The next day, Raizen, Shidou, and Retsu all accepted Yuta's offer. They wouldn't officially start until February 1st though. That wasn't a problem. All three of them were stand-up guys. Once they gave their word, they weren't going to back out.
Successfully poaching a key animator, an episode director, and a cinematographer made Yuta genuinely happy. It meant Starfall was getting stronger.
But even with the boost, Starfall was still small fry.
Fortunately, Aoi came through as well. She actually managed to recruit a few people for Starfall, including the production assistant that Yuta had been hoping for.
A production assistant was basically a foot soldier working under the production manager.
The production manager oversaw the schedule for the entire anime, while a production assistant handled the schedule for one or a few specific episodes.
To make sure their assigned episodes got finished on time, a production assistant had to maintain progress charts, chase down key animation deliveries, coordinate handoffs between departments, and even track down reliable outsource partners.
If an episode didn't get done on schedule, the production assistant had nobody else to blame.
A production assistant couldn't draw, couldn't write scripts, and didn't know 3D, but their real strength was their network of connections.
A great production assistant had a wide network, high emotional intelligence, knew how to handle people, and could find dependable outsource studios when needed.
That was exactly the kind of production assistant Starfall needed right now.
As for why they needed a production assistant instead of another production manager, well, Starfall already had Raiga Todo as production manager, and a single anime could only have one. Bringing in another one would just create confusion.
Between the batch of new hires and the people they poached, Starfall could finally say it had at least some real manpower.
That said, this crew still wasn't enough to produce a solid twenty-two episode anime on their own.
Outsourcing was unavoidable.
Yuta didn't bother managing that himself. He handed it off entirely to Todo and just checked the results.
The days flew by one after another.
On a certain day in early February, Yuta left the office and headed to a recording studio. It wasn't time to do the actual voice recording for the anime yet. First, they needed to hold auditions, listen to a range of voice samples, pick the best fits, and then send out formal offers.
There was no rush to make final decisions, but the director still needed to be present during auditions.
Sometimes the production committee would send people to sit in as well, but Clannad was a special case. There was no production committee.
Arcane was providing the funding and distribution channels but wasn't involved in the actual production, so there was no committee to speak of.
Outside the recording studio building, Yuta and Rika got out of the car. He was about to head inside when he suddenly heard a yelp behind him.
He turned around and saw a girl who looked about eighteen sprawled flat on the ground. Everything had spilled out of her shoulder bag.
"A faceplant on flat ground?" Yuta raised an eyebrow.
He gave Rika a look.
Rika got the message and went over to help the girl up. She gathered the scattered belongings, handed them back, and asked with genuine concern, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine!" The girl shook her head so vigorously she looked like a bobblehead, then bowed deeply to Rika. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"
Her voice was soft and gentle, almost delicate, though she was clearly very nervous.
"Don't mention it," Rika said.
The girl glanced around, adjusted her shoulder bag, bowed to Rika one more time, said goodbye, and then hurried into the recording studio building.
Rika watched the girl's retreating figure for a moment before turning back to Yuta and muttering, "That nervous? Definitely a rookie voice actress."
Yuta offered a different observation. "Her voice is really nice though."
"Well obviously. She's a voice actress. If her voice wasn't nice, what would be the point?" Rika said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"All voice actresses have nice voices, but hers is something special," Yuta said, shaking his head slightly.
"Huh?"
Rika looked confused for a second. "President, don't tell me you've got a thing for her?"
"So what if I do?" Yuta glanced at her.
Rika gave him a look of pure judgment.
Yuta continued, "Her voice fits the female lead's character really well. I just don't know which role she's auditioning for."
Rika blinked and quickly dropped the judgmental stare.
"Let's go. We should head in too," Yuta said as he walked toward the entrance.
Rika didn't say anything and quietly followed along.
After a few steps, Yuta suddenly stopped, turned around, and landed a karate chop on Rika's head.
"Ow!"
Rika yelped and grabbed her head. "President, why did you hit me again?"
"You were giving me that look just now. You had it coming," Yuta said with a straight face, then kept walking.
Rika rubbed her head and pouted, grumbling, "All you ever do is bully me." She clenched her fists and threw a couple of mock punches at his back, but the second he turned around, she instantly put on an innocent angel face and scurried to catch up.
Inside the building, the voice actors waiting for their auditions all stood up and greeted Yuta and Rika respectfully.
Yuta returned the greetings while scanning the room, and he quickly spotted the girl from earlier.
Mei Shirayuki. That was her name.
As for the rest, they were either fellow newcomers or the lukewarm, middle-of-the-road types.
There was one popular voice actor in the group, but he was a guy. Among the female voice actresses present, there wasn't a single big name.
This was exactly what Yuta had expected. Starfall had just been dragged through the mud online, and their new anime had been branded as trash before it even aired.
By 2006, the trend of turning voice actresses into idol-like figures had already begun, though it wouldn't become a full-blown phenomenon for a few more years.
What that meant was that some popular female voice actresses had already developed an idol's sense of image consciousness. Even if the pay was fine, knowing the anime might be a flop was enough to make them say no.
Male voice actors didn't have that problem. The whole voice-actress-as-idol thing was aimed at women, not men.
Female voice actresses could earn income through both voice work and idol activities. Male voice actors mostly relied on voice work alone, and the pay for anime voice acting wasn't exactly great.
Under those circumstances, if you could take on more jobs, you took them. Nobody cared if the anime might bomb.
For a bishoujo anime, not having any popular female voice actresses was a critical weakness, but there was nothing they could do about it.
Yuta sighed to himself and went to find the sound director. After a tedious round of introductions, the auditions officially began.
Most of the actresses weren't big names, but that didn't mean they lacked skill. The ones reading for the female lead in particular were all quite talented, with great emotional delivery.
But perhaps because of the influence of the original version stuck in his head, Yuta couldn't shake the feeling that something was a little off.
As for Mei Shirayuki, the one he had his eye on...
He flipped through the voice actress profiles until he found hers, and then he realized that Mei Shirayuki wasn't auditioning for the female lead at all. She wasn't even up for a supporting character. She was reading for a nameless background extra.
Well, that was awkward.
The better part of the day flew by, and by evening, it was finally Mei Shirayuki's turn.
She was reading for a random female student. The scene was one where a biker gang showed up at school to cause trouble, Sakagami Tomoyo stepped in to deal with them, and the male lead started taking off his jacket to help, only for a bystander girl to stop him.
Three lines total.
"She's really strong, you know."
"If anything, you'd probably just get in her way."
"That was amazing."
It might have been a throwaway role with just three lines, but a surprising number of voice actresses had shown up to audition for it.
In the original anime, those three lines had been voiced by Hayami Saori, though that was one of her very earliest roles.
Yuta Shido watched Mei and listened to her voice. The moment she finished her three lines, he said a word to the sound director and then called out to her in the recording booth. "Miss, do you have the script for the female lead with you?"
"Oh!"
Mei froze for a second, but once it registered, she quickly stammered out, "Yes, yes I do!"
Yuta said, "Would you mind reading for the female lead?"
Mei was so excited and nervous that her whole body trembled. The script nearly slipped out of her hands, but she caught herself, steadied up, and did as Yuta asked, reading for the female lead.
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