Worry

It is clear that, with both shows having aired only four episodes, Cat Wish—which had topped the January New Anime popularity charts since its debut with a touching story about a fairy cat raised by a woman during her final days of illness—was completely overtaken by Kimi ni Todoke after its fourth episode aired.

In response, Sasaki Shiori, the animation screenwriter for Cat Wish, apologized to her fans on her social media on Friday. After all, while Chu Yu didn't care about these things and always viewed the popularity of his works with a "let it be" attitude, the other party clearly did not. Upon sensing the threat from Kimi ni Todoke, she had adopted a series of measures, including calling on fans to support Cat Wish and appearing on various programs to seek exposure for the work.

However, she truly didn't expect that even with these efforts, Kimi ni Todoke's popularity would surge rapidly within just a few days as the animation reached its fourth episode.

Sasaki Shiori was also well aware that the rise in popularity for Kimi ni Todoke was primarily because the work was so highly acclaimed. Among the female fan base, especially middle and high school girls, the work had become a massive hit in just a few weeks, and surprisingly, it was also quite popular among male fans.

It was not uncommon to see male fans who usually only watched hot-blooded battle or mainstream anime commenting that they had never realized shojo manga could be this interesting.

However... whether shojo manga was truly interesting to male viewers or if this work was simply so excellent that the male audience ignored its genre to follow it, industry insiders were well aware of the truth.

Defeat is defeat. Having passed the age of forty, Sasaki Shiori