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Yukino let out a sigh of relief.
The truth was, Haruto's debut in the animation industry had been so explosive that she had deliberately spoken in a way to apply a bit of pressure. She didn't want him to miss this golden window of opportunity for expansion. Otherwise, given the company's annual operating costs for dozens of employees, the projected revenue from Puella Magi Madoka Magica could easily keep them afloat for the next twenty years without issue.
"However, Haruto, you seem to be collaborating on a manga with Shizuru, right?" Reina ntioned, having heard about this earlier.
She knit her brows slightly. "And on the literary front, your agent Ms. Hi is hounding you to release a new light novel. Now you're talking about launching a new project in the animation industry while maintaining your daily university studies... is it actually possible to pull all that off?"
"Well... probably," Haruto paused for a mont, then gave a light laugh. "Lately, I feel like my creative state is pretty solid. Juggling multiple works across different fields, manga, light novels, and ani, is actually manageable. My speed for writing novels and scripts has improved quite a bit."
"As for the manga, it's essentially a mid-length series, and I've already finished the vast majority of the storyboard drafts. I just need to hand over the latest weekly storyboards to Shizuru."
Reina and Yukino both froze, their expressions turning stone-cold.
"Are you even human?" Reina's voice wavered.
She was genuinely worried that Haruto was being too ambitious at a young age and would push himself until his health collapsed.
There were plenty of novelists who suffered from such imnse pressure that they lost sleep and eventually fell seriously ill. Haruto, however, was casually tossing out words that would make any peer in his industry burn with envy.
Reina knew the agony of staring at a blank page every night, painstakingly revising drafts to make a plot even one percent better; yet, she saw none of that struggle in Haruto.
"Alright, today was a fruitful harvest."
Haruto reached into the prize bin of the crane machine and pulled out three rabbit plushies. He handed one to Yukino and one to Reina.
"These are for you."
"Wait, you were playing this for so long just to give us gifts?" Yukino was stunned.
"Yeah. You two waited for to finish playing for so long, it would be embarrassing if I just took one for myself and left," Haruto joked.
"You might as well have just bought them. You must have spent a good amount catching these three," Reina whispered, her hands squeezing the white rabbit plushie.
"That's exactly it, Reina. Even I, as a guy, know that sothing bought with money isn't the sa as sothing caught by hand. You're far too rational; you always look at everything in the world through the lens of probability. Try being a little more sentintal. You'd be cuter that way," Haruto said.
Reina stole another glance at Haruto but said nothing.
She and Yukino tucked the rabbit plushies into their bags.
Haruto then led them through bookstores and ani rchandise shops, where they bought so goods related to the light novels they had written in the past, eventually heading ho satisfied.
Upon returning to his apartnt, Haruto set aside the pile of shopping bags and stepped into his study.
The words he had spoken to Reina and Yukino that afternoon weren't just empty talk. He truly had concrete ideas for his next project. During the months spent producing and broadcasting Madoka Magica, he had frequently accessed the mories of Shiori. Consequently, his mind was now packed with a vast array of strange and wonderful series.
However, amidst that library of mories, two specific works had struck a chord deep within his heart.
One was an ani based on a ga: Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.
The other was an independent pixel-art narrative ga: 7 Years From Now.
In the other world, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was adapted from the famous ga Cyberpunk 2077. It utilized the ga's world-building, maps, and settings to create a prequel animation. When discussing the ga Cyberpunk 2077, it was a massive investnt and a high-budget production that the whole world anticipated before its release. However, once it launched, it was t with a flood of negative reviews from players.
But the spin-off animation possessed a quality that far surpassed the original ga. It was a phenonon where a flawed ga inspired a prequel that was nearly a perfect masterpiece.
After the ga's botched launch, its popularity had fizzled out within months. Yet, two years later, when the spin-off ani broadcasted globally, sothing incredible happened. As the final episode aired, hundreds of thousands of players worldwide rembered their long-dormant ga accounts. They logged in that very night, taking control of their characters for the sole purpose of brutally executing the boss who had devastated the protagonist in the ani.
Watching Edgerunners and then logging in to take revenge beca a rite of passage for every fan of the show.
As for Haruto, when he finished recalling Edgerunners through his mories, he found he couldn't quite snap out of it for a whole week. It hurt, it hurt far too much. Since he didn't have the original ga to vent his frustrations, the lody of the the song "I Really Want to Stay at Your House" echoed in his head for days.
The depth of the plot, the sheer quality, and the thes the story conveyed left him shattered.
Personally, Haruto felt that Edgerunners was on par with Madoka Magica. While certain elents like the violence might make it controversial in so regions, it wasn't a problem for him.
As for 7 Years From Now... It was an independent pixel-art narrative ga. This work was actually very similar to To the Moon.
It featured an exceptional plot that was deeply moving, lancholic, and a total tear-jerker.
However, because the original dium was a pixel-art text ga, it hadn't beco widely famous. Nevertheless, tens of thousands of players had given the story a near-perfect score, proving the excellence of its narrative.
Having witnessed the massive success of To the Moon, Haruto realized that many works that weren't "hits" in the original world didn't lack quality. They were simply obscured by their dium or lack of marketing. They were hidden gems, waiting for a single opportunity to explode into the mainstream.
Haruto was now in a position to provide that opportunity.
Of course, this was just his subjective judgnt.
He felt 7 Years From Now was an extraordinary piece of work that audiences would surely love. Perhaps it was just a hunch, but he was willing to bet on it because of the emotion the story had given him. He wanted to convey that feeling to the ani viewers.
Organizing the relevant information late into the night, Haruto picked up his pen and began the initial writing process.
Over the next few days, while Haruto was busy finalizing the upcoming workflow for his company, the influence of Madoka Magica continued to radiate outward. The conclusion of the broadcast was rely the beginning of its rise in popularity. After a few days of processing, the fans were finally beginning to accept the ending.
Inevitably, this was followed by a roar of demand for the release of the Madoka Magica Blu-rays and the rapid production of the theatrical movie.
Furthermore, a movent sparked by unknown individuals began to sweep across in just a matter of days.
A manhunt to find the true identity of the Warrior of Love.
Madoka Magica was a masterpiece with ratings breaking 6% and a level of heat that dominated the entire market. To this day, not a single person in the industry knew who the scriptwriter actually was. It was too strange. It was impossible that the Warrior of Love was truly a newcor with so little fa that no one recognized him.
That was total nonsense.
Speculations ran wild across the internet.
Haruto's creator account received hundreds of thousands of private ssages every day.
Needless to say, every major animation studio was looking for him, hoping to recruit this "Genius of Love" into their ranks.
Haruto ignored all of it for the ti being. His current focus, aside from the works still in the writing stage, had gradually shifted toward Initial D.
Nearly two weeks had passed, and the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Pri Manga, whom he had t previously, had sent him an update.
The internal eting at the manga house had reached a unanimous decision. They would grant full support for the serialization of the Initial D manga.
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