It was early in the year 2010, before regular work hours had begun.
Inside Lin Zhiyan's home, a charming three-year-old girl sat quietly on the floor, engrossed in building with her toy blocks.
On the nearby sofa, Lin Zhiyan placed two bags brimming with envelopes. He put on gloves to protect against potential poison, then began carefully opening each letter one by one, reading them silently.
These were fan letters. Normally, Lin Zhiyan wouldn't bother with such correspondence. As a busy professional, he rarely had time to read them, let alone respond. Besides, there was no way to tell if these were genuine fan letters or disguised hate mail. Reading such letters during animation production could affect his mood, which he wanted to avoid.
However, during the company's holiday break, with nothing pressing to do and no need to worry about animation production, he decided to take a look. He was also considering what kind of anniversary project to create for the company's ten-year milestone. Perhaps he could glean some ideas from the fan letters.
After reading dozens of letters, there was indeed one that criticized Lin Zhiyan, but the rest expressed their deep admiration for him personally and their love for his animations.
Several letters were simply reviews of his animations, praising them effusively.
Some students from an Animation Vocational School in Tokyo wrote, expressing their love for Lin Zhiyan and L.S Produ's animations, and saying they hoped to work at L.S after graduation.
There was also a letter from a high school student who was a member of their school's animation club. They loved Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day and as, and said they planned to attend an animation vocational school after high school to learn professional animation skills, hoping to enter the animation industry—ideally at L.S Produ.
Given that these letters were sent to L.S and addressed to Lin Zhiyan, it was only natural that the aspiring animators would want to work at L.S rather than another company.
However, even if these students did pursue careers in animation and applied to L.S, Lin Zhiyan wouldn't lower the company's recruitment standards just because they had written fan letters.
Things would be as they should be.
He continued reading fan letters when suddenly, one particular letter caught his attention.
Inside the envelope was a photograph and several sheets of paper. The photograph showed a young girl dressed as Tsurumi Chiriko from Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day. The first three sheets of paper were clearly written by the girl in the photo, expressing her love for the character Tsurumi Chiriko from the animation.
The final sheet of paper, however, was written in a different handwriting.
Lin Zhiyan read it carefully and understood.
The girl in the photo was his fan, having fallen in love with his work through Anohana. After the anime finished airing, she wrote the three fan letters but never sent them, too shy and uncertain if he would ever see them.
Then, at the end of 2009—around three days after the as anime finished airing—the girl passed away from illness.
The letter was sent by the girl's mother, and the final sheet of paper contained a message from her as well, explaining the situation.
The truth remained uncertain, but the heartfelt sincerity of the letter convinced Lin Zhiyan that it must be genuine.
He took a deep breath, set the letter aside, and continued opening the other fan letters.
After reading all the letters, Lin Zhiyan called his assistant, instructing them to bring all the letters back to the company and to handle some tasks.
With that taken care of, Lin Zhiyan returned to the sofa and resumed pondering the company's 10th anniversary project.
For our 10th anniversary, what kind of animation should we create?
Their first animation was Death Note, a smart, detective-style mystery.
The anniversary animation would be announced on February 5th—the exact day of the company's tenth anniversary—and would debut in October.
Considering this, creating another smart detective-style mystery, in line with Death Note, could be an option.
However, Death Note had set the bar impossibly high for this genre, and no particularly strong detective anime had emerged since 2010. Choosing this route might disappoint fans.
Other options...
Over the years, Lin Zhiyan had focused on creating depressing anime. as was considered a healing genre, but the happy ending left many viewers suspicious, suspecting it was a fake ending, and that the true ending was actually depressing. Moreover, the anime wasn't entirely devoid of distressing elements.
If we follow this line of thinking, why not create a purely healing genre anime?
Hakumei and Mikochi, Konohana Kitan, or Non Non Biyori?
These are indeed purely healing genre anime, but they're all adaptations from manga. Creating an original story seems less viable, and their overall performance has been relatively poor.
We don't need outstanding performance, but it should at least fall between popular and ultra-popular anime. An anime created by Lin Zhiyan himself could potentially become ultra-popular.
If we avoid the healing genre and go with a depressing one instead...
That's not viable either. No matter what, a depressing anime can't surpass Puella Magi Madoka Magica. In that case, the ten-year anniversary anime project would lose all meaning.
Adaptations and animated films aren't worth considering either. Adaptations wouldn't highlight L.S Produ's importance; Lin Zhiyan wouldn't even need to personally handle it—any competent Supervising Director within the company could manage. As for animated films, they require too much time; nine months simply isn't enough.
Of course, adapting an existing work into an anime is one thing, but if the original work hasn't been released yet and there are no structural issues that might arise from directly adapting it into an anime, then it's still possible.
Original TV anime series that either haven't been adapted from an existing work, have a complete framework, consist of only one season, have special significance, or have performed relatively well.
After much deliberation, Lin Zhiyan considered the numerous fan letters he had just read, many of which expressed a desire to work at L.S Produ in the future. Ultimately, only one anime came to mind—Shirobako.
In another timeline, Shirobako aired in October 2014. It's an anime about the making of anime, and while its popularity didn't quite reach the level of a megahit, it wasn't far off. The main limitation was its niche subject matter. When considering workplace-themed anime, Shirobako could be considered the gold standard.
The series was also hailed as "a love letter to the animation industry." Since it would mark the company's ten-year anniversary, creating this anime would be particularly meaningful.
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