Inside a private room at a hotel.
Kaito Amanai, Genma Wasabi, and Yuma Amagi were gathered together at one table.
"Gentlemen, I look forward to working with you both." Kaito smiled and raised his glass.
"You're too kind, Kaito."
"We should be the ones saying that. Please take care of us."
Genma and Yuma raised their glasses along with him.
Back when Kaito Amanai had taken the project pitch for Love Academy to Arcane looking for investment, he had come up empty. Worse, he had let his frustration show a little too openly and accidentally burned his bridge with Aoi Fuji, landing himself on her blacklist.
Later, through a connection named Issei Kagetsu, he found a different production planning company and eventually managed to secure funding after all.
Even with the funding locked down, finding a director and a scriptwriter were still major headaches.
But then he caught wind of Genma's falling out with Starfall, and he immediately reached out with an offer to direct Love Academy at Lumen.
Lumen was a totally different beast from Starfall. It had real production capability, and the genre was right in Genma's wheelhouse, so of course he said yes. When he heard about Kaito's own bad experience trying to pitch to Arcane, it only strengthened his feeling that they had a common enemy.
He accepted the offer and made one request: bring on Yuma Amagi to write the script for Love Academy.
Kaito knew that Genma and Yuma had teamed up on multiple projects and were friends on top of that, so he agreed without a second thought.
Tonight's dinner was Kaito's private little welcome party, and also a celebration of their successful takedown of Starfall and Arcane's reputation online.
"Starfall is probably freaking out right about now. They brought this on themselves, honestly. If that President Shido had just done what he was told and rewritten the script, things never would have gotten this bad for them," Kaito said with a casual grin.
"It's totally their own fault. But hey, it works out for us. If he had actually listened, we probably never would have gotten this chance to team up with Lumen," Genma chimed in.
Yuma looked a little uneasy though. "Burning bridges with Starfall is whatever, but you guys basically called out Arcane too this time. Are you sure that's okay?"
"What's the worst that could happen?" Kaito waved it off like it was nothing. "Arcane was in the wrong to begin with. Are we not even allowed to be upset about it? Besides, things aren't exactly smooth sailing inside Arcane either. That woman probably won't last long as president. Nothing to worry about."
"Exactly, nothing to worry about."
Genma wasn't concerned either. "If anything, I think Starfall is the real wildcard. I know I said President Shido's script was no good, but honestly, it wasn't that bad."
"It just would have been better if he'd made the changes I suggested. If the audience ends up liking whatever Starfall puts out, they might come back and point fingers at me instead."
"You don't need to worry about that either."
Kaito let out a cold laugh. "Starfall was already weak to begin with, and now they've been dragged through the mud online. Their new anime has been labeled as garbage before it even airs. What director out there is going to take a job from them after all this? And when it comes time to cast voice actors, the big-name ones will probably turn them down flat. A bishoujo anime without popular voice actresses is dead on arrival. There's no way audiences would buy in."
"Yeah, you've got a point." Genma nodded in agreement.
...
Back at Starfall.
Yuta wasn't panicking, but he had to admit the situation was getting tricky.
Getting roasted online wasn't really that big a deal in itself. If anything, all these clueless internet users now knew Starfall existed, which actually gave the studio more name recognition. That might even be better than being a complete nobody.
On top of that, the only people saying Starfall's project and script were garbage were Kaito Amanai and Genma Wasabi. Whether the anime was actually any good wasn't for those two to decide. Only the audience could make that call.
Yuta had faith in Clannad. As long as they nailed the details in production, public opinion would flip completely once the anime actually aired.
The real problem was that Starfall was already short on firepower, and now Kaito and Genma had teamed up to drag them through the dirt.
Most people in the industry were probably convinced by now that Starfall's new project really was trash.
Add in the story about Yuta refusing to let anyone touch his script, and what decent director would want to come work for Starfall?
Yuta sighed quietly to himself, and then he heard a knock on the door.
He didn't think much of it and just assumed it was Rika, so he called out, "Come in."
The door opened, but the person who walked in wasn't Rika. It was Aoi Fuji.
"Miss Fuji? What brings you here?"
Yuta quickly got up to greet her, though what he was actually thinking was this. 'Does Arcane not have anyone else? Why is Aoi always the one showing up in person?'
"There's something I need to talk to you about. It didn't feel right doing it over the phone, so I came by in person," Aoi explained.
Yuta offered her a seat and poured her tea himself before asking, "What's going on?"
"Thanks to our PR team at Arcane, we managed to keep the damage from this whole mess to a minimum. But I ran into a problem while looking for a new director for you," Aoi said with a serious look on her face.
"Can't find a reliable one, right?" Yuta guessed.
"Pretty much."
Aoi nodded. "There are plenty of unreliable directors out there, and experienced episode directors are a dime a dozen too, but I didn't feel comfortable reaching out to any of them."
Yuta stayed quiet and didn't respond.
Aoi glanced at him and spoke up. "President Shido, what do you think we should do?"
"Give me a minute to think."
Yuta said that and put on a face like he was deep in thought.
Aoi didn't interrupt. She just waited in silence.
Then suddenly, the phone on his desk rang.
Yuta picked it up, and a voice that was somehow both familiar and unfamiliar came through the receiver.
"President Shido, it's me. Kenta Matsubara."
"Huh?"
Yuta was caught off guard for a second before it clicked.
This guy. The director of Heartbeat House.
After Heartbeat House bombed, this guy had vanished into thin air. And now here he was calling out of the blue.
What did he want? Was he trying to crawl back to Starfall?
Yuta let out a sharp scoff and asked coldly, "What do you want?"
"President Shido, Starfall must be pretty desperate for a director right now, yeah? If you ask me nicely, I might be willing to come back," Kenta Matsubara said in a cheerful, easy tone.
"Drop dead!" Yuta snapped and hung up on him.
The nerve of this guy, trying to take advantage of them while they were down. Did he really think Starfall had no options?
He took a deep breath, turned to Aoi, and said, "Miss Fuji, if it comes down to it, I'll direct Clannad myself."
"What?!" Aoi's jaw dropped.
Yuta was already wearing four hats: character designer, scriptwriter, and producer. Now he wanted to take on the director's role for Clannad too? Could he even handle all of that?
More importantly, Yuta had never even worked as an episode director before, let alone a series director.
Rolling up his sleeves and doing it all himself... was that really going to work?
_______________________
Give some power stones and leave a review if you like it!
Support me at patreon.com/CulturedOne and read 30 Advanced Chapters