August arrived with extreme heat.
At the same time, the threshold of Shirogane Animation's headquarters was being worn down by visiting partners. Domestic and international.
The IP operation work across Attack on Titan, Hunter x Hunter, One-Punch Man, Arcane, and Demon Slayer had expanded to the point where Misaki maintained a dedicated team of dozens handling the ongoing cooperation negotiations, with her responsible only for major IP decisions and significant partnership discussions.
She took a moment to review the latest episode data for Attack on Titan.
Viewership: 7.53 percent. Work score: 9.7. The overseas trajectory was following a pattern that looked very similar to Demon Slayer's early international expansion.
Attack on Titan's popularity in overseas anime fan communities was actually running higher than its domestic numbers.
"Another work with global appeal," Misaki said, holding the report.
She genuinely could not fully understand the logic behind it. However much of a genius Rei was, could any person actually account for the aesthetic sensibilities of billions of people worldwide when constructing a work?
She could not explain the mechanism by which he consistently produced this result.
She looked at the current Attack on Titan merchandise pre-sale figures and felt a wry smile arrive.
Exactly as Rei had predicted: one tier below Demon Slayer's equivalent data. The pre-sale numbers were still first in Japan's anime merchandise market for the year by a significant margin.
But Demon Slayer was simply too much of a standard. The numbers were too high. It appealed to men, women, children, and elderly viewers simultaneously, and its merchandise and game development potential was exceptional in every direction.
Misaki had hoped Attack on Titan would close the gap. Her illusions on this point had been corrected.
Rei's read on his own work was accurate. He understood precisely where each work's selling points were and what the market ceiling for each looked like.
And even with this clear understanding, he had not simply produced a second Demon Slayer. He had continued developing in a new direction and created something with entirely different themes and a different kind of audience.
"Rei, if you had made the character designs for the major Titans even slightly more appealing, merchandise and copyright development would have been considerably easier," Misaki said to no one in particular, pressing her fingers to her temple.
Demon Slayer could collaborate with Your Name and multiple major milk tea chains for cross-brand promotional campaigns. The character designs translated naturally onto cups, packaging, and merchandise.
If you printed Attack on Titan characters on a milk tea cup, who would be able to bring themselves to drink it. Every Titan looked genuinely horrifying. The Colossal Titan resembled a skinned anatomy model.
The Armored Titan was cool, but only relative to Eren's comparatively chaotic Titan form.
The Female Titan, naked in the anime, completely failed to produce any merchandise purchasing desire in male viewers.
Mikasa's reputation was manageable. Eren was being roasted continuously by a significant portion of the fan community. Levi had genuine development potential.
Demon Slayer was a different category of problem entirely. Any character at all, including Muzan Kibutsuji, whose pre-sale merchandise sold out within seconds of opening.
Was Attack on Titan's plot weaker than Demon Slayer's? Not necessarily. But in terms of visual appeal at the character design level, the gap was significant.
A casual viewer encountering the Abnormal Titans for the first time would assume they were looking at promotional material for a horror film. Only a specific subset of male collectors would purchase a red skinned Colossal Titan figure out of curiosity.
Female viewers who loved the anime had no desire to buy that merchandise. It was simply too visually unappealing.
Everyone had their particular difficulties.
Miyu was struggling with the plot conception for her new manga. Misaki was working through how to better develop the IP portfolios Rei handed over to her.
And Rei himself, as the works he remembered from his previous life continued to accumulate, had arrived at the specific dilemma of wanting to bring over everything he liked while being constrained by the fundamental fact that he was a person with limits on the intensity of work he could sustain.
As for his competitors in the industry, Illumination Production Company, Shirogane Animation, and the alliance of copyright development, operation, and sales companies supporting both had already become something in Japan's animation industry that functioned less like a competitor and more like a geological feature.
A collective interest involving the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people. In the film industry as well, it had become a presence that many practitioners found difficult to contemplate directly.
The first week of August passed.
Your Name's total domestic box office had crossed 44 billion yen. Four weeks remained in the theatrical run, but the daily growth rate would not maintain its previous pace.
Rei moved at this point.
Working together with Illumination Production Company, Shirogane Animation, and Hoshimori Group, he launched a joint marketing campaign. After Your Name left theatres, the official merchandise sales would begin.
The announcement went out through his personal account and the official accounts of Illumination Production Company, Shirogane Animation, and Hoshimori Group simultaneously.
The official Your Name Blu-ray release would include a bonus spin-off animation.
The story would focus on the female lead Mitsuha Miyamizu's teacher, Yukari Yukino, who had appeared in only a single scene in the film but had been discussed extensively by the audience: The Garden of Words.
Additionally, the manga adaptation of Your Name would release as a two-volume tankōbon, similarly bundled with a volume of the The Garden of Words manga adaptation. This three-volume set would release simultaneously with the Blu-ray in the global anime merchandise market after the film finished its theatrical run.
The announcement landed while the majority of Japan's anime community had already begun shifting their attention back to Attack on Titan, looking forward to the following day's new episode. The redirect was immediate.
Your Name had a spin-off anime.
The film's teacher character, who had appeared in one scene and been discussed at length by fans who had sensed something significant about her, was getting her own story.
Everyone understood that Shirogane Animation would eventually release The Garden of Words separately from the bundle. That would take months. Possibly longer.
In the meantime, the only way to see it first was to buy the Blu-ray.
"Yukari Yukino. One scene. I noticed her immediately and could not explain why. The artists drew her with a quality of presence that the scene length did not justify. Now I understand why."
"The Garden of Words is listed as the spin-off title. I searched for this. There is apparently no prior work by this name. Shirogane-sensei created a complete bonus anime specifically for the Your Name Blu-ray."
"Mitsuha and Taki may appear in The Garden of Words. Nobody has confirmed this. Nobody has denied it. I am buying the Blu-ray."
"I had no interest in collecting Blu-rays before this announcement. The bundle has changed my position on this completely."
"Shirogane-sensei announcing a bonus spin-off anime the day before a new Attack on Titan episode. Both things are happening. The schedule this year is unreasonable."
"Two to three viewings of Your Name already. Plot discussion had naturally settled. This announcement has restarted everything."
"The three-volume manga bundle alongside the Blu-ray. Your Name volumes one and two plus The Garden of Words volume one. This is a complete purchase for anyone who loved the film."