In Rei's previous life, whether as an anime or a game, the early to mid-stage plot of Clannad was a high-quality school romance series.
It was interesting and contained certain fantasy elements.
It wouldn't reach "god-tier" status on its own, though, nor would Clannad fans pop up and support the anime in large numbers whenever a video or post ranking the most classic anime in the Japan region appeared, even twenty years after its conclusion.
What truly made it god-tier wasn't the romance arc of the first season.
It was the arc depicting family life starting from the second season.
Rei had his own set of criteria when looking at the vast number of anime works on the market.
To judge if a work has high commercial value, one only needs to look at how high the discussion heat was during its serialization.
To evaluate if a work is a classic, one needs to see if it still has high fan enthusiasm seven, eight, or even ten years after its conclusion. If it's still mentioned by fans, one can see the clues.
From this perspective, Clannad is very excellent, no question.
For the current stage, though.
After the first three episodes of Clannad aired, market public opinion shifted a little.
Rei had presented too many cases in Japan where his works gained momentum later on, so the Japan anime industry peers, critics, and anti-fans weren't about to jump out and make a scene this early.
As for complaining, they had to complain.
"It's been three weeks since it started airing, why is the plot still so filler-heavy?"
"It's all slice-of-life. The romance between the male and female leads seems to have zero progress?"
"Is this a harem anime? Why are there so many girls? There are almost seven or eight now. Is that necessary?"
"The style is so different from Shirogane's previous works. Everyone doesn't want Shirogane to create depressing anime, but this is too cheerful and way too 'moe-trash.' Has Shirogane also fallen to this level?"
"Something's not right. If the plot keeps going like this, won't Clannad end up as a slice-of-life anime?"
"So is Nagisa Furukawa really the female lead? Why do I feel like all the other girls appearing are vivid and interesting, while this Nagisa Furukawa has no highlights? She has a good personality, of course."
"Emmm. I can only trust Shirogane-sensei. I know those complaining online now will probably be proven wrong by Shirogane-sensei in a few months, but I still have to complain. I've never seen a school romance anime where the male and female leads are still at the 'stranger' stage three weeks in. At least let them have some mutual feelings. The male lead really just acts like a street thug wandering around school all day."
"True, this slow-burn is ridiculous. If you treat the early plot as a comedy, it's still pretty interesting. Sunohara, that joker, getting pranked by Tomoya Okazaki is one thing. That Fuko is also adorably stupid."
"Could it be that the 'school romance' tag is a lie from Shirogane-sensei? Is this work actually a comedy anime?"
"Let's keep watching. Aside from the Big Three, there's nothing else worth looking forward to on the market."
"That just shows you don't follow the current Japan anime market much. A group of elementary school students who grew up watching Shirogane-sensei since the 5 Centimeters per Second era are starting to flood the anime market."
"Right, right, right. That mangaka Ryuji Seto, newly signed by the Hoshimori Manga Group this year, is only 18, but his new work has been highly praised since it started serialization. On the Hoshimori platform, it broke into the top ten in just two months. His work has a strong Hunter x Hunter vibe. It can be seen as a budget version of Hunter."
"Then there are Hayato Sano and Kaito Mori, two manga geniuses who emerged last year. The average sales per volume of their debut tankobon have already reached 8.7 million and 7.1 million copies. When asked by reporters if their works borrowed from Shirogane-sensei's One-Punch Man and Bleach, they didn't even try to hide it, saying it was a tribute straight out. The drawing is interesting. Not as good as Shirogane-sensei's work, but they already have 30 to 40 percent of his skill."
"If you look at the works on the Japan manga rankings now, scanning from top to bottom, at least ten of the top twenty bestsellers have shadows of Shirogane-sensei's past works. Those who say new works in the current anime market are boring fail to feel the revolution in the Japan anime industry. These people won't be imitating forever. The students will surpass the master."
"Give me a break. You really think Shirogane-sensei will lose to these funny juniors paying 'tribute'? Not in this lifetime."
"No matter how strong Shirogane-sensei is, he's just one person fighting. He is now the target everyone in the Japan anime industry wants to surpass. How can one person take on all the geniuses in the world?"
"Just wait and see. I don't believe anyone can surpass Shirogane-sensei. Those who only learn from him will always be clumsy imitators. It's impossible to surpass him."
Every day, discussions around Rei in the anime world are an enduring topic.
If an airing anime has no points for discussion, these people will extend the topic to Rei.
Clannad passed its January serialization amidst market skepticism.
In February, market enthusiasm was captured by the animated film Princess Mononoke during the new year holidays.
As one of Hayao Miyazaki's classic masterpieces, the narrative core of Princess Mononoke is beyond doubt.
The plot is tragic and grand, and most importantly. The soundtrack is top-tier.
Produced by the top team at Illumination Production Company over two and a half years, what it brought to the people of Japan in cinemas was the ultimate audio-visual feast for 2D animated films on this planet.
Unlike the animated films Rei had presented before, because the story theme was profound, many viewers walked out of the theater with heavy expressions after watching.
This directly led to the film's box office performance being inferior to commercial hits like Spirited Away and Your Name.
Commerciality and artistic quality in storytelling are often in conflict. If you want to express a profound theme, the atmosphere of the plot will often become low-spirited.
How can a plot that makes the audience engage in soulful reflection be born from laughter and joy?
Across the entire new year holiday slot market, Princess Mononoke and another live-action sci-fi film went back and forth at the box office, taking turns sitting on the throne of the holiday box office champion.
After the seven-day new year holiday slot ended, it was foreseeable that the total box office for these two top films would not break 300 billion yen.
The currency of Japan is quite valuable, ticket prices are low, and the audience is relatively smart, not easily swayed by the media or paid shills.
Even for Shirogane's works, fans wouldn't mindlessly rush to boost the box office.
Rei was satisfied with Princess Mononoke's box office results.
He hadn't expected this film to pass Your Name, Spirited Away, or Demon Slayer in commercial success.
February passed.
Time moved into March.
Clannad reached its first minor climax of the entire work at last.
The first arc of this anime is the story of the male and female leads helping Fuko Ibuki. Her physical body is lying in a vegetative state in a neighboring town, but her consciousness is at the male lead's school carving starfish. Her goal is to give a wooden starfish to every student in the school so they will attend her older sister's wedding.
If we're being strict, the plots of each arc in Clannad are simple.
The Fuko line included. What makes this work strong is using simple plots to strike straight at the audience's hearts.
Across February, as the Fuko arc unfolded, the truth that Fuko was a conscious entity was revealed. The setting was introduced. More and more people would forget this girl, and once forgotten, they would never be able to see her again.
When the male and female leads were celebrating a birthday at school, they forgot all memories of her in a moment of distraction. Then, the next day, they only remembered Fuko after racking their brains by chance.
When the two turned around and found Fuko, whom they had forgotten and who was now invisible to them, standing behind them, looking at them with a calm yet lonely expression.
The emotional impact on the Japan audience at that moment was massive.
Just like that, while her last two friends had forgotten her and couldn't see her, she followed the male and female leads for an entire day.
After this episode aired, the reputation of Clannad flipped in one beat.
"Fuko is the best."
"Shirogane-sensei is still amazing. The plot is a slow burn, but episode eight still brought me to tears."
"Never doubt Shirogane-sensei's ability when it comes to tear-jerkers."
"This is the first time I've cried watching a romance manga that doesn't even have romance yet."
"It has to be the school fantasy genre. I knew Shirogane-sensei would never disappoint in this genre. You can see it from the Your Name movie and the Hikaru no Go anime. On the other hand, Shirogane-sensei's pure school-life works mostly end in tragedy."
"I'm starting to get the plot structure of the Clannad anime. Is it a story where the male lead Tomoya Okazaki and female lead Nagisa Furukawa deepen their relationship while solving supernatural school incidents, leading to romance in the end?"
"Seems like it. They spent eight episodes introducing most of the characters, and then this week episode nine aired, ending the Fuko arc. The next chapter should be about finding clues from other characters."
"A romance anime can be created like this? Strange."
"Quite interesting."
Miyu, who was browsing the internet at home and reading the fans' comments about the couple, spoke up.
"What is?" Rei's brush moved across the storyboard.
He was creating the storyboard for the second Puella Magi Madoka Magica movie, Walpurgisnacht Rising.
Madoka is an anime to be broadcast next year. The main Puella Magi Madoka Magica series and the first movie are both in urgent production.
Since Rei had some free time lately, he decided to start on the second movie.
As he drew the storyboard, Rei felt a sense of nostalgia.
The audience in Japan really has it easy.
Unlike in my previous life, where it took fifteen or sixteen years from the birth of the Madoka anime to the release of the second movie. The flowers had withered by then.
"I'm talking about your Clannad anime. It's starting to get interesting. Slow burn as it may be, once the plot unfolds, it's quite touching." Miyu looked at Rei. "This week, the anime's online reputation is much better than in previous weeks."
"Of course. Do you remember what I told you before this anime started airing?" Rei smiled.
"I remember. Regardless of what the ratings for Clannad reach during its serialization. Among all the works you've created, its reputation won't fall out of the top five." Miyu said after a moment's thought.
"That's an exaggeration, though. The Fuko arc is touching, but it's far from reaching that level. Setting aside the Big Three, long-running anime reputations fluctuate and slowly decline over time, but your current high-reputation works, Steins;Gate, Hikaru no Go, Hunter x Hunter, Arcane, One-Punch Man, Attack on Titan, Your Name. There are already seven or eight of them. Do you mean Clannad can pull three or four of them down in terms of reputation?"
"Maybe more than three or four." Rei laughed. "I only said it wouldn't fall out of the top five among all my works. I didn't say it would be fifth. Maybe top three, or even. Number one?"
Miyu blinked at this, her expression turning serious.
Rei often used jokes to speak his true thoughts.
Rei saying this proved that in his heart, Clannad could rank in the top three or even the number one spot for reputation among all his works.
The reason he used a conservative term like "top five" was out of respect for the tastes of the audience in Japan and globally.
Rei's preferences didn't represent the millions of anime fans worldwide.
"It's only March. You'll understand the meaning of my words after the second season of the Clannad anime starts airing in the second half of the year."
"Right, our daughter Hina can watch anime now too. How about we take her with us to follow the second season of Clannad every week in the second half of the year?" Rei said.
"She's a little girl not even three years old. What kind of romance anime can she understand?"
"A little spoiler. The second season of Clannad isn't a romance anime. It's a family anime. Very suitable for the whole family to watch together." Rei paused for a moment. "There are soft and cute girls, and adorable child characters."
"Is it a feel-good family story?" Miyu's eyes lit up.
"Sort of." Rei thought for a bit. "The process might be a bit unhappy. The ending is good."
"I know, it's depressing in the middle." Miyu gave Rei a look. "Who doesn't know your creative style? Don't worry, with your spoiler, I'll be mentally prepared. I won't be affected. I'll finish the whole thing with a smile."
Rei's expression was strange, and he weighed his words in the end.
"You're being too confident. As for me, because I'm familiar with the plot, I shouldn't be affected. As for you."
"I hope you don't lose your composure too much in front of our daughter when the time comes."
"?" Miyu wondered. "What do you mean by 'don't lose my composure too much'?"
"I mean, don't be bawling your eyes out and holding onto our daughter Hina while watching this anime." Rei said.
A few days later, the ninth episode of Clannad aired.
The Fuko arc of this anime reached its conclusion, moving a group of tough guys in Japan.
Some had already guessed the final plot of this arc.
At the end of episode nine, even though everyone in the school had forgotten Fuko, the students who had received Fuko's wood-carved starfish still came to the school over the weekend, driven by an unknown emotion, to attend the wedding of Kouko Ibuki, Fuko's older sister.
Even when no one in the school knew Fuko, and no one could see her.
Out of a promise they couldn't remember, all the students, including the male and female leads, fulfilled Fuko's wish to witness her sister's happiness and held a grand and lively wedding for her.
That night, a large number of Clannad fans watched with tears in their eyes.
The anime's reputation and reviews began to soar across the board.
The progress of the romance line in Clannad was terrifyingly slow.
These plotlines involving family and friendship were heart-wrenching.
Time moved into April.
The movie Princess Mononoke finished its run in Japan theaters with a box office of 268.9 billion yen.
On this day, the employees of Shirogane Animation and Illumination Animation jointly held a grand celebration banquet.
This was the work with the worst box office performance since Rei started creating animated films.
It was also the runner-up of this year's new year holiday slot, losing to its opponent by 3 billion yen in the domestic market but exceeding them by 110 billion yen in the global market.
For Rei, results of this level could hardly make him excited or cause much emotional fluctuation anymore.
It was standard procedure.
He would still attend events like celebration banquets.
There would be segments for giving speeches and awarding project bonuses.
In April, spring arrived.
As Clannad's reputation improved, the work's popularity surged as well.
For most of this month, the focus of the Japan anime circle was on Naruto.
Naruto had been airing for over two years.
The anime plot had progressed to the first battle between Naruto and Sasuke at the Valley of the End.
Sasuke activated the Cursed Seal, and Naruto used the power of the Nine-Tails.
The first part of Naruto was about to end.
After Naruto and Sasuke finished their first battle in these two weeks.
Naruto would enter the Shippuden storyline, which many in his previous life complained about because the character Hayate Gekko had died.
From then on, Naruto could be said to have entered the main storyline for real.
Entering the confrontation between the ninja world and the Akatsuki Organization.