In his previous life, Sora Kamakawa had spent a very long time living under the shadow of isekai hero anime.
There were simply too many of them.
Every single year, dozens - sometimes even more than a hundred - series of that kind would appear without fail, and the trend had continued for well over a decade. At first, that sort of story felt fresh. The premise alone could hook you. But after seeing it too many times, all that novelty curdled into disgust.
The political struggles in those fantasy kingdoms were often less convincing than playground arguments between grade-schoolers.
Villains would suddenly lose all intelligence the moment the plot needed them to.
And one female character after another would throw herself at the protagonist with embarrassingly little restraint.
More than anything, Sora Kamakawa understood one truth very clearly: those productions had never really been made for seasoned anime fans in the first place. They were aimed at newcomers, at audiences who had just entered the medium and were still easily dazzled by surface-level spectacle.
And then, one year, a series called Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World burst onto the scene.
That work completely shattered Sora Kamakawa's prejudice against the genre.
The problem had never been isekai adventure stories themselves.
The problem was all those writers who never put enough care into shaping their stories.
Re:Zero told the story of a boy who was suddenly thrown into another world and forced to survive there from nothing.
He was not exceptional in temperament. He was ordinary to the point of frustration. He gave up easily when faced with hardship, and when things went wrong, he often tried to place the blame somewhere else.
The only thing truly different about him was this -
If he died, he would return like a game save being reloaded, reviving at a point in time he had recently lived through, carrying all of his memories with him.
In that world, the boy met a silver-haired girl who moved him, captivated him, and quietly saved something broken inside him.
And for her sake -
He was killed again and again.
Then he returned.
Killed again.
Returned again.
Killed, returned, killed, returned, over and over without end.
He endured the agony of dying hundreds, thousands of times, all for the sake of finding a single path through that cruel world - a single route that would allow everyone he treasured to survive, a road that led to a true happy ending.
It was such a simple premise.
And yet, in his previous life, it had moved Sora Kamakawa more times than he could count.
It had completely changed the way he looked at isekai adventure anime.
He did not allow the unpleasantness with Seiun TV and Xu Zhi's group to disturb his state of mind for long. Since he had already decided to work with the Southern Broadcast Alliance, that very night he exchanged 36 million emotion points for the first season of Re:Zero.
By now, he more or less understood the relationship between the lottery function inside the system space and the direct exchange prices for finished works.
The direct exchange price for the first season of Natsume Yuujinchou had been just under twenty million emotion points, yet he had drawn it through the lottery using only three million.
That meant the lottery was riskier and far less certain, but it also gave him a chance to obtain extremely high-value works at a much lower cost.
As for Re:Zero, the first season alone contained over twenty episodes' worth of material.
That was practically the content volume of two cours of Natsume Yuujinchou.
So naturally, exchanging for Re:Zero was much more expensive.
A few days later, Ryo Yukishiro flew to Tokushima once again with his team.
Now that Sora Kamakawa had agreed in principle to cooperate with him, the next step was to sit down properly and finalize the details.
Before a work had actually aired, no one could guarantee its final results, and Sora Kamakawa had no intention of making reckless promises over unknown details.
Even so, during the negotiation, he still chose to state one thing plainly.
"My new anime," he said, looking directly at Ryo Yukishiro, "will, in my personal judgment, achieve results in the Japanese anime market that surpass Natsume Yuujinchou."
Natsume Yuujinchou was undeniably excellent, but its subject matter was still somewhat niche.
Re:Zero was different.
Setting the plot aside for a moment, the foundation of the work alone was already a textbook fantasy adventure. Spirits, magical beasts, kingdoms locked in struggle, religious conflict, and a deeply immersive fantasy world - everything about it was unmistakably isekai.
And on top of that, it would be airing through the Southern Broadcast Alliance.
The Alliance might not stand alongside the four biggest networks in Tokyo, but its signal coverage still extended across fourteen prefectures, all of them densely populated and economically strong.
In practical terms, its broadcast reach already covered seventy to eighty percent of Japan's population.
Its influence completely overwhelmed a regional station like Tokushima TV.
That was why Sora Kamakawa had spoken with such confidence.
"With those words from Director Sora Kamakawa, I feel much more at ease," Ryo Yukishiro said with a smile. "No matter what the final result is, a creator must at least believe in the work he's making."
After that, the two sides moved on to discuss the remaining details.
Even if they only produced the first season, Re:Zero would still be a half-year series. Since the Southern Broadcast Alliance had already promised S-class promotional support, this was no longer a matter limited to a single cour.
At that point, however, Ryo Yukishiro hesitated for a moment before speaking carefully.
"What I can promise Director Sora Kamakawa is this: when the anime begins airing in the summer cour, the network will absolutely provide it with our highest promotional tier. But if it continues into the fall cour, whether it can maintain that same level of promotion - and whether it can remain in prime time - will depend on its summer performance. I hope you can understand."
"That's fair," Sora Kamakawa replied after thinking it over.
The other side's concern was completely reasonable, and so was the condition.
After that, the discussion turned toward the investment for Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World.
This time, Sora Kamakawa had no intention of giving the Southern Broadcast Alliance any chance to interfere through equity participation.
He would be funding it himself in full.
The Japanese anime industry of this world might still lag behind the anime industry of his previous life in certain areas - especially in narrative structure and the variety of genres being explored.
But there was one thing in which this world's industry completely outclassed the one he remembered.
Visual quality.
And in the end, visual quality came down to one thing above all else:
Money.
How could the anime industry of a small island nation from his previous life ever compare to the scale of a Japanese market this vast?
In that world, a seasonal anime funded with ten million yen might have been considered normal.
Here, that would only count as a low-budget production.
Generally, anything above thirty million yen for a single-cour anime was what people truly considered a large-scale investment.
So when it came to Re:Zero's budget, Sora Kamakawa had only one real answer.
Spend more.
Originally, from the money Natsume Yuujinchou had earned, he planned to set aside Yumi Noriko's thirty-five percent profit share and pour everything else straight into Re:Zero.
That would leave them with a total investment of a little over thirty million yen.
If that amount were used on a one-cour anime of around a dozen episodes, the visual quality would be enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with the flagship works promoted by the four major networks.
But for a series with more than twenty episodes, it still was not enough.
That was precisely why Yumi Noriko had refused Sora Kamakawa's proposal to distribute her dividends.
Instead, she suggested reinvesting that money into Re:Zero as well.
She did not lack money. What she enjoyed was the process itself - the act of backing a genius creator and watching his work take shape.
And Sora Kamakawa had no real reason to refuse her.
At the very least, unlike other investors, Yumi Noriko would never point fingers from the sidelines or disrupt production with unnecessary interference.
"So for an anime with more than twenty episodes, you're expecting a total investment of fifty million yen?"
Only after hearing all of that did Ryo Yukishiro's expression visibly change.
Up until that point, no matter how much Sora Kamakawa spoke about his confidence in the new project, words were still just words. They cost nothing.
But now?
Now he was putting nearly every bit of money the company had into this one work.
That was not confidence spoken aloud.
That was resolve made real.
"Since Director Sora Kamakawa is already prepared to go that far," Ryo Yukishiro said, looking at him more seriously than before, "then allow me to say one more thing."
He paused briefly before continuing.
"If this is going to be an anime with that level of investment, then the number of key animators and staff required across every department will be several times greater than what your company currently has. In Tokushima, can Yume Animation really recruit enough people to support a production of this scale?"
The moment he heard that, Sora Kamakawa's expression tightened slightly.
Because Ryo Yukishiro was right.
The true center of Japan's anime industry was Tokyo.
That was where the greatest concentration of talent existed.
Practically every well-known anime company in the country had its headquarters there.
"Director Sora Kamakawa," Ryo Yukishiro said softly, "your company should move its headquarters to Tokyo. Build a new base there, recruit heavily, expand the size of the studio, and complete your new anime with that foundation. Tokushima can remain as a branch office and still participate in the production, of course."
Then he added, almost casually, "Besides, the headquarters of the Southern Broadcast Alliance are also in Tokyo. That would make communication between us much easier."
"The headquarters of the Southern Broadcast Alliance are in Tokyo?" Sora Kamakawa looked genuinely surprised. "Isn't it supposed to be a southern network?"
"It's the same logic," Ryo Yukishiro said with a laugh. "Our strongest market is in the southern prefectures, but nearly all of our business partners are based in Tokyo, so naturally that's where the headquarters ended up."
Then his expression softened, though his tone remained earnest.
"If Director Sora Kamakawa truly intends to grow this company into something larger, then staying in Tokushima alone won't be enough."
"I understand," Sora Kamakawa said after a quiet sigh. "To be honest, I've already had the same thought myself."
The level of Tokushima's animation scene really was a little too limited.
For low-budget productions, it was manageable.
But once the conversation turned to a large-scale project, the gap in manpower and infrastructure became impossible to ignore.
"It's just that opening a new headquarters in Tokyo, recruiting staff there, building everything from the ground up..." He rubbed lightly at his temple. "That kind of thing takes an enormous amount of effort."
"If Director Sora Kamakawa is willing to trust me," Ryo Yukishiro said, "then I can help with the recruitment side. I know quite a few capable people in the industry."
That day, Sora Kamakawa ended up speaking with Ryo Yukishiro about that matter for a very long time.
___________________________________________________________________________________
Additionally, more chapters exclusive content are available on Patreon: https://patreon.com/ImmortalEmperor?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLink
- CHRONICLES OF THE ICE SOVEREIGN
-PLAYING ANIME LEGENDS
-THE OTHER WORLD'S ANIMATOR
Join now and help shape the future of the story while enjoying special rewards!