Anime rating game

Upon realizing that he had already leaned towards his suggestion, Masamune asked with a smile:

"In that case, what is your decision? If you are willing to temporarily combine the Service Department and the Student Council and separate them after you graduate, I will call the school now."

"Wait a minute, let me ask the others first. If I make a decision on my own and they disagree, the relationship will become very strained."

"Okay, I'll wait for your call."

……

As the club activity was nearing its end, the members of the Service Club had packed their belongings and were preparing to leave.

Seeing Hachiman Hikigaya rush in, the group all looked over at the same time.

“I have a new proposal: to hang a sign for the Department of Service outside the Student Union building.”

"We don't need to give up our current club activities, we just need to change departments and take on student union work as well."

"Do you think this is appropriate?" Yukino Yukinoshita asked in a deep voice.

“I don’t think there’s a problem. Not only all the teachers and students, but also the new students who might enter Soubu High School in the future, and even the school administration don’t want to see the Service Club disappear. For Soubu High School, the Service Club is an important signboard for attracting students.”

Hachiman Hikigaya paused, then said again:

"In this era of increasingly serious low birth rates, student recruitment is the most important thing."

"In other words, for Soubu High School, the Service Club and the Student Council are equally important."

"The two-in-one arrangement won't last forever. We can take down the Service Department sign when we graduate."

Yukino Yukinoshita hesitated for a moment, then sighed softly:

"If the school agrees, I have no objection."

"Senior, I'm here too," Iroha Isshiki said with a smile. "I'm also a member of the Service Club, so the sign can't be taken down on the day you graduate."

"Ah."

Hachiman Hikigaya responded softly, then added:

"Since Yukinoshita is the president of the Service Club, if we move there directly, she will definitely become the student council president as well."

"However, if you don't mind, you can be the vice president first, and then you will be the next president."

"Why are you giving orders?" Yukino Yukinoshita couldn't help but interrupt. "As the president, I should be the one to decide who is the vice president."

"Oh, so who do you think is suitable to be the vice president?"

"...All colors."

"Isn't this exactly what I said?"

Hachiman Hikigaya couldn't help but make a sarcastic remark, while secretly letting out a sigh of relief.

Yukinoshita finally returned to normal, and Yuihama and Isshiki smiled again, finally easing the tense atmosphere that had been building up within the club for several days.

The constant choice between the Service Club and the Student Council has been suffocating everyone.

Now, things are finally back to normal.

……

Shortly after dinner, as he sat down at his computer at home, preparing to write some notes to record his feelings of the day, Hachiman Hikigaya realized that he seemed to have forgotten something.

A few seconds later, he suddenly realized what was happening and quickly dialed Masamune's number.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting."

"It sounds like you've forgotten about me?"

"I'm sorry, I've been too busy today."

"I thought you guys were having a fight. I'd already tried to get over there to rescue you, honestly..."

"...Yukinoshita and the others have already agreed."

“Great, I’ll call the school right away.”

Chapter 243 Finally, I can beat him this time.

With the production of the three anime series for the current season on track, Masamune has also begun writing the scripts for the three anime series to be produced in the next season.

However, he does not have the ability to remember everything he sees, so he can only create based on his memory, combining it with his own ideas.

Unlike the initial, rudimentary version of the story, the workload became much greater because a complete script needed to be written.

Fortunately, with the help of the scriptwriting team, the work was distributed one by one, and the remaining workload was greatly reduced.

dong dong...

Upon hearing the sudden knock on the door, Masamune stopped working and looked toward the office door.

"Please come in."

The next moment, Adagaki Aki and Koiwai Yoshino walked in from outside the door.

Their relationship remained unchanged from the beginning. Yoshino Koiwai carried a black bag filled with many things, deliberately lagging behind by half a step, and kept her head down looking at the ground.

"Why are you here?" Masamune asked with surprise, and immediately got up to make tea.

What do you think of the animations produced by AL?

Adagaki Aki sat down on the sofa and asked casually.

"Well...it's okay."

Masamune couldn't guess her purpose in asking that question, so he could only give a perfunctory answer.

"I admit that my art style can't compare to Musashino's. You've recruited many professional artists, so I acknowledge that there's a gap. But why is there such a big difference in the evaluations?"

Adagaki Aki picked up the black tea on the table, took a small sip, then looked up again, staring expressionlessly at Masamune:

"Since January this year, our AL has expanded in scale. After recruiting a large number of illustrators in April, we have maintained a pace of one animation per quarter."

"In terms of management, I believe I have done a very good job, and I have also learned from your system and adopted a performance-based reward system."

"In terms of plot, the animations we produce each season are adapted from the most popular light novels or manga of the year, and have a large fan base."

"For voice acting, we've hired popular voice actors, so their acting skills are absolutely guaranteed."

"But it ranked 18th in sales among the new anime series in April, with a rating of 3 stars, and the rewards were just ordinary items."

"The anime series ranked 21st in sales among the July releases, with a rating of 2.5 stars. The entire company was punished by being blinded in one eye for a day."

"The new anime series that started in October this season are currently ranked 17th in sales, and may drop further. As for the ratings, even with an optimistic estimate, they will not exceed 3 stars."

"I believe I have done my best in every aspect and it is difficult to improve further, but the result is not satisfactory."

"I want to know, how exactly did you achieve your 4-star rating?"

It turned out to be the case.

Masamune seemed to be deep in thought. He hadn't paid attention to their company's animation for a long time, but it seemed she was doing a pretty good job.

Do you know what factors are involved in rating an animation?

"Quality, you know. Animation is like a dish a chef serves; as long as it tastes good, that's all that matters."

"That's true, but not entirely."

Masamune carefully considered his words and continued:

"There are three scoring criteria for dishes, which are commonly referred to as color, aroma, and taste."

"The animation has seven rating criteria: art style, plot, voice actors, music, production, character design, and popularity."

“Every item is crucial. If one item is very high and another is very low, like a 5-star rating and a 1-star rating, the score will be the middle value, which is 3 stars.”

"Popularity is not the deciding factor, but it does determine one-seventh of the outcome."

"For example, the most popular person in the season gets 5 stars, the second and third get 4.5 stars, and those ranked 15th and below get 3 stars."

"Even if the animation quality is very high and the other six data points can get 3 stars or 3 stars, if the popularity is only 2 stars, the rating will be dragged down by half a star."

After all, the game I created in my previous life was just a small game with a simple setting.

"Popularity?" Adagaki Aki murmured to herself.

Seeing this, to avoid her misunderstanding, Masamune explained:

"The popularity I'm referring to isn't just online popularity rankings, but a broader concept. Word-of-mouth, sales, and the number of people who genuinely enjoy watching a particular anime are all part of popularity."

"Therefore, even if you spend money to hire online trolls to boost your popularity to number one on the popularity chart, it will be of no use."

As he spoke, Masamune quickly took out his phone and searched for their company's name and the animations they had produced in previous seasons.

Because every day after get off work, I have to help Mashiro with her homework and draw comics, and I also have to spend a lot of time exercising to burn off excess calories.

Masamune would watch anime other than Musashino when he had nothing to do, but he didn't pay much attention to them. He would occasionally watch one or two episodes, but they didn't leave much of an impression on him.

At this moment, after searching through the anime produced by AL Company in previous seasons, Masamune realized that they were actually works by Adagaki Aki Company.

As I continued to recall, more memories surfaced in my mind.

I've watched one or two episodes before. The art style is nice and there are many appealing aspects, but it's still too formulaic. Compared to the many manga and light novel adaptations of the season, it doesn't have anything particularly attractive.

"How do you feel?" Adagaki asked slowly as he put down his phone.

"It's alright, I'd say it's alright. There are so many light novel adaptations these days, it's hard to stand out if you don't have anything particularly appealing."

After all, there are hundreds of anime every quarter, and more than half of them are light novel adaptations.

"Is original content the only option?"

"No, the risk of creating original content is too high."

Not wanting to put her in a difficult position, Masamune didn't reply, but spoke as he thought:

"Not all light novels are the same. Some light novels are popular because the authors have excellent writing skills and good pacing and plot arrangement."

"However, the interesting points in light novels are not necessarily popular when adapted into anime, even if the original author is invited to be the screenwriter, the result is the same."

"For example, some long dialogues are very interesting in light novels, but when they are made into anime, they can't just keep chatting like that and stay in the same scene for several episodes in a row, right?"

Adagaki Aki nodded thoughtfully, indicating that she understood.

He turned to look at Yoshino Koiwai behind him and gestured for her to take the contents of the bag out.