Tokyo: Oreimo

She was wearing her performance costume, followed by several staff members, as if she had just finished a rehearsal. Her gaze swept across the corridor and landed on Ryosuke in the crowd.

Ryosuke nodded slightly as a greeting.

Shizuka Hayakawa nodded, her lips moved as if she were saying something, but it was too far away to hear clearly. Then she turned around and disappeared around the corner of the corridor with the staff.

"What's wrong?" Ling Nai noticed his gaze.

"It's nothing. Let's go, the chairman said we're having a celebration banquet tonight."

Tian Zhongxue shouted from the front, "Barbecue! We have to have barbecue today! It's on me!"

.....

Two weeks after the audition, the anime studio entered its busiest phase after the official audio recording was completed.

Takeda imported the recording file into the performance system and adjusted the audio-visual synchronization line by line.

The official version of "Mahoutsukai no Yoru" was completed in the second week of August, and burned to a record a week before the summer COMI. When Tian Zhongxue looked at the thousand finished copies stacked in the corner of the activity room, he almost cried.

He took a set out of the cardboard box, held it in his hands, and touched it from beginning to end, from the cover design of the outer packaging to the printing on the CD.

"This is our first work, and we actually made it!"

Chapter 285 Prelude

In late July in Tokyo, the rainy season had just ended, and the temperature suddenly soared.

The Future Dimension Forum's server completed the opening of the special zone precisely at 3:10 PM.

Mao Gokou sat at her workstation in the Aniplex technical department, took her fingers off the keyboard, picked up the now-cold cup of coffee next to her, and took a sip.

On the screen, the newly opened "Wahatsume's Night" section template has been deployed.

The header image at the top is Ayumi's painting of a Western-style mansion under the moon, and the edges of the title font have the texture of hand-drawn brushstrokes.

Following Saori's instructions, she opened the backend and uploaded the pinned post.

"【Official Recommendation】A work that deeply expands the Type-Moon universe - The Night of the Great Wizard, produced by the Waseda University Manga Research Club."

The post was short and used a consistently official tone.

Click send.

Gokou Mao leaned back in her chair, picked up her coffee cup, found it was completely cold, and put it back.

The time in the bottom right corner of the screen jumps to 3:15.

The number of replies to the post started to fluctuate.

"Aniplex officially recommending a fan-made game?"

"Waseda Manga Club? That Kara no Kyoukai club from last winter's COMI? They're making games now?"

The number of replies exceeded 300 within three minutes and 1,000 within ten minutes.

She switched to the backend management panel, where the number of real-time online users in the special zone was jumping up at a visible speed.

A large number of users flooded into the special section, and some people dug up the "Akihabara no Lost Child" recommendation post for "Kara no Kyoukai" from the winter COMI period, and put it back on the homepage.

The replies under the post changed from "Marking this to come back later" to "Already bought it, it's truly a masterpiece", and then to "I heard the group has released a new work again".

That old post has received over three thousand replies.

She clicked on several posts that were being discussed and glanced at them.

"I only managed to buy the Kyoukai no Kyoukai doujinshi from Winter COMI the next day. The quality is definitely commercially viable. It's a game from the same circle, so I had to buy it just for that reason."

“Aniplex never recommends things randomly; anything that gets pinned by the official website must have something special.”

"After looking at the screenshots, the original art style is the same as 'Kara no Kyoukai', and it's in no way inferior to Rumiko Takashiro's style."

"Waseda Manga Club... Did a professional infiltrate this circle? The quality of their Winter COMI doujinshi was ridiculously high, and now they're making a game, using official voice actors from SP agency. What kind of doujin circle is this?"

Gokou Mao stared at the last comment for two seconds, her lips twitched slightly, and then she continued scrolling down.

Some people questioned whether Aniplex was promoting its own people, saying that this manga club must have internal connections with Aniplex.

But these voices were quickly drowned out by the influx of more discussions.

At 5:30 p.m., the daily active users of the special zone had already surpassed those of some commercial game zones.

Gokou Mao exported the data in the background, preparing to send it to Saori later.

The numbers on the screen are still rising.

She glanced at the time in the bottom right corner, then switched back to the main page.

The number of replies to the pinned post has exceeded two thousand, and an analysis post titled "From 'Kara no Kyoukai' to 'Mahoutsukai no Yoru,' what exactly is Waseda Manga Research Institute all about?" is climbing to the top of the homepage with dozens of replies per minute.

She didn't click on it.

The light from the computer screen shone on her face.

Her younger siblings should have already gotten out of school. She has shifts at the convenience store tonight, and she needs to finish organizing all this data before her shift ends.

My fingers returned to the keyboard, the tapping sound echoing monotonously in the empty technical department.

......

At the same time, in the activity room of the Waseda University Manga Research Club, Tanaka held his phone above his head and let out a distorted shout.

"Aniplex! The official account! They posted something for us!"

Ayumi, who was organizing her drawings, looked up.

Kobayashi paused for a moment while holding the teacup, and Okubo and Asakura simultaneously jumped up from their chairs.

"What?" Okubo snatched the phone. The title of the pinned post on the screen was clearly displayed: "[Official Recommendation] A work that deeply expands the Type-Moon universe."

"This is indeed Aniplex's official account."

Tian Zhongxue snatched the phone back and frantically tapped the screen with his finger. "Gao Cheng! Gao Cheng, did you see that? We're on the official recommendation!"

He looked up, but no one in the activity room responded.

“Gao Cheng isn’t here today. He said he had something to do at home.” Ayumi put the tidied-up drawings aside, her tone calm.

"Oh yeah, he said he'd be a little late today." Tian Zhongxue scratched his head, but his excitement hadn't diminished at all. "Never mind, I have to tell him when he gets here!"

Okubo leaned over to look at the data on his phone screen, counting on his fingers, "The post has been up for two hours, and the number of people online in the section has exceeded 10,000. The pinned post has almost 3,000 replies. My god, it's getting even faster than the Kara no Kyoukai post during the Winter COMI."

"This is because of the positive reputation we built up last time."

Kobayashi pushed up his glasses.

"The achievements of Winter COMI speak for themselves, and this time we're making a game, not a doujinshi. In the doujinshi community, games themselves receive more attention than novels."

"Xiaolin, you're being way too calm!" Tian Zhongxue slapped his shoulder hard. "This is the first time our manga club has been officially featured! Can't you be a normal person and get excited for once?!"

"I'm very excited," Kobayashi said expressionlessly, "but I'm suppressing it with reason."

"I can't tell at all!"

Ayumi listened to the noise in the activity room, her gaze falling on the recommendation post on her phone screen.

The officially recommended time is 3:10 PM, Wednesday, exactly one week after Summer COMI.

The timing was precise, exactly seven days, enough to generate buzz online for several days before reaching its peak before the event even began.

It won't be forgotten too soon, nor will it be too late to spread.

She recalled the pinned recommendation post that appeared on the forum the day after Winter COMI.

That time, the administrator's personal account, "Luna of Clow Reed," was used, and the wording was more personalized. This time, the official account was used directly.

Is it because of a licensing agreement?

Ayumi turned off her phone screen and put it back on the table.

She looked up at the empty seat by the window. Ryosuke wasn't here today, and neither was Ryouno.

She picked up the neatly arranged sketches again and began to look through them, without thinking any further.

......

The manga club activities will proceed as scheduled on Thursday.

When Ryosuke and Ayano walked into the activity room, Tanaka Middle School had already been waiting there for fifteen minutes.

"Gao Cheng!" He rushed forward. "Aniplex's official account posted something for us yesterday! Did you see it? The number of people online in the section peaked at over 20,000!"

"I saw it." Ryosuke placed the canvas bag on the table, his tone indifferent. "I saw the forum post on my phone yesterday."

"Is that all the reaction you're going to get?" Tian Zhongxue's mouth dropped open in disappointment. "We were officially recommended by Aniplex! Aniplex! It was posted by their official account!"

"President, Takashiro already sent me a message yesterday to congratulate me." Ayumi peeked out from behind the easel. "It's probably because of the licensing agreement, after all, there are licensing fees."

"Alright... whatever, whatever Takashiro's reaction, we've already made it onto the official recommendation list! 'Mahoutsukai no Yoru' will definitely sell even better!"

He waved his hands and walked around the activity room, then slammed a printed task assignment sheet on the table.

"On the day of Summer COMI, we must all be present! We printed a thousand sets this time, I wonder if that's enough?"

Ayumi took the task assignment sheet, glanced at it, and took out her phone from her drawer. "Judging from the current popularity, it's best to print more."

"How about three thousand sets?"

Ryosuke offered a suggestion.

With the popularization of DVD technology in the past two years, blank discs and burning costs have become much cheaper, and the remaining funds of the comics research institute are sufficient to support it.

"Can we sell all three thousand sets?" Okubo wasn't very confident.

"Although the winter COMI 'Kara no Kyoukai' sold 1,300 copies in two days, that was a doujinshi. Games are more expensive, and we have to consider customers with limited budgets."

“This time is different.” Kobayashi pushed up his glasses and turned his phone screen to show everyone. “There are already more than 500 messages in the forum saying that they will line up on the day of the event, not counting those who just browse without leaving a message. 3,000 sets may not be enough.”

"Then let's do as Gao Cheng said and print another two thousand sets!"

Tian Zhongxue slapped him and made his decision.

Chapter 286 Sign-up

August 14th, 6:40 AM.