Even though Aoi said she would try to work things out, Yuta wasn't holding his breath.
Unless he caved and apologized, the only way Genma would come back to Starfall and keep directing Clannad was if they pulled Yuta off the script. But there was no way Yuta would ever agree to that.
Bottom line, it was one or the other.
If Yuta stayed, Genma was gone. If Genma stayed, Yuta was gone.
And when forced to pick a side, Aoi could only go with Yuta. Genma could be replaced. Yuta Shido could not.
Things went exactly how he figured they would.
A day later, he got a call from Aoi. She sounded tired on the other end. "I tried talking to him, but it was no use. His terms for making peace are having someone else write the script and getting a personal apology from you."
"He wants someone else on the script too?" Yuta couldn't believe his ears.
An apology was already off the table, never mind handing the script to somebody else. Did this guy seriously think he was hot stuff just because he directed a few forgettable bishoujo anime?
"I should have seen through him sooner," Aoi suddenly said, sounding guilty. "If I'd known what kind of person he was, I never would have picked him to direct Clannad."
"Miss Fuji, this isn't on you. The real issue is that Starfall just doesn't have enough pull yet," Yuta told her.
If Starfall actually had some weight to throw around, Genma never would have gotten so full of himself in the first place, and he sure as hell wouldn't have dared tell a producer and scriptwriter to redo everything from scratch.
When you got right down to it, being weak was the real problem.
He let out a sigh and asked, "So what's the plan now?"
"We cut him loose. I'll find you a new director," Aoi said.
"Breaking the contract on our end means paying a penalty."
"Who said we're breaking it on our end?"
"Huh?"
"Let me handle this. Don't worry about it. Spend that time finishing the Clannad script instead."
"Alright. Thanks, I owe you one."
Letting Aoi take point on this was definitely the smarter move. With her connections and Arcane's muscle backing her up, Genma wouldn't dare try to squeeze them for cash.
Too bad the contract was tied to Clannad as a project and not to Starfall as a company.
Otherwise they wouldn't even need to terminate anything. They could just ice him out, and then Genma would be the one scrambling.
Either way, this whole mess should have been done and over with.
After hanging up, Yuta opened the Word doc on his computer and got back to writing the rest of Clannad's script.
Two days later, Genma agreed to the termination, just like they expected. But right when Yuta thought the whole thing was finally behind him, something he didn't see coming happened.
A knock on the door.
Before Yuta could even say anything, Rika came rushing into the president's office looking panicked. "President, we've got a problem! Starfall is getting trashed online!"
"What?"
Yuta frowned. "What do you mean?"
Instead of explaining, Rika just pointed him to a social media platform and pulled up a post that had gone live less than an hour ago.
[A certain company took things way too far. They begged me to come on board as their director, said all the right things, and then when I gave them one little piece of feedback, they kicked me off the production team. They wouldn't even let me through the front door anymore. And then on top of all that, they forced me to 'voluntarily' end my contract. I've been a working director since day one of my career, and I have never been treated this badly. I'm done staying quiet about this!]
The post was from Genma Wasabi, obviously. He wasn't exactly a top-tier director, but he had a few anime under his belt with decent reputations and solid enough sales, so he had a certain level of fame. Because of that, even though the post had only been up for less than an hour, it was already blowing up with comments and shares.
"Which company would do something like that? I'm boycotting their anime forever."
"I actually know which one. Pretty sure it's Starfall Animation."
"Starfall? Never heard of them."
"They're some tiny studio that's only been around for like two years. They mostly just did outsource work before, so it's not weird that nobody knows them."
"I heard they did put out one anime recently called Heartbeat House, but it was total garbage. Only sold like six hundred copies."
"Wait, seriously? A company like that had the nerve to disrespect Director Wasabi? Where do they get off?"
"There's always gonna be trash like that no matter where you look."
...
Genma's original post hadn't actually named Starfall, but someone in the comments outed them, which made Yuta suspect it might have been one of Genma's own burner accounts.
Starfall was weak, sure, but at the end of the day it was still a company.
And Genma was just one guy. When one person publicly attacks a company, almost everyone is going to assume the company is the bad guy, not the individual.
Especially when Genma's post was written like he was the victim.
The ink on the termination papers was barely dry and this guy was already putting Starfall on blast online.
What a piece of trash.
And of course, the brain-dead internet crowd had zero ability to think critically.
They just automatically sided with whoever they thought was the underdog and piled on whoever they decided was the bully.
"Son of a bitch!"
Yuta already didn't like Genma as a person, and now the guy had pulled this stunt on top of everything else. The whole thing made his stomach turn.
Running into someone like this was just the worst luck imaginable.
Right then, his phone rang.
Aoi Fuji.
He picked up and immediately heard her say, "Did you see the post Genma put up online?"
"Yeah, just saw it," Yuta said.
"That guy... I honestly didn't think he'd go this far. Looking back on it, you were right to refuse to apologize. Nobody should have to bow down to someone that disgusting," Aoi said with real feeling.
Yuta didn't gloat. He just asked, "What do you think Starfall should do now, Miss Fuji?"
"Put out a statement clearing things up. I'll handle the PR on my end and try to keep the damage as small as possible," Aoi said.
Yuta nodded. "Got it."
After he hung up, he registered a new account and wrote a post himself, laying out the whole story from beginning to end, exactly as it happened.
It was a brand new account with zero followers, but Aoi had people at Arcane share it right away, so the truth spread quickly.
Once the full story got out there, the internet crowd didn't quite know what to think anymore.
They had been so sure Starfall was the villain, but now that they could see the whole picture, it didn't really look that way at all.
Before anyone could even sort out how they felt, though, Genma posted again.
[The only reason I asked President Shido to change the script was because it wasn't good enough. I wasn't trying to give him a hard time. But he actually thinks he knows more about anime and audiences than I do. Give me a break. Maybe he should think about who I am and who he is.]
Yuta fired back without hesitation.
[Whether the script is good enough isn't for you to decide. If the anime flops, the ones taking the hit are Starfall and Arcane, not you. Get that through your head. Both Miss Fuji and I were satisfied with it, but you just had to stick your nose in and try to run the show. How is anyone supposed to put up with that? What were we supposed to do, keep you around so you could ruin everything we worked on?]
Genma didn't post again after that. But just when Yuta thought the storm was finally dying down, a new post appeared.
[Hey everyone. I'm Kaito Amanai, a producer at Lumen. I've been involved in the production of several anime titles. I just found out about the situation between Director Wasabi and Starfall, and I feel like I need to say something fair here. I actually know a fair amount about this new anime Starfall is making.]
[If you ask me, the script for their new anime really isn't up to snuff... actually, no, the whole project pitch itself is weak. I have no idea what the new president of Arcane saw in it.]
[On this one, I'm siding with Director Wasabi. Both Starfall and Arcane owe him an apology.]
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