A little past ten at night, Yuta arrived home.
Despite being the president of a company, his home was not in any upscale neighborhood. It was just an ordinary residential area.
The house had been inherited from his parents, so there was no mortgage to worry about. If he set the debt aside, Yuta's situation was not actually that terrible.
Naturally, the house was empty.
Yuta took a bath, went back to his room, collapsed onto the bed, and fell asleep almost immediately.
The next morning, it was nearly nine o'clock by the time he woke up.
The company's official start time was ten. Even though being president meant the occasional late arrival would not raise eyebrows, it was his own company, and he believed in leading by example.
In reality, animation studios operated on a different schedule from most companies. Many studios in the industry did not start until two or three in the afternoon and worked until ten or eleven at night.
Starfall was something of an exception. Work started at ten in the morning, with a break around noon for lunch, and then everyone went home at eight in the evening. Of course, when deadlines loomed and things got truly hectic, leaving on time was out of the question. But that fell under the category of "voluntary overtime."
At ten o'clock sharp, Yuta arrived at the office.
"President."
Rika Zenba appeared in front of Yuta.
Everyone else turned to look at him as well.
Rika glanced at the staff gathered behind Yuta, then spoke. "If we are not taking on outsourced work, what are we going to do next?"
"We are making Starfall's own anime."
Yuta answered, "The specific proposal has not been finalized yet, but it should not be a problem. The anime is a slice-of-life school setting. If you all have time, you can start gathering reference materials on the subject."
Without waiting to acknowledge the wave of excitement and restless energy that swept through the room, he headed straight into his office.
Talk was easy, but whether things would actually work out was another matter entirely. Aoi Fuji had only said she would think about it, not that she would definitely invest.
Still, no matter what, Yuta was determined to make Clannad happen. There was no harm in letting a few details slip early.
He was told to wait for an answer, but there was no telling how long that would take.
In the meantime, before Arcane gave their response, he could get started on other things.
In theory, the first phase of anime production was the planning phase, the second was the script phase, and the third was the design phase. These all fell under pre-production.
Actual animation production did not begin until after the design phase.
That was the textbook process, anyway. In practice, these phases often overlapped and ran concurrently.
As for scripts, Yuta had already written up to episode three. It would certainly be better to finish all the remaining scripts at once, but writing was not his only responsibility.
There was no need to rush. He could start on the character designs first.
Normally, a production assistant would bring a character design request sheet to the key animator in charge of character designs, and the animator would use the sheet to create the various characters. But in Yuta's case, he already knew exactly which characters were needed for each episode, so there was no need to wait for anyone to come to him.
Before his transmigration, Yuta had been a skilled key animator, and his memories of Clannad were razor-sharp.
Creating the character designs would not be difficult.
That said, even with the original visuals as a reference, drawing character model sheets was extremely time-consuming. It was nothing like writing scripts, where he could knock out an episode in no time at all.
Yuta drew steadily, and the hours flew by.
That afternoon.
A tall young woman in a white blazer arrived at Starfall.
"Hello, my name is Aoi Fuji from Arcane. I am here to see your president." The young woman addressed a girl who happened to be passing by.
That girl was Rika Zenba.
She blinked in surprise, then quickly said, "Please wait one moment. I will let the president know." She hurried off toward the president's office.
Moments later, Yuta came out personally and escorted Aoi into his office.
Once the two of them were out of sight, the staff outside could not contain themselves.
"She's gorgeous!"
"She said her name was Aoi Fuji. I wonder what her connection to Akira Fuji is."
"Someone from Arcane coming to see our president... Could it be that our new anime is being funded by Arcane?"
"No way, right?"
"With what Starfall has to offer, we could actually land investment from Arcane?"
"If that is really the case, then our president is more incredible than any of us realized."
The chatter went on and on.
Inside the president's office.
Yuta asked Rika to bring tea for Aoi.
After exchanging pleasantries, Aoi got to the point. "I came by to see how things are at Starfall."
As she spoke, her gaze drifted to Yuta's desk.
A drawing lay on the surface. It depicted a beautiful girl with delicate features and two stray strands of hair sticking up from the top of her head. She wore a school uniform and had a soft, fragile look about her that was utterly endearing.
"Is this a character design you drew?" she asked, unable to hold back.
"Yes, it is the female lead's character design." Yuta nodded.
'He really can do character designs!' Aoi was astonished.
Setting aside the fact that Yuta had come up through the production assistant track and had never worked as a key animator, even being a key animator did not automatically mean someone could do character designs. Character design demanded a higher level of skill from an animator.
Not only could Yuta handle character designs, but the female lead he had created was incredibly appealing. One look was all it took to fall for the character. His work surpassed that of most animators who specialized in character design.
Aoi felt that the charm of this female lead alone would be enough to convince a considerable number of viewers to support Clannad.
'This guy is genuinely talented.'
The thought crossed her mind privately, but what she said aloud was, "I never said Arcane would definitely invest, you know. Drawing the female lead's character design this quickly... Are you sure that is not getting ahead of yourself?"
"Even if Arcane does not invest, I will find a way to make Clannad happen regardless. So there is no harm in getting started early." Yuta smiled. "Besides, since Miss Fuji came all this way in person, I imagine she is here with good news."
Aoi did not bother being coy about it. "President Shido, Arcane is willing to invest in Starfall's new anime. However, the budget you listed in your proposal is twenty million yen per episode in production costs, and that is far too much. There is no way we can allocate that kind of budget for a slice-of-life anime."
"If twenty million is too much, eighteen million would work." Yuta countered.
"What is the difference between twenty million and eighteen million?"
"Two million yen."
"We can give you twelve million per episode, and not a yen more. And if sales are poor, the budget may be reduced further. I suggest you prepare yourself for that possibility."
"Then what if sales are strong? Is there any chance the budget could be raised to twenty million?" Yuta asked.
Aoi paused, and after a long moment she said, "If you can push sales past twenty thousand copies, increasing the budget to twenty million is not entirely out of the question."
"Twenty thousand copies..." Yuta's mouth twitched ever so slightly.
In truth, Clannad's first season in the other world had indeed surpassed twenty thousand in sales. The first volume alone had nearly hit twenty thousand in its opening week. But those numbers were not solely the result of the anime's quality.
For one thing, the anime had been adapted from a game, and the game version of Clannad had already built up considerable name recognition. That existing fanbase was a crucial factor.
For another, the anime had been produced by Kyoto Animation. At the time, Kyoto Animation may not have been quite as famous as it later became, but the studio had already delivered several successful titles, such as Full Metal Panic and AIR.
Under those circumstances, the studio's reputation provided an additional boost to sales.
Now, there was no game to lay the groundwork, and Starfall's reputation and capabilities were nowhere near Kyoto Animation's level. Could content alone push sales past twenty thousand?
Yuta could not make that guarantee.
"President Shido."
Aoi suddenly spoke up. "We are allies on the same side now. This anime absolutely must succeed. If it does not, neither of us will have an easy time going forward."
"Hm?" Yuta was not entirely sure what she meant by that.
Aoi did not elaborate. She simply said, "If you need anything, do not hesitate to tell me. Aside from increasing the production budget, I can try to help with everything else."
"In that case, could you help me find a reliable director?" Yuta said. "If we are short on staff, we can hire, we can poach, we can outsource. But a reliable director is not easy to come by."
"A reliable director, you say?"
Aoi thought it over briefly and nodded. "I can do that. Let me look into it."
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