Tokyo: Oreimo

“Developing talent is a long-term investment. The company’s projects will not stop after one animation, so there is no need to save money in this area.”

Ryosuke could foresee this development and made preparations in advance, which is why he dared to release "Puella Magi Madoka Magica" at this stage.

The unique art style of the original work, especially the impressive witch barriers, is based on an art form called "collage".

It doesn't draw a complete space stroke by stroke with a paintbrush, but rather, like a scrapbook, it combines and collages various patterns, textures, photos, texts, and even three-dimensional materials to create a surreal and metaphorical visual effect.

It would be almost impossible to achieve this style if it were hand-drawn.

Not only is the workload enormous, but the cost of trial and error is also extremely high.

After all, real manuscript paper is not like a graphics tablet, where you can simply press the undo button to eliminate mistakes.

"Of course, recruiting experienced individuals is also essential to help the team mature quickly."

"Therefore, Director Saito should also learn from him."

Ryosuke suddenly looked over.

"me?"

"I have spoken with Professor Kojima, and the society will provide the necessary financial support and offer you the opportunity to further your studies at the University of Arts and Crafts."

"Keep up with the times. If the director of the entire animation is not familiar with the new technologies, it will be quite troublesome."

"Remember to come to school for classes on the weekend."

Ryosuke winked at him and left with Takashiro Ryouno.

Chapter 104 Takashiro Ryouno is bored

September 25th, Water Sunday.

The Takashiro family home in the evening.

Ryosuke was in his room, reviewing the report from the company's finance department.

Two weeks have passed since I went to Tokyo Polytechnic to recruit.

The animation studio under the company has basically completed the formation of its team of animators, but it is impossible for a group of inexperienced people to create a well-made animation.

Therefore, we must recruit experienced people from the public to motivate the entire team.

There are a total of thirty openings, including twenty key animators and mid-section cutters, as well as extremely important positions such as colorist, character designer, and prop designer.

Ryosuke is equally generous with high salaries and benefits.

He entrusted this matter entirely to Ritsu Saito, and with his network of connections, the recruitment was mostly completed in just two weeks.

"Starting next month, the company will incur a significant expense in human resources costs. Based on the current team configuration, it will need to pay approximately 15 million yen in salaries each month."

"The cost of high-end equipment such as office PCs, scanners and graphics tablets is not small. Add to that the miscellaneous items for the workstation, and the one-time cost for a complete setup would be around 40 million yen."

The six-month incubation period is a process of team integration, which is unavoidable. From unifying the style to implementing the process, the estimated time is already very short.

However, given the continued growth in sales of "Fate/stay night", maintaining basic expenses should not be a problem for the time being.

In one month, nearly 30000 copies were sold, and the after-tax cash flow in the account reached 1.15 million yen.

At this rate, Ryosuke estimates that the annual sales volume will be around 100,000 units, and the final revenue will stabilize at around 400 million yen.

Future growth may be slow, but it will be insufficient compared to the expenses required to maintain the company's operations.

"Money comes quickly, but I spend it just as quickly..."

Ryosuke sighed, realizing that he had poured almost a third of the total revenue from "Fate/stay night" into the project in order to quickly build up the team.

"Before Madoka officially starts production, let's finish Clannad first, which will also give the newcomers in the company a chance to practice."

The production cycle for visual novels is generally around 6 months. With the current team of 70 people, the animation production time will be greatly reduced.

In terms of program development, Saori Hououin has the ability to carry a work on her own.

The most time-consuming part was actually Ryosuke's scriptwriting.

If this step is not completed, the subsequent work cannot proceed.

"The task is daunting."

In terms of sheer word count, Clannad has more text than FSN.

Because this work has many more branching storylines and daily life descriptions, it may take until the end of the year at the earliest to complete it entirely.

Ryosuke took out a brand new notebook and opened the cover page.

"Let's start with the character design collection."

......

"That guy hasn't had a proper rest lately."

On Sunday, Takashiro Ryōno linked arms with Aragaki Ruri as they walked the streets of Shinjuku.

“At 1 a.m. last night, the light was still on in that guy’s room. It’s been like this for a week now. He’s completely disregarding his health.”

Speaking of this, the blonde girl seemed to recall something unpleasant, and puffed out her cheeks.

"Ling Nai has been paying a lot of attention to her older brother lately. Does she even care whether he's sleeping or not?"

Ruri Aragaki chuckled softly, looked at Ling Nai, and noticed that her friend seemed to be blushing and turned her head away.

"Well, we live under the same roof after all. It wouldn't be good if we got sick from all this..."

Takashiro Ryou muttered something and gave a perfunctory reply.

"You should go to bed when it's time to sleep. This guy once lectured me, saying that sleeping late will make you age faster!"

"When it's his turn, he doesn't take it seriously at all, it's really infuriating."

Ling Nai pursed her lips.

Actually, she didn't care whether Ryosuke would age quickly.

Most importantly, since that guy doesn't sleep, I have absolutely no way to sneak into his room to find Madoka's animation script.

The aftereffects of watching "Fate/Zero" a while ago have completely worn off. Although I still feel excited when I think about it, I've become desensitized to it after watching it so many times.

The companies she follows haven't released any new works, and even the Cardcaptor Sakura manga is only missing the final touches.

The sudden free time made her quite uncomfortable.

In short, it was boring.

I was originally planning to find some fun in Ryosuke's room while he was asleep. After watching the first three episodes of Madoka Magica, I was really looking forward to the rest.

But this guy always goes to bed later than me, so I never get a chance to make a move.

However, she would never tell her best friend directly about something like sneaking into his room to steal things while he was asleep.

It would be too embarrassing to say it outright.

Is that so?

A thoughtful expression appeared on Ruri Aragaki's face.

Ling Nai has been mentioning Ryosuke much more often lately than before, as if their relationship has become quite close.

This made her feel slightly uncomfortable.

Even though the two of them were out shopping, Ling Nai didn't focus her attention on herself at all, and kept talking about Ryosuke.

As for her relationship with Ling Nai, before meeting Ryosuke last year, Aragaki Ruri was absolutely confident that she could beat that older brother.

But since returning from the CM exhibition, although they eventually reconciled, she could still sense that her relationship with Takashiro Ryono was not as good as before.

It's like there's an invisible wall between us, making it seem impossible to get close no matter what.

The relationship between these siblings used to be quite bad, but now it can be said to have improved by leaps and bounds.

"How exactly did my elder brother manage to do that?"

"Is it because you share common interests?"

"Speaking of which, I still haven't been able to bring myself to play that game disc."

Ruri Aragaki tried several times, but always stopped at the step of taking the disc out of the box. She felt like she would get dirty if she played with it.

"Perhaps I have to give it a try to improve my relationship with Ling Nai."

She decided to go back and try again tonight.

"Hey? Liuli, come quick!"

Suddenly, Takashiro Ryōno's voice called out, and Aragaki Ruri snapped out of her daze, only to find that her friend had somehow run to the entrance of a shop ahead.

She walked quickly closer, but for some reason the scenery around her felt quite familiar, as if she had been here not long ago.

I looked up at the shop's signboard.

—Kadokawa Shoten.

"Speaking of which, this is where Mr. Shi Yuze used to hold his autograph session. It's been a while since he's been here."

With limited leisure time on weekdays, and recently, due to the start of the new semester and her focus on her studies, Ruri Aragaki hasn't had time to buy new books to read.

"Is Ling Nai now interested in light novels? I don't think I've heard you mention having this hobby before."

"Well, I sometimes read these when I'm bored to pass the time, but I recently discovered one that's really great, and this is it."

"I can't believe it's been released so quickly. That guy didn't even tell me..."

Ling Nai muttered something, then put one hand on her hip and pointed to a promotional poster at the store entrance.

"Liuli likes light novels, right? You must read them! I'll buy them for you!"

Without waiting for her friend's reply, the blonde girl walked into Kadokawa Bookstore.

Ruri Aragaki never imagined that one day she would be recommended a novel by Ling Nai. She looked up at the poster, her eyes widening slightly.

The poster depicts a young girl in silver-blue armor, holding a gleaming golden holy sword, with many figures behind her displaying various expressions.

The novel's name is written directly below its promotional poster.

Fate/Zero.