It took Yuta just three days to finish the storyboards for the first five episodes of Clannad.
Inside Starfall, everyone who got their hands on the storyboards was floored.
"He drew all of these in three days?"
"Even if you told me it took him three weeks, I'd believe you."
"Since when did the president get this good?"
"No wonder he had the guts to take on director, scriptwriter, character designer, and producer all by himself."
"Wait, if he's this talented, why did we even bother hiring a director before?"
"Maybe getting burned by that whole Genma Wasabi thing lit a fire under him."
The staff buzzed with chatter.
Yuta was completely unaware of any of it.
The storyboards for the first five episodes might have been done, but a director's job didn't end at drawing storyboards. There were tons of other things that needed his personal attention and approval.
So internal production meetings started happening constantly. Sometimes they were so frequent that there was a new meeting every hour.
But aside from meetings, there was one other thing that was especially important: hiring.
These days, anime was almost never produced by a single studio working alone. Typically one company would take on the project as the lead contractor, and when they couldn't keep up, they would outsource some of the cuts to other studios.
Clannad was definitely going to need some outsourcing too.
The problem was that outsourced work was notoriously inconsistent in quality. It was way more reliable to bring more people in-house.
And even factoring in some outsourcing, Starfall still didn't have enough people.
Hiring was a necessity.
January 25th, 10 a.m.
The meeting room at Starfall had been set up as an interview space.
Yuta sat in the middle with Rika and Yuzuki on either side. The three of them sat in a row, ready to conduct interviews.
"President, I get why Yuzuki is here, but why do I have to be on the interview panel too?" Rika asked, clearly confused.
"Todo recommended you. If you have a problem with it, take it up with him," Yuta said.
"I..."
Rika instantly looked like a kicked puppy.
Raiga Todo was technically her direct superior, though that wasn't really a big deal since Starfall was an anime studio and the hierarchy wasn't all that rigid.
The actual problem was that Todo always gave off this serious, intimidating vibe, and Rika was a little scared of him. Asking her to go complain to Todo? She absolutely did not have the guts for that.
She puffed out her cheeks and mumbled, "Why does it feel like I'm just a tool that gets used for everything around here?"
Production assistants basically were tools that got used for everything.
Yuta kept that thought to himself. Out loud, he said, "Come on, quit complaining. Just ask a few questions when it's your turn. You're not the one deciding who gets hired anyway."
"Fine." Rika finally let it go.
After a short wait, the first candidate walked in.
He was a young man named Touma Yukishiro, 22 years old and a fresh graduate from some no-name university in Tokyo. He was dressed in a crisp suit and looked full of energy.
He was here to apply for a production assistant position. He greeted everyone politely, then launched into a self-introduction when Yuta gave him the go-ahead.
The self-introduction was nothing special, though the fact that the guy didn't seem nervous at all despite being in a job interview was at least somewhat impressive.
Once the introduction was done, they moved on to questions.
Yuta went first. "There are so many anime studios in Tokyo. Why didn't you apply somewhere else instead of coming here?"
Touma Yukishiro looked Yuta right in the eye and answered without a moment's hesitation. "I did apply to other places. They all turned me down."
"And what do you know about our company?" Yuta asked.
"You've been around for a little over two years. You produced one anime called Heartbeat House, but the sales were terrible," Touma Yukishiro said matter-of-factly.
"..."
Both answers were painfully honest.
There wasn't a single hint of sugarcoating. But something about this just felt off.
Who answers interview questions like that?
He held back the urge to swear and asked a few more generic questions before telling Touma Yukishiro they'd be in touch.
He thought running into someone like Touma Yukishiro was about as weird as things could get, but what really threw him was that the candidates after that were somehow even more ridiculous.
Some of them hadn't even watched more than a handful of anime in their lives, and they still showed up wanting a job at Starfall. He had no idea if they were just so desperate for work that they figured they'd try their luck anywhere.
At first, Yuta still had the energy to question each person individually. Eventually he couldn't even be bothered anymore and just handed the questioning over to Rika and Yuzuki.
When all the interviews were finally done, Yuta couldn't help himself. "That was the worst batch of applicants I've ever seen."
"Well, President, it's not like our company has a great reputation in the industry or anything," Rika chimed in.
Yuta shot her a look.
Rika instantly realized she'd put her foot in her mouth and clapped both hands over it.
"Rika," Yuta called.
"Yes!"
Rika shot up from her seat, standing stiff as a board like a robot.
"Go get me a glass of water," Yuta said.
"Right away, right away!" Rika practically sprinted out of the room like she had just been pardoned from a death sentence.
At the doorway, though, she suddenly stopped and looked back over her shoulder, muttering under her breath, "Bossing me around without even trying to hide it. I really am just a tool around here."
Yuta didn't catch that one. Once Rika was out of the meeting room, he said, "Starfall doesn't have much of a name or reputation right now, it's true. But one day, this place is going to be a top-tier animation studio. Everyone looking down on Starfall right now is going to regret it someday."
Yuzuki couldn't help glancing at him, not really sure where he got that kind of confidence. But she didn't press the issue and just went along with it. "That day will come."
After a pause, she asked, "President, what do we do about this batch of applicants? Are we hiring any of them?"
"We hire some and we cut some. Bring them on and train them up over time. Even if we can't use them right away on the new anime, they'll definitely come in handy later."
Yuta went on. "On top of that, I'm going to try poaching a few people from other studios."
"Got it." Yuzuki nodded.
"Go ahead and get back to work. I need a minute to think by myself," Yuta added.
Yuzuki had no objections. She stood up, gave a polite bow, and left the meeting room.
Now it was just Yuta.
He sat there thinking quietly for a while, then picked up his phone and started making calls one by one.
He didn't love the idea of using connections like this, but "Yuta Shido" had come up through the ranks as a production assistant and had worked his way up to production manager. He had a pretty decent network built up. It was worth seeing if he could pull in some former colleagues or industry friends.
Of course, Yuta also didn't forget to give Aoi Fuji a call.
"Miss Fuji, I'm looking to poach a few people for Starfall. Think you could help me scout around?"
Aoi sounded a bit thrown off. There was a long pause before she replied. "President Shido, what exactly do you think Arcane is? We're a production planning company, not a headhunting agency."
"But you did say I could come to you if I needed help with anything."
"You really aren't shy about it, are you?"
"I appreciate the compliment."
"You... ugh, fine. What kind of people are you looking for? And what can you offer them?"
"Honestly, I need all types right now. As long as they're reliable and skilled, I'm flexible on the details. But if I had to pick one priority, a production assistant would help the most. I can put up a signing bonus for them, and if they have other requests, I'll do my best to work something out."
"Alright, I'll see what I can do. Wait for my call."
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