In Japan's current animation industry, the focus of the vast majority of people was on Shirogane-sensei.
Even a short animation being released alongside Your Name merchandise had rushed to the top of the trending lists on every major platform within hours. Foreign-language posts were appearing in the forums from overseas fans asking about it.
Shirogane-sensei's overseas presence was substantial. The density of anime fans abroad was lower than in Japan, but those fans monitored the Japanese animation industry closely, the same way anime fans in Rei's previous life had independently tracked the industry in Japan.
News of The Garden of Words as a Your Name spin-off had spread completely through the overseas fan community within half a day.
The official websites of Hoshimori Group, Shirogane Animation, and Illumination Production Company updated simultaneously with The Garden of Words material.
New character art for the heroine Yukari Yukino. Background art of a quality where every individual frame functioned as a wallpaper image.
Rei had made adjustments to the male lead's design. Makoto Shinkai's works had always featured female characters with strong recognisability while the male characters tended to read as background figures at first glance.
The Garden of Words was a typical example. Yukari Yukino was drawn with exceptional beauty. The male lead in the original had been designed in a way that had taken Rei out of the experience when he watched it. This Japan version did not need to make him extraordinarily handsome, but at minimum he needed a level of visual appeal comparable to Taki Tachibana in Your Name.
The shoes the male lead crafted for the heroine at the story's conclusion had also been slightly adjusted to fit local aesthetic sensibilities.
These were changes only Rei understood the origin of. For Japan's animation audience, this was simply the first version of The Garden of Words they had ever seen.
"The promotional art alone is enough to confirm this spin-off has substance."
"Buying it."
"The Garden of Words production cost is reportedly close to 600 million yen. And it is being included as a free bonus with the Your Name Blu-ray at standard market pricing. It could have been released theatrically."
"Shirogane-sensei's total Your Name box office in Japan is already 54 billion yen. Global total has crossed 80 billion. He is not short of money."
"The manga royalties alone from the Garden of Words tankōbon will cover the production cost. One-third of Demon Slayer's manga readership buying the Garden of Words volume is a profit."
"Looking forward to the release next month."
"Stop discussing The Garden of Words. Tonight's Attack on Titan episode is airing."
"I do not want to discuss Attack on Titan. Just looking at what is coming makes me feel like tonight is going to be brutal. I am deliberately avoiding the topic."
"Attack on Titan and Your Name and The Garden of Words coming from the same creator. The art style shifts completely between them. The tonal range is completely different. I genuinely feel like Shirogane-sensei's head contains multiple distinct creative personalities and each one produces a different kind of work."
"There probably will not be another person like Shirogane-sensei for the next hundred years. Support him heavily during these years when the inspiration is flowing at this rate. Once he hits thirty, married with children, will he still be producing three or five animations a year? One a year at that point would be something to celebrate."
Nao Fujimoto looked at these comments and felt mild disagreement.
Married with children. Thirty years old.
Shirogane-sensei was twenty-two. Not even twenty-three for another month or two. These people were projecting ahead by nearly a decade.
Shirogane-sensei is only nearly twenty-three.
When she thought about this properly, the melancholy arrived.
At an age when most people were still working out how to find employment and cover basic costs, Shirogane-sensei was already the most significant animation creator in Japan's history, with hundreds of millions of fans globally, a personal net worth exceeding 200 billion yen, and thousands of people whose livelihoods depended directly on his creative output.
It is genuinely absurd.
She looked at the small apartment around her. Six years of post-graduation work before she could take out the loan to buy this two-bedroom unit in Tokyo.
And next month I still have to set aside part of my salary to buy his animation merchandise. He is clearly this wealthy and I am still willingly giving him money.
She looked at the display cabinet on the right side of the living room. The figure collection. The cosplay costumes: Shinobu Kocho, Mitsuri, Tatsumaki, Jinx, Caitlyn. She had even cosplayed as Sai at an anime convention once. These hobbies were expensive. A single set of genuine high-quality cosplay costumes running into the tens of thousands of yen was common.
I have to spend less this month. She had told herself this before.
The animation merchandise programme on Ion TV that aired before Attack on Titan finally ended.
Guren no Yumiya began.
Every time she heard it her blood moved. The song had held the top position on Japan's animation music charts continuously through this period. It had a specific quality of energy that functioned regardless of how many times she had already heard it.
Her mood shifted with it.
The main episode began.
"The Female Titan was consumed, but did you see the controller inside when the Titan was being eaten?"
The opening was Erwin suspended between trees on his ODM Gear.
"I did not see it. If this is someone capable of moving after detransforming, and if they had pre-equipped their ODM Gear before the Female Titan was eaten, that person could be mixed into the crowd around us right now."
Erwin and Section Commander Hange in exchange. A figure moving in the shadows behind them, hunting the soldiers protecting Eren.
Eren and the three remaining Levi Squad members were moving through the forest on ODM Gear. The squad carried obvious anger about their fallen teammate. But their orders held. They continued toward the pre-planned destination.
The pursuit from above. Transformation light descending through the trees like lightning.
The Female Titan descended into the forest again.
Her objective was Eren.
Nao sat up straight.
It had been almost three months since Eren had transformed into a Titan in episode twelve. The intervening episodes had been focused on dialogue, foreshadowing, and setup.
Some fight sequences had appeared but none involving Eren directly. Nao had genuinely felt, at points during this stretch, that the protagonist had insufficient presence compared to the supporting characters around him.
He had spent more time being carried, ordered around, and argued over than actually doing anything.
But now.
The Titan battle she had been waiting three months for had arrived.
The Female Titan came through the trees with momentum that made every previous Titan encounter look static by comparison.
"This time I will kill it. Let me do it."
Hatred in Eren's eyes. Not the hot impulsive anger of the early episodes but something harder, shaped by three months of being told to wait and watch while people around him paid the price of that waiting.
He had always wanted to act. Erwin and Levi had consistently refused to allow it. The reasoning was sound: Eren held too many unknowns, represented too significant a combat asset, could not be risked.
Even in situations where Eren's intervention might have turned an outcome, the calculus held. The Armored Titan and Colossal Titan were still unidentified and unengaged. Preserving Eren preserved options.
Nao had not found this reasoning wrong. She had followed it clearly enough.
But the Female Titan was here now.
"No. The three of us will handle the Female Titan. Eren, you run to headquarters alone."
The scene shifted to Erwin.
"When confronting the enemy this time, I felt it. If you pursue a foolproof strategy too much, you will never win against the opponent no matter what."
His voice was completely level.
"If necessary, you must bear enormous risks. You must have the mindset of sacrificing everything to fight."
The two locations running simultaneously. Eren's squad debating whether he should transform. Erwin at headquarters already regretting the order he had given.
The enemy in front of them was not something a zero-risk strategy could defeat. Zero-risk strategies were for situations where you had more resources than your opponent. The Survey Corps had never had that.
Nao's bad premonition had been rising since the BGM shifted.
"You kid. Are you doubting our abilities?"
"Is that so, Eren? Do you distrust us that much?"
Eren's jaw tightened. Then he turned, engaged the gas at full output, and drove himself into the depths of the forest alone.
"I believe our squad will be victorious."
The last words he left them.