The Christmas trees had only just been taken down when many places had already prepared fresh bamboo and New Year decorations to welcome the coming year.
As the lights came on, Tokyo at night was filled with the festive bustle of the New Year. Although the weather was bitterly cold, there were still many young women on the streets wearing yukata and kimono despite the temperature. Their laughter and the dense holiday atmosphere dispelled a little of the chill.
Most companies gave employees holidays during the New Year, but unless there were special circumstances, the animation production industry obviously had no such leisure. March, June, September, and December each year were the busiest times for animation companies, when old and new work overlapped, and preparations for new anime productions were underway.
Japanese anime was usually produced one month in advance. In other words, around three episodes could be completed ahead of time, after which one episode would be produced each week.
The production difficulty of 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' was much greater than that of ordinary 2D anime. It had nothing to do with image quality. The key lay in its strict requirements for the key animators' abilities—whether they could express the effects required by Kamiyā Yuu's storyboards.
During this month, Kamiyā Yuu had basically spent every day in the key animation department, demonstrating the key animation effects he wanted. The original art style of 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' had already been one of its highlights. If Kamiyā Yuu couldn't re-optimize and recreate it, then he might as well have chosen to use the original round-faced Madoka style from the start.
Fortunately, the 'Yosuganosora' animation production company had ample funding. Most of the key animators it recruited were veterans of the industry. With their rich experience plus Kamiyā Yuu's personal guidance, they barely reached the passing line he required.
What surprised Kamiyā Yuu was that there was actually one animator who couldn't even be considered a key animator yet, who could express the effects he wanted very well—Gogyo Ruri, the ordinary employee who often mixed into the company's upper-level meetings under Kamiyā Yuu's invitation.
After joining the company for half a year, Gogyo Ruri's personal performance had been excellent. She already possessed a solid drawing foundation, and from time to time, she asked master-level key animators like Kamiyā Yuu and Uehara Etsuki for guidance. Her skills and experience in drawing key animation had improved by leaps and bounds, and she was already a fairly qualified key animator.
Gogyo Ruri was someone with chūnibyō. In earlier years, the works she liked were all dark, depressing anime. She had even been exposed to unsuitable-for-children anime such as 'The Fallen Angel's Lament' and 'Dark Beast.' By nature, she had an extremely sharp sense for gloomy, eerie dark art.
Kamiyā Yuu was happy to see this and directly promoted her to assistant director of the animation department, responsible for guiding the other animators and animation direction. Personally, he very much wanted to bring Gogyo Ruri into his own circle. In his previous world, he had already had a favorable impression of the character Gogyo Ruri. Witnessing a beloved "anime" character living by his side was such a wonderful experience.
Most animation production companies did not take the New Year holidays, and the 'Yosuganosora' animation production company was naturally the same. Most employees were already used to it and had few complaints. As animation production staff, they had long since mentally prepared for this level of hardship. Otherwise, they would not have chosen to enter this industry.
During this period, Busujima Murasaki, who regularly reported the situation to Kamiyā Yuu, also returned to Japan from China. The cross-border investment cooperation had gone very smoothly. With Kamiyā Yuu's assistance, the official danmaku website 'BIUBIUBIU' would officially open around March. The website's UI, player, video playback functions, and so on were all selected through repeated refinement in his previous world, giving viewers of this era the best viewing experience.
Kamiyā Yuu did not let Busujima Murasaki, who had returned to Japan, participate in the production of 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' as a production assistant. Instead, he asked her to negotiate with major Japanese animation companies and sign work authorization agreements, acquiring the streaming rights to all outstanding Japanese anime before China's copyright era rose, enriching the video library. This decision would be even more beneficial to the future development of 'BIUBIUBIU.'
'BIUBIUBIU' naturally would not be like 'Bilibili' in his previous world. Although 'Bilibili' was a very popular ACG danmaku website, the limitations of the site itself doomed it to be only a somewhat popular danmaku video website among all video websites on the internet.
To truly grow a video website, what was needed was the development of a comprehensive community and social features. Whether similar to Tieba, forums, or even QQ, any form would do. Didn't even Alipay start making chat functions? That was because social features could greatly increase user stickiness.
Kamiyā Yuu's requirements were not high. He only wanted 'BIUBIUBIU' to become China's largest ACG communication base and most famous danmaku video website.
······
Before the arrival of the New Year and the broadcast of 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica,' another unintentional seed planted by Kamiyā Yuu had already grown into a towering tree, influencing the entire history of Japan's card collection, construction, and development games.
'Warship Girls Collection.'
Created by Kamiyā Yuu on a whim, it referenced countless similar development game models from his previous world and was already an extremely mature and complete card collection game from the beginning.
Now, 'Warship Girls Collection' has become a monument in the gaming industry that others could only look up to. As the game's mechanics were gradually explored and revealed, its fame grew higher and higher. Countless players racked their brains trying to squeeze into the game.
However, the buying and selling of accounts that had appeared earlier had almost vanished three months ago. Even if someone in the market wanted to spend one million yen to buy a game account, they could not find a channel to do so.
Because of 'Warship Girls Collection,' Japan's card collection games achieved considerable breakthroughs in playability simply by imitating its game model. For a time, within half a year, major game companies all launched card collection games imitating 'Warship Girls Collection,' making this type of game increasingly popular among Japanese players.
These games did not divert much popularity away from 'Warship Girls Collection.' Instead, even more players became interested in this game that had changed the industry and caused a fundamental transformation in the card collection model.
An internet legend, a nonexistent game, a game created by the gods—the legends surrounding 'Warship Girls Collection' spread farther and farther. If there weren't actual livestreams of 'Warship Girls Collection' on streaming sites, players would have begun to doubt whether this game truly existed.
A black sedan slowly stopped in front of the 'Yosuganosora' animation production company. After the black-suited driver opened the door, two beautiful women stepped out. The first wore a white blouse and a black skirt. Her hair was tied high, and her delicate, beautiful face was full of refinement and elegance. The latter wore a pure black women's suit. Her timid appearance, combined with her black-rimmed glasses, made her the perfect representative of an ordinary office lady.
The black-haired woman looked around uncertainly and said, "Minister Raiko, are you really sure this is the place? No matter how I look at it, it's only an animation production company."
The refined woman called Minister Raiko crossed her arms and gazed at the office building before her. When she saw the name 'Yosuganosora' animation production company, her pupils contracted, and an excited smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.
"We finally found it. 'Yosuganosora.'"
"But this is an animation production company, not a game production company," the black-haired woman hesitated.
Raiko glanced at her and sighed.
"Yui, no matter what you do, you need to show a little more confidence. We searched all of Japan, and right now, only this 'Yosuganosora' animation production company truly matches the name. Besides, my intuition tells me this is definitely the place. In any case, let's go in and ask first."
"Eh..."
Just as Raiko entered the 'Yosuganosora' animation production company in high heels, she ran into a young man wearing a cap. It was Watanabe, the line producer, who had joined 'Yosuganosora' not long ago. He was smoking near the stairway when he froze upon seeing the two young women enter. Especially when he noticed the woman leading them, called Minister Raiko, a trace of surprise flashed through his eyes. Watanabe recognized who this woman named Raiko was.
Although Japan's animation industry had developed in a distorted way, Japan's game industry was no worse than that of the rest of the world. Many outstanding works were famous worldwide. Among them, Japan's most famous game company was none other than Frontier.
Frontier was a comprehensive game company with an almost fanatical pursuit of game quality. It was responsible for both producing and operating games. Its self-developed and self-operated MMORPG 'Frontier Legend' had already become one of the most famous online games in the world, and was currently the online game with the highest number of active players in Japan.
The reason Watanabe, as a line producer, recognized this woman dressed with such refinement was that the animation production company he had previously worked at had once collaborated with Frontier to adapt a hugely popular anime into a game.
Mizuhara Raiko. Several years ago, she had already been the head of the operations department at Frontier Game Company. In terms of status, she was higher than the presidents of some large animation production companies.
Watanabe extinguished his cigarette, wrapped the butt in special oil paper, and walked over with a smile to greet her.
"Miss Mizuhara, long time no see."
Hearing someone call out her surname as soon as she entered the 'Yosuganosora' animation production company, Mizuhara Raiko looked Watanabe over in surprise and hesitated.
"You are?"
Watanabe wasn't surprised that Mizuhara Raiko didn't recognize him. After all, several years had passed since their last meeting. The reason he could remember Mizuhara Raiko's name was entirely because of her outfit and beautiful appearance. That was probably the nature of all men.
Watanabe took off his hat and bowed awkwardly in a gentlemanly salute, smiling.
"How rude of me. My name is Watanabe Ken. I was once the line producer of R·L Animation Production Company, and I worked with you on the game adaptation project for the anime 'The Girl and the Butterfly.'"
Mizuhara Raiko thought for a while but couldn't remember Watanabe at all. She vaguely remembered participating in the mystery-solving game adaptation of the anime 'The Girl and the Butterfly,' so she nodded.
"I see. Is Mr. Watanabe now an employee of this 'Yosuganosora' animation production company?"
"Ah~ I just joined last month. Has Miss Mizuhara come this time to discuss a game adaptation as well? Indeed, whether it's 'Magical Girl Nanoha' or 'RWBY,' both are very suitable subjects for adaptation," Watanabe replied with a smile.
He could tell that Mizuhara Raiko did not want to spend too much time talking to him.
Mizuhara Raiko shook her head.
"No, it's something else."
After thinking for a moment, she looked at Watanabe and asked solemnly, "Mr. Watanabe, could you help introduce me to your company president? I have something extremely important I wish to discuss with him."
Not about an anime adaptation? And no appointment? What important matter could make her come here so hurriedly?
Watanabe froze, scratched his head, and smiled somewhat awkwardly.
"I can help introduce you to Miss Morishita. If she agrees, you should be able to meet President Kamiyā directly. Right now is the busiest time for our company. Generally speaking, without an appointment, the president has no time to receive guests."
"Mr. Watanabe, then I'll have to trouble you to introduce me to Miss Morishita." Mizuhara Raiko bowed politely to him.
This surprised both Watanabe and the woman named Yui behind her. Since when had this proud woman been so courteous when dealing with others?
Since she was an executive of Frontier Game Company, Watanabe did not immediately refuse her request.
"Alright. Please follow me."
Before long, after Morishita Aoi learned their identities, she did not make things difficult for them. She had them wait in the meeting room and told Kamiyā Yuu that people from a game company were looking for him.
Click.
Kamiyā Yuu entered the meeting room and was somewhat surprised when he saw the two young women. He walked over, extended his right hand, and introduced himself with a smile.
"Kamiyā Yuu, president of the 'Yosuganosora' animation production company."
Mizuhara Raiko, who had stood up, looked at Kamiyā Yuu in astonishment. This was the president of the 'Yosuganosora' animation production company? No matter how she looked at him, he seemed even younger than her subordinate Yui.
She did not show her inner surprise and politely shook Kamiyā Yuu's hand.
"Mizuhara Raiko, head of the operations department at Frontier Game Company."
Is it about the game copyright for 'Magical Girl Nanoha' or 'RWBY'?
Kamiyā Yuu was almost certain of this thought. He pulled out a chair in the meeting room, sat down, and smiled as he asked, "Then, as the president of Frontier Game Company, what urgent matter brings Miss Mizuhara to me?"
"Ah~ Let's not waste time. The main reason we came to your company is to seek an answer."
"An answer?" Kamiyā Yuu froze, feeling as though things had gone off track.
Mizuhara Raiko gazed at Kamiyā Yuu's face and asked in a low voice, "Have you heard of a web game called 'Warship Girls Collection'?"
An answer both unexpected and within expectations. Kamiyā Yuu hadn't expected someone to come looking for him because of this game, and from a famous game company at that. But when he thought about the impact 'Warship Girls Collection' had caused in this world, it also felt somewhat expected.
He simply admitted it openly.
"Of course. So what is your question?"
"Was this game developed by your company? We are searching for the developer of this game, a registered company named 'Yosuganosora.'"
Mizuhara Raiko furrowed her delicate brows. The answer she had been seeking for so long was right before her, making her heart pound wildly, while also giving her an unbelievable sense of relief.
From Kamiyā Yuu's expression, she knew that she had finally—finally found the developer of 'Warship Girls Collection.' She could finally lift the veil from this mysterious game.
Kamiyā Yuu rubbed his chin and pondered.
"Well~ I felt a little bored the year before last, so I created this game and put it online. But I didn't have much intention to operate it myself, so I closed the registration channel to control the number of players. After all, my main business is making anime."
Crash~!
Yui, who was holding a pile of documents beside her, froze on the spot after hearing Kamiyā Yuu's words, and the many unknown documents in her hands slipped onto the floor.
A game casually made by an animation production staff member? One that caused such a huge social reaction? And the registration channel was closed only because operating it was troublesome?
How exactly did the person before her view the game industry?
"Sorry!"
Yui hurriedly picked up the contract documents from the floor and apologized.
"You made it personally?" Mizuhara Raiko looked at Kamiyā Yuu with doubt in her eyes.
Kamiyā Yuu shrugged.
"The game server is set up in another room. Miss Mizuhara can go check at any time if you don't believe me."