After work, Kamiyā Yuu kept his promise and went to Yūki Chinatsu's office. As expected, the moment he entered, he saw the [Otaku Girl Trio] enthusiastically playing console games.
The blonde loli Yūki Chinatsu, the long black-haired gothic girl Gogyo Ruri, and the silver-haired, minimalist gothic girl Kamiyā Sora—just seeing the three of them sitting together was already a feast for the eyes.
Both Kamiyā Sora and Yūki Chinatsu were the type who were highly skilled at games. Even when playing unfamiliar titles, they quickly got the hang of them. Although Gogyo Ruri rarely played games normally, she also showed considerable interest in them.
"You're here? The legendary cheat player."
Sitting on a cushion, Yūki Chinatsu paused the game and looked teasingly at Kamiyā Yuu. It seemed she really had gotten fired up over this.
"Yuu."
Gogyo Ruri widened her eyes in surprise at why Kamiyā Yuu had come here, then stood up and bowed in greeting.
"Director."
In front of outsiders, especially Kamiyā Sora, Gogyo Ruri did not want to use that more intimate form of address.
Kamiyā Yuu nodded, then looked around the office and shook his head.
"Don't you three think this place is a little too cramped?"
Messy company documents and specialized equipment belonging to the photography department were piled together, and Yūki Chinatsu's personal belongings could also be seen everywhere. Everything was squeezed into an office that was not particularly spacious, giving it an almost oppressively cramped feeling.
"None of your business!"
Yūki Chinatsu's little face flushed. To hide her embarrassment, she gave a forceful snort, then patted the cushion beside her with her small hand and urged him, "Hurry up and sit down. I called you here to play games, not to criticize my office."
"It's not like I wanted to come here in the first place."
Kamiyā Yuu laughed, walked over, and flicked her forehead with a finger.
"Ow!"
Yūki Chinatsu covered her forehead and glared unwillingly at Kamiyā Yuu. With Kamiyā Sora sitting beside them, she thought about it and ultimately decided to swallow her anger.
"Yuu, let's eat outside tonight."
Kamiyā Sora kept her eyes on the game in front of her as she spoke softly.
Kamiyā Yuu understood what she meant and nodded with a smile.
"Then we can play a little longer."
"Ah~ If Yuu's paying, I'm coming too!"
Yūki Chinatsu excitedly raised her right hand. To make her argument more convincing, she continued complaining, "I'm already sick of the company's boxed lunches. Eating the same few dishes every single day is bad for your health. If my health gets worse, I could collapse at work at any moment. Yuu, you wouldn't reject my request, would you?"
Kamiyā Yuu completely ignored Yūki Chinatsu's opinion and turned to Gogyo Ruri.
"Black Cat, want to come too?"
Gogyo Ruri put down the controller and thought for a moment, disappointment appearing on her small face.
"Sorry. I might miss the last train home."
"What time?" Kamiyā Sora asked with a slight frown.
"Seven, nine, and eleven. I was planning to take the nine o'clock one today."
Kamiyā Yuu said, "Then let's go together at eight. It won't take long. After we finish eating, I'll drive you to the subway station."
"Mm. Thank you, Director."
Gogyo Ruri thanked Kamiyā Yuu with a faint blush.
"That's so unfair! Your attitude toward her is completely different!"
Yūki Chinatsu planted her hands on her hips and grumbled.
Originally, they had planned to have Kamiyā Yuu demonstrate his skills in 'Modern Battlefield 4', but once they actually started playing, most of the games turned out to be two-player split-screen titles, including both fighting games and FPS games.
"Is this 'RWBY'?"
Kamiyā Yuu looked in surprise at the console game Yūki Chinatsu had selected.
Judging from the cover, it should have been a side-scrolling fighting game adapted from 'RWBY', which he himself had created.
Once they entered the game, he discovered that aside from the four main characters—Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang—the monsters that had appeared in the four promotional trailers were also present one after another: Great Wolf Sif, the Dragonslayer, the transforming robot, the twin enforcers of the Airhead Gang, and even the boss from the animated film.
"This game's been out for quite a while already. Yuu, you didn't know?"
"I knew about it. Actually playing it is another matter."
Kamiyā Yuu controlled the gamepad and selected Weiss, while Yūki Chinatsu picked Ruby. He was still somewhat interested in the game.
Yūki Chinatsu provocatively declared, "Yuu, prepare yourself!"
Kamiyā Yuu's fighting style was conservative.
He already had experience with fighting games, so figuring out the controls was not difficult. Before long, he had become proficient in all kinds of short and long combos.
However, this fighting game adaptation of 'RWBY' had been made in Japan. Its 3D graphics were not even as good as the animation, and most importantly, its gameplay was extremely similar to traditional fighting games.
Although the game's quality could be considered excellent within the fighting-game genre, Kamiyā Yuu still felt it had failed to bring out the distinctive qualities of 'RWBY'.
"The character movements are stiff, and there are too many flaws in the 3D models. You can tell the developers put a lot of effort into creating entirely new move sets for the characters, and the impact from multi-hit combos feels very satisfying, but it still only gives the impression of flashy movement. The portrayal of 'RWBY's Aura is especially lacking, and the weapon transformations are far too rigid. Well~ at least having the full cast is something."
Kamiyā Yuu frowned almost imperceptibly.
This only strengthened his determination to enter the game industry.
As for Kamiyā Yuu's skill level...
Once he became familiar with how the characters were controlled, his sense of timing and millisecond-level precision basically meant he could hang his opponent up and beat them senseless.
Before long, Yūki Chinatsu, who had been provoking him earlier, began to realize that something was wrong.
Yūki Chinatsu watched as Weiss, with only a sliver of health remaining, unleashed a gorgeous combo that completely emptied the health bar of the Ruby she controlled. She looked on the verge of tears.
"W-Wait... How can you do that?"
"Ah! Yuu, stop! Stop already! This is so unfair! Why is it that once your character touches mine, I just keep getting hit nonstop!?"
"I haven't lost yet! We're switching to this game next. Sora, this is the one you're good at. Don't hold back just because it's Yuu. Teach him a lesson and show him how strong we are!"
"Chinatsu, quiet down."
...
Yūki Chinatsu was extremely unwilling to accept defeat.
After losing several rounds in a row, she would simply switch games, nearly all of them competitive two-player titles.
In the end, their gaming session came to an end at around seven in the evening, because after losing so many rounds, Yūki Chinatsu finally lost her temper.
With tears in her eyes, she made the bold declaration that once they got to the restaurant, she would eat until Kamiyā Yuu admitted defeat.
As a result, Kamiyā Yuu never got to play 'Modern Battlefield 4' after all.
Kamiyā Sora seemed to greatly enjoy the time the four of them spent playing games together.
Although she lost more often than she won, a happy smile still appeared on her small face from time to time.
She was younger than both Gogyo Ruri and Yūki Chinatsu, yet the way she behaved in various situations made her seem more like the older sister of the three.
...
...
In early September, while Kamiyā Yuu was rushing to finish manuscripts in his office, he received a call from Kamiyā Sora.
As time passed, Kamiyā Yuu's workload had eased considerably, and he was finally able to squeeze out some time to deal with miscellaneous matters.
"Yuu, it's a call from Chief Editor Akiyama. It's probably still about that matter."
"Mm, put him through."
Kamiyā Yuu held the phone while keeping his eyes fixed on the computer screen.
His hands clearly were not touching the keyboard at all, yet Japanese characters continuously appeared in the writing software on the screen. The speed was no faster than typing by hand.
Beep, beep.
The desk phone gave off a mechanical sound. Before long, the call connected, and the voice of the young light-novel chief editor came through.
"Hello, is this Director Kamiyā?"
"Yes. What do you need from me this time, Chief Editor Akiyama?"
After confirming that it was Kamiyā Yuu, Akiyama Gojō spoke in a helpless tone.
"I won't waste time with unnecessary talk. Director Kamiyā already knows about the matter, don't you? 'Twilight of the Knights' is now preparing to enter the formal production stage. If possible, I'd like to ask Director Kamiyā to appear personally as the original creator. Many issues can only be finalized after you personally confirm them."
"When?"
"Any time is fine, but the sooner the better. If it's convenient for Director Kamiyā, we'll arrange for the production meeting to officially begin at nine tomorrow morning. Director Kitagawa from Sunrise Company will also attend to discuss matters with you. After the production meeting ends, you'll also need to greet the voice actors."
Kamiyā Yuu considered his schedule and saw that it was not particularly tight, so he agreed.
"That's fine."
"All right. Sorry for the trouble. In that case, I'll personally come pick up Director Kamiyā tomorrow."
Kamiyā Yuu gave a dry laugh.
"Why does this make me feel like some important criminal..."
Akiyama Gojō lowered his voice and replied angrily, "Honestly, if I could, I really would like to treat Director Kamiyā as a criminal. You've already pushed back the production meeting several times. If you still refuse to show up, we can't guarantee what the final quality of the anime will be."
Earlier, Kamiyā Yuu had agreed to Akiyama Gojō's proposal to have Sunrise Company adapt Saber's character side-story novel 'Twilight of the Knights' into an anime.
Kamiyā Yuu was well aware of Kitagawa Shūichi's abilities as the director of 'Twilight of the Knights', so he had felt comfortable leaving them to handle it.
There was still one month before the October anime season began. Chiyo Bookstore had extensive experience adapting light novels into anime, so during this period, many of the issues concerning the anime adaptation of 'Twilight of the Knights' had been handled by them.
However, with production about to formally begin, the actual original creator still needed to appear and discuss certain matters.
Akiyama Gojō had called Kamiyā Yuu several times before, but those calls happened to coincide with the period when Yosuganosora Animation Studio was fully occupied with producing Episode Eleven of 'Fate/zero', so Kamiyā Yuu had put him off each time.
"Being the original creator of an anime, huh? I suppose it'll be a decent experience."
After hanging up, Kamiyā Yuu leaned back in his office chair and shook his head with a smile.
He had already made up his mind to let Kitagawa Shūichi handle the anime, because during this period he simply did not have the spare capacity to participate in the production of another series.
The anime adaptation of 'Twilight of the Knights' happened to coincide perfectly with the stage of the 'Fate/zero' anime in which Saber was most active.
The scene where Saber used Excalibur to annihilate the deep-sea monster would occur at around Episode Fifteen.
By then, October-season anime would generally have aired about three episodes.
The flashback during the release of Excalibur's True Name would therefore line up perfectly with the anime adaptation of 'Twilight of the Knights'.
Even viewers who rarely read light novels would easily be affected by the emotional impact of the flashback as long as they had watched the anime version of 'Twilight of the Knights'.
"Wait~ That's a perfect coincidence. Looking at it that way, I can't just completely leave it alone. I should have a proper discussion with Director Kitagawa. If the crossover effect is handled well, it'll be a huge benefit to both works."
Realizing this, Kamiyā Yuu stroked his chin and began to consider the matter seriously.
'Fate/zero' was an ensemble drama, and its portrayal of characters was especially important. Even the plot itself was driven by the personalities of the various characters.
Within the setting of 'Fate/zero', releasing a True Name was the best expression of the ideals a character had chosen to uphold.
Saber's Excalibur.
Iskandar, the King of Conquerors' [Ionioi Hetairoi].
Gilgamesh, the King of Heroes' [Sword of Rupture — EA].
And so on.
One crucial point among all of these was making the audience empathize with the characters. It was also one of the most important aspects of portraying a character's appeal.
An excellent character should make viewers understand and accept their actions, and allow the character's words and deeds to directly affect the audience's emotions.
There were two extremely important schools of thought regarding the fundamental nature of animation.
The first was persistence of vision, which could be called the rationalist school.
This school believed that people were able to receive information from animation because the human retina produced a phenomenon known as persistence of vision.
Since the persistence-of-vision effect lasted for one twenty-fourth of a second, animation made at twenty-four frames per second would prevent the viewer's eyes from perceiving stuttering.
At this point, another interesting question had to be mentioned.
Why did games need sixty frames per second before players felt that they were visually smooth?
Wasn't it said that the naked eye could no longer distinguish anything above twenty-four frames per second?
In reality, game graphics were rendered in real time, and the duration of each frame was not fixed.
In animation, the interval between every frame was identical, precisely one frame every one-twenty-fourth of a second. Therefore, maintaining twenty-four frames per second was enough to satisfy the needs of persistence of vision.
Game frame rates, however, could fluctuate.
Sometimes two frames might be separated by 0.01 seconds, while at other times the interval could be 0.05 seconds.
Because of the instability inherent in real-time rendering, the naked eye could perceive stuttering. Therefore, games needed to compensate for instability between frames through sheer [quantity].
To use a twenty-four-centimeter ruler as an analogy, animation was a standardized ruler in which every centimeter was precisely measured.
With game graphics, however, the spacing between each "centimeter" could be longer or shorter.
So instead of using centimeters at all, one might simply switch to millimeters to determine distance.
At the very least, doing so would make it appear much more precise than centimeters.
The other school adhered to the theory of [apparent motion].
It believed that people could perceive animation not because of persistence of vision, but because their brains "filled in the gaps."
They perceived objectively stationary objects as moving.
For example, suppose a character suddenly appeared in another location and caused the other characters to react in shock.
According to what was actually shown in the animation, that character had never physically moved between the two positions at all—there were no in-between frames.
Yet based on the reactions of the other characters, viewers would mentally fill in the missing information and conclude that the character had moved too fast to be seen.
Even now, these two schools of animation theory continued arguing endlessly.
Kamiyā Yuu belonged to the middle ground.
He believed both were indispensable elements in creating animation.
A school relying purely on persistence of vision could never produce modern animation.
But what difference would there be between an animation made purely according to the theory of apparent motion and a manga?
It had sound?
It had background music?
Then one might as well add background music to a manga and call that animation.
The reason for bringing up these two schools of animation production was actually to introduce an important technique for portraying plot and character development—one that shared the same foundation as the phenomenon of apparent motion:
the audience mentally filling in the gaps while watching animation.
This was one of the most important elements in Saber's release of Excalibur.
In the original anime, Irisviel von Einzbern's narration had essentially existed so that viewers could use the narration as a basis to fill in the missing emotional context themselves.
In Kamiyā Yuu's remade version, that process of audience imagination would be enhanced tremendously.
First, the narration would be transformed into a genuine flashback sequence.
Second, the novel would serve as the background supporting the audience's imagination.
And finally, the anime adaptation of 'Twilight of the Knights' would cause the audience's ability to mentally fill in the scene to undergo a qualitative leap.