In the world of anime this November, one topic set the market ablaze.
In the Naruto anime, Naruto unleashed the Rasengan for the first time before a global audience. A technique that would define the entire series.
Sasuke has the Chidori. Naruto has the Rasengan.
With the plot's current development, everyone could already feel that Naruto and Sasuke are partners.
The story also seems to be molding them into rivals.
In the week after this episode's broadcast, posters of Naruto's Rasengan were plastered everywhere across the anime commercial districts of major cities in Japan.
The early plot of Naruto was beyond reproach.
Rei knew in his heart that, barring any accidents, once the Alabasta arc of One Piece gains momentum next year, Naruto would enter its "perpetual runner-up" mode, at least in terms of anime serialization data.
In Rei's past life, ever since its inception, One Piece's tankobon sales held the top spot in Japan. It slipped to second place for short stretches only during the peak periods of Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer. Otherwise, it stayed at number one.
As for Naruto, across its competition with One Piece up to its conclusion, it was the sales runner-up, give or take. One year, since One Piece was pushed to second by the romance manga Nana, Naruto even dropped to third.
Due to the order of their release during serialization in Japan, a brief situation came about where Bleach had once been first, Naruto had now caught up, and One Piece had long been second. But this situation would return to the right track in the end.
After the popularity surge around the Naruto plot wound down, what followed was the controversial topic of Steins;Gate.
Works like the Big Three have little controversy around their plots. Most readers just enjoy discussing character power levels and comparing which work is the number one anime in Japan.
A work like Steins;Gate is different.
Starting from episode thirteen, every broadcast sparked massive market discussion.
In Rei's past life, many novice anime fans couldn't stand the slow pacing of the early plot and never made it to the later parts.
In this Japan, even if the beginning of Steins;Gate was boring, a large number of anime fans still followed it into the later stages of the plot for the sake of the name "Shirogane."
Then, the true identity of the most mysterious character in the entire work was revealed. John Titor, the self-proclaimed time traveler the protagonist Okabe had met online.
Suzuha Amane, a young girl who grew up in a world ruled by SERN over a decade in the future.
Using the time machine theory researched by the male lead Okabe and the female lead Kurisu, she came to this world planning to find the IBN 5100 and give it to Okabe, so he could change the worldline from Alpha to Beta.
With such a complex plot, the vast majority of viewers were confused after just one watch.
A large number of enthusiastic anime fans in Japan, after understanding the plot, would post explanatory threads online.
These actions couldn't make Steins;Gate more popular than the Big Three, but they made sure the work got noticed by the global anime industry. Even when competing alongside Big Three anime, it wasn't just a supporting act to make the others shine. It still gave off its own brilliance.
"The work I look forward to most every week now is Steins;Gate."
"True. Even though Steins;Gate feels like nonsense sometimes, it's just incredibly good."
"Shirogane-sensei's battle shonen anime are good in every way, except for the logic. The main cast getting stronger is way too idealistic."
"But it really is hard to depict the growth of Naruto, Luffy, and Ichigo, right? Training arcs are boring just thinking about them."
"I feel like the character settings are breaking a bit. Isn't Naruto supposed to be a perpetual dead last? How did he learn the Shadow Clone technique instantly and only take a week for the Rasengan?"
"Clearly you haven't been paying attention. Naruto is a dead last failure on the surface, but a genius in secret. If his body wasn't sealed with the Nine-Tails, making Chakra control difficult, he'd definitely be a genius no weaker than Kakashi."
"Come on, Kakashi's talent isn't even fit to carry Naruto's shoes. Kakashi's Chakra reserves are too small, and his talent for learning Ninjutsu probably isn't as fast as Naruto's. Based on performance, Kakashi just has that Sharingan from who-knows-where taking up over 60% of his combat power. If the Nine-Tails weren't in the way, Sasuke would look like a random passerby compared to Naruto."
"Naruto, the protagonist of Naruto, feels like a failure by setting but a genius by nature."
"One Piece is still more interesting. Everyone is a commoner, it's all bottom-tier people struggling. The protagonist doesn't use cheats. It's all hard work and sweat."
"Same for Bleach. Ichigo too, it's all hard work and sweat."
"Is the person above trolling? I'll tolerate you saying Luffy and Ichigo are commoners, but relying on hard work? Have you seen Luffy train for even a single day? Ichigo puts on a show with special training, but that training is even more abstract. It's either forcibly merging with Hollow powers or fighting Old Man Zangetsu and White Ichigo in his mental world. Either way, once he wins, the protagonist gets stronger instantly, and the principles behind it aren't revealed at all."
"Nothing can be done about it. No work in this world is perfect. If these three series want hot-blooded action and a tight pace, they have to sacrifice a bit of logic."
"I thought Demon Slayer was already ridiculous enough. The protagonist reaches Hashira-level combat power after just a week or two of special training. The Big Three feel even more ridiculous in that regard."
"Isn't that why Steins;Gate has such a good reputation? Look at that male lead. His biggest special trait is just keeping his memories after a worldline shift, but what use is that? His opponent is fate.
This kind of plot with its ups and downs, the feeling of powerlessness, and the conviction to pick himself up time and again to save his companions, that's what moves me about Steins;Gate. The Big Three are good too, definitely the current top three anime, but sometimes after watching them and the excitement fades, you think about it and realize it's too nonsensical."
"Stop overhyping. They're all good works with their own flaws. Just praise the one you like. Don't put down the others."
"Even though this is a Steins;Gate forum, I still have to say. One Piece is number one in the world."
"+1"
"Get out of here, Naruto crushes One Piece. In terms of current popularity, ratings, and average sales per manga volume, it's first among the Big Three and fourth in history."
"What about Bleach?"
"Hahaha. Bleach."
"Don't make me laugh. At the discussion table for the strongest anime in Japan right now, does Bleach even have the right to be mentioned? It can't even get to the table. It can only sit on the floor."
"On the point of looking down on Bleach, Naruto and One Piece fans are united and have a consensus."
"Dammit, you Naruto and One Piece fans are too arrogant."
"Just you wait. Wait until the Hueco Mundo arc of Bleach unfolds, wait until Ichigo uses his Visored powers in this arc, then Bleach's popularity will start its counterattack. Naruto and One Piece fans, laugh at Bleach now, but wait for us Bleach fans to settle the score one by one."
November slipped away, and December arrived.
On the internet, although Rei didn't appear much in front of the Japanese public, discussions about him and his works never ceased for a single day.
Naruto fans and One Piece fans were like fire and water. Their arguments could appear under the discussion threads of any work in the Japan anime world, and once they started, they turned into vicious flame wars.
Bleach fans were still hoping for a script where the anime would gain momentum in its later stages and overtake Naruto and One Piece, just like Demon Slayer.
Meanwhile, Steins;Gate, during its serialization in this period.
Shifted from a highly praised masterpiece toward the status of a sci-fi divine work.
To find the IBN 5100, Suzuha Amane, with help from the male lead's best friend and her father Itaru Hashida, had her time machine repaired.
Then, under Okabe's gaze, she set off on a one-way journey through time, heading back several decades into the past.
She needed to secure the IBN 5100 in the past and then deliver the machine to Okabe in his era in person. This would let them hack into SERN's system and delete the first D-mail Okabe had sent, which had been captured by SERN's system.
That message was the source of everything that caused the worldline to change from Beta to the Alpha line ruled by the organization SERN.
In the Steins;Gate anime of Rei's past life, due to length constraints, many things couldn't be explained clearly.
For example, why Okabe deleting that one message could change the worldline.
The reason was that the "cause" for the Alpha line's existence was that message, which led the organization SERN to discover the time machine.
SERN didn't know from the start that the male lead Okabe was working on a time machine. A subordinate member from the outer organization FB caught the male lead in the first loop and found him doing strange research. After reporting it to SERN and auditing the system database, they discovered the first D-mail captured by the system.
The multiple subsequent loops were just repeating this result. So as long as Okabe deleted the first email, even if FB.
Even if they caught the male lead and reported it, SERN wouldn't take the incident seriously without the email evidence. They wouldn't build a time machine, and then. The logic chain would break. The "cause" for the Alpha line, where the organization rules the world through time machines, would be gone for good, and the world would collapse and switch to the Beta line.
In the Japan anime plot, because Rei added a lot of content from the game, fans had far fewer doubts about such things.
The anime ran without trouble until.
Suzuha Amane's time travel failed. She traveled to that era but lost her memory for decades, missing the historical date the IBN 5100 appeared. When her memory returned, she was consumed by grief, unable to accept her incompetence, and took her own life. After that, the male lead one by one undid the effects of several secondary D-mails from the past, pulling the worldline back to the state it was in when he sent the first D-mail, and found the IBN 5100.
And then.
The plot of this work reached its greatest climax and turning point.
In the episode aired this Saturday night at 8:00 PM.
Just before Okabe was about to use the IBN 5100 to hack into SERN's system and delete the root of all evil, the first D-mail.
He remembered.
What kind of world the Beta worldline he had longed for was.
In the plot of the first episode of this anime, he attended Kurisu's father's academic conference.
In that building, he saw.
The scene of Kurisu lying in a pool of blood.
It was because he witnessed Kurisu's death that he ended up sending the first D-mail.
In other words.
"In the Alpha worldline, Mayuri Shiina dies. But in the Beta worldline, it's the female lead Kurisu Makise who dies?"
"My scalp is tingling. This is so painful to watch."
"Old Scoundrel Shirogane, go sit in the corner and reflect on this plot. Is this right? I've followed this for four, almost five months, and you show me this?"
"Holy crap, I was just about to go on the forum to curse. But this isn't Shirogane-sensei pulling a strange setting out of nowhere. The scene of Kurisu's death appeared in the very first episode. It was the worldline change that let her live. Now that it's returning to the original, she has to die."
"Dammit, is this another manifestation of worldline convergence? Only one of them, Mayuri or Kurisu, can live."
"It made me cry. In this episode, Okabe and Kurisu pouring their hearts out to each other in the stairwell. Kurisu hasn't lost all memory of the stories that happened with Okabe in other loops. She still has faint memories. She isn't just some random side character."
"This is a comrade-in-arms who has been through so much plot with Okabe. Are we going to throw her away like this?"
"Sigh. Kurisu's choice to sacrifice herself so Okabe can return to the original worldline. It shook me. If I really had to choose one person to live, I'd choose Kurisu."
"Kurisu didn't choose to die just for Mayuri. It's because in the worldline where she lives, the time machine will be born, leading the world to be ruled by SERN. That's why she chose to sacrifice herself. If she wants to live, the world will face a massive disaster."
"This is Shirogane-sensei's romance. As his works reach their later stretches, the characters always undergo a sublimation. At first, Kurisu and Okabe were just trying to save Mayuri alone. Now, it's to save the future of the entire world."
"This anime is truly divine."
"The cliffhanger is too painful, though. We won't know the outcome until next week, and only then will we know what Okabe will choose."
"And that confession from Okabe at the end of this episode. It made me feel that Shirogane-sensei's skill in depicting romance manga from back then is still there. The romance plots in the Big Three now are such garbage. I don't want to watch them at all."
"Does the Big Three even have romance plots?"
"Naruto has that annoying Sakura. Bleach has that mortal Orihime. As for One Piece, it doesn't seem to have any, but it's just catchy to say, so I grouped the Big Three together."
"Shirogane-sensei probably just couldn't be bothered to depict romance in battle shonen and threw in some random character settings. Don't worry too much about the details."
In early December, as the plot of the first season of Steins;Gate moved toward its final moments, the anime revealed its theme and philosophy to the Japanese audience at last.
There's a reason this anime could rank at the top across various anime rating lists in Rei's past life, appearing in almost any well-known anime organization's rankings.
Both it and Fullmetal Alchemist occupied very high positions on those lists.
In Japan, after four or five months of serialization, the audience came to appreciate its excellence.
At the start, they disliked it for being long-winded and having no explosive points.
By now, fans were racking their brains thinking of a way to break the deadlock, pleading on the inside for Shirogane to give this anime a perfect ending that satisfies both sides.
Late at night.
Rei looked at the private messages from fans on his personal account. They were all hoping he would give this work a perfect ending.
"That kind of thing is a given."
Some works use depressing endings to sublimate their themes.
For a work like Steins;Gate, if it spent so much time just to tell a story where saving one person means sacrificing another, how could it be hailed as divine? The audience would feel cheated too.
Only at this moment.
Rei still kept them in suspense and posted an author's comment in the dead of night.
Next, let us search for it together. The Steins Gate.
The so-called "Steins Gate" was the name of the perfect ending route in the original game.
It was also the title of this anime.
The Japanese fans didn't get the riddle Rei was posing.
But that didn't stop them from feeling excited by Shirogane's activity.