Winter ended, and summer arrived.
The Bleach storyline had entered the final stages of the Aizen arc. The battles between the Captains and the Espada were a bit dull.
It wasn't just the audience in Japan who thought so. Rei himself felt the same way when watching Bleach in his previous life.
This wasn't to say there was anything wrong with the characters' designs or strength, but rather that a large number of Captain-level characters and Espada characters weren't deeply characterized.
In Bleach, even members of the main group like Yasutora Sado and Orihime Inoue lacked presence. The Captain-level Soul Reapers who never fought the protagonist Ichigo had far too little screen time. Aside from being shrouded in mystery, many viewers didn't feel a strong enough sense of immersion during their battles, which made things feel a bit tedious.
Many Captains wouldn't receive deeper characterization until the Thousand-Year Blood War arc.
Rei didn't drag out this part of the plot at all during production. There was none of that "two shots of fighting followed by a mountain of chatter" nonsense. Since the characterization was thin, he let the visuals do the talking.
This is where anime has an advantage over novels. If a novel's plot lacks tension, fans will click away to the next book at once. For mediums like anime and film, if the plot falters, it can be supported by the visuals.
From January to April, the aired episodes of Bleach were almost entirely focused on fighting. Beyond the classic battle storyboards from the original manga, Rei and his staff also designed many cool combat sequences while creating the script.
Just as the audience in Japan was starting to experience a bit of aesthetic fatigue.
The Aizen arc reached its finale.
After Old Man Yamamoto was ambushed, Gin Ichimaru betrayed Aizen, and Ichigo returned to the real world from Hueco Mundo. The Soul Reapers in Karakura Town were nearly all defeated. The plot shifted to a point where only Ichigo had the strength left to stop Aizen, who had fully fused with the Hogyoku.
How could he stop him?
By this point in the Bleach broadcast, the power scaling system had started to become inconsistent.
Old Man Yamamoto alone possessed the power to destroy the Soul Society, yet he was easily defeated and taken out of the picture by Aizen.
Aizen himself was already at the peak of power above the Espada, and now, by fusing with the Hogyoku, his life force had undergone a massive leap.
What about Ichigo?
In the timeline, he had just exhausted himself fighting the Fourth Espada a few hours ago.
How could he defeat Aizen just a few hours later?
In the original Bleach during this arc, it was simply established that Ichigo spent time in the Dangai, a world where time flows differently than the real world, undergoing grueling training. At the cost of discarding his Soul Reaper powers, he gained a brief, massive leap in strength.
If we're being strict, there wasn't much wrong with this plot point.
Naruto's two years of training, One Piece's two years of training, and even Goku drinking the Ultra Divine Water to defeat King Piccolo in Dragon Ball were all similar. The reason Rei and a group of Bleach fans in his previous life felt this part of the plot wasn't great was that the progression was too fast.
Goku went through quite a bit of hardship to find the Ultra Divine Water, but in Bleach, after basically a few minutes of screen time, Ichigo returned from his training. How he trained wasn't mentioned at all. His power just exploded by roughly fifty to a hundred times.
In this Japan version of Bleach, Rei created some original content for Ichigo's training in the Dangai.
Then came the final showdown with Aizen.
This plot.
Felt very familiar to the audience in Japan.
"Isn't this just a carbon copy of Gon sacrificing all his potential in Hunter x Hunter to gain the power to defeat Neferpitou?"
"Is it happening again?"
"Sigh, there's no other way. Aizen was portrayed as too powerful early on. That sense of despair was too strong. Even Shirogane-sensei can't think of any other way to defeat Aizen now."
"Fortunately, the setting of the Dangai was mentioned before episode fifty, something about time flowing two thousand times faster. And in the special training arc in the Dangai, a foreshadowing was planted. Besides the power of a Soul Reaper and a Hollow, there's a third power inside Ichigo's body. I feel like that's the real reason Ichigo could sacrifice all his power to gain the strength to rival Aizen."
"So Ichigo isn't actually an ordinary person?"
"Duh, his dad Isshin Kurosaki already showed up wearing a Shihakusho. You're still asking if Ichigo is an ordinary person?"
"Then what is Ichigo's third power?"
"That should be the secret revealed in the final arc of Bleach, the Thousand-Year Blood War arc."
"Bleach has aired two hundred and fifty episodes, and only now are they finally preparing to explore Ichigo's uniqueness and the secrets of the Soul Society?"
"It's better than Naruto. So far, it's still unclear who the constantly hinted-at Madara Uchiha is. The truth revealed after the decisive battle between Itachi Uchiha and his younger brother Sasuke, and the plot where Sasuke awakens his Mangekyo Sharingan after learning the truth about Konoha, really made my heart ache.
I feel like Naruto is also nearing its end. In the episodes these past few days, Jiraiya is preparing to infiltrate the Akatsuki Organization to gather intel. It shouldn't be long before the Akatsuki is wiped out and Naruto follows in Bleach's footsteps to conclude."
"We'll have to see how long One Piece can hold out."
"One Piece shouldn't have a problem holding out for another five or six years. Right now, Luffy and the others' adventure isn't even half over. In the Water 7 arc, CP9 has only just surfaced. It would be good enough if they can save Robin in the One Piece plot this year."
Once long-running Japanese manga reach their middle and late stages, because the authors' early outlines weren't rigorous, many baffling plot points always appear first, and the authors have to patch the settings later.
For example, why Ichigo's potential is so high.
Why top powerhouses like Whitebeard can strike Logia-type fruit users. Why Logia fruits became obsolete after Haki appeared. And why Mythical Zoan fruits could surpass Logias to reach godhood.
Often, having the result first and then applying a patch will dissatisfy the audience. In the Japan versions of the Big Three, Rei directly revealed some clues early on for those patches that only appeared late in the original works.
In the recently aired episodes of Bleach and Naruto, the audience just felt the plot was tense and fast, with a slight dip in excitement, rather than feeling it was nonsensical.
Over the next two weeks, the broadcast of the final battle between Ichigo, who had returned from training in the Dangai, and Aizen was completed.
By the final episode of the arc, Bleach's animation ratings and trending indices reached their highest since the series began.
Then, the anime took a two-week break and would welcome its final arc in May.
Rei wasn't idle during this time. The Thousand-Year Blood War arc had no small amount of controversy in Rei's previous life. The arc's boss, Yhwach, caused his own defeat by killing his teammates when his side had a massive advantage.
The arc revealed a large amount of the world-building for the Bleach anime, though, and the battles and characterizations were quite good. It couldn't be deleted directly like the Fullbringer arc.
Rei would still give the work the respect it deserved. Compared to a work like Hunter x Hunter where the ending is nowhere in sight, something like Bleach is more than ten times better.
After a final review of the storyboard for Bleach's final arc, Rei pondered for a long time.
In short, in the Japan version of the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, there were no changes to the major battles, character abilities, or fates.
The process had to be modified, though.
Old Man Yamamoto, as the Soul Society's strongest Soul Reaper hyped for five hundred chapters of manga, being taken out of commission by a cheap trick while fighting Aizen was one thing.
Fighting Yhwach, he was played like a fiddle. It was only because he didn't have much screen time in the original that his popularity wasn't as huge as Satoru Gojo's in Jujutsu Kaisen.
In essence, there was no difference. Both were the "strongest" hyped for an entire series only to be cut in half.
Saying the two were identical might be a bit of an exaggeration, but being seventy to eighty percent similar was no problem. Even the storyboards at the time of death were very alike. Being cut from the left shoulder to the right hip, the upper body disappearing.
Bleach had its own "Satoru Gojo." Looking at the creation timeline of the two manga, it would be more appropriate to say Jujutsu Kaisen had its own "Old Man Yamamoto." Rei knew what the outcome would be if he created the script according to the original manga's plot.
For a character with the "world's strongest" persona, the sole purpose of their appearance isn't to remain undefeated, but to meet a tragic and heroic death.
Just like Whitebeard in One Piece.
No one thought Whitebeard was weak just because he died after being heavily wounded by cowardly means. Death must be handled with style. This is a necessity for both fictional characters and real-life figures.
In the Japan version of the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, Rei's biggest change was letting Yhwach truly fight Yamamoto in a meaningful way. It wasn't a fair one-on-one, but rather a group assault involving schemes. Before Yamamoto went offline, though, he was given a chance to showcase his true strength.
Then there were characters like Unohana and Ukitake. Since they were arranged to go offline, they should at least be given more battle scenes before they do, giving them a chance to show off.
Rei made many changes to details such as these.
"This is the best I can do." Rei's gaze sharpened as he signed the storyboard.
Production of the Thousand-Year Blood War arc was already halfway through. After handing the script for the second half to the production team, formal production would begin tomorrow.
"After these changes, it won't be criticized like it was in my previous life." Rei still had a certain judgment of the manga market in the Japan dimension.
He looked at various project plans for Naruto.
Among the works currently under the company, One Piece was number one in popularity globally, but in Japan, Naruto's popularity slightly edged out One Piece.
The same applied to mobile games.
The Naruto mobile game's revenue had now passed 90 billion yen. By the summer vacation in July, there was a high probability that monthly revenue would break one hundred billion yen.
The One Piece mobile game's revenue was only seventy percent of Naruto's figures.
For the One Piece plot before the Marineford War, Rei had no need to make changes at all, at most just optimizing some details.
Naruto was similar, but the Pain's Assault on Konoha arc was about to begin. Naruto would gain the nickname "Talk-no-Jutsu" after this arc, and the many dragging plot points in the subsequent Fourth Great Ninja War arc would need to be streamlined.
There was no need to spend ten or twenty chapters on battles between minor characters. Also, Madara's exit was too abrupt. He deserved a hearty final battle rather than being possessed by Kaguya as a deus ex machina. That part of the plot would also need careful revision when the time came.
"Sigh, what a headache." Rei let out a soft sigh.
These highly popular works had issues with their endings in his previous life, but how to make the changes better in Japan was a real brain-burner.
"Combining the online chatter of the Big Three fans from my previous life, I have a general idea." Rei tapped his finger on the desk, but he didn't feel much pressure.
Anime, if we're being strict, is a commercial product. One shouldn't try to arrange every plot point according to the fans' wishes, but at the very least, you can't feed them garbage.
Since he had identified which plot points and settings were considered "garbage" from the online reputation of these works in his previous life, no matter how he changed them, they were unlikely to be worse.
"All right." Rei took a deep breath. "One Piece is still very long, but for the fans in Japan, it's time to welcome the final stages of Naruto and Bleach."
A new month arrived.
Bleach entered the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, and Naruto entered the Pain's Assault on Konoha arc.
Before this, Jiraiya's exit caused the Naruto anime's popularity to surge once again.
On the day that episode aired, Naruto fans across various ACGN circles nationwide rioted. There was mourning and grief, and the cursing of Rei, the creator of the plot, lasted all night.
The showdown between Pain and Naruto, both disciples of Jiraiya, began.
With both works reaching their climax arcs, and the Water 7 arc of One Piece being so oppressive, the final result was that One Piece's popularity briefly dropped to third place, while Bleach and Naruto took turns topping the discussion topics.
For the first time in several years, Rei launched high-intensity, dense promotional activities for the works under his command.
Almost every month, there would be specialized anime convention events held at the independent venue of the Shirogane Animation headquarters for at least two weeks. Everything from tankobon signing sessions to fan meetings for Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece was launched.
Bleach's final arc wasn't without its detractors. After fine-tuning the script and removing many uncomfortable parts, though, while it might not have been as exciting as the arc where Ichigo raided Hueco Mundo, it was at least a final arc above the passing grade.
The necessary settings were explained, the logic was self-consistent, and the revelation of Ichigo's mother's Quincy identity finally let fans know why Ichigo's potential was so strong.
It also made it plausible why Ichigo, the only one in the entire Bleach anime world to possess the combined powers of a Quincy, Soul Reaper, and Hollow, could sacrifice all his power in the Aizen arc to gain the strength to defeat Aizen.
Along the way, it was inevitable that some fans would complain about "bloodline theory."
Meanwhile, the production of the Dragon Ball anime was also underway.
Time.
Moved toward the end of the year.
Rei's daughter Hina was five years old, and Rei was entering his thirties.
Shirogane Animation was no longer limited to Japan. It had begun to establish branch companies in major overseas countries, responsible for operating and promoting the collection of Shirogane works to expand IP influence.
Aside from the Big Three, the Gundam series that Rei had long ago laid out was even more popular in Western countries than in Japan. The Fullmetal Alchemist anime might not have been as popular as the Big Three in its middle and late stages, but its reputation basically crushed them, rivaling Attack on Titan and Hunter x Hunter for the highest acclaim among Rei's works.
After Kimi ni Todoke finished, Rei didn't stop with romance anime. Your Lie in April would officially launch in mid-January.
Looking at the current Shirogane Animation.
It was the absolute number one anime company in Japan, and even globally.
It constantly had three to five works in serialization, with full-scale IP development across manga, novels, animation, and games.
As the company leader, Shirogane was directly responsible for leading the creation of new works, while a large number of screenwriters and industry elites maintained past IPs, such as original daily-life episodes for Demon Slayer and Hunter x Hunter.
The company's monthly operating income was in the hundreds of billions of yen, and it was still showing an upward trend. Compared to leading enterprises in heavy industries like construction and automobiles, the revenue wasn't much.
In terms of profit, many companies with ten times the revenue of Shirogane Animation wouldn't have half of Shirogane Animation's annual net profit after a year of struggle.
For anime and game creation, the largest cost is labor.
This labor cost was insignificant compared to the market returns of IPs like the Big Three.
An ACGN company that had never created a flop, with no heavy assets and no loss-making projects dragging down the data. Its profit margin was something 99% of companies in Japan would be madly envious of.
The net profit from the mobile games of the Big Three alone passed a trillion yen, not to mention the income from other works and other directions of IP derivatives.
At the end of the year, as the company owner, Rei distributed huge bonuses to all company members at the annual meeting once again.
He left the industry with a meaningful and somewhat "chuunibyou" quote as the conclusion to the annual meeting, which spread through the anime circle at once.
Because Shirogane was imitating the famous quote of Aizen, the most charismatic villain in the anime Bleach.
[The future of Shirogane Animation is far beyond the present.
The Bleach anime will conclude next year, but this is not the end. Shirogane Animation will produce even more interesting and popular works.
There are no enemies in front of us.]
Regardless of whether there were ultimately any enemies, the current Shirogane had already shown its confidence.
The day after the annual meeting was New Year's Day.
The Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War arc officially entered the second half of its broadcast.
In the same quarter, Shirogane's new romance series, Your Lie in April, began airing.