Inside the internal staff group chat of Yume Animation, messages began popping up one after another.
"It's over."
"The winter cour is finally over."
"Long live."
"The first half of Steins;Gate, twelve episodes in total, ended with an average rating of 4.91%. That's definitely worth celebrating. I honestly thought the audience numbers would drop below 4% with how much groundwork the early plot had to lay. In the end, it really comes down to the loyalty of Kantoku Sora's fans. If this had been handled by some unknown Kantoku, with that kind of slow-burn beginning, who knows how far the ratings would have fallen."
"If the first half already achieved this, then the second half is where the counterattack begins. We'll let those haters in Japan know that Yume Animation doesn't produce trash anime."
"Production on the second season of AD has started too. I heard a few core members of that project walked out of the meeting room with red eyes after reading the script. I can't even imagine where the second season's story is going… or what kind of script could do that to them."
"Enough. Foot soldiers like us don't need to think that far ahead. Let's just do the work in front of us properly."
"Next cour, the second season of Liar Game and the second half of Steins;Gate will air together. It's time to make the Japanese television industry understand Kantoku Sora's strength."
Within Yume Animation, after everyone learned the overall performance of the first half of Steins;Gate, the atmosphere became noticeably livelier.
Unlike the public outside, they were the ones producing the anime. Naturally, they knew very well just how extraordinary the later plot of Steins;Gate would become.
If Liar Game could be called the strongest psychological mind-game work in Japanese television that year, then Steins;Gate was not merely another competitor.
It was the sky itself.
Twelve episodes. An entire cour spent building the atmosphere, planting clues, layering details, and preparing the ground solely for the explosion that would come in the second half.
Their concern had never been the quality of the work itself. What they feared was that Steins;Gate might fail because of its slow opening, or because the audience could not keep up with the level of appreciation demanded by the story. Perhaps some viewers simply lacked the patience, or the willingness, to piece everything together.
But looking at it now, the situation was far better than they had expected.
After being attacked for an entire cour by haters and media commentators paid by the four major networks, the production team behind Steins;Gate had been swallowing their anger in silence for three full months.
Now, they were simply waiting for the spring cour to arrive so they could release it all at once.
At the end of March, every work from the winter cour finished airing.
The major networks and animation studios lowered their banners for a short while, like armies waiting for the next battlefield. Everyone was waiting for the beginning of April.
Because of Liar Game's dazzling performance during the winter cour, the production departments of the four major networks felt enormous pressure. Each of them increased investment in the new dramas scheduled to premiere in April.
Even so, the four games from Liar Game's first season - the teacher-student deception game in the first round, the minority decision in the second, the layoff game in the revival round, and the smuggling game in the third - had built up an increasingly strong reputation. Although the highest rating for a single episode had stopped at 5.29%, none of the four networks had any real confidence that they could surpass the second season of Liar Game in the summer cour.
As for the six half-year anime series from the four major networks, their competition would continue into spring.
And even during the two-week pause in which some of those works stopped airing, the arguments between fans never ceased.
Especially among the fans of Naofumi, Hinata, and Sora. Their forum wars resembled a large-scale village brawl - noisy, chaotic, and absolutely endless.
On that familiar Friday, many anime fans across Japan became active once again.
The final scene of Steins;Gate in the winter cour - the one where Mayuri Shiina, the girl with the cute "tuturu" catchphrase, was shot in the head by members of a dangerous organization led by the melancholic older woman Rinka Hayase - had left fans hanging over the edge of a cliff for two entire weeks.
It did not matter how the industry evaluated that anime.
For Yui Kotonami, a university student from the mathematics department, the work was fascinating.
After all, a girl who studied mathematics naturally tended to have sharper logical thinking. At first glance, the plot of Steins;Gate seemed scattered, as though each episode struck a different point without a clear connection. But she could sense that, up until episode twelve, almost everything had been preparation.
More than a light science-fiction anime, that work felt like a mystery meant to be deciphered.
"All right… after Mayuri Shiina's death, what will our protagonist, Kyōren, do?"
Curiosity filled Yui Kotonami's eyes as she stared at the television, where the trailer for the second season of the drama Liar Game was currently airing.
After that came the commercials for the release of the first Blu-ray volume of AD and Steins;Gate.
Time passed slowly.
Seven fifty-six.
Seven fifty-nine.
Then, eight o'clock sharp.
The network broadcast froze for a brief instant.
A new opening theme began.
The style of the song and visuals had changed completely. Everything had become oppressive. The characters appeared with expressions on the verge of collapse, as though trapped somewhere they could not escape from. It was an atmosphere entirely different from the almost carefree lightness of the anime's first half.
"So the second half is going to get heavier…"
As a veteran anime fan, Yui Kotonami understood this kind of detail. Just from the opening alone, she could already see the hidden intentions of the Kantoku.
"Come to think of it, this anime is starting to resemble Re:Zero quite a bit. The difference is that in Re:Zero, Subaru Natsuki could return by death from the very first episode. In Steins;Gate, the protagonist Kyōren spent twelve full episodes finally creating an improved version of the phone microwave, one capable of sending consciousness into the past through electromagnetic waves from a cellphone, achieving mental time travel."
The more she thought about it, the more serious Yui Kotonami's expression became.
Because she knew that stories involving temporal return were Sora's territory.
After Re:Zero, it was not as though Japanese animation studios had not tried to imitate it. But without exception, every work of that kind had been torn apart by fans the moment it was compared to the original.
"If Kantoku Sora intends to push the second half of this anime toward a return-by-time plot, then the ratings might climb sharply from here on. After all, once old Re:Zero fans realize this work is also going in that direction, they'll definitely come back to follow it."
While Yui Kotonami was still thinking, the opening ended.
The story continued directly from episode twelve.
Rinka Hayase, that somewhat withdrawn and melancholic older woman, was in fact a member of the dangerous organization SERN. More than that, she had personally led the operation to capture the members of the "Future Gadget Laboratory."
The moment she entered through the door, she killed Mayuri Shiina, one of the most beloved characters among the anime's fans.
The viewers had been holding that knot in their throats for two weeks.
Right at the beginning of episode thirteen, Rinka Hayase spoke.
The time machine would be seized by SERN. Kyōren, Jouta, and Makise would be taken away.
Her voice was cold and merciless. The indifference with which she had killed Mayuri Shiina with her own hands left the audience with a terrible impression.
After all, before this, inside the laboratory, Mayuri Shiina had always treated Rinka Hayase with kindness.
She had offered her snacks, spoken with her, chatted with her, and helped answer her questions.
And yet…
She showed not the slightest trace of affection.
Kyōren stared at Mayuri Shiina's body, at the bullet wound on her head, and tears began flowing from his eyes. His emotions collapsed completely.
At the critical moment, the part-time warrior, Suzuha, appeared - the most mysterious character in the work, the one who was always saying strange and difficult-to-understand things. With her bare hands, she knocked down three armed men, seized a pistol, and pointed it at Rinka Hayase's head while Rinka did the same to her.
Suzuha created an opening amid the chaos.
Makise reacted immediately, turned on the computer, and launched the program.
And Kyōren understood what he had to do.
He rushed to the phone microwave and put on the headphones.
In order to help him activate the time machine, Makise was also shot by Rinka Hayase. The bullet pierced her chest, and she died there.
The electromagnetic waves surged like a violent current.
His mind trembled.
His brainwaves seemed to be pulled away by something invisible.
Leap.
With the headphones over his ears, Kyōren let out a cry of pain.
At that moment, the voice actor's strength was revealed in full.
Yui Kotonami's pupils sharpened with focus.
The image shifted, sinking into Kyōren's memories.
He and Mayuri Shiina had known each other since childhood. Both had carried painful pasts. Little by little, they healed each other's wounds and became a soft light deep within one another's hearts.
That was why, this time, he would return to the past.
He would change the fact that Mayuri Shiina had died.
"That's it. That's the right feeling. The structure is similar to Re:Zero: crossing time to save the person most important to you."
Yui Kotonami immediately grew excited.
But at that moment, she had not yet realized the fundamental difference between Steins;Gate and Re:Zero.
In Re:Zero, the past and the future could be changed. Everyone's fate depended only on whether Subaru Natsuki was willing to save them.
But in Steins;Gate…
It was completely different.
Some people could not be saved simply because someone wanted to save them.
With that leap, Kyōren returned three hours into the past.
He dispersed every member of the Future Gadget Laboratory, sending Jouta and Makise home.
Then, alone, he went to search for Mayuri Shiina.
The story began to grow interesting.
Yui Kotonami felt it very clearly. After twelve episodes of preparation, the moment the organization SERN finally made its move, all the tension accumulated by the anime surfaced at once.
She watched Kyōren desperately searching for Mayuri Shiina, terrified that she would once again be found by SERN's agents, and her heart began beating faster and faster.
In Re:Zero, there were all kinds of powerful beings capable of helping Subaru Natsuki.
But what about Steins;Gate?
Kyōren was only an ordinary person.
The plot advanced quickly. Kyōren took the dejected Mayuri Shiina to the Shinkansen station.
"Smart. Running away directly is the right choice."
Yui Kotonami approved of the story's decision.
Going to the police?
According to the anime's setting, SERN was a legal international organization in that era. It might even maintain good cooperative relations with the local authorities where the protagonist lived.
Calling the police would most likely be the same as handing themselves over.
But the Shinkansen station was also full of SERN agents lying in wait.
In desperation, Kyōren grabbed Mayuri Shiina and ran out of the station.
It was that familiar time again.
Only this time, it was in a different place.
This time, Mayuri Shiina's pocket watch was crushed beneath a car.
Exactly like in the previous worldline.
The watch broke.
And then Mayuri Shiina…
Was run over and killed.
Behind him, the pursuing SERN agents charged forward like madmen.
Kyōren fled toward the Future Gadget Laboratory as if he had lost his mind.
Damn it. I won't let you die. Shiina, I'm going to save you. I swear I will.
With tears on his face, Kyōren fought back through injury, accepting pain in order to inflict pain in return. He managed to repel the members of SERN, who did not dare kill him and only wanted to capture him alive.
Back at the laboratory, he activated the time machine.
The background music became suffocating, filled with despair.
Kyōren returned three hours into the past for the second time.
That temporal device, hastily assembled that very day by him and Makise, had its program set by default to rewind three hours.
This was already the third round of that worldline.
Yui Kotonami blinked.
That fast?
They were already on the third round?
Much faster than Re:Zero.
Besides, why did Mayuri Shiina die at the same point in time during every round?
Was it a coincidence?
Vaguely, Yui Kotonami began to sense a strange rule hidden within the structure of that work. Something in the air felt wrong.
Was this another Re:Zero?
No.
Somehow, it felt far more complex than Re:Zero.
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