By March, after half a month of release, the domestic box office of the Demon Slayer film in Japan had already reached 68 billion yen, and the overseas market had surpassed 30 billion yen. Both figures were significantly better than the first Infinity Castle Arc film's performance at the same point two years prior.
This was to be expected. Over two years, the number of Demon Slayer fans had grown globally. The box office performance of fan-oriented films depended entirely on the size of the existing audience.
Although Rei had not been personally involved in Demon Slayer's promotion since March, the company's commercialised IP operational processes ran independently.
For the second Infinity Castle Arc film, various merchandise lines had already launched pre-order links on the official website and major online shopping platforms. At Hoshimori Group, the pre-printed manga volumes covering the second part were ready for release, with a clear target of surpassing the first part's sales record.
Overseas, orders from distributors and merchandise partners were flowing into Japan. After domestic orders were processed, major factories still had overseas backlogs queued.
At this stage, the Demon Slayer IP had developed into a precisely coordinated commercial machine. From the top of the chain to the bottom, every professional in the entire industry contributed to its growth. Including Rei and his employees, tens of thousands of professionals and merchants worldwide could benefit substantially from it.
Rei was already considering creating original anime featuring the main characters in a daily life, romance, friendship, and action context after the main Demon Slayer story concluded, to maintain the IP's longevity. The main story's ending was quite tragic, with few survivors. But essentially all the main characters were reincarnated into the modern world a century later, which had been the original manga author's greatest mercy toward his audience.
After reincarnating into the modern era, there was substantial content available to develop. If Rei himself was not inclined to write it directly, he could hire capable Japanese anime scriptwriters to develop derivative content based on the original character foundations.
In his previous life, after a certain major fantasy franchise became enormously popular, a series of derivative parallel-world anime had emerged to maintain the franchise's visibility without disrupting the original work's integrity.
Demon Slayer was exceptional in every respect, except that its main story was too short. If Japan's local scriptwriting talent could produce quality original plots about the reincarnated modern-day lives of popular characters like Kyojuro Rengoku and Shinobu Kocho, Rei would not hesitate to open that door.
Fans could see their favourite characters continue. Rei and market partners could generate additional revenue from the IP. The IP's lifespan would extend. There was no reason not to pursue it.
After all, Rei had founded Shirogane Animation and Illumination Production Company specifically to freely address the regrets that these works from his previous life had left behind.
As soon as Rei raised the topic in the company's internal meetings, the enthusiasm of the management at every level surged immediately. Demon Slayer was the highest-value IP in Shirogane Animation's current portfolio by a significant margin. When the person at the top expressed interest, those below aligned without hesitation.
Companies like Shirogane Animation and Illumination Production Company, where Rei held near-complete authority, moved extremely quickly on decisions of this kind. The third Infinity Castle Arc film, scheduled for release two years later, was already largely completed.
But if derivative anime were to be produced afterward, projects needed to begin development immediately, with Japan's best available anime scriptwriters brought in to develop the scripts. Kyojuro and Shinobu Kocho in particular could carry dedicated spin-off series.
Of course, regardless of how creatively engaged the subordinates became, any work requiring official authorisation had to pass Rei's review. He wanted to extend the IP's lifespan and generate revenue, but he would not compromise the brand for short-term returns. If a script's quality did not reach a defined standard, it would not receive his approval.
Time moved to mid-to-late March.
By then, the final box office rankings for the New Year holiday release window were essentially settled.
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba would end its theatrical run in the 90 to 100 billion yen range. My Neighbor Totoro was tracking toward approximately 34 billion yen. The second-highest-grossing film of the holiday window would finish at around 50 billion yen.
These three were the top three earners of the window, all running at strong profit.
The other four films released in the same period told a different story. With the market's attention concentrated so heavily on the three leading works, one of the four barely broke even. The remaining three sustained serious losses against their investments.
That was simply how the film market functioned. Some profited, some lost. In Japan's film market, it was inevitable that Rei would accumulate a growing number of capital investors who resented him for the losses their projects suffered when his works absorbed market share. Some of them, after confirming their losses, went so far as to fund coordinated negative campaigns against him online without any pretence of professionalism.
Rei did not concern himself with it. In commercial competition, alliances and antagonists coexisted as a matter of course. The grand coalition of Shirogane Animation, Illumination Production Company, Hoshimori Group, and their affiliated partners across Japan's anime industry held enormous influence in the global anime market, and the hostility they attracted would be proportional to that influence. It would not stop unless Rei chose to step back entirely someday.
His primary focus through March was directed entirely toward the Bleach anime, scheduled to premiere in early April.
April 6th. Thursday.
Taking over the broadcast slot that Attack on Titan had vacated, Shirogane's new work Bleach would air on Ion TV at 8 PM.
The following day, Friday, Bleach would also debut in Dream Comic Journal.
This announcement, jointly released by Shirogane Animation, Illumination Production Company, and Hoshimori Group in late March, topped the trending charts of every major anime forum in Japan within thirty minutes.
"A month after the Demon Slayer film, Shirogane-sensei has another new work premiering. I've been waiting eagerly, feeling like my heart is breaking."
"It's only been half a month."
"No choice. As the ancients said, a day apart feels like three years. A month equals a lifetime for me. Of course the wait is agonising."
"Hard to imagine how you'd handle it if Shirogane-sensei passed away one day."
"Don't say that. In my heart, there are four people in this world who will definitely live to a hundred: me, my parents, and Shirogane-sensei."
"What about your partner?"
"I don't have a partner. How could a die-hard Shirogane-sensei fan have a partner? Hahaha."
"A new anime after Attack on Titan. Bleach feels like it's carrying enormous pressure. Once it airs, viewers will immediately compare it to Demon Slayer, Attack on Titan, and Hunter."
"Of course. From this point forward, if any new Shirogane-sensei work doesn't match the quality of the three giants, HXH, OPM, and Demon Slayer the market will immediately be flooded with claims that he's run out of talent. I'm already tired of it."
"How could anyone easily reach the heights of the three giants? Summer Time Rendering and Higurashi were both highly anticipated and both fell short in their market performance.
Bleach will likely also struggle to match those heights. But it doesn't matter. Shirogane-sensei's ceiling is impossible to predict, but the baseline quality of his works is a standard that ninety-nine-point-nine-nine percent of Japan's anime creators could never reach in their entire careers. Just watch it without overthinking it. It will not be a bad work."
"Over the past five or six years, it has been the era of the Three Giants dominating Japan's anime industry. In the next ten years, Shirogane-sensei is sure to carve out a new era. Although I can hardly imagine what a work stronger than the Three Giants would look like, Shirogane-sensei will surpass his own previous peak.
Bleach premiering in April, Naruto in July, and there are also rumours about a similarly long-running anime project being internally planned at Illumination Production Company but not yet in production. It might just be what defines Japan's anime industry over the next decade."
"Wait, Illumination Production Company has another long-running project in the works?"
"That's right. After the New Year holiday, it's rumoured Shirogane-sensei confirmed the anime project in a meeting. He himself reportedly described it as a very long, super-long-running project. There's no total expected investment figure, but there is a per-episode budget cap. The rumoured per-episode animation investment is at least over 80 million yen."
"Seriously? Even mid-to-long-running anime like Demon Slayer and Attack on Titan only have per-episode investments of around that level. For a long-running series that runs for years at that investment level, can it recoup costs?"
"The longest-running anime in Japan, Cosmic Robot Giant Star, has been serialising for over eight hundred episodes across more than a decade, with an average per-episode production cost of only around 11 million yen. Shirogane-sensei is investing this much even in long-running anime?"
"Not clear. But Bleach, Naruto, and the rumoured third long-running project are all reportedly budgeted at this level. If we extrapolate from that, with all three anime potentially airing concurrently in the future, Shirogane-sensei's annual production costs for just these three series would exceed 10 billion yen.
That's a fixed ongoing expense. But the fact that he dares to do this shows he has full confidence that these three works will generate returns far exceeding the investment."
"In other words, judging by the investment level, Shirogane-sensei's confidence in these three works is at least comparable to what he showed with the Three Giants."
"Exactly. Anyway, I trust Shirogane-sensei's judgment. Everyone, just dive into Bleach without overthinking it on April 6th."
That was simply how the anime industry worked.
No matter how popular a work was, once it concluded or stopped serialising steadily, its momentum dropped sharply. The discussion surrounding the second Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Arc film had sustained for a full month. But with just over two hours of content, fans had thoroughly covered every angle of discussion and debate within that period.
The Bleach anime, premiering in just over a week, had become the dominant topic across Japan's anime fandom.
Media coverage had also shifted, moving away from the Demon Slayer film's quality and box office performance to focus attention on Bleach.
Throughout this period, every employee of Illumination Production Company and Shirogane Animation was under considerable tension. They represented the highest production capability in Japan's current anime industry. For them, receiving praise for their work was expected. But if Bleach failed critically, the backlash and industry ridicule they would face would be several times greater than anything their peers experienced.
Everyone hoped Bleach would become another series on the level of the Three Giants. Everyone also felt uncertain, because the achievements of those three works were simply that exceptional.
There was an old saying about sustained bursts of effort eventually giving way to exhaustion. As for Shirogane-sensei himself.
When would his talent begin to diminish?
The unknown always generated anxiety.
But Rei had no particular concern for what various parties in the industry were thinking.
April 1st.
Rei was celebrating with his whole heart as his wife Miyu achieved a triple crown of consecutive first-place finishes in Dream Comic's reader vote rankings.
"Congratulations to our mangaka Saki for her work Reincarnation ranking first in reader votes in Dream Comic for three consecutive weeks!"
In a reserved hotel banquet room, Rei, Miyu, and Misaki all wore broad smiles. Rei's expression was deliberately exaggerated, an absurd theatrical performance aimed entirely at making his wife laugh.
"Miyu, you're pregnant, so no wine. Low-sugar beverage instead." Rei poured his wife a glass, then poured wine for himself and his sister-in-law Misaki.
"Twelve years." Miyu had been thoroughly happy a moment before, but the words came out with tears rising in her eyes.
Twelve years in the manga industry. For the first time, she had reached the top of Dream Comic's rankings.
The circumstances were what they were: Rei's works were not serialising during this window, and being Shirogane's wife, she had received a degree of support from his fanbase, enabling her to hold first place for three consecutive weeks.
But first place was first place. Shirogane's fans were not incapable of judgement. They would not support a manga that offered nothing of its own. Reincarnation had to meet a genuine standard of quality for those fans to bother voting for it.
In Rei's previous life, after a certain famous author completed their flagship long-running manga, their follow-up work was cancelled after poor performance, despite the original work's enormous global fanbase. Fans of great works did not offer blind loyalty to the creator.
Miyu understood this clearly. She felt no ambiguity about this first place.
"Today, the top searches across every major anime platform and forum are about Shirogane-sensei's wife Saki's manga work topping Dream Comic!" Misaki said, looking at her phone.
"Topping once might be luck. Topping for three consecutive weeks means the market genuinely recognises your ability."
"In the history of Japan's manga industry, the two of you are truly unprecedented. Both husband and wife as top-ranked mangakas in Dream Comic's history. It's like a fairy tale."
"But next week, I'll be back to second place." Miyu came back to reality quickly.
"Next week is only the first week of the Bleach manga's serialisation. It might not have enough momentum yet to overtake Reincarnation!" Misaki looked at Rei and said. "Maybe just for that one week, Miyu, you actually have a genuine chance to stay on top of Rei's new manga work."
Rei smiled without answering.
Miyu's eyes lit up immediately.
"Really?"
"Really." Misaki laughed.
"Rei, what do you think?" Miyu looked at her husband.
"No. There's no such possibility." Rei chuckled.
Given the influence of the Shirogane pen name, the likelihood of Bleach being outsold by any other manga in its opening week of serialisation was essentially zero.
But for now, let his wife enjoy the moment.
Time moved quickly.
A few days passed in a flash.
April 6th arrived. Thursday.
The premiere day of the first episode of the Bleach anime.