The most important skill a director needed was the ability to draw storyboards.
If you could draw good storyboards, you could be a competent director.
Storyboards laid out what kind of visuals each episode's shots required and how they should be presented on screen.
Some directors handed off storyboard duties to their episode directors and only did the final review themselves, but most directors drew their own storyboards.
And the truth was, you didn't actually need to be a great artist to draw good storyboards.
Plenty of anime directors drew incredibly rough storyboards.
Some of them basically just scribbled a bunch of written notes describing what was supposed to be on screen.
As long as the episode director could understand it, there was no problem.
Yuta had the original Clannad to reference, and he was a key animator on top of that, so drawing storyboards wasn't going to trip him up.
What worried him were the other things.
Like which voice actors to cast, how to divide up the workload among his staff, and how to balance his time when he was juggling so many roles at once. All in all, this was going to be a massive challenge for him.
Before, he had figured that hiring a professional director would be the safer bet. But the way things looked now, bringing in some other director might actually be worse than just doing it himself.
The difficulty was through the roof, but at this point, he had no choice but to take it on.
After seeing Aoi off, Yuta grabbed some paper and a pencil and started drawing storyboards, using the version in his memory as a reference.
It was a shame he didn't have more time, because with his skills as a key animator, he could have skipped storyboards entirely and gone straight to layouts.
A layout was essentially a detailed composition draft. Its purpose was to lock down everything that appeared on screen, precise down to every last detail.
It was one of the most critical steps in the entire anime production process.
Some directors who came from a key animation background would personally handle all the layouts themselves. Miyazaki Hayao was a prime example. And a well-done layout, even without color, was practically at the level of a finished illustration.
On a side note, a lot of what people thought of as "storyboards" weren't actually storyboards at all.
They were layouts.
With the original Clannad as a reference, Yuta absolutely had the ability to skip storyboards and go straight to layouts, but he simply didn't have the time or energy for it. He could only draw basic storyboards and leave the layouts to other key animators.
Drawing just the storyboards was relatively fast for him.
By the next day, when Aoi came to Starfall to see Yuta, he had already finished the storyboards for the first episode.
He handed the storyboard pages to Aoi.
One look and she was stunned.
"You drew these?" she asked, clearly caught off guard.
"Yeah." Yuta nodded.
Aoi studied him carefully.
He had dark circles under his eyes. They weren't too bad, but they were there.
After a moment's thought, she asked, "Did you pull an all-nighter drawing these storyboards?"
"Not quite. It's just that when I think about how I have to write the script, handle character designs, act as producer, and direct on top of all that, the pressure gets to me a little. Didn't sleep great," Yuta explained.
"You're pushing yourself way too hard." Aoi couldn't help but be impressed.
"Miss Fuji, with Starfall in the spot it's in right now, I don't have a choice. And honestly, this is nothing. The real crunch hasn't even started yet," Yuta said.
"You..."
Aoi hesitated, but eventually said what was on her mind. "I actually came here today to talk you out of directing. But your mind is so made up that I don't even know where to start."
"You don't need to talk me out of it. Given how things are, me directing is the best option," Yuta said, waving her off.
"Fine."
Aoi sighed. "Just don't drop dead on me."
With that, she found a seat and started carefully going through the storyboards Yuta had drawn for the first episode. It was a storyboard that included the script alongside it.
Even though she wasn't a director, Aoi could tell that the quality of these storyboards was seriously high. They were every bit as good as what other people would produce after spending days on the same work. The fact that he had done this in less than a single day was almost impossible to wrap her head around.
She glanced at Yuta and couldn't stop herself from thinking. 'Talented... no, this guy is an outright genius at anime.'
"Miss Fuji, what do you think of the storyboards?" Yuta suddenly asked.
"They're solid," Aoi said approvingly.
"In that case, I'm going to start carrying out my duties as director," Yuta said.
"Go ahead."
Aoi nodded. "Same as always. If you need anything, just say the word."
"Nothing for now, but there will definitely be times I need your help down the road. I'll reach out when that happens." Yuta didn't bother being modest about it.
...
After seeing Aoi off, Yuta didn't go back to his office. Instead, he looked around the studio floor until he spotted two figures.
"Yuzuki, Raiga. Come to the meeting room for a minute."
He headed straight for the meeting room without waiting. Now that he had committed to directing Clannad, he needed to get tasks assigned as soon as possible so everyone wasn't running around like headless chickens.
Raiga Todo had been the production manager on Heartbeat House. That anime may have bombed, but that wasn't Todo's fault.
Besides, Todo was the only production manager Starfall had right now.
The other production assistants were still too green to handle the responsibilities of a full production manager, so Todo would have to continue in that role for Clannad.
A production manager didn't deal with the creative side.
Their job was managing the entire production schedule. It might not sound glamorous, but in practice, the role was absolutely vital to keeping an anime's production on track. If tasks were getting handed out, Todo was obviously the first person to bring in.
Next, Yuzuki Amane.
Out of everyone currently at Starfall, Yuzuki had the highest level of drawing skill. She might even be a bit better than Yuta himself.
Naturally, Yuta had a specific assignment in mind for her too.
Once the two of them arrived in the meeting room, Yuta got straight to the point. "Starting today, I'm the director of Clannad. Raiga, I need you to work with me on getting tasks distributed. And Yuzuki, I want you to handle the layouts for Clannad. Any questions?"
"President, are you sure you want me on layouts? I'm worried I might not be good enough," Yuzuki Amane said with some concern.
"Your skills are up to it. Whether you think you can handle it or not, you have to at least try. This is a good opportunity for you too," Yuta told her.
"Besides, I'm the one over here juggling scriptwriter, character designer, producer, and director all at the same time. If I'm not scared, what are you scared of?"
Yuzuki Amane blinked in surprise, then quickly looked down, looking a little ashamed of herself.
Todo spoke up next. "We really are short-staffed at Starfall. I think we need to hold a recruiting drive soon."
"Yeah, you're right. I'll get that set up as soon as I can," Yuta agreed with a nod.
After that, he went over a whole bunch of other matters with them.
Their little three-person meeting ended up lasting over an hour.
And once the meeting was over, the entire Starfall studio kicked into high gear.
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