It was a little past midnight when Akiyuki Shinbo and Watanabe Satoru finished watching the first episode of Death Note.
They exchanged glances, both seeing astonishment on the other's face:
"That guy was serious."
"From planning to the animation's premiere, just eight months—how did he manage to create something of this quality?"
"Handling everything himself and still achieving this level of excellence... he's practically a jack-of-all-trades. I just wonder if he can maintain this quality going forward."
"Mr. Shinbo, we need to step up our game with Soul Hunter. We have to make an animation that surpasses this Death Note."
"Of course! If he could pull off this quality in eight months, we've had over a year for pre-production. Our animation should be twice as good."
At the same time, Hosoda Mamoru finished watching the first episode of Death Note.
He was equally astonished.
He had initially thought that while Lin Zhiyan might be a keyframe genius, his skills as a supervising director might not match his keyframe talent.
Now, he had to retract his earlier statement.
While Lin Zhiyan might still have some room for improvement as a supervising director compared to his keyframe work, the first episode of Death Note demonstrated that his directing skills were impressive. The storyboards were well-drawn, the music choices were fitting, and the narrative flow was skillfully arranged.
He even doubted if he could have done as well as Lin Zhiyan.
If he remembered correctly, Lin Zhiyan was born in 1977 and was only 23 years old.
To create such an outstanding animation at just 23!
The thought immediately filled Hosoda Mamoru with immense pressure.
He was being surpassed!
Soon, the title of "genius director" would no longer belong to him; it would be snatched away by Lin Zhiyan.
All the attention he had previously received would shift to Lin Zhiyan.
"I need to work harder," he muttered.
After turning off the TV, he sent Lin Zhiyan an congratulatory email. Then, he sat down at his desk to ponder the storyboards and script for Howl's Moving Castle.
That's right; he had already left Toei and joined Studio Ghibli.
To be able to join the animation company he had dreamed of since childhood, and to do so as a supervising director, was a stroke of luck beyond compare for Hosoda Mamoru at the time.
Toei was thrilled that one of their trained talents had been recognized by Studio Ghibli. Not only did they readily release him, but they even threw a celebratory party for him, as if he had been promoted to a higher rank.
However, once Mamoru Hosoda actually joined Studio Ghibli, he realized it was a bottomless pit.
Almost everyone at Ghibli was working on Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, leaving no staff available for Howl's Moving Castle.
Fortunately, having worked in the industry for years, Hosoda had accumulated a vast network of contacts. If he couldn't find staff internally, he could look externally. Moreover, since it was a Ghibli production, many were willing to join just to gain experience and polish their resumes.
He had nearly assembled the team, but now they were at the storyboard and script stage, which proved to be the most challenging part.
He struggled to come up with usable storyboards and scripts, spending hours in deep thought without success.
Even when a concept seemed promising, as soon as he wrote it down and compared it to the storyboards and scripts from Miyazaki's previous works, or the Death Note storyboards and scripts he had just reviewed, it paled in comparison.
He erased the content on his draft paper with such force that he accidentally tore it. Frustrated, he crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it into the trash.
Then, he couldn't help but sigh.
This is so frustrating!
"Maybe I'm not a genius after all. People like Lin and Mr. Miyazaki are the real ones."
L.S Production, Main Conference Room.
"This is amazing."
"Can it be that we made such a great animation?"
"It seems viable. This animation might even become a hit."
"The President is incredible."
"I told you so. I knew joining this new company with Mr. Hayashi after leaving IG was the right move. Those people just wouldn't listen."
Although L.S was the animation studio behind [ Death Note ], and everyone in the company had participated in the production, the process had been fragmented. Each person had been responsible for a few cuts, and the final product of the first episode had rarely been seen by most of the staff. Now, with the first episode airing, they were seeing it for the first time.
They had already been impressed by the storyboards and script, but witnessing the finished first episode left them in awe.
The excitement was palpable.
Lin Zhiyan, inexplicably, felt a sense of relief.
After the broadcast celebration party ended, everyone went home.
Back at home, Lin Zhiyan pulled out his phone.
His phone was flooded with emails, mostly congratulatory messages from industry colleagues, including voice actors who had worked on Death Note, such as Tanaka Rie and Nonaka Ai.
The animation industry was different from traditional sectors. While it wasn't entirely free from its share of disgusting drama and petty squabbles, overall, the people in this field tended to be more straightforward.
This was easy to understand: many had been otaku before entering the industry, lacking the cunning and ulterior motives common in other fields. Though some might have been corrupted by fame or the harsh realities of society, such cases were relatively rare compared to other industries.
Therefore, among those who sent Lin Zhiyan congratulatory emails, while some might have been insincere, there were undoubtedly many genuine well-wishers.
Regardless, Lin Zhiyan replied to every congratulatory message with a simple "Thank you."
After replying to all the messages, he didn't immediately take a bath or lie down to sleep. Instead, he turned on his home computer and went online to check the online reactions to the first episode of the Death Note animation.
Internet access at the time wasn't as widespread as it would be a decade or more later. People still tended to rely more on reviews from the Big Three Anime Magazines when judging the quality of an animation. However, Japan in 2000 already had a substantial number of internet users, and the forum-style website 2channel had been established in 1999.
It was still worth checking.
Lin Zhiyan searched online and browsed for a while, and the results greatly satisfied him.
It wasn't that everyone who watched it loved it, but based on the first episode alone, it could be tentatively described as "overwhelmingly positive."
Considering the reactions of the staff at the animation company after watching the first episode and the congratulatory emails from industry professionals, the first episode seemed to be a solid success.
The next step was to methodically advance the production of the subsequent episodes while intensifying promotional efforts to ensure that as many people as possible saw the Death Note animation.
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