How would a manga artist have the time to supervise an animation studio?
That responsibility could only fall to the editorial department.
"I don't want to end up like Rumiko Takahashi either," Kai said gravely.
The director at Studio Pierrot, Mamoru Oshii, had heavily altered the plot of Urusei Yatsura. Takahashi had been furious, and the second half of the anime had to be finished by a different studio entirely.
That kind of mess was the last thing Kai wanted.
"You should trust me," Torishima nodded. "I'll write it into the contract."
"Rest assured."
Jump had already taken its share of hits on this front.
Togashi ending Yu Yu Hakusho early was partly due to the same issue.
Inoue Takehiko had also been vocal about his frustration with the sluggish pacing of the Slam Dunk anime. He'd since left Jump altogether and moved to Monthly Shonen Jump to serialize Buzzer Beater.
Jump hadn't even secured the rights to animate the National Tournament arc of Slam Dunk.
Lesson learned.
They'd already alienated several pillar-level manga artists. They couldn't afford to drive Kai away too.
If that happened, Jump truly had no future.
"Good," Kai nodded.
...
While Kai and Torishima were in discussions, out in the Aomori countryside...
Toga was driving a Toyota pickup truck, crawling along at barely ten kilometers per hour.
"Oh, Toga! I was wondering whose truck that was. Looks really nice," someone on the roadside called out.
With the window down and his arm resting on the frame, Toga stopped the truck, turned his head, and answered with a grin. "It's the latest model. The payload and towing capacity are both incredible."
He slapped the door, and the metal rang out with a solid clang. "She's a tough one."
"Sure is," the villager said, envy creeping into his voice. "Must've been expensive though. I couldn't afford something like that."
"Wouldn't know." Toga, the man who had purchased the vehicle, lied through his teeth.
"My son Kai bought it and gave it to me to drive. That kid, spending money like that. Honestly, it worries me."
The villager pursed his lips.
He stopped paying attention to Toga and walked on, head down.
"I'm off to pick up my daughter! She just got back from Tokyo!" Toga shouted after him and started the truck.
He'd already shown off to someone. Now he could drive faster.
After picking Rika up at the station, they headed home together.
On the way, Rika thought about calling Kai, but decided to wait until they got home.
Meanwhile, Kai had completely forgotten about it. His mind was entirely on the Death Note anime adaptation.
"You're really something, you know that?" he said, lacking confidence but going on the offensive anyway. "Do you have any idea how worried I was?"
He glanced at Torishima, then walked out of the meeting room.
"I'm sorry," Rika said, apologizing. She promised to knit him a scarf.
"Make sure you bring it when you visit in winter. Don't forget this time."
After ending the call, Kai walked back into the meeting room, satisfied, and picked up where they'd left off.
...
Once Torishima and Kai had aligned on their plans, the Death Note anime adaptation officially began moving forward.
When news got out, TV Tokyo jumped in immediately.
This was a guaranteed hit. As a network built around anime broadcasting, they couldn't afford to sit it out.
And so, with Shueisha taking the lead, Studio Pierrot and TV Tokyo came together to begin the preliminary work on the Death Note anime adaptation.
Meanwhile, inside Studio Pierrot.
Hasegawa yawned and kept grinding through work that left him hollow.
He wanted to draw key frames, but he hadn't reached that level yet. All he could do was churn out in-between frames that required almost no skill.
'How am I supposed to improve drawing this stuff?'
The colleagues around him were grumbling the same thing, putting words to what Hasegawa was already thinking.
People who chose to work as animators, a job that was grueling, underpaid, and relentless, did so because they held on to the hope of one day becoming key animators. The ones responsible for the scenes that truly mattered.
To become the kind of artists they'd once looked up to.
'The future's bleak. The road ahead is long.'
Hasegawa sighed.
If it weren't for Yuta checking in on him, he might not have been able to keep going.
He was desperate for a chance to prove himself.
He just didn't know when it would come.
"Hey, Hasegawa." Someone tapped his shoulder.
Hasegawa turned around, and his eyes lit up. "Motohashi-sensei!"
Motohashi was one of Studio Pierrot's signature artists, frequently handling character design and chief animation direction for the studio's projects.
He was also a mentor who valued Hasegawa and always made time to teach him.
"What's up?"
"Once you finish what you're working on, stop. Don't pick up the next batch. Someone else will cover it."
"Huh?" Hasegawa's mouth fell open. "Am I being fired?"
Motohashi didn't know whether to laugh or sigh. "How did you jump to that?"
He glanced around carefully, then leaned in close. "I have something more important for you."
Hasegawa's pulse quickened. "What is it?"
"The company's most important project this year. Probably the most important one for the next two years." Motohashi's voice was dead serious. "It's not just me. Ogasawara, Tomioka, everyone who can pull their weight has been mobilized. Most of the studio's top talent is going to be on this one."
Hasegawa swallowed hard.
Ogasawara and Tomioka were both renowned artists within Studio Pierrot.
To bring all three of them together, what kind of anime could this possibly be?
"If this goes well," Motohashi patted Hasegawa's shoulder, "you'll become a key animator."
The words hit Hasegawa like a jolt to the chest.
Key animator.
Two years at Studio Pierrot, and he had finally heard those words.
Even if it meant working until he collapsed, he would grit his teeth and push through. He wasn't giving up.
Hasegawa bowed deeply. "Thank you. Thank you for giving me this chance."
"Your fundamentals are solid. Why wouldn't I use you?" Motohashi said with feeling. "You're young, Hasegawa, but your drawing is impressive. You must have been honing your skills since you were a kid."
The words nearly brought Hasegawa to tears.
At the same time, curiosity took hold.
"What exactly is the anime?"
"A manga adaptation."
"A manga adaptation?" Hasegawa felt a quiet surge of gratitude toward whoever the manga artist was. This person's work had given him hope.
"Yeah, you probably know it." Motohashi smiled. "It's that Death Note everyone's been talking about."
Death Note.
Death Note!
The words echoed through Hasegawa's mind. The manga that had changed his life, the one drawn by that old friend of his. Death Note.
'Kai... no, Kanzaki-sensei's manga has only been running for four months. How is it already getting an anime?'
This was almost unheard of.
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