After dumping Naruto on the still-unconscious Jiraiya, Hanabi returned to her quarters.
[Congratulations. Your follower count has met the required threshold. Certification approved. Your title has been updated: Minor Supporting Role LV2]
[Your idol privileges have been upgraded]
[New perks have been delivered]
Minor Supporting Role LV2.
Still a "minor supporting role," but Hanabi's privileges had genuinely improved. One of the upgrades was accelerated market research.
Previously, all of Hanabi's research into the audience's world required time to process.
Now, results came back within a day.
But since she was still just a "minor supporting role," the bigger perks and permissions hadn't really changed.
"Now for the new work notice."
The second assignment wasn't an ordinary notice—it was a custom assignment for expanding into a new audience market.
To break into the second market, she'd need to deliver a strong performance on this one.
[Second Studio Work Notice]
[The silhouettes of Mobile Suits have long since faded. Girl bands now dominate the TV screens.]
[Reforge the glory of mecha! Our generation shall not shirk this duty! Wrest back the pride of giant robots and cosmic warriors from the hands of idol girls!]
"Pretty hype, but… something feels off?"
—Wasn't the Second Studio supposed to be a Gundam world?
It should be the world of Gundam Build Divers, so what was this notice about?
Hanabi scrolled further.
[Project plan: TBD]
[Series title: TBD]
[Series requirements: TBD]
Hanabi's vision went dark.
"Nothing's been decided at all?!"
It was like having a thesis due tomorrow and the only thing on the screen was "Thesis Proposal."
Her vision went dark again.
[Filming location confirmed. Click to view.]
Although the requirements were undecided, the set had been locked in.
Hanabi opened it.
[With breakthroughs in genetic engineering, humanity began creating "Coordinators" through genetic adjustment. Possessing superior physical ability, intellect, and disease resistance, they gradually rose to become society's elite…]
"Wait! Hold on!"
Why did this feel so familiar?
"Stage—the world where I've been taking biology classes. Is it this one?" Hanabi asked.
[One moment. Querying.]
[Yes.]
"Is that even okay?" Hanabi asked.
[If the Client hasn't raised it, it's not a problem.]
"Why hasn't the Client decided on anything?" Hanabi pressed.
[The Mobile Suit Gundam series has been steadily losing influence in the audience market. The Client is hoping a new anime production can reverse the decline.]
"Huh?"
In a Gundam world, Gundam was washed up?
"Hmm… let me see what's going on."
Hanabi immediately launched a market research sweep.
The privilege upgrade paid off. The moment she submitted her request, the Stage compiled everything she needed.
After reviewing the data, Hanabi finally understood the situation.
In the second market, the Gundam franchise had always taken the grim, brutal war-drama route. And the series that should have appeared in this timeline—Mobile Suit Gundam SEED—was simply missing.
Because this "idol-drama Gundam" never existed, the Gundam franchise had been in steady decline. Competitive Gundam battles still had a foothold, but the VR game format was space-hungry and struggling to attract new audiences.
Without SEED, Iron-Blooded Orphans still existed, but with low buzz. Compounded by the Dainsleif debacle, the series had ended up poorly received.
After that came The Witch from Mercury. That one actually reviewed well, but the Gundam itself became a glorified prop in the back half—meanwhile the yuri elements ended up more popular than the mecha.
In this Gundam world, Gundam had fallen.
What was booming instead? Idol girls.
"Let me see what the hottest song is in this world… hm?"
"What the heck is 'Haruhikage'?!"
The biggest anime of last year was MyGO. The biggest song was MyGO's "Haruhikage."
"Wait—doesn't that mean Ave Mujica is airing this year?"
MyGO, a.k.a. BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!!, and Mujica—Ave Mujica.
"I'm going up against Mujica? Seriously?"
"Forget it, let me check the other side… μ's?"
Over here it was Mujica; over there it was Honoka Kosaka.
This was a recipe for getting annihilated.
The previous mecha productions had been total flops.
A new Gundam anime had launched at the start of the year and was already "person not found."
"What about other mecha franchises?"
One look and Hanabi nearly couldn't bear it.
In this world, the work hailed as "mecha's last blaze of glory" was Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion.
—Did that even count as mecha?
Fine. If it had been in Super Robot Wars, it counted.
And the Gundam franchise's last gasp had been some kind of Unicorn remaster released recently—equally dead on arrival.
"Looks like going hardcore isn't the play."
"Oh—what about the Macross series?"
Hanabi checked.
You know, "Giri Giri Ai" and all that.
[No series matching your description found.]
Great. That franchise was straight-up nonexistent here.
"This isn't 'reforging the glory of mecha.'"
The first market was fine—things tracked more or less with what Hanabi knew.
But the second market's timeline was a tangled mess.
Performing a mecha show in a world where the whole planet was going MyGO?
"Then again, SEED itself is basically an idol drama with mechs. That's not bad, actually. But…"
Another look at the research.
This world had already been burned by a wave of light-novel anime adaptations and was deeply allergic to the overpowered nice-guy male lead.
"So I can't just transplant SEED as-is, either."
A Gundam world where idols were king. That alone was absurd enough.
The protagonist—no, at minimum the main cast—needed to be able to sing and dance.
"Stage, what does the Client need me to achieve?"
Hanabi asked.
[Total Popularity Points for the production must reach 10,000,000.]
"Ten million?"
If that was per person, Hanabi wouldn't have dared guarantee it.
But if it was the whole production combined? Doable.
"Maximize my own Popularity Points while ensuring the production's total hits ten million…"
Strategy: set.
"Hm?"
And just then, Hanabi noticed something. Her Character Reincarnation Card was in a "usable" state.
Put simply: she could enter this world as "Inori Yuzuriha."
"Stage, why can this card be used there?" Hanabi asked.
[Querying.]
[Result returned: keyword — Mana Ouma.]
"Then why is it red?"
[Red indicates that using the Reincarnation Card will require consuming a large amount of Popularity Points to 'rationalize' the character's insertion.]
"Hanabi" could enter the Naruto world because a "Hyuga Hanabi" already existed there—a free pass via "namesake affinity."
But the SEED world had no Inori Yuzuriha. So entry cost extra.
"Wait, wait, wait."
A thought suddenly struck Hanabi.
"Mana Ouma's image and appearance—I made all of that up myself."
Which meant… she might still be able to change things?
Could she alter the "settings" of the protagonist, Kira, too?