Late January slipped away in silence, dissolving into appointments, travel, and sleepless nights.
As the co-Kantokus of the animated film Kimi no Na wa, Sora and Sumire continued, even after February arrived, to travel through Japan's major cities for fan events, promotional meetings, press sessions, and cinema-organized appearances. Their days were long, packed with smiles for the cameras, carefully repeated answers, and the constant effort not to let exhaustion show on their faces.
That night, after another full day of work, the two returned to the hotel and gathered with the publicity team in one of the rooms. There, they reviewed the day's results, discussed mistakes, adjusted details, and arranged the schedule for the following day.
Only after everyone finally dispersed did the room fall quiet.
Only Sora and Sumire remained.
But rest was still far away.
The two opened their laptops almost at the same time and began dealing with the materials sent over by the Shingeki no Kyojin production team in Tokushima. Even away from the studio, there were important cuts to review, storyboards to approve, composition problems to solve, and decisions no one else could make in their place.
"Only three days left until Kimi no Na wa premieres."
Sora spoke while examining several key scenes from Shingeki no Kyojin on his screen, all of which still required animation corrections. There was a faint disbelief in his voice, as though that moment had arrived too quickly.
After a brief pause, he added, "Before anything else, I should apologize. From the looks of it, you probably won't be able to go home for New Year's this year."
"I wasn't going home anyway."
Sumire replied softly, also without taking her eyes off her laptop. She was reviewing the storyboards for the Shingeki no Kyojin episodes under her responsibility, her face lit only by the cold glow of the screen.
"I'm the same as you. There's no one waiting for me at home anymore."
Sora blinked slowly.
Only then did he remember.
Sumire, just like him, lived in a state that was not merely casual loneliness, but something complete, concrete, almost final. There were no parents calling to ask whether she would make it back in time. No prepared table. No one counting the days until she walked through the door.
"According to the schedule, we'll only be able to catch the flight back to Tokushima at midnight on New Year's Eve. So, most likely, we'll be spending the turn of the year in Tokyo with the publicity team."
He hesitated for a moment.
"You…"
"It's fine."
Before Sora could finish, Sumire had already answered.
She raised her eyes to him and continued with calm firmness.
"And one more thing, Sora. You don't need to speak to me in that tone, as if you're trying to negotiate something delicate. Don't forget that I'm also one of the key members behind Kimi no Na wa. My expectations for this work are not any lower than yours."
Hearing that, Sora finally relaxed a little.
"Oh, right. Didn't you say before that you would invite me to watch the premiere of Kimi no Na wa with you?"
Sumire asked the question suddenly, as though it had just come back to her.
"Given the current situation, do you have any other plans on New Year's Day?"
"No."
Sora answered after a brief pause.
"Then it's settled."
"Settled."
Sumire thought for a few seconds, then asked with a slight narrowing of her eyes, "Just to confirm… that proposal of yours isn't part of some prearranged promotional activity, right?"
"What do you mean?"
"For example, the two of us show up together at the premiere, and by coincidence there happens to be a crowd of reporters hidden in the same theater, filming everything so it can later be turned into promotional material for the movie."
Sora could not help laughing.
"Of course not. I'm a person with principles. If it were a publicity-related screening, I would have explained it clearly from the beginning. I simply want to watch the film we spent more than half a year making together. That's all."
Time moved on until February fourth.
In the Japanese film industry, promotional efforts for the New Year movie season reached their peak.
And it was on that very day that, after a long tug-of-war behind the scenes and countless rounds of negotiation, the screening allocation for the films premiering during the holiday was finally released.
Wooden Man, the long-awaited new work from one of Japan's major film Kantokus after two years of absence, ranked first, taking twenty percent of nationwide theatrical screenings.
Kimi no Na wa, in turn, carried the weight of being Sora's newest work, made by the most famous and talked-about name in the animation industry at the moment. Added to the excellent theatrical performance of his previous film, Byousoku 5 Centimeter, it secured an initial screening share of eighteen percent, tying for second place.
Crazy Racer 2 also received eighteen percent, sharing that same position.
Meanwhile, the film adaptation of the famous children's animation Forest of Animals ranked third among the releases of the same period, with fifteen percent of screenings.
Together, those four films occupied more than seventy-one percent of all theater programming.
The remaining twenty-nine percent would be divided among the other four competing films released during the same period.
The New Year film market could be that cruel.
The number of screenings on the first day determined the opening-day box office. The opening-day box office, in turn, directly influenced the number of screenings on the second day.
But the first-day screening share also depended on the effectiveness of pre-release promotion.
And promotion, in the end, depended on money.
In the film industry, anyone who wanted strong results first had to burn through resources.
Eighteen percent.
That was already the best position Noriko Animation had managed to negotiate for Sora.
After all, for a film like Wooden Man, several cinema chains were investors in the project themselves. No matter how much Noriko Animation negotiated with those chains, no one would reduce the screenings of their own beloved child just to increase the share given to Kimi no Na wa.
On February fifth, New Year's Eve, the streets of Tokyo were strangely empty.
Even so, in a hotel that remained open during the holiday, Sora and more than ten members of the Kimi no Na wa publicity team sat around a table to share their New Year's Eve dinner.
"Now that I think about it, it's been a very long time since I last spent New Year's with other people."
Sora took a sip of his drink. His cheeks were faintly flushed as he looked at Sumire, who sat beside him, focused on her food, and smiled.
"Me too."
Sumire drank a little fruit liqueur.
"Happy New Year."
Sora took a small gift box from his pocket and handed it to her.
The contents were not expensive. It was only a simple keepsake, something meant to mark the moment and convey a small measure of thoughtfulness.
But when Sumire opened the box and saw what was inside, she fell silent for a few seconds.
Then, as though she had understood something that did not need to be said aloud, a soft smile appeared on her beautiful, delicate face.
"Sora, happy New Year."
That night, under Sora's lead, every member of the publicity team boarded a flight back to Tokushima.
In truth, neither Sora nor Sumire needed to be in such a hurry. But the employees on the team had spent an entire month accompanying him across the country to promote Kimi no Na wa. Some had not even been able to spend the holiday with their families.
So, after they arrived at Tokushima Airport, before parting ways, Sora handed each of them a generous New Year envelope, large enough to make them forget at least part of their accumulated exhaustion.
He was just about to leave when Sumire, already inside a taxi, rolled down the window.
"Sora, remember: tomorrow morning is the premiere screening of Kimi no Na wa. Don't oversleep."
"Understood. I definitely won't be late."
He answered with a smile.
February sixth, New Year's Day.
Early in the morning, Anri woke up and found herself unable to fall asleep again.
As a four-year fan of Sora and the administrator of three fan groups, she had been waiting for this day for more than two months.
Ever since CL ended in December, Anri had fallen into an animation drought. The new January series launched by the four major broadcasters, along with the productions from the Southern Broadcaster Alliance, simply could no longer satisfy her.
By the standards she had developed, everything felt far too calm.
It was not that they were bad. But compared to CL, they were bland as water.
Drinkable, perhaps. But absolutely not something she would long for afterward.
Animation fans like her, whose standards had been raised after being bombarded by Sora's works for the past two or three years, existed in staggering numbers across Japan.
When Anri opened NatsuYume, what she saw confirmed her expectations. It was only eight in the morning, but Sora's fans were already restless, almost starving for any movement related to the premiere.
"I have a ticket for ten in the morning. Screening location in the attached image. Are there any female fans in Tokushima watching at the same theater? Let's go together. Going alone to watch a romance film on the first day of the year is way too embarrassing."
"Hahaha, what's embarrassing about that? When I bought my ticket online, I saw someone had booked a lone seat in the corner for my screening. I figured she must be lonely, so I booked my seat nearby to keep her company."
"She? How do you know the person is a girl?"
"You have to believe she's a girl. Only then will she truly be a girl. Anyway, stop ruining my beautiful fantasy."
"You monster. Maybe that person just has social anxiety and chose the corner to watch in peace. Then an extrovert like you shows up. She's probably already cursing you in her head."
"Last year I watched Byousoku 5 Centimeter alone. This year I'm watching Kimi no Na wa alone too. I just hope Kantoku Sora doesn't make this animated film as painful as Byousoku 5 Centimeter."
"Don't overthink it. Kantoku Sora isn't sick in the head. Look at After Story. He listened to the fans, didn't he? In the final episode, he brought Nagisa Furukawa and Ushio Okazaki back to life. Judging by the trailer, Kimi no Na wa looks like a light romance animation with body-swapping and fantasy travel. Go into the theater with a relaxed heart."
"Today is the premiere of Kimi no Na wa. Everyone, don't hesitate. If you haven't bought a ticket yet, hurry up and buy one. Support Kantoku Sora."
"Exactly. Since his debut, Kantoku Sora has basically never lost. Kimi no Na wa will be the same. We can't let the box office results of the other films in the same slot step over him."
"Anyway, as long as the first-day box office surpasses Wooden Man and Crazy Racer 2, that's enough. If the revenue and seat occupancy are good, theaters will immediately adjust the schedule the next day based on word of mouth and market trends. According to the usual pattern for New Year releases, the top two films at the first-day box office generally pull far ahead of the competition later in the season."
From early morning, Sora's fans were already discussing the film enthusiastically online, sharing news and information related to Kimi no Na wa.
On NatsuYume, nearly all the trending search terms related to the films opening that day had been pushed into the top ten by the direct force of promotional spending.
After washing up, eating breakfast, and finishing her morning run, Anri arrived at the cinema where she had bought her ticket at nine thirty.
She had already prepared herself mentally for a crowd, but the moment she entered the building, she was still stunned by the wave of noise rushing toward her.
There were far too many people.
Almost every major star in the Japanese film industry had a movie released during that New Year season. The number of fans those actors had was terrifying, so it was only natural for cinemas to be packed from early morning.
Even so, among the celebrity fans, there was another group that drew even more attention.
Cosplayers.
One after another, Rems, Rams, Emilias, Natsumes, Karins, Nagisas Furukawa, and Ushios Okazaki walked through the lobby.
The sight made the entire cinema look like a massive anime convention.
Seeing it, Anri felt a warm emotion rise in her chest.
So this was the scale of Kantoku Sora's influence now.
All of those people were just like her. They had woken up early on the first day of the year solely to support his newest work.
Anri took photos with several cosplayers at the venue and quickly realized something obvious: the audience that had come to watch Kimi no Na wa had a completely different atmosphere from the audiences for the other films.
Anime fans were like that. As long as they recognized a shared reference, the distance between strangers shrank in an instant.
During the wait before the screening, Anri did not feel bored for even a second.
Time passed little by little.
Nine thirty.
Nine forty.
Then, at nine fifty-five, it was finally time to enter the theater.
Anri joined the ticket-checking line alongside a group of cosplayers, animation fans, and plenty of ordinary moviegoers drawn in by the growing buzz.
"I'm going in now. In two hours, I'll send a quick impression of the movie to the groups. Wait for my message."
After posting that line from her phone in her three anime fan groups, each with a thousand members, Anri put the device away and entered the screening room.