"It's over—"
"What's so hard about asking? Tsk, I always feel like Brooch can't say it whenever he glitches."
"If he said it, how would there be any drama?"
"No, if he really said it directly, would you then ask why he accepted so quickly? If he didn't accept quickly, would you then say 'just believe it' and ask why it took so long to convince him? You're giving him a hard time either way, aren't you?"
"Episode eight is over. There are only four more episodes until twelve, right? How do I feel like, at this pace, the more I watch, the more dangerous it gets?"
"Confirming Rukako turned into a woman will take at least half an episode, right? After realizing it, retrieving the IBN5100 from Moeka will also take time, right? And the plot after that... I can't imagine how it will unfold."
"It won't have a bad ending, will it???"
"It's not that I don't believe it, but isn't it, perhaps, too slow now?"
"It's fine just watching it like a slice of life."
As the eighth episode concluded, the bullet screen became slightly agitated, and the atmosphere of worry grew thicker.
But the audience below the stage seemed a little different.
—"Hey, do you feel like we're back to a familiar atmosphere?"
—"Yes, the ending of this episode started to return to that sense of suspense from the earlier episodes. If I had to describe it, it's the strangeness that comes with changing the past."
—"In other words, the main theme is still clear. From beginning to end, it has actually been progressing along the theme of 'time'."
—"But the pace is indeed a bit slow, isn't it?"
—"Is there a possibility... that the production team has never limited the length of the animation?"
—"...Ah."
The production team had never explicitly stated that the animation needed to be limited to a certain number of episodes, after all, this was a super-long live broadcast program.
Regardless of whether the contestant wanted to create a short film of only ten episodes, a medium-length work of over twenty episodes, or even a long-running animation of hundreds of episodes in one go, the production team did not restrict them.
It could even be said that there were no restrictions on the length of each episode of the animation.
With the existence of the editor, the limits of creativity had been unleashed. The essence of this competition was to test imagination.
Therefore, even short films like instant noodle animations could win if they gained the audience's approval.
In fact, because it seemed difficult to fully master the use of the editor for a long time, many contestants had already started to change direction, trying to alter their strategy and compress the length of their stories.
A relatively shorter but complete story required less imagination and could be expressed more completely through the editor.
"The eighth episode of steins;gate has also drawn to a close," Host Fang Yuan sighed softly. "Although the program's broadcast hasn't actually been on for too long, I have a strange feeling that our show might have turned into a viewing party for steins;gate?"
"Haha, of course, that's just an illusion, after all, there are still so many promising contestants working hard to create, so we certainly can't easily erase their efforts like that."
"However, at least for now, before the story ends, let's return to the story first."
Under Host Fang Yuan's opening, Uncle Big Nose actively raised the microphone.
"Due to the mid-break, the review of the seventh episode was skipped, but the developments of the seventh episode are not so easily forgotten," he said. "So this time, we have two episodes to discuss."
"This should be good news, right?"
Uncle Big Nose smiled: "Let me briefly summarize the plot developments of these two episodes."
"In these two episodes, there are two key emotional points."
"First, at the end of the seventh episode, the text message from John Titor. Whether Titor is Suzuha or not, we won't discuss for now. Just from Titor's text message, as a guide and explainer, after explaining many theories, he expressed a clear attitude—he hopes Okabe Rintaro will become the savior."
"The musical rendering, the emotional struggle, the changes in Okabe Rintaro's expression, the effect shown in the seventh episode was very good."
"It's a pity that this emotion dropped again at the beginning of the eighth episode," Cowboy Hao shrugged from the side.
"After all, from the perspective of the setting, such an action is indeed consistent with the chuunibyou character," Uncle Big Nose said. "It can also be said to be a relatively clever handling."
"Second, of course, is Moeka's disappearance in the middle of the eighth episode," Uncle Big Nose held up two fingers.
"The disappearance of the text message, the change in the Laboratory, the alteration of relationships, the shift from familiar to strange—from this perspective, steins;gate still maintains a good grasp of the theme of 'time'."
"But the problem lies here," Tang Sanshui shook his head. "This contestant is too immersed in creating this feeling."
"Once, twice, thrice: the change after Makise Kurisu's initial death, the change after sending the lottery ticket, the change of Kiryu Moeka."
"As the saying goes, 'things don't go beyond three,' 'first burst of energy, then decline, then exhaustion'."
"The same emotion isn't to say it can't appear in the same work, but variation is necessary."
"Although the ninth episode hasn't aired yet, I can assert," Tang Sanshui spread his hands, "He will still return to the changes of altering the past."
"Repetition is acceptable, repetition is fine. In creation, a lot of repetition is indeed indispensable."
Tang Sanshui's hand silently tapped the table: "But, repetition usually needs to have a very clear purpose."
"For foreshadowing, for rationality, for stirring emotions."
"But what I see, in these two episodes, is actually more of a 'sense of everyday life'."
"This contestant really likes to portray 'everyday life'."
"I'm not criticizing a certain genre, but if he really likes an everyday atmosphere so much, then why didn't he choose a relatively everyday genre from the beginning? Even if the theme was limited to 'time', there were still many topics he could have chosen, right?"
"By defining a final enemy, repeatedly intensifying the sense of crisis through human experiments, but then repeatedly personally suppressing this crisis and turning to everyday life..."
"To be frank, I can't quite understand this contestant's creative intention."
Tang Sanshui's words were very sharp. Although he had indeed agreed with Hua Jian's talent before, whenever the topic returned to the story itself, he would show his distinct attitude.
"Of course, I'm retracting what I said before about him going off-topic." After a slight pause, Tang Sanshui smiled: "He hasn't strayed from the theme of 'time'."