Re:Zero's ratings had officially broken past 5, making it the second hit anime this year to cross that line.
As the summer season entered its final stretch, Re:Zero suddenly began to surge in full force, turning what had once looked like a one-sided market dominated entirely by Dragon's Breath into a true clash between two giants.
The only two split-cour anime of the summer had both now passed the 5 mark in ratings. That left many people wondering whether the real battlefield between Re:Zero and Dragon's Breath had never been summer at all, but autumn.
In the eyes of many fans, Re:Zero had already become one of the most innovative isekai anime Japan had seen in the past decade. Over the course of that summer, it gave anime viewers across the country a deeply moving journey into another world. More than anything, the series seemed to be asking a cruel, almost impossible question: if you were granted the power to keep starting over, what would you choose to do with it? What would you throw away? And what would you cling to, no matter how many times you broke?
It was quickly labeled the most emotionally devastating anime of the season, and its protagonist was even called the most miserable male lead Japanese animation had produced in the last ten years. Re:Zero had already become the kind of work people felt they simply could not afford to miss.
Although its television ratings still lagged noticeably behind Dragon's Breath, its online reputation had already started to tell a different story. In terms of word of mouth across the internet, Re:Zero had begun to edge past Dragon's Breath ever so slightly.
Even before the summer season began, there had already been rumors spreading through the anime industry that Sora and Touga Kuze, two genius Kantokus of the new generation, were bound to collide sooner or later. Now, it seemed that prophecy had come true. The only question was whether that clash would truly erupt not in summer, but in autumn, when the rivalry would finally enter its fiercest phase.
The moment Re:Zero's tenth episode broke the 5-point barrier, Japan's anime media collectively went wild.
To be honest, Dragon's Breath had been so overwhelmingly dominant this quarter that there had barely been anything worth reporting in the television industry's anime segment. But Re:Zero had taken off in both ratings and reputation in the span of barely a month, and there was even the faintest possibility that it might threaten Dragon's Breath. There was no way the media would let a story like that slip by.
A show breaking past 5 in ratings was an extremely rare thing in Japan, whether in anime, television dramas, or variety programming. Once a title like that appeared, the media would throw everything into covering it, and the work's potential audience would instantly cast aside any lingering hesitation.
If nothing else, the Blu-ray preorders on Yume Animation's official website had already surged by 30 percent in only three days.
Under normal circumstances, both Re:Zero and Dragon's Breath would have been more or less ready to release their Blu-rays by now. But both sides wanted to wait until their popularity reached its absolute peak before putting them on sale, all to push their first-week sales numbers even higher.
That kind of timing was entirely up to each production company. Every season had its own breakout hits, and if you failed to release merchandise while your own show was at its hottest, then by the time the next quarter arrived, you would have to compete against whatever new sensations were airing then. To some extent, you were bound to suffer for it.
But for two split-cour anime that had both already broken 5 in ratings, that kind of concern was almost irrelevant.
The ones who truly had reason to panic were the many autumn season anime about to premiere.
Because the moment October began, they would have to "fairly" compete against both Re:Zero and Dragon's Breath in the autumn lineup.
That alone had already forced changes across the board. Aobane TV, which had originally planned to launch its main autumn push - an isekai anime titled Kingdom on the Blade's Edge - at 9:00 p.m. on Friday, abruptly moved the broadcast to 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. Meanwhile, Shirakawa TV also postponed its flagship manga-based romance anime for next season, Rainbow Island, shifting it from Sunday at 8:30 p.m. to Saturday at 8:40 p.m.
Shirakawa TV, Aobane TV, and HaiOn TV might have had their pride, but they also knew when to be practical. These were anime with production budgets in the tens of millions of yen, not something you could gamble away on stubbornness. If they could avoid going head-to-head with two shows already pulling 5-plus ratings, why would they choose otherwise?
And it was not just about the ratings themselves. Even if they accepted the damage of airing on the same night, there was still the issue of publicity. On the night those episodes aired, the entire anime community in Japan - especially sites like NatsuYume - would almost certainly be flooded with discussion threads about Re:Zero and Dragon's Breath. That would naturally weaken the visibility and exposure of any competing title. There was simply no reason to force that kind of disadvantage.
The decisions made by those three stations left everyone at Southern Alliance TV and Yume Animation in an unusually good mood.
In the past, it had always been their productions that had to dodge seasonal powerhouses, squeezing their way into whatever airtime remained after everyone else had already picked and repicked the best slots. But now the situation had completely reversed.
Not even one of the capital's four major broadcasters dared to place a large-scale program against Re:Zero's airtime.
That kind of prestige sent their sense of pride soaring.
On Thursday night, Southern Alliance TV was so delighted that they organized a celebration banquet on the spot, inviting Sora, Sumire, and Yumi over. After a full evening of eating, drinking, and laughter, they even took group photos together as a keepsake.
And after Re:Zero's tenth episode crossed the 5-point mark, Sora also began spotting reporters and waiting fans far more often beneath the headquarters of Yume Animation in the city, all of them hoping to catch a glimpse of a wild Sora wandering past.
Online, his popularity had exploded as well. On NatsuYume, Sora's follower count had already broken six million, putting him at nearly half of Yumi's numbers.
Yet at the same time, for Sora, the most important task that week had nothing to do with fame.
His focus was expanding the company itself.
Since he had already promised Southern Alliance TV that Re:Zero Season 2 would be completed in time for a January broadcast the following year, with no interruption between releases, then preparations had to begin immediately.
Fortunately, recruitment had become much easier than before. With the advance funding from Southern Alliance TV, the introductions made through their industry connections, the track record Yume Animation had built over the past two years, Sora's own name, and the sheer appeal of being told outright that this was a chance to join the team making the second season of a 5-plus-ratings anime like Re:Zero -
a great many elite professionals in the metropolitan animation industry were genuinely interested.
Some of them did not even care about receiving compensation from their original companies before leaving. They stated directly that if Sora was willing to sign them, they would gladly transfer over at the same salary, or even take a slight pay cut if necessary.
At their original studios, all they could do was work on disposable assembly-line anime, titles with no chance of winning awards and no real sense of creative pride. But at Sora's Yume Animation, there was a real possibility that Re:Zero Season 2 might go on to win major accolades the following year.
Still, for Sora, the problem was never just the production of Re:Zero Season 2.
By the time the first season reached completion in December, the combined staff of the metropolitan headquarters and the Tokushima branch would number well over a hundred. Their next assignments would need to be prepared in step with that growth.
It was easy to predict that quite a few of them would join the later stages of production for Re:Zero Season 2. But no matter how he calculated it, the company would still end up with more people than that project alone actually required. Producing only the second season would not need more than 250 staff members unless he started cutting people. Otherwise, he would just be paying people to sit idle.
But to Sora, that was never a real option.
A company with only a couple hundred people was nowhere near large enough to justify layoffs. His ambition was not that small. If too many people piled into the final stages of Re:Zero Season 2, then all he had to do was move the excess staff onto another new project.
Inside his system space, he had more works than he could ever finish producing in a single lifetime. The only things limiting his ability to bring those titles into this world were two factors.
The first was his own energy. As chairman of the company, and at the same time the animation Kantoku, scriptwriter, and even music creator behind these projects, there was only so much workload he could personally bear.
The second was whether he had accumulated enough Emotion Points to exchange for the anime he wanted to make.
After carefully evaluating his current position, Sora finally made a decision.
By the time Re:Zero had reached Episode 10, it had already earned more than twenty million Emotion Points in Japan. Added to that were the Emotion Points accumulated from overseas markets over the year following the end of Natsume Yuujinchou and Voices of a Distant Star.
Altogether, the total had climbed to just over fifty million.
And that was enough - just enough to exchange for Re:Zero Season 2, along with the new work he had promised Yumi nearly a year ago, a title in the same emotional vein as Voices of a Distant Star.
5 Centimeters per Second.
Since that was the case, Sora decided that 5 Centimeters per Second would be produced as an animated film and released on Japan's theatrical circuit.
That way, the large number of staff he had recruited to handle the simultaneous production of Re:Zero Seasons 1 and 2 could, once each seasonal production entered its final phase, immediately be shifted over to the film project.
At Thursday's senior staff meeting, when Sora proposed the idea, Yumi, Sumire, and several of the newly recruited department heads from the main studio - including episode Kantokus, animation Kantokus, and the Kantoku of photography - looked at him as if they were staring at some kind of monster.
"Kantoku… you mean to say that while overseeing both Re:Zero Season 1 and Season 2, you still want to take charge of an animated film as well?" Sumire looked dizzy just trying to process it.
Even for Sora, that kind of workload sounded impossible.
"Of course not. I'm not a superhero." Sora laughed. "That's why I'll have to transfer a lot of work to you."
In the nearly two years they had worked together, the tacit understanding between Sora and Sumire had grown remarkably deep. She might not have been especially gifted when it came to pure innovation, but once he laid out what he wanted, she almost always grasped the effect he was aiming for without needing much further explanation.
Going forward, Sora intended to hand over many of his own responsibilities - and even part of his authority as Kantoku - to her.
In other words, instead of one Kantoku carrying everything, there would effectively be two Kantokus leading the entire company's eventual two hundred-plus staff to produce two TV anime and one animated film at the same time.
It would be exhausting.
But it was entirely feasible.
"Kantoku… are you saying…?" Sumire, Yumi, and many of the company's middle and upper management all misunderstood what Sora meant.
Were they supposed to take this as a sign that he no longer wanted to serve as animation Kantoku at all? That after turning in the scripts, he planned to become nothing more than an investor and leave all his projects to Sumire to direct alone?
Had Sora already made enough money that he wanted to lie back and live as a capitalist instead?
The moment that thought crossed her mind, Sumire panicked.
You're only nineteen. How can you already be thinking like that? Wasn't that just wasting your talent? And if even someone like you chose to stop, then what were all those ordinary people - who struggled desperately and still failed to create anything truly good - supposed to think?
"Kantoku Sora, I can't agree with your - "
"Don't misunderstand. I never said I was going to sit back and do nothing. So calm down first." Sora quickly waved a hand and pressed down on the shoulder of Sumire, who had already been half-rising from her seat to argue.
"What I'm saying is that my desire to create is too strong. Relying on myself alone is no longer enough to satisfy it. So I've decided to change your position. Sumire, you're no longer going to be just an assistant Kantoku. You'll become a full Kantoku, just like me."
"If I become a full Kantoku, then what about you…?"
"I'll still be a Kantoku too." Sora answered with a smile. "My energy is limited. I can't handle that much work by myself. So when the time comes, these works will operate under a dual-Kantoku system. You and I will jointly oversee them as the primary people responsible for production."
The method Sora proposed overturned nearly every fixed assumption everyone in the room had.
But he was the chairman of the company. If he wanted to do it this way, then it truly was possible.
It was not even without precedent. In the film industry, there had long been movies made by multiple Kantokus. As long as everyone involved had enough chemistry and coordination, there was no reason to worry about the quality of the final product.
Even so, Sumire's eyes widened in disbelief. Sora's wild, almost unrestrained ideas had already left her completely dazed.
And beneath that shock, there was also anxiety.
Fear.
Fear that she might not be good enough.
"That's enough. This is my final decision." Sora's voice dropped, firm and absolute.
Only by doing this would he have any chance of creating more works.
Otherwise, if he continued at the pace of producing just one anime a year, then even by the time he retired at sixty, he probably still would not have made very many titles at all.
And if one of those works happened to be an especially long-running giant, the kind of massive epic that consumed years upon years, then his entire life in Japan's anime industry might ultimately amount to no more than two or three productions before retirement.
If it came to that, then the system he possessed would be wasted far too badly.
___________________________________________________________________________________
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!