By December, production of the 'Fate/zero' anime had been fully completed. After several days of rest and adjustment, the company was ready to begin work on its next anime, another original production for which Kamiyā Yuu would personally handle the story script and storyboards: 'Code Geass'.
Yosuganosora Animation Studio, conference room.
Kamiyā Sora stood up, organized the notes and documents she had recorded, then looked around at everyone in the conference room and asked softly, "Then, for now, we'll keep the production arrangements for the new anime 'Code Geass' as discussed. Does anyone have any objections? If not, we can officially begin production tomorrow."
There was no trace of childishness on her face. Her slender, delicate body was dressed in a carefully tailored black women's business suit, while her silver hair was braided and draped over one shoulder. Her appearance was still youthful, but her eyes and brows now carried a capable, serious, intellectual air. She had already been with Yosuganosora Animation Studio for more than half a year, and through considerable effort, Kamiyā Sora had gradually become one of the company's important pillars, just like Morishita Aoi.
"No objections. Our 3D department is the most idle of all the production departments anyway. If something goes wrong, it won't have much to do with us." Yūki Chinatsu lazily sprawled over the conference table. Sitting in the office chair, her feet couldn't even touch the floor because of her height, so she simply swung them back and forth like a child. She clearly still hadn't recovered from the relaxed mood of the past few days off.
"Mm."
Gogyo Ruri covered her mouth with a small hand and yawned as she quietly agreed. Even though the company had been relatively relaxed over the past few days, the exhaustion on her face was even more obvious than when the company was busy. The slightly curled ends of her black hair also showed that she hadn't carefully groomed it as she normally did.
"The key animation department has no objections." Uehara Etsuki, dressed in a plain kimono, lifted one sleeve and raised her hand. When her gaze met Kamiyā Yuu's, she gave him a gentle smile.
The heads of the photography, sound, art, and other departments voiced their agreement one after another. Overall, there were no problems with the anime's production. Since the story script and storyboards were basically handled entirely by Kamiyā Yuu himself, there were far fewer miscellaneous complications throughout the process than at an ordinary animation studio.
When a normal animation studio held a production meeting, it had to consider not only the production team's opinions, but also the producer's ideas. If the anime had an original source work, then the original creator's side also had to be accommodated. An animation director of merely average ability would probably find it difficult to deal with everything.
In his previous world, Yamamoto Yutaka, an animation director who had become something of an "internet celebrity" and a so-called "anime BD sales benchmark," had once complained about many of the industry's inner workings. These included investment restrictions caused by the state of the industry, as well as all sorts of absurd situations between producers and animation staff.
Originally, the position of producer was rather special. Although producers didn't directly participate in animation production, they essentially acted as overseers alongside the animation director responsible for the entire work. At the same time, because they needed to judge the quality of an anime, they were required to possess fairly professional knowledge of animation. In that sense, a producer could also be considered half an animation staff member.
If they didn't understand animation, that was actually fine. At least they wouldn't randomly interfere.
But quite a few producers liked to act recklessly, excessively interfering with production according to their own preferences. In the end, the animation director still had to take the blame. Completely ignoring a producer's opinion was basically impossible, so all the director could do was minimize the negative impact those opinions had on the anime.
The meeting ended, and after the discussions were finished, the department heads left the conference room one after another.
Yūki Chinatsu turned toward Gogyo Ruri beside her with an impressive, elder-like expression and spoke earnestly. "Kuroneko, why have you looked exhausted this whole time? Were you playing games until late last night? That's no good. We're basically starting formal production on the new anime today."
Gogyo Ruri lay against the desk with her face turned sideways toward her and replied, "Mm. There's a game I'm interested in. Once I started playing, I accidentally lost track of myself. Then when I finally wanted to sleep, I couldn't feel sleepy at all because I kept thinking about the game."
"A game?"
Yūki Chinatsu's expression immediately turned curious. "What game?"
She was also a gaming enthusiast, although her skill level was far below Gogyo Ruri's. Naturally, she was very interested in any game capable of captivating Gogyo Ruri this much.
"It's the Thr—"
Before Gogyo Ruri could finish answering, Kamiyā Yuu happened to pass by them. He picked up a document and held it upright in front of her, cutting her off. Facing their puzzled gazes, he shrugged and said, "Yes, yes, that's enough about that. We're officially starting production tomorrow, yet today you two are already discussing games. Aren't you being a little too relaxed?"
Yūki Chinatsu pouted. "I only wanted to know the name of the game Kuroneko was playing."
"No." Kamiyā Yuu lightly tapped the top of her head with the folder.
Yūki Chinatsu glared at him in dissatisfaction. "What's the big deal? I'll get my work done properly. Stingy."
Kamiyā Yuu helplessly shrugged and secretly shot Gogyo Ruri a reproachful glance before saying meaningfully, "No one can guarantee that."
Gogyo Ruri had known that today's production meeting was coming, yet including the past few days of downtime, she had remained sleepy and sluggish the entire time. The root cause was the 'Throne of Heroes' test account Kamiyā Yuu had given her. She had become completely addicted to the game.
Gogyo Ruri wasn't too bad, since she at least possessed a basic level of self-control. But if Yūki Chinatsu also became addicted, Yosuganosora Animation Studio would have a serious headache on its hands. With her personality, she was probably the type who wouldn't sleep until she'd cleared a game. And it wasn't as though Kamiyā Yuu was grossly overestimating the playability of 'Throne of Heroes'. If Yūki Chinatsu genuinely became interested in it, the 3D department might very well spend more than half a month effectively unsupervised.
"Uh..."
Gogyo Ruri gave an awkward smile. Realizing Kamiyā Yuu's intention, she stood up and lazily stretched. "Mm~ Then I'll head back first. Chinatsu, I'll tell you about the game some other time."
She should know what to do. If she described the game she'd become addicted to as some other fairly interesting title Yūki Chinatsu had already played, then Chinatsu's enthusiasm would probably cool down considerably.
Games and other matters could be set aside for now. Every time production of a new anime was about to begin was when Kamiyā Yuu became busiest.
Compared with before, however, Kamiyā Yuu was much more relaxed now. The main reason his workload had decreased was another skill he had become increasingly familiar with—drawing through consciousness.
If he could draw illustrations on a computer, then naturally he could also draw anime key frames and storyboards digitally. It was simply that 'Fate/zero' had continued using hand-drawn storyboards, so he hadn't had time to make the switch before.
During the company's adjustment period over the past few days, he had already asked Morishita Aoi to notify everyone that from now on, his storyboards and key drawings would no longer be hand-drawn. He would complete them directly on the computer, after which Morishita Aoi would print them out and distribute them to the key animation department.
With Kamiyā Yuu's current ability to draw through consciousness, both his drawing speed and precision were far superior to traditional hand drawing. A quantity of storyboards that had previously required ten hours could now be completed in roughly three, and their quality would rise another level as well, greatly reducing the pressure on the key animation department.
The remaining time could be used for his own projects.
For example, the web novel 'Battle Through the Heavens', which Kamiyā Yuu was currently writing, had already begun gaining momentum on Chinese web-fiction sites. At the same time that 'Throne of Heroes' was stirring up controversy in Japan, 'Battle Through the Heavens' was also beginning to cause waves throughout China's web-novel scene.