July 2nd.
Saturday.
After the Big Three, Shirogane Animation finally launched a new TV-serialized anime, Steins;Gate, after more than a year.
The large group of Shirogane fans in Japan were thrilled by this.
The Big Three were exciting, but they were long, with no end in sight for the updates. The plot cliffhangers were brutal, often cutting off at points that left people wanting more, forcing them to wait a week.
Short to medium-length anime like Steins;Gate, with only ten to twenty episodes, became the new favorites of anime fans in the market.
It was unrealistic for its popularity and buzz to top the Big Three. That didn't stop it from sitting at the top of the trending lists on every major forum and website on its premiere day.
What Rei, Shirogane Animation, and the staff at Illumination Animation had worried about, the stream-of-consciousness conceptual plot of the first episode of Steins;Gate, took no criticism from the Japanese anime industry or fans.
The media gave it a wall of praise after broadcast.
The audience hadn't understood the first episode of Steins;Gate, and they praised it anyway.
"So good. It feels like the entire first episode is planting foreshadowing."
"What are you thinking? You really think it's foreshadowing? That assistant Kurisu Makise, who died for no reason and came back to life, that text message that makes no sense, how are they going to explain that later?"
"If this were an anime by any other screenwriter, I would have started flaming it already. But now. Watching Shirogane-sensei's work, if I don't follow it, I first wonder if my IQ is just too low to get it."
"Even though I don't follow the plot of the first episode either, it doesn't matter. I believe in Shirogane-sensei's skill. He will give us an excellent anime later."
"Everyone really believes in Shirogane-sensei."
"What else? How many times have Shirogane-sensei's works been mocked by anti-fans at the start, only to slap them in the face midway and reach god-tier status at the end? Even anti-fans aren't coming out to play the clown during this period. Across Japan, how many people would still mock his work while the early plot is unclear?"
"A sci-fi theme is rare though. Shirogane-sensei would actually create this kind of genre?"
"No need to say things like that. Honestly, with Shirogane's talent, is there any anime genre he can't pull off?"
"There is. The emotional portrayal in works like 5 Centimeters per Second is delicate. Why is the emotional portrayal in the Bleach and Naruto anime the way it is?"
"Can't be helped. Hot-blooded battle shonen shouldn't have romance. Romance anime build up a pair of characters falling in love and use a dozen-plus episodes to depict their psychology. Who has the patience to watch that inside a battle shonen? So whenever a romance plot lands, it's hilarious because there's zero buildup."
"This Steins;Gate seems different this time. It looks like it'll involve a romance plot. Let's see how Shirogane-sensei portrays it."
Against Rei's expectations.
For the first episode of Steins;Gate, even with the inexplicable plot, the Japanese audience gave it a 9.7 opening score.
If we can't follow the first episode of this anime, that's our own problem. What does that have to do with Shirogane-sensei?
Because Rei's current standing in the Japanese anime industry was too high, many fans were already gaslighting themselves.
Rei didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
After thinking it over the next day, he still put up a creator update.
He said outright that if the early plot of Steins;Gate was boring, fans should criticize it if they thought it deserved that.
The comment section under it filled with uniform encouragement.
Lines about excellent character designs, god-tier plot, and being unable to stop watching.
"Even the ACGN world has become like this? The first episode of Steins;Gate has people unable to stop watching?"
"These hypocritical fans make me sick," Rei said, with no way to hold the complaint in, inside his office.
"There's no way around it. Following anime is like following stars. You are now the biggest star in the anime circle. As long as it involves your work, your fans will give nothing but praise," Miyu said with a small laugh.
"But I don't carry that level of restraint. Honestly, the first episode of Steins;Gate is boring. A delusional male protagonist, a sleazy otaku Hashida, a Mayuri who comes off like a scheming airhead, and the tsundere redhead Kurisu Makise. Mixed and stirred together, it's a mess. I care about you, but for this anime, I think the odds of it flopping aren't small," Miyu said.
Sci-fi anime is a niche genre to begin with. Rei's anime also had a slow-burn opening. No wonder she landed on that read.
"This shows you are the normal one," Rei laughed.
Even though he liked Steins;Gate and believed it deserved to be called a masterpiece.
When he had run into this anime in his previous life, he had needed to watch the opening plot four or five times before he could push through, and then he couldn't stop.
Anyone who could say the opening plot of Steins;Gate was interesting was lying.
"Since you know that, why didn't you make the opening interesting from the start?" Miyu asked, curious.
"Good question. At root, it's just lack of ability," Rei said, plain.
Who wouldn't want to create an anime the audience likes from start to finish, with not a single episode of plot getting questioned?
There's no way. How many creators can pull that off?
If the opening of Steins;Gate hadn't been this boring, its popularity in his previous life would have been much higher.
"Even you would say something like that?" Miyu's eyes widened.
"Of course. It's a fact. Even for me. The various works I've put out all have plenty of flaws. Many works fans praise as masterpieces, once you dig deep, have plot logic that doesn't hold up either," Rei said. "As long as I make fewer mistakes than my peers, I'll still be the top in Japan."
Miyu's face froze at that, and then she had nothing to say.
The "peers" Rei was talking about would include her.
"Fine. Going by your attitude, this anime has to have a twist later. I'll keep following it instead of waiting for it to finish," Miyu drew a long breath and said.
"Watch this anime seriously," Rei said to Miyu, which was rare for him.
"It is a masterpiece. At least, that's how I see it in my heart."
July.
Steins;Gate began broadcasting.
The animated film Castle in the Sky released.
The three anime, Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece, competed with each other. Naruto and One Piece, in particular, were fighting for the number one spot in viewership.
Tokyo Television and Kyoto Television leaned on these two anime and went all out to recruit partners inside Japan's ACGN community.
Click through to the major anime forums in Japan and the works people discussed might be different, but most of them were fans of some anime by Shirogane.
In July, even with no one criticizing or flaming the newly broadcast Steins;Gate, the fact was the early plot wasn't interesting and had too much buildup. The market was dominated by Big Three voices again.
The Bleach plot moved into the part where Ichigo enters Hueco Mundo and fights through a bunch of small fry.
Rei had cut a lot of this plot when he was writing the script for Bleach.
In the original work, there really had been plenty of small-fry fights, especially for the several teammates of the protagonist Ichigo.
Even when Orihime Inoue was given a power-up by Kubo, she remained close to non-existent in the later stages. She carried no presence at all.
Yasutora Sado looked intimidating, but Rei often dozed off watching his plot.
On plot rhythm, small changes were appropriate where they fit.
Naruto, on the other hand, had no need to change.
The plot had reached the end of the Chunin Exams, with the Third Hokage dying in battle. As for the protagonist Naruto, after this, he would meet Jiraiya, find Tsunade together, and fight Orochimaru.
Then Akatsuki, the only antagonist organization in the entire work, would make its first appearance.
Then the plot of Sasuke's defection.
With the plot moving like this, in sequence, the audience watched with strong interest.
For One Piece.
After a year of broadcasting, finally.
The protagonist crew of this anime left the starter village, East Blue.
They entered the main storyline. The Grand Line.
What the Japanese audience didn't understand at this moment was that this journey, for the protagonist Luffy, was a two-year adventure.
For them, it was a long journey that might take twenty years to complete.
July ended. August arrived.
In August.
The plot of Steins;Gate was still confusing.
It began to reveal the time-travel function of the Phone Microwave inside the plot, and the worldview started to lay itself out.
The biggest problem with this anime also began to surface.
Where were the protagonists' opponents?
Was this anime going to keep going like this, watching the protagonists tinker with some Phone Microwave and then make a Time Machine?
Too hardcore.
"I can't do it, brothers. Even if it's Shirogane-sensei's work, after sticking it out until the sixth episode, I still find it heavy. What is this Steins;Gate? Is it really a slow-burner? It's already the sixth episode."
"Have faith in Shirogane-sensei."
"I'm also about to drop it. It's not a problem that there's no conflict in the plot, but it's too steady. What the main plot is still isn't clear."
"This anime is a half-year series. Whatever you do, you have to watch at least half of the plot."
For Rei, after graduation, especially after his daughter was born, the days moved fast.
The market's skepticism toward Steins;Gate was late but inevitable. It still ran better than Rei had pictured.
The blessing of the Shirogane pen name carried a lot of weight on these slow-burning works.
During this stretch, while Rei tracked the market popularity trends of his many works, he also began to invest money, cooperating with the Tokyo local government to start the demolition and reconstruction of the residential areas around the Shirogane Animation headquarters.
Time reached September.
Rei's die-hard fans couldn't hold back at this point either.
"So we're at episode ten and this anime still doesn't have a main plot? This is much heavier than Demon Slayer back then."
"The main plot of Demon Slayer was consistent throughout. Eliminate Muzan, clear from the open. For Steins;Gate, what is the main plot?"
"I don't follow it. Neither the plot nor the science in the anime."
"By the way, has anyone tried it? A phone, a microwave, plus an old CRT TV, and see if you can make a machine that can send text messages back to the past?"
"Of course people have. The results are clear too. It's all nonsense. I was nearly fooled by Shirogane-sensei."
"The worldlines and divergence settings revealed in this anime so far are novel, though. I feel like they're going to get copied again."
"In the Japanese anime industry, imitating Shirogane-sensei's works and settings to make knock-off anime without crossing the legal line is already an industry chain. A knock-off of Steins;Gate, though, is hard to picture. I bet the knock-off companies will fall flat."
Time kept moving.
End of September.
Episode twelve of Steins;Gate.
One of the heroines, Mayuri Shiina, would meet a fated death in this worldline.
No matter how many times the male protagonist Rintaro Okabe used his self-made Time Machine to send his consciousness back a short stretch, no matter how many times he ran from the antagonist organization, he could not change the time of Mayuri Shiina's death.
Only then did the main plot of this anime surface.
To save Mayuri Shiina and find a new worldline that doesn't have her death as a worldline Convergence point.
The moment episode twelve of Steins;Gate aired.
The public conversation across the whole net flipped at once.
Looking back at the earlier plot of this anime, a wave of clarity ran through your head.
"Holy crap. Is this the kind of anime it is?"
"The current main plot is the protagonist using his simple stream-of-consciousness Time Machine to see if he can find the old computer that's already gone, to push the worldline back to the previous worldline."
"It's complicated. So brain-burning."
"Brain-burning is right. It proves you've been pulled in by the plot and have started using your brain."
"All of a sudden, I'm interested in this anime."
"Shirogane-sensei is as good as ever. Even while serializing the Big Three at the same time, these short and medium-length anime are still solid."
"The twist in episode twelve was interesting. According to the info on the official site, isn't there another quarter with a dozen-plus episodes left? Is it necessary to save Mayuri for that many episodes? Won't it get too filler-heavy?"
"Whatever Steins;Gate does is its choice. As long as Shirogane-sensei is on it, the rest of the plot will only get more exciting."
September ended. October arrived.
Another autumn.
"Time moves so fast. It's autumn already."
The weather turned cold, and Rei switched from his earlier short-sleeve T-shirt mode to wearing a coat.
By now his daughter could babble and even stand up, walking with care in the room, and would call out a blurry "Papa" to Rei in an unsteady voice.
"Mm."
"You and I are already 28 now." Miyu said.
After Rei brought up the topic of time.
Miyu had also turned melancholy.
"Since graduating, every year seems to shorten. The pace is frightening. Even Hina is almost two years old. Sigh. Time waits for no one."
"I lament the speed too, but I don't feel old at 28," Rei said.
"What do you, a man, know? Only women have a sharper experience of the passage of time. What you care about more is the performance of the many anime under your command. The viewership ratings for the Big Three have stabilized at over 8% now, and Steins;Gate is hovering between 6% and 7%. Everything is on the right track. There's nothing left to worry about," Miyu said.
"Yes, yes, yes. I admit it," Rei said. "Steins;Gate is a test. It shows the market potential is high. While my fans are following the Big Three, they still have enough energy left over to follow other short and medium-length works I put out. Even a genre work like Steins;Gate hasn't been affected much. The types of work I'll create in the future. I won't be anxious anymore. As long as I like it, I feel any work can be released in Japan in the future."
"Can it really run that big?" Miyu looked at Rei with a smile. "Instead of thinking about these random things, why don't you think about whether you can serialize the Hunter x Hunter Dark Continent arc before you're thirty. Of your anime works, I'm a die-hard fan of Hunter x Hunter. Even Reincarnation, in serialization right now, carries the shadow of Hunter x Hunter."
"All of that has been on my list for a long time," Rei laughed. "In a couple of years, when the demolition and renovation plan near the company is wrapped, and after the Big Three takes off worldwide, I'll fill in the holes of my previous works one by one."
"Good," Miyu looked at Rei with a smile. "I don't want our daughter to grow up and watch your works only to say my dad's works always have bad endings."
"It's not as bad as a bad ending, is it? It's an open ending." Rei coughed.
"Open endings and bad endings mean the same thing to me," Miyu looked at him.
This kind of conversation between the couple came up every few days.
In the market, the various anime under Rei's command kept broadcasting.
Another year ended.
This time around, the popularity of the Steins;Gate anime soared after the broadcast of episode twelve.
The popularity growth in overseas regions even ran past Japan.
Steins;Gate itself had sat at the front of all Japanese anime in the rating systems of foreign websites in Rei's previous life, a presence that could go toe to toe with Fullmetal Alchemist.
Rei's decision to bring this work back in Japan also carried an intent to expand into overseas markets.