Sora had a new work entering production.
And according to the rumors already spreading through the industry, it would be the most expensive and ambitious production in the entire history of Yume Animation. More than that, some people were even saying that the project might become one of the largest-scale productions the Japanese anime industry had ever seen.
Because the employees were bound by confidentiality agreements, information about Yume Animation's next move could only go that far. No official title. No story details. No concrete dates beyond what was already impossible to keep from leaking.
But that alone was enough.
"Kantoku Sora is a god."
"Was he sent from heaven to save the Japanese anime industry? I surrender."
"The born saint of Japanese animation. I've never seen anyone as talented and hardworking as Kantoku Kamakawa."
"Talented, hardworking, good-tempered… If someone like that succeeds, I can't even be jealous. After all, I have a girlfriend, and he's still single, hahaha. Not jealous at all."
"But he has a beauty from the anime industry like Sumire by his side. Who knows, one day…"
"Shogot up, comment above. Kantoku Kamakawa is already successful enough. We can't let him win at every aspect of life."
"But seriously, this record-breaking anime investment in Kantoku Kamakawa's career… just how big is it? One and a half billion yen? Don't tell me it's two billion."
"What I care about isn't just the size of the investment. What I want to know is what kind of work Kantoku Kamakawa can create after Your Name and C. Whether it's Shingeki no Kyojin or this mysterious new project everyone online is talking about without even knowing the title… can he really break past his own limits again after C?"
"Honestly, just thinking about that makes me feel hopeless. C was already too good. I find it hard to believe there's an anime in this world that could move me more than C did. But after Steins;Gate ended, I thought the same thing, and then C came along and slapped me in the face. All I can say is that Kantoku Kamakawa's creative talent is a mystery. No one knows how deep it goes."
"I feel the same. When I watched Re:Zero, I thought that was Kantoku Kamakawa's peak. Then Steins;Gate aired. After Steins;Gate ended, I thought it couldn't be surpassed, but C appeared. After C, Your Name went and pulled off that absurd result in the Japanese film market. Now I don't even dare imagine whether Shingeki no Kyojin will be another tearjerking masterpiece that surpasses C."
"A tearjerking masterpiece? Impossible, right? A battle anime can be hot-blooded, sure, but that kind of emotional tragedy has nothing to do with this genre."
"But I watched the trailer for Shingeki no Kyojin. The whole style feels kind of heavy, almost suffocating. Don't you think it might be a pretty tragic anime?"
"Stop overthinking it. Kantoku Kamakawa left that depressing phase behind a long time ago. Think about C. The ending was happy. Your Name did hurt the audience quite a bit in the middle, but in the end, it still let the male and female leads meet again. Shingeki no Kyojin is just an anime about fighting monsters, isn't it? Even if it's dark, how dark can it get?"
"True."
"I'm just a little worried because Kantoku Kamakawa has never made a battle-themed anime before."
"What are you worried about? Even if Shingeki no Kyojin isn't to your taste, you can still watch the live-action drama adaptation of AD when it starts airing in April."
"I'm a little afraid to watch the live-action version of C. What if they ruin a classic…"
Time moved into late March, and the April season drew near.
The Japanese television industry, which had spent the past few months in relative restraint, became restless once again. Major networks began promoting the dramas, anime, and variety programs scheduled to premiere in April, as if everyone were trying to seize territory before the battle had even officially begun.
This season, the Southern Alliance Network was filled with a confidence it could barely hide.
In animation, it had Sora's new work, Shingeki no Kyojin.
In television drama, it had the live-action adaptation of AD.
During internal meetings at the network, some executives had already proposed an ambitious goal: to take the top position in both the anime and drama categories for the April programming block. Two years earlier, no one there would have dared to even imagine such a thing.
For the four major networks, however, there was no way they could simply stand by and watch the Southern Alliance Network so easily devour their territory, audience share, and influence.
In animation, they already knew it would be extremely difficult to find anyone in Japan capable of facing Sora head-on. With his current weight in the industry, defeating him directly was almost impossible. Their only hope was to wait for his creative peak to pass, for him to produce one failed anime after another, and for him to knock himself down from the altar with his own hands.
But in the drama sector, the four major networks had to hold the line.
C was enormously popular as an anime, but that did not mean every fan would accept a live-action adaptation. The phenomenon of a live-action version destroying the original work did not exist only in the memories of Sora's past life.
It was difficult. Even so, the executives responsible for dramas at the major networks had no choice but to grit their teeth and move forward.
They could not allow the Southern Alliance Network's influence and results to continue expanding unchecked.
By late March, the open and hidden struggle between the Southern Alliance Network and the four major networks was unfolding at the same time as public-opinion campaigns, disguised attacks, and attempts to stain each other's reputations.
As for Sora, after quickly completing the scripts for the second season of Shingeki no Kyojin and The Battle of Two Cities, he once again plunged into a suffocating work routine.
The efficiency of the anime industry in this Japan was far higher than that of developed countries in his previous life. Sora had no time to allow The Battle of Two Cities to take several years to produce, as it had in his original memory.
In his view, Shingeki no Kyojin had already been a globally popular anime in his past life. Therefore, if Yume Animation wanted to open a path into the international market, that work would most likely produce excellent results.
And before Shingeki no Kyojin reached its conclusion, The Battle of Two Cities had to be completely produced.
The plans related to those projects were constantly being adjusted and refined during the work itself, like gears being polished while the machine was already in motion.
At the end of March, at the invitation of the Southern Alliance Network, Sora went to the station to attend an internal screening of the live-action drama adapted from AD.
In the production of the drama, aside from holding the position of screenwriter, he had not taken on any other role. From casting to storyboards, from scene planning to detailed script adjustments, everything had been handled by the Southern Alliance Network's internal team.
And the result of that preview was, at the very least, far better than Sora had expected.
In Sora's previous life, in another Japan, AD had also received a live-action adaptation. But the visual style of that production had been so hard to look at that it almost hurt. The male lead gave off an excessively dubious aura, the heroine Nagisa Furukawa came across as more comedic than delicate, and the popular Sanae, who should have carried a warm and charming presence, had truly been played by an actress who looked like a middle-aged auntie.
In Sora's memory, that adaptation had long since been sealed away.
The live-action drama of C produced by the Southern Alliance Network was something else entirely.
For the male lead, they had hired a handsome young actor who had become extremely popular in Japan over the past two years. To play Nagisa Furukawa, they brought in the main vocalist of an idol group. Both of them had enormous popularity in the entertainment industry. Their acting could not yet be considered top-tier, but they could sustain the basic emotions of each scene, and above all, their visuals added far too many points.
Overall, Sora's experience watching the first episode of the live-action C drama was quite positive.
Of course, it could not compare to the animated version. The original anime already carried its own emotional filter in the hearts of fans. But for ordinary viewers who had never watched C, this adaptation would hardly seem flawed in terms of casting, style, or visual direction.
As evening fell, the vice president of the Southern Alliance Network, production Kantoku Ryo Yukishiro, and several other executives held a grand banquet especially for Sora.
Employees from various departments of the station attended, adding up to more than a hundred people.
Sora did not like occasions like this, but there was not much he could do about it. Certain professional relationships had to be maintained, and he knew that, in a Japanese work environment, completely refusing these formalities would cause more trouble than enduring them for a few hours.
"All right. This is the person most responsible for the generous bonuses we have all received over the past two years, and for the growth of our network to its current scale: Kantoku and shareholder Sora."
"Kantoku Kamakawa is amazing!"
"Kamakawa-san is incredible!"
Sora kept a smile on his face as he spoke with the station employees. He received toasts, greetings, exaggerated praise, and words of gratitude that mingled with the scent of alcohol and the steadily rising noise in the hall.
When the banquet entered its second half and everyone had drunk enough, the true objective of the vice president and Ryo Yukishiro finally emerged without much disguise.
They wanted to ask about Sora's new work.
Online, the rumors about his new project had already taken on an almost mythical quality. The Southern Alliance Network had wanted to understand the situation for a long time. The celebration banquet was half sincere and half pretext, but the intention to extract information was absolutely real.
Sora did not mind. He explained, in broad terms, the production cost of The Battle of Two Cities and the expectations he had for the work.
"An investment of over three hundred million yen… Kantoku Kamakawa, you're also planning to release this work globally?" Ryo Yukishiro asked, unable to fully hide the surprise on his face.
Three hundred million yen for an anime with only nine episodes.
What kind of joke was that?
And more importantly: global release.
That was the key piece of information.
"When you say global release… does that mean your new anime will not be broadcast exclusively through our network?" the vice president asked, his caution now obvious.
Sora looked at the two of them and immediately understood the unease behind their questions.
Even so, he nodded.
"The contract I signed with the Southern Alliance Network after receiving the shares covered the production of eight works. The exclusive broadcast rights for those eight works in Japan belong to the Southern Alliance Network. The overseas market is not included in that restriction."
"No, no, Kantoku Kamakawa, you've misunderstood. We are not here representing the network to question you. You are the greatest contributor to everything our station has achieved up to this point. Everyone, from top to bottom, is fully aware of your contribution," the vice president said, choosing his words with evident care.
Hearing that, Sora simply smiled.
"My expectation for Yume Animation is for it to become a global company in the 2D entertainment industry. In the past, my works premiered in Japan first, and only several months later were the overseas broadcast rights sold. Many international fans of those works had complaints about that. So this time, I want to try a new development model."
As he drank the sake in his cup, Sora calmly explained his thoughts.
His partnership with the Southern Alliance Network was pleasant and profitable, but he could not allow cooperation with a single broadcaster to restrict his movements.
The conversation continued for quite some time. When Ryo Yukishiro and the vice president realized that Sora did not intend to leave the Southern Alliance Network and go independent, both of them finally let out a sigh of relief.
In any case, the Southern Alliance Network had no ability to swallow the international broadcast market. If Sora could find local broadcast partners in other countries and cooperate with them, that might cause some concern, but there was no real alternative except to follow his wishes.
Naturally, there was something Sora did not explain to the two of them in full.
Shingeki no Kyojin would have many seasons. After the production and broadcast of the first or second season, he would gradually begin cooperating with well-known overseas broadcasters. When the time came, the episodes would air abroad almost simultaneously with Japan, or with a delay of only half a day to one day.
The Battle of Two Cities had been a globally popular animation in his previous life.
But had Shingeki no Kyojin been any different?
Besides, even if he considered only the collection of emotional points, Sora would have to take this step sooner or later.
After all, the more countries that broadcast his works, the greater the emotional harvest would be.
March came to an end, and April arrived immediately after.
With the arrival of April, everyone in the Japanese television industry - professionals, executives, producers, and viewers alike - was seized by intense anticipation.
Only three months after C, that anime which had already reached an almost divine level, Sora's newest work was finally about to premiere.
Shingeki no Kyojin was coming.
patre0n ImmortalEmperor