In December, with only a few days remaining before the end of the first season of One-punch man, Rei's workload reached its peak.
The popularity of One-punch man had reached an almost unbelievable level. Merchants and partners from all over Japan came knocking one after another, and Rei had to meet them individually.
For a massively popular animation like One-punch man, adapting it into a manga and a novel was an unavoidable step.
Animation, novels, and manga are three interconnected formats, and once a work becomes extremely popular, it will inevitably expand into the other two.
Rei knew very well that he did not have the energy to draw another manga himself, so he began looking for suitable ghost artists.
Game adaptations were also essential for One-punch man, but Rei was currently a complete novice in the field of game development.
Several game companies took the initiative to approach him, hoping to jointly develop a One-punch man game. Rei was already negotiating with them regarding these proposals.
If a truly reliable company capable of producing a high-quality game emerged, he would simply grant authorization and collect royalties based on sales revenue.
Although Rei had not been in the manga industry for many years, he was even more inexperienced when it came to the animation and gaming industries.
Even so, this did not affect the orderly progress of the One-punch man IP expansion.
Once the popularity of the animation was firmly established, it was only a matter of time before adaptations in other directions began to bear fruit.
The world is inherently makeshift. Everyone learns while moving forward. It does not matter if the first attempt lacks experience or perfection. There will always be opportunities to improve next time.
However, unlike Rei's relaxed attitude, many large, medium, and small companies in Japan's animation industry were quietly watching how he handled the IP operations and adaptations of One-punch man.
If a company had a massive hit like One-punch man under its banner, would it not immediately draft five-year or ten-year plans and calculate in detail how to maximize profits?
Rei had no such thoughts.
Five-year and ten-year plans were meaningless to him. Five or ten years was enough time for Dragon Ball to go from serialization to completion. Where would he find the patience for that?
As a result, at the end of the month, the official announcement was made that the second season of One-punch man would continue airing in January.
The release date for the anime Blu-ray discs was also set for early January.
A flood of news related to One-punch man followed, completely overwhelming Shirogane's fans.
Time soon reached the end of December, Friday, the day the twelfth episode of One-punch man premiered.
"Shirogane-sensei is really incredible. The second season of One-punch man starts immediately in January, and it's even moving to a prime-time slot at eight o'clock."
"Shirogane-sensei is suffering from being too young. The greatest value of a work lies in never ending it. As long as it continues, fans will keep thinking about it. That's why so many manga whose main story has already concluded still insist on sequels featuring the protagonist's child or a supporting character."
"Shirogane-sensei should plan three to five seasons of One-punch man and stretch it over ten years. Just relying on this series, he could easily earn nine figures."
"A person's energy is limited. How many ten-year periods does one person really have? Shirogane-sensei has only been publishing manga for about three years in total."
"Either way, I'm thrilled. We'll have amazing works to watch again next season."
"Thank you, Shirogane-sensei. The Hikaru no go anime made me cry in the first half of the year, and One-punch man kept me laughing all the way through the second half."
"Alright, tonight is the finale of the first season of One-punch man. I hope Shirogane-sensei doesn't disappoint us."
"Boros has been built up for so many weeks. Please let Saitama have some fun."
"Honestly, Boros feels like a tragic clown. He thought he was invincible, came all the way to earth, and immediately ran into Saitama."
"You're all arguing about how many punches it'll take Saitama to kill Boros, but is there any chance Boros could kill Saitama?"
"That's impossible. Even a child knows that kind of ending would destroy the character setup. Shirogane-sensei isn't stupid."
At nine o'clock in the evening, Genji's fingers tapped rapidly across the keyboard.
For an anime as popular as One-punch man, fans discussed the plot passionately every day, and the memes from the series had long been exhausted.
Every week, Genji only needed twenty minutes to watch the One-punch man episode.
But he spent more than ten hours browsing the One-punch Man discussion forums, arguing nonstop with people from every camp.
After angrily typing another several-hundred-word post tearing apart a group of paid trolls who were mindlessly bashing the show, Genji finally leaned back and stretched.
Glancing at the time, Genji waited for his scheduled late-night takeout.
Three minutes before half past nine, the delivery arrived. He took out the drinks he had been chilling in the refrigerator, along with the equally cold cups, and unwrapped his food.
At that moment, the Capital TV Station broadcast paused on the living room television. The frozen frame showed a bald man in a yellow suit.
Genji was already smiling.
The opening sequence of the final episode of One-punch Man was completely different from the previous eleven episodes.
Not only did every important character from earlier episodes appear, but the sequence deliberately lingered on Boros, the Dominator of the Universe, at the very end.
"Seriously… they're not going to spend the entire episode fighting Boros, are they?" Genji muttered as he picked up a skewer.
But soon, his body stiffened as the anime began in earnest.
During the early production stage of the twelfth episode, everyone at Illumination Animation Production Company had already understood one thing very clearly.
This anime was guaranteed to explode in popularity.
After receiving approval from the investor, Rei, additional funding was injected into the project. For this episode, the key animation directors and original draft artists were personally recruited by Himmari and Illumination Animation's upper management from among many well-known figures in the industry.
Someone like Genji, who had watched anime for many years, could tell the difference in quality within just a few seconds.
The twelfth episode of One-punch Man picked up directly from where the previous episode had ended.
After Boros finished explaining his reason for coming to earth, Genji finally understood.
Boros had come in search of an opponent.
If he failed to find one, destroying earth would simply be a secondary objective.
Alright. Cool design, cool presence.
But at that moment, Boros had already chosen the path to his own destruction.
The next scene showed Boros activating his power and launching a super-high-speed assault straight at Saitama.
Saitama's speed was equally astonishing, yet the relaxed expression on his face made it look as though he were merely taking a casual walk.
The two exchanged blows inside spaceship, a structure larger than an entire city.
Genji's eyes widened.
After watching Saitama casually annihilate Dragon-level and Demon-level Monsters with a single punch in previous episodes, seeing Boros endure dozens of punches and even fight Saitama to a standstill, if only briefly;
"Awesome, Boros!" Genji shouted, laughing with the skewer still in his hand.
But as soon as the words left his mouth, he froze.
What he was hoping for was clear.
He wanted Boros to make Saitama struggle, even just a little.
Without realizing it, Genji had begun to empathize with Boros.
These Monsters were simply too miserable.
Couldn't even one of them make Saitama look less effortless?
Just once, give him some pressure.