Several days after the character designs for Re:0 were released, the discussion online still hadn't died down.
But instead of talking about how good the art style looked, the internet had turned into a battlefield between Sora Kamakawa's fans and the fans of Touga Kuze and Natsuyuki Shirasawa. Sarcasm flew back and forth, insults piled on top of each other, and neither side showed any intention of backing down.
In the end, it came back to the same old truth.
If they didn't feel threatened, why were they reacting this strongly?
Sora Kamakawa's performance in the anime industry the year before had been obvious to anyone with eyes. The entire field believed that if Natsume Yuujinchou hadn't been dragged down by its platform, it would have ended the year as the number one anime outright, sweeping both Best Kantoku and Best Animation.
And now, Sora's new work had moved to Southern Alliance TV.
Not only that, Re:0 shared a similar genre and a similar broadcast window with Ryuen no Ibuki.
Even the length of the broadcast was the same: a two-cour series.
It was only natural that Touga Kuze's fans would feel the pressure.
More importantly, the rumors that Sora Kamakawa and Shiori Kanzaki had fallen out had already spread beyond the anime industry itself and reached the fan circles.
Setting aside the messy entanglement between Shiori, Sora, and Maki, the crucial part of that story was the trigger behind the split.
It was Shiori Kanzaki's refusal to give Natsume Yuujinchou Season 2 a prime-time slot on Seiun TV.
Because the summer prime-time slot Seiun TV had reserved was meant for Ryuen no Ibuki, the anime produced by Touga Kuze and Natsuyuki Shirasawa.
And just like that, the conflict became inevitable.
To Sora's fans, the direct reason Natsume Yuujinchou Season 2 had never come into existence was Ryuen no Ibuki.
To Touga's fans, meanwhile, Re:0 - a high-budget anime in a similar genre, airing in the same season - looked like Sora's personal retaliation against Touga, a deliberate attempt to disgust him and stir trouble.
This was Japan, a place where fandom culture around the anime industry had become so intense that, in the end, hardly anyone cared what the truth actually was.
After the New Year break ended, Sora Kamakawa and the entire staff of Yume Animation returned to work and saw the chaos on NatsuYume: Sora's fans, Yumi Noriko's fans who had come to support him, and the fanbases of Natsuyuki and Touga all tangled together in one sprawling war of insults.
It was ridiculous enough to be funny.
"Why does it feel like every single time you make a new project, Kantoku, trouble follows right behind it? Every single time," Sumire said from inside the office as she sketched out storyboards.
The weather outside was still cold, but the heating inside the company kept the room warm enough that she wore only a black sweater. Her slender white neck had the graceful elegance of a swan, and with her hair held back by a headband, she looked refined and beautiful without even trying.
Her gaze remained fixed on the storyboard album in front of her, serious and focused, yet her voice carried an easy smile.
"When you get too famous, people start circling you like vultures." Sora chuckled. "The day I flop once or twice, maybe all these haters will finally lose interest in me."
In his previous life, he had seen this pattern countless times. In any field, so-called geniuses almost always attracted huge numbers of detractors. Oddly enough, once they went through one or two major setbacks, public opinion often swung the other way. People who had once mocked them suddenly turned nostalgic, speaking as if their decline were some great tragedy.
Compared to that, what Sora was facing now was still nothing.
"But if the fans keep fighting like this," Sumire said, "then whether it's you, Kantoku, or Touga Kuze's side, the pressure is only going to get worse. Once the summer season starts, whoever loses in ratings to the other side - "
"What pressure would I even have?" Sora said with a laugh. "The one under pressure is them. If I lose, then all I've done is match the industry's expectations for Re:0. But if they lose... that becomes a major scandal."
His smile deepened.
"This is a massive production with an investment of 90 million yen. If they really lose to our company's Re:0 kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu, then that woman, Shiori Kanzaki, will probably be called in by Seiun TV on the spot."
After hearing that, Sumire lifted her eyes toward him. Once she thought it through, she immediately understood the implication beneath his words.
Back when Seiun TV had first tried to recruit Sora, the terms they offered had been very different. Aside from the fact that the prime-time slot was already being saved for Ryuen no Ibuki, they had promised that Natsume Yuujinchou Season 2 would be treated as an S-class production in both animation quality and promotional scale.
It had been nothing like the ridiculous conditions Shiori later mentioned - both sides investing only 10 million yen each, while Seiun TV still took a share of the rights.
That had been her acting clever.
She had assumed Sora desperately needed a major platform like Seiun TV to make a name for himself, so she tried to corner him and force a deal on her own terms.
If Re:0 failed to take off in the summer season, then it would prove that Sora Kamakawa was never that impressive to begin with. In that case, everything Shiori had done would simply be forgotten.
But if Re:0 became a hit - if it even outperformed Ryuen no Ibuki -
Then Shiori would be the one carrying the blame.
Because at that point, she would be remembered as the person who had personally pushed Sora Kamakawa out of Seiun TV and straight into the arms of Southern Alliance TV. And would the upper management of Seiun TV really let that slide?
That was 90 million yen.
Not 9,000 yen.
"Kantoku, you're really petty," Sumire said after a pause.
"I just tailor my attitude to the person in front of me," Sora replied with a grin.
Back then, Shiori Kanzaki had clearly intended to set him up. Her malice had been obvious. If he hadn't sensed something was wrong at the last second and avoided the trap, then by now he would probably be working under her, enduring lectures every few days and suffering through the endless torment of a clueless outsider trying to instruct professionals on how animation should be made.
For that reason alone, even if it was purely out of revenge, Sora would still give Re:0 everything he had and make sure it achieved an even greater result.
In another office tower in a different commercial district, Touga Kuze was methodically overseeing a production team of more than three hundred people, formed by the combined manpower of two major animation studios.
His work efficiency was frighteningly high. So high, in fact, that after finishing his daily tasks, he still had time to log into the official Re:0 website and check the newly released production details for Sora's latest anime.
He had already watched the BD release of Hoshi no Koe.
It had truly felt like the work of a genius.
The industry as a whole might still be underestimating Sora Kamakawa, but in the minds of both Touga and Natsuyuki, Sora had long since become the strongest enemy of the summer season.
Aobane TV had Night of the Detective, a large-scale production with an investment of 35 million yen.
Shirakawa TV had the suspense anime The Man in the Mirror, with a budget somewhere around 37 to 38 million yen.
HaiOn TV had secured the animated adaptation of the popular romance manga Natsuoto.
In terms of per-episode production cost, all three of those works surpassed Re:0.
And yet, Touga still felt that the most dangerous opponent of the quarter might be Sora Kamakawa.
"What do you think of him?"
One day, after she and Touga had finished going over some script details, Natsuyuki Shirasawa suddenly asked that question.
"He has potential," Touga replied, his expression cold and unreadable, though arrogance spilled freely from his tone. "But that's all."
"If his goal for the summer season is second place, then I think he has a real chance. But if his goal is to defeat our Ryuen no Ibuki..." His gaze sharpened. "Then I'll show him what true failure looks like."
Although Touga could sense the threat Sora posed, he never truly believed he would lose.
February slipped away.
March arrived.
At the beginning of March, Sora Kamakawa held a seiyuu audition in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
That morning, artists from well over a hundred voice acting agencies woke up early, did their makeup, and went over the audition scripts they had received several days earlier again and again, holding them tightly in their hands.
One after another, they arrived with determined eyes, each wearing the expression of someone who had already decided the role was theirs.
At this point, Sora had received three nominations at the Tokyo Anime Festival and had invested 50 million yen into the production of Re:0. Even if the general industry consensus still placed him below Touga Kuze, the truth remained the truth.
How many Touga Kuzes were there in the anime world to begin with?
For these voice actresses, landing a role in Sora Kamakawa's new anime was an extraordinarily precious opportunity.
That was why, unlike the situation back in Tokushima, the number of seiyuu who came to audition for Re:0 kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu on that day exceeded two hundred.
At this point, no one cared anymore about Sora's age or his relative lack of seniority.
Everyone now treated him as a true star Kantoku in the anime industry, speaking to him with respect and wearing solemn expressions.
The entire audition itself was also far more formal and professional than the ones Sora had held in Tokyo in the past.
And beyond that, the average skill level of the seiyuu attending was far higher than what he had seen in Tokushima.
Back there, it was still possible to encounter people who did flat, lifeless readings, with emotions and tone completely out of sync with the scene.
But in Tokyo, a seiyuu at that level would never even be recommended by her agency.
The company simply couldn't afford that kind of embarrassment.
As for Sora, what he was looking for in this audition went beyond voice performance alone.
The seiyuu he wanted not only had to meet the standard in acting - they also had to be able to sing well.
After all, the original anime version of Re:0 kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu had produced several unforgettable insert songs, pieces that stayed with audiences long after the scenes themselves ended.
Sora had no intention of hiring separate singers.
He planned to have the seiyuu sing those songs themselves.
So this audition was not just about script reading.
He was testing their singing too.
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