The piled-up snow finally gave way, and spring began to rise through the air in Shikoku. Trees along the avenues pushed out fresh buds, the streets softened into gentler colors… and inside Dream/Yume Animation, no one had the time to notice. The entire studio had become a whirlpool - people rushing back and forth, hollow-eyed, running on caffeine instead of blood.
In mid-March, Shikoku's local TV station contacted Sora with a straightforward demand: they wanted a promotional PV for the anime. A short teaser, edited and ready to air on March 23rd - immediately after the final episode of the season's most popular show, The Magic Swordswoman Charlene.
The reason The Voices of a Distant Star had secured a slot was simple, and painfully practical: Charlene only had eleven episodes. With the season shortened, there was an empty week at the end of the month. A rare gap the station needed to fill somehow… and a gap Sora needed like oxygen.
The problem was that Charlene wasn't just any show. It was doing well - gaining traction, building a name. Across the broadcast area covered by the station's signal - Shikoku plus surrounding regions - its average ratings hovered around 3%, and on the "Natsuyume" forum, where anime fans and drama junkies gathered in massive numbers, the series held an overall score of 7.8.
And in that kind of community, high scores didn't come easy.
On Natsuyume - where daily traffic hit tens of millions - anything above 6 was "passable." Breaking 7 meant "good." Hitting 8 was serious praise, the kind that made people say, This is worth your time. And 9 or higher… that was practically a stamp of obligation: even people who weren't watching felt like they had to.
A 7.8 average, paired with stable ratings, meant Charlene would most likely not only recoup its production costs, but still turn a healthy profit through Blu-rays, licensing, and merchandise.
The Voices of a Distant Star, on the other hand… was, in the station's eyes, a stopgap. A title that showed up out of nowhere to patch a hole in the schedule. Naturally, they weren't expecting miracles - but they also couldn't afford a steep ratings drop. If viewership fell too far, sponsors paying premium ad rates would complain, and the blowback would land squarely on the station.
That was why the decision was straightforward: they'd air a PV for the new anime at the end of Charlene's final episode. A small publicity push - just enough to get the name into people's heads. And it wouldn't be a one-off. Starting March 23rd, up until the premiere on March 30th, the PV would run once a day.
Sora, meanwhile, didn't have money for advertising.
Almost every yen he had had already been swallowed by production. What little remained was reserved for a partnership with a Shikoku-based anime goods company - the one that would help distribute the Blu-ray release, a novelization, and official merchandise when the time came.
So when the station offered free exposure, Sora nearly treated it like a miracle.
Except… there was one ugly detail.
He took forever to deliver the PV. He dragged it out so badly that the file only reached the station on the morning of the 23rd. The person in charge didn't hide their displeasure: a teaser that was only a few dozen seconds long, and the kid had taken nearly two weeks?
An efficiency problem, if you wanted to be kind.
…
Inside Yume Animation, though, reality looked different. No one was "stalling." Everyone looked like they'd aged ten years in a handful of days.
Ever since the night of the 6th - when Sora decided to tear down and redo the mecha space-battle cuts - Haruto and the veteran key animators Ren had managed to hire had been running in full burn-your-liver mode. Endless nights. Frame by frame. Chewing through Sora's insane "circus" storyboard like it was bone.
And on top of that, the PV request had fallen out of the sky.
Sora looked at what he had and made the call. If he sent a PV made mostly of romantic, quieter scenes, most of the station's viewers wouldn't understand a thing. It would feel like a string of contextless clips, and the teaser would die on arrival.
So it was better to sell the impact.
After all, part of the station's audience had been posting on the official website for a while now, insisting The Voices of a Distant Star was clearly an action series - a space-battle anime.
Fine.
Then Sora would give them exactly what they wanted to see.
Even if it was only twenty-seven seconds.
A small, deliberate piece of bait - the kind that makes people get excited, talk about it, and then, the following week, tune in at the right time just to find out whether the show really was what it looked like.
The problem was timing. According to the schedule, most scenes wouldn't reach full compositing until the final week: sound mixing, final post, finalized voice work, effects polish… all jammed into the tightest bottleneck.
So he forced a concentrated push out of the entire studio. Pull the most complete mecha segments first. Color them. Slot in provisional lines. Pass them through photography. Add basic effects. Stitch them together with a handful of everyday cuts. Edit with enough rhythm to feel real.
That was why everyone had been walking around half-dead these last few days.
It wasn't drama.
It was sleep deprivation.
…
On the night of March 23rd, at 10:12 p.m., the lobby of Yume Animation was packed. The studio's dozen-or-so employees - Sora included - crowded around the large TV like they were waiting for a verdict.
On-screen, The Magic Swordswoman Charlene was playing - this season's hit.
The final episode was the last battle: Charlene versus the Demon King. The frame was so bright it looked like someone had dumped an entire bucket of special effects over the animation. Explosions, beams, particles, magic - just from looking at it, you could tell the budget had been spent boldly.
And it made sense. A weak finale - cheap-looking, rushed, collapsing into obvious animation errors - would poison the whole show. And no demanding fan was going to spend a small fortune on Blu-rays and official merch if they felt cheated at the last minute.
"Yeah… this is actually pretty fun," said Chūgen, the coloring supervisor, watching closely.
"But episode-quality wise, I still think our show's going to be way above it," Hina added - pride that sounded like it came more from exhaustion than vanity.
Ren folded her arms, eyes on the screen like she was doing math in her head. "I wish we could make a full original seasonal series like this again someday… something like Charlene."
Sumire turned her head and looked at Sora.
"A seasonal series, huh…"
Sora let out a quiet chuckle, almost soundless. For a moment, a flood of legendary titles flashed through his mind like sparks.
"If we get through this… and we're lucky… it won't take that long."
If The Voices of a Distant Star premiered well - if it delivered what he needed, both in return and in something he chased even more obsessively - and if that allowed him to finally clear the debts crushing the inheritance his father had left behind… then the next project would come naturally.
That quiet confidence in his voice stirred something in Sumire.
Does he already have a plan?
Is he already thinking about the next one… even with everything burning down right now?
After all, on this project he was the writer, the director, and the one managing production. If he had a new idea in his head, he didn't need anyone's permission to start sketching the path forward.
Before Sumire could sink deeper into those thoughts, the reaction from the staff around them cut through the air.
Charlene's final episode ended.
After a quick announcement about Blu-ray and merch… the moment everyone had been waiting for arrived, their bodies tightening as if it were a premiere.
The PV for The Voices of a Distant Star.
Sora's gaze hardened. His fingers trembled - so slightly it was almost invisible.
It was true the anime had come to him through an absurd "draw," but over the last three months he'd poured everything he had into making it exist in Japan. It was short. It was tight. It was a gamble.
And even though tonight wasn't the main episode - only a PV - his chest still boiled, restless, like he was about to open a door that couldn't be closed again.
In that instant, across Shikoku and the surrounding regions covered by the station's signal, thousands of viewers watching TV saw the screen go dark.
Pure black.
And then, slowly, the title began to surface in the center of the darkness:
The Voices of a Distant Star
…
Dream Animation Now is Yume Animation
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