Inside the luxury villa, in a spacious room.
Yuta sat at his computer in a video call with several key production staff members back at the office.
Raiga Todo, as production manager, was obviously part of the meeting.
Rika, as the production assistant responsible for the final episode, was also there.
She had been assigned the last episode because she showed promise, though she was still young. In practice, the final episode was really being co-managed by Raiga and her together.
Retsu Kurogiri was there representing the episode direction side.
Yuzuki Amane and Raizen Kurosaki represented the animation team.
Including Yuta, that made six people.
Of course, making an anime required many more departments: cinematography, color design, editing, and for shows with 3D elements, a 3D team as well.
Those other teams were not unimportant. It was just that production meetings had to happen one at a time.
Last week's video meeting had mostly been people asking if Yuta was okay. But this week...
The second the video connected, Rika blurted out, "President, when are you coming back? We're barely holding on here."
"What do you mean, barely holding on?" Yuta frowned.
"You have no idea. There are people downstairs with banners, protesting. I can't even go out to buy lunch without looking over my shoulder, worrying I'll get caught in the crossfire." Rika sounded genuinely exhausted.
"Is it really that bad?" Yuta looked astonished.
"It's worse than you think." Rika sighed.
Yuta did not dwell on it. He just said, "It's the last episode. Hang in there one more week. After that, those people will disperse on their own. Don't worry. If you're really scared, carry a wrench with you. You can't actually hit anyone with it, but it works as a deterrent and helps you feel safer."
Everyone went quiet for a moment.
They were employees of an animation studio, not an auto repair shop. And yet here they were, being told to carry wrenches.
Was this normal?
"President, since it's the last episode anyway, shouldn't you say something to calm everyone down?" Yuzuki suggested.
"Yeah."
Yuta had been planning to do exactly that.
But the audience was still furious right now, emotions still running hot. Even if he tried to explain, people probably would not listen.
Better to wait a couple of days. Let things cool off. That way his words would actually land.
...
June 5th, Tuesday.
Several days had passed since Clannad season two episode twenty-one aired.
The cursing had finally died down a bit, though the storm had not completely blown over. Plenty of people were still logging on daily to get a few shots in.
Complete silence was impossible. Yuta did not even hope for zero hate. He just needed the overall temperature to drop.
Once things looked calm enough, he consulted with Aoi and then used Starfall's official account to post an announcement. The gist: Clannad season two would conclude on June 7th.
Additionally, episode twenty-two would see both Nagisa and Ushio revived, and the story would end with a happy family reunion.
The announcement immediately sparked discussion.
"It's ending?"
"Nagisa AND Ushio both come back? For real? Don't lie to me. I've been traumatized."
"This is from the official account. It has to be legit, right?"
"Is that bastard finally going to act like a human being?"
"I want to watch, but I also don't want to watch. What's wrong with me?"
"Good. The sooner it ends, the less chance of getting wrecked again."
"That bastard must die. But since it's the finale and everyone comes back, I'll watch it."
The fact that even an official account announcement was being met with skepticism showed just how thoroughly the audience had been traumatized.
Fortunately, Starfall's official account was just the opening salvo. Arcane would follow up with a full promotional push, possibly even leveraging the TV station's resources.
With only one episode left, there was no reason to save the promotional budget.
As for the original Clannad season two's OVA bonus episode, it would still be produced, but since ratings mattered for the competition, the OVA would not air on TV. Instead, it would be bundled with the final DVD volume.
Under Arcane's massive promotional campaign, word that Clannad was ending reached a wide audience, and nobody questioned the announcement's authenticity anymore.
Once the promotion was well underway, Yuta posted on his personal social media account.
"I've been getting yelled at again, and I feel very wronged. I really didn't do anything wrong. In my last post, I said Nagisa was finally coming back. I meant episode twenty-two, not episode twenty-one. In this week's episode twenty-two, Nagisa really does come back. So I never lied to anyone."
"As for episode twenty-one's content, that's not my fault either. Clannad has become a real, complete world of its own. The characters in it have souls. It's not like I can decide who lives and who dies. I'm just a faithful recorder, not a creator."
"Never mind, I won't try to defend myself anymore. All I can say is, I was a fool. I never should have made a tearjerker anime. Then none of this would have happened."
He said he would not defend himself, and yet the entire post reeked of deflecting blame.
The internet was not that easy to fool. Replies flooded in immediately.
"Innocent? You call this innocent?"
"That bastard: I'm so innocent! Meanwhile he's casually killing off Nagisa and Ushio. Unbelievable."
"Say 'innocent' one more time. I dare you."
"Am I not innocent too? All I wanted was a healing anime, and instead I got clinically depressed."
"Nagisa and Ushio are the truly innocent ones! You don't get to play that card, you bastard!"
"Don't try to weasel out of this. I will never trust you again."
...
Emotionally exhausted.
Yuta closed his laptop and sighed.
The downside of only having vivid memories of tearjerker anime was exactly this: constantly being misunderstood and endlessly getting screamed at.
He was genuinely innocent. He had never set out to make audiences cry on purpose.
"Right. Next project, no more tearjerkers."
"You couldn't pay me to make another tearjerker."
"I'll make something hype and hot-blooded instead. Then nobody's going to hunt me down. Nobody's going to yell at me."
He muttered all of this to himself.
Of course, talk was talk. First he needed to finish Clannad season two's episode twenty-two. Everything else could wait.
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