"An invitation?"
Sumire picked up the elegant, carefully sealed envelope from Sora Kamakawa's desk and stared at it with an expression that was difficult to describe.
Deep down, plenty of people in the industry had already been speculating for some time that Sora would be nominated for Best New Animation Kantoku at that year's Tokyo Animation Festival. Even so, when the nomination invitation finally arrived for real, the feeling inside Yume Animation was almost unreal, as though everyone were still walking through a dream they had not yet woken from.
The Tokyo Animation Festival was one of the biggest events in Japan's anime industry. Every year, near the end of December, it gathered the most talked-about works of the season and handed out nominations across a wide range of categories: Best Anime, Best Kantoku, Best Art Direction, Best Music, and more. It was the kind of award ceremony that, much like the major film awards, drew the attention of fans, studios, and professionals across the entire country.
"What is it? It's just a nomination invitation. And it's only for Best New Kantoku. Do you really have to look that serious?" Sora asked with a smile.
"To you, as a Kantoku, maybe it really doesn't feel like such a big deal."
Sumire gave the invitation one last look before slipping it carefully back into the envelope.
"But for me... imagining that one day a letter like this would arrive with my name on it as the recipient was the kind of scene I dreamed about countless times, from high school all the way through much of college."
She took a slow breath. A faint smile appeared on her lips, but there was still a quiet weight behind it.
"I think most people who enter this industry have fantasized about something like that at least once. To debut in anime already holding the position of Kantoku, make your first work a real success, and then end up being nominated at the Tokyo Animation Festival... you could say that's one of the most dazzling ways possible to begin a career in Japanese animation."
Sora watched the subtle trace of disappointment on her face and, for a moment, understood a little of what she was feeling.
In his previous life, he had been nothing more than an ordinary person too. Back when university entrance exams mattered more than anything, he had seen classmates get into elite schools with ease while he exhausted himself just to secure a place at an average university. Later, at work, he had pushed himself to the limit over tasks that never seemed to come out quite right in his hands, only to discover that for some naturally gifted people, those same things were effortless.
Sumire was capable. More than that, she was hardworking, disciplined, and dependable. As an assistant Kantoku, supporting Sora and carrying out the work he arranged with precision, she was more than enough.
But leading an entire project alone was something else entirely.
To take on an anime from nothing, to coordinate music, storyboards, art direction, character design, pacing, structure, atmosphere... that required a different kind of vision. On her own, Sumire would probably only be able to produce a competent but ordinary anime.
To be honest, if he looked at himself coldly, Sora did not truly possess that kind of genius either.
The ideas that gave his projects their depth, force, and originality had not all been born entirely from him. Many of the structures, themes, and sensitivities came from the great masters of animation from his previous life. He had simply carried them with him and put them to use.
But in the eyes of the Japanese anime industry - and in Sumire's eyes as well - all of that seemed to be something Sora alone had created.
Six months ago, he had still been learning the ropes of anime production under her guidance.
Now he was already carrying a nomination for Best New Kantoku.
It was almost like watching the mediocre boy next door, the one who did not seem to understand anything until recently, cram desperately for a few months and suddenly get accepted into one of Tokyo's most elite universities.
Faced with something like that, it was only natural for anyone to feel something.
"It's still only a nomination..." Sora said softly, clearing his throat.
"Since you were nominated, then the goal now can only be one thing: to win." Sumire lifted her eyes and looked straight at him.
"But if I really do end up winning, then a lot of what happened over these past months is also thanks to what you taught me and showed me..."
He did not get to finish.
Sumire cut him off gently, but without leaving any room for him to turn it into consolation.
"Sora, I'm not jealous of you. And I'm not upset. So there's no need to split your glory with me just to be kind. If you were nominated, it's because you have the talent and the ability for it."
A real smile curved at the corner of her mouth.
"Of course there's a part of me that feels a little down for not being a genius like you. But the most important thing for a person is to understand who they really are and where they belong. And honestly... being able to work beside someone like you and help create anime like Voices of a Distant Star and Natsume Yuujinchou... maybe that's already one of the greatest gifts life could have given me."
She looked at him with complete seriousness.
"Congratulations, Sora."
He stayed silent for a few seconds before letting out a small smile.
"Congratulate me after I actually win."
"You will win," Sumire said after a brief pause, as if she were stating nothing more than a simple fact.
Standing there in her white dress, only a few meters from his desk, she made something inside Sora's chest tremble ever so slightly.
He truly had not expected Sumire to trust him that much.
At that moment, someone knocked lightly on the office door.
The receptionist stepped inside a second later, carrying two more envelopes that had just arrived in the mail.
At the same time, Sora and Sumire looked down at the information printed on the invitations.
Nomination for Best Anime Screenplay - Sora Kamakawa.
Nomination for Best Anime Music - Sora Kamakawa.
Both for Natsume Yuujinchou.
For a brief moment, the two of them were stunned. But after thinking it over, it quickly became clear that while those nominations were surprising, they also made perfect sense.
If Natsume Yuujinchou had managed to begin its run on Tokushima TV and from there grow into a success across Japan, it was not only because of the delicacy of its direction or the emotional strength of the work itself. The quality of its script and soundtrack was just as essential.
Being recognized in those two categories was, in truth, the most natural thing in the world.
The only unusual part was that within Natsume Yuujinchou, Sora was carrying all three key roles by himself: Kantoku, screenwriter, and composer.
Looking at the three nomination invitations spread across his desk, Sumire drew a slightly deeper breath. Then she let out a quiet sigh.
So this was it.
This was what a real genius looked like.
During the rest of November, Natsume Yuujinchou aired its eighth episode.
The title was "Ephemeral Light."
And this time, the story took a different path from the seven episodes that had come before.
The episode told the story of a man named Akifumi who, in his youth, had been able to see youkai just like Natsume. Back then, he had fallen in love with a youkai named Hotaru, and she had loved him in return.
But one day, he lost the ability to see spirits.
Even when Hotaru stood right in front of him, looking straight into his eyes, he could no longer see her.
Years passed. Akifumi moved on, met a human woman, and eventually reached the point where he was about to be married. Even so, just before the wedding, he decided to try one last time. He wanted to bet on an impossible miracle, just to see whether he might still be able to meet the one he had once loved.
And Hotaru...
With the help of Natsume and Madara, she chose to abandon her identity as a youkai and return to the body of a firefly. In exchange, she accepted a cruel price: the rest of her life would be reduced to a single day.
All for the sake of seeing him one last time.
All so that, at the very end of her life, she could touch him for real just once more.
Since the anime had begun airing two months earlier, this was the episode that sparked the strongest reaction online.
Up until then, Natsume Yuujinchou had built its emotional strength around loneliness, promises, silent companionship, friendship, and the gentle ache of continuing to live.
But in this episode, the heart of it was something else.
It was love.
The love between a firefly youkai and a human man.
For more than ten years, Hotaru remained at his side without ever leaving. She stayed there, just as she always had, watching him move forward without ever noticing her presence. She watched Akifumi meet another woman, grow close to her, fall in love, build a new life, and walk toward marriage.
And even then, in the end, she gave up the long existence she could have had as a youkai and chose to become a simple firefly instead, burning away the rest of her life just for a single moment in which she could once again exist within reach of his hands.
After the episode aired, even many Natsume Yuujinchou fans who normally had a high resistance to emotional scenes could no longer hold themselves together.