A few days had passed since Haruki had gone to Kotone's house to help her with her new manga idea.
After that, both had gotten busy. Kotone was working on the manga idea Haruki had proposed, deciding which direction she wanted to take the story, and Haruki was occupied with the ongoing production of Code Geass.
Since they had decided in the last two episodes to go with the Conscious Motion route, Haruki had also joined the animation team. He was observing the new style, and after spending more time with Wes, he had gotten the hang of it and started drawing key frames with Wes supervising him. For the rest of the production, things were going pretty smoothly.
At the studio, Haruki was drawing a key frame. He had done two attempts before Wes approved it after reviewing.
"Here's the key frame," Haruki said, handing Saitama the outline for the next sequence.
Saitama glanced at it and gave a small nod. "Okay, I'll start with this right away."
"Try to match the emotional flow of the last cut," Haruki said, leaning slightly over the desk, "and focus on Lelouch's body more."
In the original Code Geass, when Lelouch wore his mask, they often showed an inside-mask view. Sometimes, when piloting the mech, he didn't wear a helmet so the viewers could see his expressions. The isolated close-up face shots were more time-consuming, so they removed the helmet when he was isolated. It was more of a stylistic choice to clearly show his emotions.
When Wes introduced his new technique, he had already applied it in some scenes where Lelouch was wearing the mask. Everyone thought it was similar to what other top animators were doing, bringing characters to life through subtle movements. But after learning it, Haruki understood this was the exact technique they had been using. It wasn't noticeable before because in season one, the focus was more on Lelouch and less on Zero.
From season two onward, the focus would shift more toward Zero and less on Lelouch. That's when the technique would really start to shine. Since Lelouch had made Zero a symbol, whenever he wore the mask, there would be no inside close-up face shots. Everything would be conveyed purely through body language.
After giving the key framework, Haruki stayed a moment longer to supervise the consistency, then left the animation room and headed toward Kazuya's office. When he walked in, Kazuya was reviewing the final cuts for episode twenty-two.
After reviewing the final cuts and giving feedback on what needed to be done and what was left, Kazuya noticed Haruki sitting in front of him.
Haruki asked, "Is episode twenty-two ready? Are we that ahead of schedule?"
Since Haruki had been focused completely on the last two episodes, he didn't know exactly where the current production stood. He knew they were ahead but didn't expect it to be that much.
Kazuya nodded. "Yes, it just needs some light editing. Wes wanted to focus more on the last two episodes, so we slowed down the pace a bit. Otherwise, we might already be on the last episode's final cuts, but can't complain, seeing the results."
Haruki said, "So the team should be free early on. Do we have a schedule for the training and adjusting to the new technique?"
Kazuya replied, "Yes. I've made a plan for them. After two months, we'll finish the whole production for season one. I've set up a two-month adjustment plan with the new technique so everyone can get familiar with it. After that, we'll start making new episodes as we go along. I'll send you the details after finalizing it."
Haruki nodded. "Okay, so why did you call me?"
Kazuya said, "We've been invited to Anime Direct."
This was a big show hosted by a global streaming service that only invited major anime studios or big-budget titles. They produced fifty-two episodes a year, and with so many new anime coming out, on top of the long-running series, there were very limited slots available. They could have gotten in when Madoka won Anime of the Year, but that was right before Code Geass was finalized for its premiere, and they had been too busy to accept.
Haruki blinked, a little surprised. "That's a pretty big deal. What did you say?"
Kazuya said, "Our production crew has a big name, so they've given us some leeway on which week we want to shoot. After episode twenty-two premieres, which will be in about seven weeks, we'll all have time for the shoot. So I picked that period. This way, we won't have to do a big marketing push since it's the final set of episodes."
Haruki nodded slowly. "Makes sense. With all of us going, we won't need to do a big promotion; the talk show will handle that. Have you talked with Wes, Devid, and Masafumi?"
Kazuya said, "I'll tell them this week. It's time we start showing our faces to the audience. We haven't done any live Q&As or anything else related to Code Geass."
Haruki stood up after a short silence. "Alright then. I'll check on the layout team before heading out."
Kazuya nodded. "Yeah, go ahead. I'll finalize the schedule and send you the details later."
[Note:- Sorry for the absence over the past few days. The recent chapter needed to be rewritten twice before I landed on the right direction, which is why it took longer.]
(TL:- if you want even more content, check out p-a-t-r-e-o-n.com/Alioth23 for 60+ advanced chapters)