Anime rating game

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[K-On! 2, rating 4 stars, reward: heroine Yui Hirasawa (skill) - Learning lv.3: greatly increases efficiency when learning new knowledge.]

...

Reward Producer Hayase Masamune (Skill) - Daily Refresh: All diseases and injuries will be cleared at midnight.

Reward: Artwork Instructor Shiina Mashiro (Skill) - Photographic Memory: Never forget what you've seen.

[…]

...

[Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun, rating 4 stars, reward heroine Sakura Chiyo (skill) - Best support: The work efficiency of the person you support is greatly improved.]

Reward the male protagonist Nozaki Umetarou (skill) - Backlight Man: His efficiency is greatly increased when working in the shadows.

...

Reward Producer Hayase Masamune (Skill) - Insight: Can easily find the weaknesses of non-living objects.

Reward: Artwork Instructor Shiina Mashiro (Skill) - Solidification: Physical functions can improve with exercise, but will never decline.

[…]

[Eromanga Sensei, rating 3 stars, reward for male protagonist Izumi Masamune (skill) - Cooking Lv.2: Two years of kitchen work experience.]

Reward the heroine Izumi Sagiri (skill) - Dance lv.2: Two years of dancing experience.

...

Reward producer Hayase Masamune (item) - Izumi Masamune's personal computer set.

Reward: Drawing instruction from Shiina Mashiro (item) - a set of Izumi Sagiri's personal drawing tools.

[…]

Upon hearing the evaluation results of the first two anime series, Masamune was overjoyed and kept thinking how wonderful it would be if he could receive Mashiro's reward.

But this feeling didn't last long before he was so shocked that he couldn't recover for a long time.

K-On! and Monthly Girls' Day received a 4-star rating, and not only myself and Mashiro, but all the main creators received very generous rewards.

But Héromanás was a major hindrance.

Judging from the rewards, this should be a barely acceptable 3 stars.

If we were to make a more detailed classification, this would fall into the lower end of the 3-star range.

It's even possible that the rating would be even lower without the two OVA episodes that supplement the plot.

If he himself felt so uncomfortable, Izumi Masamune must have been even more devastated.

While he was pondering, the phone suddenly rang. It was Nozaki Umetarou calling. Masamune answered it without much hesitation.

"Nozaki, what reward did you receive?"

“President Hayase, thank you. Not only me, but Sakura, Mikoshiba… they all received abilities that are very suitable for them.”

"You're welcome. Thanks to you, I've also acquired some very good skills."

"Not only now, my manga's popularity has soared, and the response has been excellent. Moreover, thanks to the anime's influence, Yukari-senpai has also gotten rid of the irresponsible editor Maeno. I'm truly... very grateful!"

"You're welcome."

Masamune smiled and noticed another phone call coming in.

"I'm getting another call. If you don't have anything urgent, I'll hang up now and we can talk later."

"Okay, see you another day."

"I'll treat you to dinner another day."

After the call ended, to everyone's surprise, the call came from Kotobuki Tsumugi, not Izumi Masamune as expected.

"Mr. Hayase, are you free right now?"

"I'm free, go ahead and tell me."

"Are you free these few days? The five of us would like to treat you to a meal as a way of expressing our gratitude."

"No need for that, is there? We at Musashino are having a banquet the day after tomorrow. If you don't mind, you can come and celebrate with us."

“That’s no problem, but actually my family asked me to do this today.” Kotobuki Tsumugi’s voice paused noticeably. “Of course, it’s just a casual meal to express my gratitude, nothing more.”

Masamune was speechless for a moment, then laughed:

"Okay, then next weekend. Mashiro will be on vacation then, and I won't be too busy."

"Understood, then it's settled."

"it is good."

"Okay, let's discuss the specific time and place on Saturday."

"no problem."

Shortly after I hung up the phone, it rang again.

However, this time it wasn't Izumi Masamune, whom Masamune had been waiting for, but Doma Umaru.

"Mr. Masamune, I watched the July anime review very carefully. K-On! and Monthly Girls' Nozaki both received high scores, and the reward abilities are very useful."

"But the rating for Eromanga was lower than expected, and the reward was somewhat lackluster."

"My animated series of the same name should be finished. What rating do you expect it to get?"

Masamune instantly understood that she was putting herself in his shoes and was worried that his anime wouldn't get a high rating.

"Let me think about it. The reason why Eromanga received a 3-star rating and the rewards were mediocre is probably due to a lack of popularity, in addition to the weak plot, the female lead's character not being well-developed, and the music being mediocre."

Does popularity also have an impact?

"It's not the deciding factor, but it will fluctuate by about half a star. If Eromanga had been the most popular player this season, the rating would have been a good 3 stars, not the barely 3 stars it is now."

"Upstream?"

"The same rating can result in vastly different levels of rewards. This shows that there is a large range of variation between each star rating."

"Hmm... I understand what you mean, but you haven't said how many stars my anime of the same name will get."

"My opinion doesn't count."

"Just making a prediction, I'm the only audience member, it won't affect anything." Umaru's mischievous laughter followed.

"4 stars or higher."

"If it's the most popular, will it reach 4 stars?"

"It should be possible, but it's difficult."

"Isn't the number one spot every quarter produced by your Musashino?"

"Musashino Animation Studio produces three anime series each season. Shirobako is the culmination of the hard work of all the staff at Musashino Animation Studio. It has the reputation of Musashino Animation Studio as a foundation, and it is also the focus of our promotion. Oregairu has the popularity of the first season, and Hachiman is also promoting it at the same time."

"The competition is fierce."

"Yes."

"In that case, let's aim for third place and strive for first."

"Hmm, how was your training today?"

"Each person can dance very well individually, but their coordination is still lacking, and they always make mistakes."

"Keep it up, we look forward to your outstanding performance."

"Thank you, we will train hard."

Although the phone kept ringing, Masamune never received a call from Izumi Masamune.

So, while taking a bath that evening, I couldn't resist calling them.

"Izumi-kun, what are your thoughts on the anime's rating?"

"Did you call specifically to comfort me? No need, I'm fine." Izumi Masamune's voice was full of seriousness. "At first I was really disappointed, but I quickly came to terms with it. Being ranked 11th in popularity this quarter and having a rating of 3 stars is actually quite good."

"Many more popular anime only have a 3-star rating."

"It is clear that the 3 stars are thanks to Musashino. Instead of complaining, I should thank you."

"I'm relieved that you've figured it out." Masamune breathed a sigh of relief.

There are only five or six 3-star anime each season, and 4-star anime other than Musashino are very rare, only one or two a year.

As for the 11th most popular character, Eromanga's rating of 3 stars is somewhat inflated.

"President Hayase, I will work even harder at writing. If the novel Eromanga can reach 20 volumes and sell over ten million copies, there should be a second season, right?"

"If it can really be done, I will consider it."

"Thank you! That's enough!"

"Don't forget about the novel about my sister."

"I will never forget that I will continue to improve my writing skills through my own struggles. In five years, no... in three years, Héromanga's novels will definitely reach tens of millions in sales."

Chapter 227 October New Anime Planning Meeting

On October 1st, Musashino held its seasonal planning meeting.

Even so, since the three animations had just been completed in July, many of the general production staff were still on vacation, and production would not officially begin until three days later.

Today's meeting is only for allocating manpower and arranging preliminary preparations.

However, before that, the first thing to do was a reflection meeting.

"I think the character design in Eromanga is a bit weak. Sagiri, as the female protagonist, can't carry the whole anime, and that's the biggest reason."

"From a production standpoint, the scenes are too monotonous, which makes the pacing somewhat slow. Also, there is too little interaction between the male and female leads. In order to prevent Sagiri's presence from becoming even weaker, the screen time of other outstanding characters was forcibly reduced, resulting in each character being neither prominent nor marginal."

"Director Nishimura hit the nail on the head. There aren't any particularly outstanding characters in Eromanga. Every female character is good, but not good enough. I think the most outstanding thing about an anime is its female characters. Like Adagaki Aki in Masamune-kun, or Takanashi Rikka in Chuunibyou."

"Ultimately, it comes down to the character design. Shiina Sagiri was drawn very beautifully, but after watching the whole anime, I didn't form a very deep impression of her."

“I think it’s a matter of growth. In other anime, the main character grows a little from beginning to end, even if it’s not very obvious. But in this anime, even until the end of episode 12, Sagiri still doesn’t want to go out and doesn’t grow much.”