At that very moment, the internet was on fire. Anime forums in particular were buzzing with discussion about Clannad, and the topic was trending hard.
"Director: Yuta Shido. Script: Yuta Shido. Producer: Yuta Shido. Character design: Yuta Shido. Music: Yuta Shido. OP and ED lyrics and composition: also Yuta Shido. What is this guy?"
"Is there some kind of mistake here? How does one person have that much energy?"
"When the PV came out, none of this information was listed. Were they afraid of scaring the audience?"
"If I'm not mistaken, this Yuta Shido is the president of Starfall, right? How is he this good?"
"Wearing that many hats is one thing, but the fact that he actually did a great job in every single area is honestly hard to believe."
...
'Yuta Shido?'
Ryuji blinked.
Usually, the production credits for each episode appeared during the OP or ED.
But even though Ryuji was an anime fan, he tended to focus on the story when he watched. He rarely paid attention to the names scrolling by in the opening and ending sequences.
So the real talking point of Clannad's first episode was actually in the OP and ED credits?
He suddenly regretted not recording the broadcast.
If nobody had brought it up, it wouldn't matter. But now that people were talking about it, of course he wanted to go back and check for himself. Unfortunately, the anime had aired on live TV. Without recording it ahead of time, once it was over, it was gone. There was no rewinding.
The DVD definitely wasn't coming out anytime soon, so he'd just have to pay attention during next Friday's second episode.
Yuta wearing a dozen hats at once was certainly worth talking about, but Clannad as an anime was generating plenty of buzz on its own.
"This anime is actually really good."
"The art style is super polished, and all the girls are adorable. Especially the female lead. She's exactly my type. Who was it that said Starfall was doing false advertising again?"
"Glad I didn't let those negative reviews scare me off. I almost missed a great show."
"The story feels really solid. Why did Director Wasabi insist on having the script rewritten?"
"This has to be the revised version of the script, right? Otherwise there'd be no reason to change it. Compared to this, Love Academy's script feels way weaker."
"Is this anime really that good?"
"Ugh, I can't believe I missed this! I never should have skipped it."
The anime itself was exceptionally well-made, and that alone was enough to get people talking.
On top of that, Genma had previously put Starfall on blast online, leading to a public pile-on. Now that the anime had actually aired and audiences could see the story was genuinely good, with no need for script changes whatsoever, that became another hot topic.
Then there was the fact that when Clannad's PV first dropped, it had been buried under a mountain of negative reviews, causing a lot of people to write it off entirely. Or maybe they had never been interested in bishoujo anime to begin with. Now that the internet was singing its praises, those people naturally popped up to express their regret, which only added more fuel to the discussion.
But the biggest driver of all was the insane fact that Yuta had handled so many roles by himself. Without that jaw-dropping headline leading the conversation, there would still have been plenty of discussion, but the buzz never would have gotten this big after just one episode.
Ryuji scrolled through the comments casually, liked a few of the positive reviews, then gathered his thoughts and wrote his own.
[Yesterday I said Love Academy left me a bit disappointed. I figured today's Clannad premiere would be more of the same formula, and I was ready to rip it apart. But I never in a million years expected this anime to be completely above criticism. If you're asking how I feel right now, the answer is genuinely blown away.]
[That's right. Blown away. Starfall made something so good that I can barely believe this is the same studio that produced that dumpster fire Heartbeat House.]
[First, the story. Yes, it's a bishoujo anime, but it's nothing like any other bishoujo anime out there. It doesn't feel familiar, and you can't predict where the plot is going.]
[Second, the pacing is excellent. It shifts between lighthearted and heavy with ease, and ends on a cliffhanger that actually makes you desperate for more. On those points alone, President Shido succeeded brilliantly as both director and scriptwriter.]
[And one more thing. I don't know how many people had the same reaction I did, but that opening sequence absolutely floored me. I'm going to remember it for a very long time. Maybe for the rest of my life.]
[All I can say is, President Shido is unbelievably talented. He might not be a god, but in my mind, he's pretty damn close.]
[I can't wait for episode two. And if you haven't watched this yet, do yourself a favor and don't miss it. You'll regret it.]
Ryuji had written plenty of long, scathing reviews before, but this was the first time he had ever written a long, glowing one.
Unsurprisingly, the post racked up likes almost immediately.
...
Over at Lumen.
Neither Kaito nor Genma had been paying any attention to Clannad.
They had already written it off as no threat to Love Academy, so they saw no point in keeping tabs on it.
They were both busy with their own work when suddenly, one of the production assistants let out a shout. "This is bad! This is really bad!"
"Hm?"
Several heads turned in his direction.
The guy looked up with a grim expression. "Starfall's new anime might be blowing up."
"What?!" Genma's brain short-circuited.
Kaito looked equally stunned. "How is that possible?" he muttered.
"I'm serious. Just look at the online reactions and you'll see for yourselves," the production assistant said.
Kaito and Genma immediately went online to check.
One look and they both nearly passed out.
"What the hell?!"
That bastard Yuta had completely thrown out the playbook.
They had wondered why Starfall never seemed to hire another director after Genma left. Now they had their answer.
They didn't need another director because Yuta had handled the entire thing himself.
And he hadn't just taken over directing. He'd done the music too. Even the lyrics and composition for the OP and ED were his. Who could have possibly predicted that?
"That bastard Yuta, he's never even worked as an episode director before!" Kaito said, clearly frustrated.
The room went quiet for a moment.
After a while, someone spoke up. "Nobody ever heard of him knowing music, or being able to draw, or write scripts either."
Kaito: "..."
"Oh no!"
Genma suddenly blurted out, "Am I about to be the one getting dragged online?"
"Dragged online?"
Everyone was confused for a second, but then it hit them.
When Genma had his falling out with Yuta, the internet had taken his side. But that was only because nobody knew what the actual script looked like. Everyone assumed Yuta was just being stubborn and refusing good advice, and then Kaito had jumped in and publicly called Starfall's entire project garbage, which only reinforced the idea that Yuta should have listened to Genma.
The truth was that Genma had only thought the script wasn't good enough. He wouldn't have called it outright bad. So after the whole public shaming blew over, there had always been a tiny sliver of worry nagging at the back of his mind.
At the time, though, Kaito had reassured him. He'd said that after getting dragged through the mud like that, Starfall probably couldn't land a decent director, and no popular voice actresses would want to touch their anime either. Under those conditions, the finished product was bound to be mediocre, so there was nothing to worry about.
But now Clannad's first episode had aired, and the quality was outstanding across the board. Audiences were not only on board but were actually saying the script was fine as-is, maybe even better than Love Academy's.
If Yuta decided to dig up old scores right now, where exactly was Genma going to hide?
_______________________
Give some power stones and leave a review if you like it!
Support me at patreon.com/CulturedOne and read 50 Advanced Chapters