The Other World’s Animator

After the eighth episode of Shingeki no Kyojin was updated, its viewership closed at 6.19%, rising once again.

Across Japan, countless fans had already begun piecing together the world of the anime on their own, using the clues hidden throughout the story. Among those theories, a few were surprisingly reasonable, even coming dangerously close to the truth. Most of them, however, were complete nonsense.

The ironic part was that even some members of the production team for the first season were still utterly confused.

In that first batch of episodes, the true identities of the Colossal Titan and the Armored Titan had not been revealed at all. For those working only on that portion of the story, there was no way to know just how massive the bomb waiting ahead truly was.

The team handling the second season, however, was in a completely different situation.

They had already read the script for that absurd sequence - the revelation of "I'm the Armored, he's the Colossal," followed immediately by kicks, collisions, and destruction unfolding one after another. At that moment, every one of them wore the same stunned expression.

When they compared that with the heated discussions spreading online, they found it funny, of course. But at the same time, a chill rose from somewhere deep inside their chests.

By the time the story reached its second season, Shingeki no Kyojin was becoming more and more monstrous.

Compared with Sora's previous works, there was a clear, almost subtle sense that the narrative had been pushed to another level entirely.

No one dared say it with absolute certainty, but most of the staff shared the same instinct: judging by the story as it stood now, Shingeki no Kyojin was destined to become legendary. More than that, it might surpass C, surpass Steins;Gate, and become the defining milestone of Sora's career as an animation creator.

Meanwhile, on the top floor of Yume Animation's office building, Sora did his best to carve out time from the suffocating production schedule of Arcane to keep an eye on Shingeki no Kyojin's results.

Within Japan, the performance of Shingeki no Kyojin was important, of course. But for someone who had already dominated Japan's annual anime rankings for two or three years in a row, breaking another viewership record no longer carried quite the same weight.

What truly concerned him now were the details of taking the anime overseas.

In this world, Japan was a major cultural exporter in the anime industry. Even so, foreign markets had their own powerful local productions and deeply rooted influence.

Because Sora's works did not yet have the budget, structure, or conditions needed to receive the same level of promotional support in every country, they could not be broadcast simultaneously on major foreign networks. As a result, outside Japan, his works were still merely "popular titles," far from having the overwhelming dominance they enjoyed at home.

The logic was simple. Even if Hollywood films in his previous life were of extremely high quality, it was still difficult for them to compete for the top annual box office spot against local-language films released during the Lunar New Year season, backed by resources, market preference, and institutional support.

For a work to truly explode, quality alone was not enough. Timing, favorable ground, and capital support were all indispensable. Not a single one could be missing.

If One Piece, instead of being serialized in Jump, had debuted in some obscure manga company somewhere in Africa in his previous life, it might very well have ended up buried in obscurity before ever finding its audience.

What Sora needed to do now was find partners and break through those barriers.

Among the world's ten largest economies, excluding Japan, he had already sent representatives to contact local television networks and media groups in the other nine countries.

Of those, five had shown strong interest in Shingeki no Kyojin.

At that very moment, negotiation teams were overseas, speaking with mid- and high-level executives behind those networks and discussing the terms of cooperation.

"What's wrong? You look so serious."

While Sora was thinking about all of this, Sumire, sitting beside him, set down the pen in her hand and asked curiously.

Sora drew in a deep breath before smiling.

"I was thinking that, judging by the current pace of negotiations, by the time the second season of Shingeki no Kyojin airs, we'll most likely be able to broadcast it simultaneously in several major overseas markets."

He paused, and his next question came out softly, almost like a thought spoken aloud.

"Can Shingeki no Kyojin really win over anime fans overseas?"

Sumire looked at him. Little by little, a faint smile appeared on her fair, beautiful face.

"So even you get nervous?"

"It's not nervousness. It's something else." Sora's voice lowered. "I'm just worried whether Shingeki no Kyojin's path overseas will go as smoothly as I hope."

"Don't think so much about it."

Sumire hesitated for a moment, then continued.

"Even if Shingeki no Kyojin doesn't take off overseas, we still have Arcane."

She picked up the newly completed character design sheets for Arcane from the desk and placed them in front of Sora.

To be honest, an animation with such a realistic art style was an enormous challenge for the key animators. Still, Sora paid well enough to justify the effort. Even if the pace was slower, that slowness brought precision. Careful work produced refined results.

That visual direction, the backgrounds, the atmosphere, and the overall aesthetic concept of Arcane made one thing clear to Sumire and to everyone at Yume Animation: Sora's ambition for this anime was undoubtedly to open the global market.

Japanese anime fans might resist 3D animation, but as long as it was hand-drawn 2D animation, they could accept either a realistic style or a cuter, softer aesthetic. Overseas audiences, on the other hand, tended to prefer animated works with a more realistic look.

And Arcane balanced both sides extremely well.

Sora lowered his gaze to the childhood design of Jinx.

Compared with the original version from his previous life, the child Jinx created by Yume Animation was undoubtedly much prettier.

He was an unwavering fan of the character. When he had watched Arcane in his previous life, he had always felt that child Jinx looked far too ugly in many scenes, especially when she cried - almost like an old woman. For the Japanese market, he had simply refined the character design slightly, making her more visually appealing without changing her essence.

Yet as he looked at the illustration in his hands, Sora lost focus for a moment.

It was as though he had returned to high school. To that summer. To those days when he gathered with classmates in an internet café, queued together as a team, and scored a pentakill using Jinx.

But now, he was already in another world.

Sora let out a quiet sigh.

"You're right. Even if Shingeki no Kyojin fails to open the international market, Arcane definitely will."

He lifted his eyes.

"Besides, chances are Shingeki no Kyojin will also be well received overseas."

"Then what is there left to worry about?" Sumire looked at him, the corners of her lips curving into a smile. "The first step toward our company becoming a major multinational begins this year."

"Exactly." A smile also appeared on Sora's face. "This year."

A few days later, the ninth episode of Shingeki no Kyojin aired smoothly.

In this episode, an explanation was finally given for why Eren was able to transform into a titan.

During the escape in the first episode, his father had found Eren and injected him with a drug. The side effect of that substance was temporary memory loss.

After using the power of the titans, Eren recovered that dormant memory. At the same time, through his father's words, he also learned the initial main thread of the anime's story.

Retake Wall Maria. Use the key his father had left him to open the door to the basement of their home. Find what had been hidden inside.

That episode quickly laid out the central direction of the story from that point onward.

Returning to Wall Maria and finding what was inside the basement meant uncovering the truth of the world.

Of course, the episode also included the suffocating fear of the soldiers toward the "demon" named Eren, a boy capable of transforming into a titan. The terror among his comrades was portrayed in an almost cruelly oppressive way.

At the end, in order to protect Mikasa and Armin, Eren, already exhausted, used what remained of his strength to materialize the skeleton of a titan and block the cannon fire launched by his own fellow soldiers.

The stupidity of those soldiers made viewers grit their teeth in anger.

But the final scene - Eren raising one hand and summoning that enormous skeletal structure in front of him to protect his friends - was engraved into the hearts of millions of anime fans across Japan.

That strange, bloody, and yet unbelievably stylish shot made the viewers' blood boil.

The emotion swelling in their chests almost shattered their reason.

It was too cool.

A demonic titan exoskeleton… who could have imagined that this power could be used in such a way?

Without a doubt, it was one of the most incredible scenes of the year.

patreon - ImmortalEmperor