.
And now, as the one receiving the award, Sora wasn't grandly advertising himself.
Instead, he had made her - a person the Shuto Anime Festival would never normally pay attention to - into someone the industry was suddenly looking at.
She wasn't the one standing there as a director receiving a trophy.
But still... the name Sumire had surely reached countless anime fans tonight.
That alone was enough.
A faint warmth rose in her chest.
All the confusion and frustration she had accumulated over five years of working on one terrible anime after another seemed to scatter like smoke.
There had never been a single moment in her life when she had felt so certain that choosing this industry had been the right decision.
"All right, then. Now let us invite last year's Shuto Anime Festival winner for Anime Director of the Year, Director Touga Kuze, to present Director Sora Kamakawa with his trophy."
The beautiful host cut off Sora's increasingly lengthy speech at just the right moment.
But after calling his name once, then twice, she still didn't see Touga Kuze coming up.
Only when she looked more carefully did she realize he was still standing below the stage, staring blankly at the large screen behind them.
"Director Touga Kuze, please come to the stage."
Only then did Touga finally snap out of it.
He stepped onto the stage, took the Best New Anime Director trophy from the ornate tray in a staff member's hands, and placed it into Sora's.
After the award presentation ended, Sora left the stage and started heading back toward his seat through the backstage passageway.
That was when a male voice called out behind him.
"Sora."
He turned around.
It was Touga Kuze - the handsome young man with that perpetually cold expression.
"You mean me?" Sora asked, surprised.
Touga's gaze remained fixed on him.
"The scene that played on the giant screen just now... from Hoshi no Koe. That chaotic, intricate, absurdly stylish space-mecha battle storyboard... was that your work?"
At that moment, Sora understood why Touga had gone blank onstage earlier.
His mind had clearly still been trapped inside that sequence.
"Uh... yeah. It was mine."
Sora hesitated for half a beat.
Part of him wanted to say it belonged to someone else entirely - but there was no possible way to explain something like another life. In the end, he could only let the credit remain with himself.
Touga fell silent for a moment.
Then he pulled a stack of small cards from his pocket and handed one over.
"This is my business card."
"Oh. Sure."
Sora accepted it on reflex, but he had no intention of chatting any longer. Touga looked far too cold, and Sora had no desire to repeat the same awkward experience as before - pressing forward warmly just to be met with indifference.
"Sora."
The man called out again from behind him.
Sora looked back at him in confusion.
"The business card you offered me at the hotel before..." Touga said, still wearing that same unreadable expression. "I want it back."
Sora's expression turned strange.
So the top genius among Japan's younger generation of anime directors - the man who had won last year's Anime Director of the Year award - was actually a tsundere.
Well.
To be fair, that setting suited a genius director surprisingly well.
Two minutes later, Sora returned to his seat. Hiroto Enami glanced at the trophy in Sora's hand and smiled with a sigh.
"Every few years, the anime industry produces geniuses like you and Touga. At this rate, old directors like me are going to be buried by the next generation."
"You're joking, Director Enami," Sora said with a smile.
In his previous life, Hayao Miyazaki had still been making films in his seventies and eighties, and no one in the Japanese animation industry would have dared claim they could surpass him outright.
Even at that age, the films he made still ranked among the year's top box-office performers domestically, while also pulling in massive numbers overseas.
So this whole idea of the new wave inevitably crushing the old one?
Sora had never really believed in it.
Whether in his previous life or in this one, anime fans always tended to feel that the older generations were the true masters.
The ceremony continued.
Soon, it was time to present the Best Anime Music award.
Once again, the television broadcast showed close-ups of the five nominees.
And among them, many viewers quickly noticed one especially handsome young face.
After all, among the nominees, only Sora looked that young.
Wait.
Wasn't that the same Sora Kamakawa who had just won Best New Anime Director?
Why was he nominated for Best Anime Music too?
Wearing a bright red evening gown, the host smiled sweetly into the camera and once again announced the same name.
"The winner of the Best Anime Music award is... Sora Kamakawa."
A stir swept through the venue.
Plenty of anime fans watching from home looked equally stunned.
This young man had won both Best New Anime Director and Best Anime Music with the same work?
Was he really that talented?
Sora walked onto the stage again. This time, the ceremony focused on the soothing, elegant, sorrow-tinged background score from Natsume Yuujinchou.
He accepted the microphone with a smile and launched straight into another long speech.
Down below, Touga Kuze watched him with a heavy expression. One hand rested in his pocket, where his fingers brushed against the business card Sora had once given him.
He had never felt this kind of pressure from any rival of his own generation.
And yet, from the young man onstage - someone clearly younger than him - he felt a threat he couldn't ignore.
After gathering himself, Touga went back up and presented Sora with the award once again.
Two minutes later, Sora returned to his seat.
"That's honestly incredible," Hiroto Enami said with a sigh. "Two awards in a single night. The people nominated alongside you must be heartbroken."
"You're giving me too much credit, Director Enami," Sora replied with a laugh.
"These still aren't the biggest awards of the night. The real key prizes are Best Anime Director and Best Anime. Those are the ones you're almost certain to take, Director Enami."
Hiroto gave an awkward smile and glanced toward Touga onstage, but inwardly a rather discouraging thought had already begun to rise.
If Natsume Yuujinchou had aired on a better platform...
If the year's lineup of new TV anime across Japan hadn't been so weak overall...
If there had been even one title with sixty to seventy percent of the quality Touga's Nangoku no Yume had last year...
Then how would Akane no Sora and he himself have become such strong contenders for Best Anime Director and Best Anime?
Half an hour later, with the time already past nine-thirty and Sora starting to nod off in his seat, the host in red called his name for the third time that night.
On the television screen, Sora's face appeared side by side with the other four nominees, including Natsuyuki Shirasawa, who looked breathtaking in an elegant dress with a classic Japanese flair.
"The winner of the Best Anime Screenplay award is... Sora Kamakawa."
The camera magnified Sora's sleepy expression in real time.
Elsewhere in the audience, Natsuyuki revealed a fleeting trace of frustration before her eyes hardened with determination.
She had expected to lose.
But expectations did nothing to soften the sting when the result was finally spoken aloud.
The entire Yume Animation staff burst into cheers once again.
Three nominations.
Three wins.
At that point, there was no longer any doubt. Natsume Yuujinchou was destined to leave its mark on the history of Japan's anime industry.
On NatsuYume, Sora's fans and Yumi Noriko's fans spread the news everywhere, racing to tell everyone they could.
Both Yumi and Sumire wore smiles they hadn't even noticed forming.
"Tonight, I'm treating everyone," Yumi declared, finally showing the boldness expected of the wealthy investor backing the studio. "We're all going out for drinks."
Time passed, and the ceremony finally reached its last stretch.
After the hosts dragged out the suspense for as long as they could, the two grand finale awards - Best Anime Director and Best Anime - went to Hiroto Enami and Akane no Sora.
Meanwhile, the look of pain and jealousy on Maki's face - he had been nominated for Best Anime Director thanks to Unkai Senki Season 2 - became one of the night's unforgettable images.
He had failed to win Best Anime Director for Unkai Senki Season 2.
And The Dragon King Next Door had also failed to take Best Anime Screenplay.
This year, despite being the director most aggressively backed by Seiun TV, the most influential broadcaster in Japan, he had failed to amaze the country the way Touga Kuze had the year before while being pushed by Aobane TV.
Rather than becoming a sensation, he had become a joke.
At the Shuto Anime Festival, he walked away empty-handed.
Sora stood there holding three trophies. Hiroto Enami held two.
In the final shot of the ceremony, the two men smiled at each other.
In every sense that mattered, the two biggest winners of that year's Shuto Anime Festival were Sora and Hiroto Enami.
After exchanging contact information with Hiroto and gaining a new friend, Sora returned to Tokushima the following morning.
And on the third day after his return -
someone came looking for him.
It was Ryo Yukishiro, head of production at Southern Alliance TV.
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