In the review department of Southern Alliance TV, Ryo Yukishiro, head of the production division, received the report on Yume Animation's new project first thing that morning.
The conclusion was straightforward: it was an extremely innovative work, but one wrapped in enormous risk.
The document laid out in precise detail what made Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World from Zero such an unusual anime. It praised the boldness of the premise, highlighted the story's main appeals, and gave positive evaluations to both the worldbuilding and the design of central characters such as Emilia, Rem, and the Bowel Hunter.
The only point where the review department's tone turned truly severe was the protagonist, Subaru Natsuki.
In their assessment, he was the single greatest risk factor in the series.
And it was not difficult to understand why. In the early part of the story, Subaru was exactly the kind of protagonist who could easily frustrate viewers. He was uncomfortable to watch at times, impulsive, overly emotional, and trapped inside a merciless structure where his only way of breaking through a dead end was to die again and again, be crushed by his enemies, come back, carry the pain of every failure with him, and only then use that knowledge of the future to reach an ideal timeline.
The outcome might be cathartic, even exhilarating, but the road leading there was brutal.
There was suffering, exhaustion, despair. At one point, the protagonist was pushed so far that he resorted to suicide in order to force another attempt. It was the kind of story steeped in anguish, heavy enough to provoke a wave of rejection if the audience failed to connect with what it was trying to do.
For television networks, a project like that naturally sounded dangerous.
But after reading the report from beginning to end, Ryo Yukishiro issued no further instructions.
As long as the review team had found nothing improper, nothing that violated laws, broadcast regulations, or the acceptable boundaries for television, then that was enough. He had said he trusted Sora Kamakawa, and he had no intention of going back on that now.
Deep down, he thought to himself that both Voices of a Distant Star and Natsume Yuujinchou had also been works with highly unconventional ideas. If those had landed on this same desk while still in the script phase, they probably would have been labeled "high risk" too.
By the end of January, the news that Sora had partnered with Southern Alliance TV, and had even entrusted the network with part of the industry networking needed to recruit professionals in Tokyo for Yume Animation, had already spread like wildfire through the anime business.
At the same time, another story was gaining momentum at an absurd rate: the rumor that, in early January, Shiori Kanzaki from Seiun TV's production division had traveled to Tokushima to negotiate with Sora, only to end up humiliated and practically thrown out before she had even finished her meal.
Within days, it had become exactly the kind of gossip the industry loved to chew on.
"Did you hear? Sora Kamakawa, that breakout director from last fall, turned down Seiun and chose to work with Southern Alliance TV instead."
"Seriously? Is the guy that stupid?"
"Not stupid at all. Southern Alliance has already started using its industry connections to help Yume Animation recruit people in Tokyo. I heard a few veteran art background and scenery specialists, like Ryohei Kurose, Shingo Azuma, and Yoshinari Shida, were already in contact with both the network and Sora himself."
"But why? Why go with Southern Alliance? Isn't Seiun way stronger?"
"Anyone with even a little standing in the Tokyo anime world already knows who Shiori Kanzaki's boyfriend is. You really think Sora didn't know too? And there's more. Word is she wanted to lock down the production contract for the second season of Natsume Yuujinchou for Seiun, take a cut of the anime rights on top of that, and still not offer it a prime-time broadcast slot."
"..."
"She really had the nerve to make that kind of offer for a title on the level of Natsume Yuujinchou? And without even giving it prime time?"
"That's why she came back empty-handed. From what I heard, the moment she presented those terms, Director Sora threw her out without a second thought."
"And that's not even all of it. The decision to work with Sora had supposedly been approved by several internal factions at Seiun. The upper limit the network had authorized in the meeting was much better than the offer she actually brought. If the conditions got slashed that hard, it was because she tampered with them on her own. There was definitely personal resentment in it. What she didn't expect was that Sora wouldn't even try to negotiate. He just kicked her out on the spot."
"If I were Director Sora, I would have done the same thing. An anime that took home three awards at a Tokyo festival, and the network still wants to haggle over second-season rights without even giving it a decent timeslot? That's not negotiation. That's greed."
"That woman has always been unbearable. Pretty much every studio that's ever worked with Seiun has crossed paths with her sooner or later. As far as Shiori goes, all I can say is: serves her right."
While the rumors burned their way through Tokyo, Sora remained in Tokushima with Sumire, working on the storyboards for Re:Zero. At the same time, he was conducting remote interviews with candidates from different fields who wanted to join Yume Animation and become part of the company's new structure in the capital.
At Seiun TV, because of the inappropriate remarks Shiori Kanzaki had made during her trip to Tokushima, remarks that were now circulating more and more widely among industry professionals, the network handed her a light punishment for lowering the terms of the deal on her own before bringing it to Sora.
But in truth, most of upper management did not care very much.
To them, Sora Kamakawa was still just a rookie.
From the network's point of view, the mere fact that Seiun had been willing to negotiate with him should already have been considered an honor. Even if their employee had made mistakes, they did not believe some newcomer director had the right to treat her that way, humiliate her publicly, and throw her out before she had even finished eating.
To them, that had been a direct insult to Seiun TV's image.
If the partnership had collapsed, then so be it.
Even so, to ease some of the pressure and divert attention away from the talk spreading through the industry, Seiun decided to strike back in the most effective way possible. At the end of January, it officially announced the massive flagship production it would air during the summer season in July.
The title was Ryuen no Ibuki.
A fantasy adventure anime set in another world, centered on a protagonist with dragon blood running through his veins. In order to avoid being consumed by that lineage and turning into a monster, he set out on a journey across the so-called Dragon Continent, struggling through a brutal world in search of survival and answers.
The series had already been planned for twenty-five episodes, with continuous broadcast across both the summer and autumn cours on Seiun TV.
The projected total investment would exceed 1.8 billion yen.
On top of that, the production would be jointly handled by two major Tokyo animation companies.
But the point that truly sent shockwaves through the industry was not even the budget.
It was the main staff.
The anime would be directed by Touga Kuze.
The script would be written by Natsuyuki Shirasawa.
The very day that announcement was released, the entire anime industry felt the impact like an explosion at the center of the field.
Just over a year earlier, during the summer season, that same duo had created a national phenomenon: Nangoku no Yume, a title that broke past a five percent nationwide viewership rating and sold more than 240,000 BD copies per volume on average, becoming an overwhelming hit with audiences.
And now, barely a year later, they were joining forces again.
This time, however, not at Aobane TV, but at Seiun, with a production that was even more expensive, more ambitious, and very clearly designed to make an impact from the moment it was announced.
No one in the industry was naive enough not to understand what the network was trying to do.
The year before, Seiun had invested more than 1.4 billion yen into two productions directed by Maki, only to walk away from the Tokyo animation festival without a single award. It was obvious that the blow had been felt deeply inside the company.
And now, right at the start of the new year, its answer had arrived in the form of a heavy projectile called Ryuen no Ibuki.
The target was obvious.
Best Anime.
Best Director.
Best Screenwriter.
Seiun was aiming straight at the festival's biggest categories that year.
The audience's reaction was immediate. In less than two hours after the announcement, Ryuen no Ibuki had already been pushed to the number one trending topic in the country by millions of anime fans, driven above all by the weight Touga Kuze and Natsuyuki Shirasawa carried together.
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