Time moved into August.
After Naruto and Bleach each hit their stride, the discussion around works like Attack on Titan and Demon Slayer in the Japanese animation scene saw a steep decline.
Anime fans only ever fixate on the works in current serialization. The same-season rivalry between Naruto and Bleach let Capital Television, which Ion TV had held down for several years, lift its head at last.
Naruto's reception and numbers in the early stretch of its run ran a few points ahead of Bleach's. The two fanbases despised each other, yet the friction did no harm to either show. Instead, both works climbed higher and higher on the back of the arguments.
At anime conventions, the presence of cosplayers, posters, and elements tied to Bleach and Naruto began to push aside predecessor anime like Attack on Titan and Demon Slayer.
Although the people in the Japanese animation scene had seen this coming, many of his peers still sighed in their hearts when it arrived.
Just how long would this Shirogane rule the Japanese animation scene before any sign of decline?
Ten years, was it not?
Starting from Hikaru no Go, he had been the protagonist of the entire Japanese animation scene.
So many masterpieces beloved across the world had been serialized and completed since then. Even works like Attack on Titan, maxed out in both reception and commercial value, had been created. Many people had felt, when Attack on Titan ended, that it marked the peak of Shirogane's career.
Even if Shirogane produced further hits, those works would never reach the height of Attack on Titan and Demon Slayer.
But why were the early numbers for Naruto and Bleach so monstrous?
Bleach at least kept a low profile for a whole season and only found its feet once the plot entered the Soul Society arc around episode ten.
Naruto was not even pretending.
It was strong from the first episode, the plot gripping the whole way through, the pace tight up to the current eighth episode.
Every chapter could touch off a wave of discussion online.
The crucial point: most of Shirogane's earlier works needed fans at the young-adult level to appreciate them.
Naruto and Bleach were perhaps most popular among elementary school children.
When Kakashi and Zabuza clashed, for instance, the use of the Sharingan and the various ninjutsu hand signs set off a wave of imitation among elementary school kids. The spread ran faster than Attack on Titan's had among the same age group when it first aired.
Inside Shirogane Animation, when Misaki and Rei sat down to go over company business, even they were taken aback by how fast these two works had caught on.
"Something seems a little off. Naruto and Bleach, Naruto above all, look set to be the fastest-rising works in early popularity out of everything you have serialized over the years. Bleach is no slouch either. Every episode of the Soul Society arc has drawn high praise since it began airing."
"This is a normal development, no need to puzzle over it." Rei took a rare moment to play it cool in front of Misaki.
At their core, why were the 'Big Three' shonen manga called that in Rei's previous life?
Because their audience was very broad. Even ordinary grassroots workers with grueling jobs could get hooked with ease.
Even if Bleach's early build-up leaned on cliché, it was only a touch less interesting than Naruto or One Piece, and it still outdid the openings of many other popular battle manga.
Works like Fairy Tail, or Katekyo Hitman Reborn!.
Once works like these had a base of fans and a certain level of discussion heat, the rapid rise of their popularity within Japan became a matter of course.
After all, beyond the sheer quality of the works themselves, they carried the pen name of the author, Shirogane.
The pen name Shirogane was now a gold-lettered signboard in the Japanese animation scene, its reputation standing above that of the most revered animation masters of Rei's previous life. Rei was now only one 'dying young' away from being enshrined as a deity in the Japanese animation scene.
Since he was still alive, though, he could only be called the man one step short of the God of Anime.
"There is also One Piece, which starts airing next year. You should keep an eye on that one too. Of these three works, One Piece is the ultimate trump card." Rei looked at Misaki.
Going by the East Asian markets of his previous life, Naruto's influence in that region might have edged out One Piece's.
But on a global scale in his previous life, One Piece's overall influence had the edge over Naruto's.
That held during the serialization years, and after Naruto concluded the gap grew clearer.
The pattern showed in the IP value of the works. By the list rankings, One Piece's IP value sat around 30 billion USD, more than double Naruto's, while Naruto's came in at more than double Bleach's.
Placed in the Japan dimension, the development would likely run the same way.
Still, Shirogane Animation's path forward was globalization, so Misaki needed to pour more effort into the overseas promotion of these three anime, One Piece most of all.
"If the One Piece anime is, as you say, a work on par with Naruto and Bleach, then at the current rate, there is a strong chance all three could grow into an IP on the level of Attack on Titan." Even saying it, Misaki found it absurd.
A work like Attack on Titan came once in decades.
Now it was a real possibility that three would arrive at once.
"Think bigger. Bleach aside, the final IP value of Naruto and One Piece topping Demon Slayer is a high-probability event." Rei paused, then began to prepare Misaki for the rest.
The IP value of a work tallied the total commercial value of every link in its industrial chain. If a manga tankobon sold 100 million copies, for instance, the billions of yen in sales would all fold into that figure, though Rei himself drew only a 15 percent royalty.
IP value was not the same as his and the company's income.
But with several anime IPs worth tens of billions, even hundreds of billions, arriving back to back, Shirogane Animation and Rei's net worth would not stop at the level of Tokyo's wealthiest.
In under ten years, Rei might sit near the top of the Japan rich list, or even the global one.
"Is it truly that outrageous?" After half a minute of thought, Misaki looked at Rei and pressed the question.
Rei's read on the market for his own works had never missed, so Misaki took 99 percent of his judgments on faith.
"It is not outrageous at all. These are the results the three works were always going to reach." Rei smiled.
"In the future, there may be works that come close, or even surpass them."
Works like Dragon Ball, Pokémon, and Yu-Gi-Oh!. Pokémon above all, the single biggest IP among all cultural properties worldwide in Rei's previous life.
Since its debut, the cumulative IP value of that work, counting merchandise, copyright sales, game sales, and the rest, had passed 100 billion USD.
This outstripped even other giant IPs of the same class, like the Marvel Cinematic Universe or the Harry Potter series.
But a property like Pokémon would demand that Rei's own game production department come into its own. Rei himself would have to cram on game design and serve as half a game designer in person, drawing out the classic Pokémon titles of his previous life and then widening the IP's reach through the anime, before there was any hope of matching the heights of that previous life.
It was fair to say Rei still had a great deal to learn.
"Did you dream up all of these works in the last few years?" Misaki drew a deep breath and looked at Rei with an odd expression. "By your account, you have already built the full plots for Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece. You have been run off your feet these years. Where would you find the time to map out anime this long?"
"That would be impossible, of course." Rei laughed. "They are all ideas I had back in elementary and middle school. I am only bringing them into the light now."
"Then why not draw them as manga and submit them to me when I was at Dream Comic?" Misaki asked.
"Would that not have been a waste? If I had handed those works to Dream Comic back then, the copyrights would sit with Hoshimori. Not like now, with every copyright in my own hands."
"True." Misaki nodded after a moment's thought, then let out a sigh. "I have no idea what Shirogane Animation will become if it keeps growing at this pace."
"No need to feel the weight of it, Misaki. Just go and do it." Rei laughed. "Have no doubts about your own ability. I have full faith that you can make Shirogane Animation the largest animation company in the world."
Rei and Misaki always settled the company's future direction and policy during these talks that felt more like family gatherings.
The pros and cons of a family business like this were plain, yet Rei was neither stubborn nor suspicious by nature, and Misaki had real talent for running a company. Paired with Rei's unconditional trust, the company's growth carried advantages that far outweighed the drawbacks.
August ended just like that.
Time came to September.
Miyu's due date was drawing near. She was unwilling, but Rei made her set down all the work in her hands. She did not want the manga's popularity to slip during a hiatus, so for the stretch before the birth, the drawing of the Reincarnation manga would pass to her assistants. She would handle the storyboards, and Rei, as supervisor of the manuscript and lead artist on the key panels, would support her.
As for company affairs, Rei left all of it to Misaki.
In the same stretch of time, the Bleach plot had reached the point where Ichigo Kurosaki and his group of four broke into the Soul Society, opened their clash with the Gotei 13, and began to brush against a certain conspiracy.
The anime's viewership rating sat close to the 8 percent mark.
In Dream Comic's internal reader rankings, though, it had slipped to second place by a narrow margin.
Because Naruto's recent run was the more thrilling of the two.
The quartet of Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi, and Sakura were carrying out the Land of Waves mission. Their first clash with Zabuza Momochi, the flawless teamwork between Naruto and Sasuke, and Naruto's run-in with Haku, who looked like a lovely older sister but turned out to be a lovely older brother and Zabuza's devoted subordinate.
With no slack at all, in a mere eleven weeks, Naruto had pulled every anime fan in Japan into a treacherous, brutal ninja world. Hot blood and humor lived side by side in the plot, the themes carried real weight, and sudden bursts of intensity kept arriving, each episode closing on a cliffhanger. A vast number of Japanese anime fans were hooked in no time.
"This season is pure bliss. Two anime this good, airing back to back."
"Can you believe the part of the week I look forward to most is no longer the weekend? It is Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Wednesday for the Naruto anime, Thursday for the Bleach anime, and Friday for Dream Comic and the Naruto and Bleach manga."
"Wait, you read the manga again after watching the anime?"
"You do not get it. There is nothing wrong with the animation on Shirogane-sensei's works, but the manga often has extra material. An anime episode is locked at twenty-four minutes, so calls have to be made on a lot of detail. The manga is different. There are plenty of small additions to the plot."
"More than that. Read the Bleach manga and you will see the story has a charm in black and white that the colored anime does not. It is just comfortable, and the immersion during Ichigo's outbursts is total."
"I lean toward the anime, but that kind of preference comes down to the person."
"I am already looking forward to the One Piece anime entering the fray next year. Out of Shirogane Animation's internal investments, the budget for One Piece is even higher than Bleach and Naruto."
"Biting off more than you can chew is a real risk. It is enough for Shirogane-sensei to hold the current quality of Bleach and Naruto. No need to push out so many works. Stretch the line too thin and you get a release that wrecks the reputation."
"Give it a rest. Shirogane-sensei understands creative work better than we do. No point worrying for nothing."
"I love Bleach and Naruto to death right now. I thought Attack on Titan was the peak and that Shirogane-sensei only made grand tragedies and bleak anime. Turns out he has a rare gift for straight classic shonen action too."
"For real. Bleach and Naruto are the kind of classic shonen that make you want to keep going episode after episode."
"Completely different from Attack on Titan. Watch that one back to back and your heart cannot take it. Too tragic."
It was Wednesday again. Before Naruto aired, a crowd online began the daily argument, weighing the strengths of the two anime against each other.
By evening, after the twelfth episode of Naruto aired, the discussion around the work climbed to its highest point yet.
Since Naruto began airing, the first true major climax of the plot had arrived.
Team 7, led by Kakashi, faced off on the bridge against the wanted ninja that the wealthy merchant Gato had hired at a steep price. One of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, Zabuza Momochi, and his subordinate, Haku.
At the close of the episode, in the moment Sasuke fell into grave danger, the protagonist Naruto Uzumaki made an appearance no one saw coming.
If cliffhangers alone were the measure, the early-to-mid stretch of Naruto stood at a deified level. The earlier plot was fine, but a cliffhanger like this, on the eve of a major battle, left a crowd of elementary schoolers and longtime anime fans ready to climb the walls.
That evening, more than a million comments demanding the next update poured in under Rei's creator account all at once. On the major anime sites, search terms tied to Naruto's plot reached the top of the trending lists.
Even though the next day, Thursday, was Bleach's airing day, its discussion was held down by Naruto.
In truth, everyone in the animation circle had noticed that during Bleach's own broadcast window, its popularity had already passed Demon Slayer and Attack on Titan.
But Naruto ran stronger still than Bleach. Less than three months from its premiere, it already carried the discussion heat of a super-popular work.
Even with Shirogane's fame behind it, this was too much.