Forcing Someone to Do the Impossible

Five days later.

In the conference room.

"It's about to start," Mihara Chisa said, sitting next to the projector and looking toward the episode director Misawa Hiroshi, the director Abe Shinichi, and the other key staff members.

"Please, go ahead," Abe Shinichi nodded.

Mihara Chisa pressed the play button.

The video began to play.

They watched it through roughly once.

Abe Shinichi signaled for Mihara Chisa to play it again, and then again; they just kept watching it over and over.

What they were doing was called a Rush check. Simply put, it was checking the footage after the photography process. By this stage, the background assets and character assets had been merged, and the necessary special effects had been added. Aside from the lack of sound, it was essentially no different from the finished product.

Of course, if any problems or substandard work were discovered, it would have to be sent back for revisions. The things being checked weren't just the animation; they included colors, backgrounds, photography, and so on. If there were issues with any of these, they might also require revisions.

For a light novel adaptation like Ore-sama, it was obviously impossible to check every single cut in such detail. In fact, until the final episode, this step was usually just a quick run-through.

Revisions took time. If a glance revealed nothing but problems that couldn't even be salvaged, there was no point in looking closely at all...

As for why they were making such a big fuss over the final episode, it was simply because the director and the episode director had high hopes for the cuts Gu Xue was responsible for.

They were currently only checking the original animation cuts that Gu Xue had handled.

They watched it cut by cut and found no major issues. There were some minor ones, but they were things like the colors not being quite right—nothing of real importance... or rather, nothing that required a major, labor-intensive revision.

The episode director, Misawa Hiroshi, had just stood up to point out these issues, but halfway through his sentence, he saw the murderous look in Mihara Chisa's eyes and sat back down obediently.

After checking every cut, they played all the cuts in sequence to check them one last time.

The full playback finished.

"..." The episode director Misawa Hiroshi was silent for a moment before blurting out, "How do you think it would turn out if we let Gu Xue handle the original animation for the whole thing?"

Abe Shinichi laughed, "The result would be that Ms. Mihara would kill you."

That was pure wishful thinking. A one-person animation project was something you could only dream of if the production schedule was generous, with over two months of animation time per episode. But Ore-sama didn't have two months; it didn't even have one.

However, Abe Shinichi knew that Misawa Hiroshi was just speaking his mind, expressing a sudden thought.

Gu Xue was indeed an excellent artist.

Noticing that Mihara Chisa was indeed looking over at him, Misawa Hiroshi chuckled sheepishly, "I was just joking."

"Alright," Abe Shinichi patted Misawa Hiroshi on the shoulder and stood up. "Ms. Mihara, Misawa, please get ready. We'll head over to Komachi Studio in a bit to finish the final edit (connecting all the cuts). Let's give it our all and get this done."

It was truly the final stretch.

Since the director had said so, no one had any objections. Most of the staff began to leave one after another. Mihara Chisa stayed behind to tidy things up. Just as Misawa Hiroshi was about to get up and leave with Abe Shinichi, Mihara Chisa, who was busy packing, called out to him.

"Please wait a moment, Mr. Misawa."

"?" Misawa Hiroshi stopped in his tracks.

Abe Shinichi thought for a moment, but instead of stopping, he walked straight out.

Mihara Chisa hugged her laptop and walked over to Misawa Hiroshi, saying, "The project for Anime Mirai has been finalized. About half a month after this anime wraps up, it will officially begin. The company's intention is for you to serve as the director. As for the newcomers, I will be the one to find them."

"Is this a good thing?" Looking at the expressionless Mihara Chisa, Misawa Hiroshi wasn't even sure if this was a good thing.

It should have been a good thing, but after witnessing Mihara Chisa's methods during this time, Misawa Hiroshi suddenly felt a bit suspicious.

"Please consider that for yourself," Mihara Chisa shook her head, hesitating for a moment. "I have only one request: please let Gu Xue participate."

"...The personnel seem to have already been decided, haven't they? We can't exactly have Gu Xue participate as a newcomer, can we?" Misawa Hiroshi gave a bitter smile. Of course, he would love to have Gu Xue involved in the project; saying he wanted it more than anything wouldn't be an exaggeration. He had even put Gu Xue's name forward at the beginning, but the company's executive director seemed to have his own considerations, and in the end, Gu Xue's name was crossed off and replaced with a veteran animator from within the company.

Mihara Chisa was silent for a moment. "Please negotiate."

"You're making things difficult for me..."

Misawa Hiroshi's eyes widened.

As an episode director without much experience, he had no say in anything outside of the content itself. If things went poorly, he might even be pushed around regarding the content.

If he went to negotiate with the company and ended up with a reputation for being ungrateful, what if he got demoted?

"I will also bring it up with the company. I'm sorry to trouble you," Mihara Chisa knew her request was a bit unreasonable, but she insisted that Misawa Hiroshi be the one to negotiate.

"You're abusing your power, Ms. Mihara..." Misawa Hiroshi quipped.

It was meant to be a joke.

But a faint blush crept onto Mihara Chisa's face.

"Eh...?" Misawa Hiroshi's eyes widened again.

Mihara Chisa took a deep breath and said softly, "If Gu Xue isn't there, I will be watching you all very closely. You should know that I don't trust you."

"Eh eh eh??? Isn't that a threat..."

"I just hope to do a better job."

"I hope for that too, but you can't expect me to bring home a gold award, can you? Don't joke around. The companies participating this time include CDD and 3.C PICTURE. It's impossible for me to..."

Halfway through his sentence, Misawa Hiroshi suddenly stopped. He looked at Mihara Chisa, thought of her experience working at 3.C PICTURE, and asked in a low voice, "You don't actually think that, do you?"

"Yes." Mihara Chisa hesitated for a moment before nodding.

"..." Misawa Hiroshi gave a wry smile. "Then you had better pray. Pray that after the final episode of Ore-sama airs, the numbers look good, or even better, that it manages to stir up some discussion. Otherwise, I really won't have the confidence to bring it up. Don't forget, I'm just a backup choice myself. If most of the company's main talent wasn't busy hugging the thighs of Shueisha's manga adaptation, You Are My Hero, it would never have been my turn."

"Putting me in charge of the Anime Mirai project—while the company does have the intention of training and cultivating me—means they still care quite a bit about this project. After all, it's about money. If I want to change personnel, I really need the leverage to back it up."

Mihara Chisa was silent for a long while before saying, "...I understand."

September 16th. Although the start of autumn had already passed, the weather remained sweltering.

Two days ago, the video completed by the editor was delivered to the television station.

Today was the broadcast day for My Right Leg Is Missing a Big Toe, But That's Not a Toe, It's a Holy Sword.

The director, Abe Shinichi, and the episode director, Misawa Hiroshi, seemed to have some confidence in the quality of the final product and both posted on Twitter. Although their wording differed, the general sentiment was the same: Everyone, please go watch it.

The original author, who had only participated in the early planning stages of the anime and had barely shown his face during the later stages, also came out to promote it.

The general meaning was still: Everyone, please go watch it.

Unfortunately, there were not many responses.

Although this anime had a small breakout during the sixth episode, the audience's memory was truly like that of a goldfish...

Moreover, after experiencing the trash production of the seventh episode, the eighth episode was still trash, and the ninth...

In any case, the sense of anticipation built up at the end of the sixth episode had been completely ruined by the subsequent episodes. Even though the original work, or rather the adapted anime plot, was decent and carried a strong flavor of a cult film, not everyone could tolerate the ugly, broken animation and keep watching.

As it stood, Ore-sama was just one of the dozens of anime airing this season, and not a particularly eye-catching one at that.

Except for the name.

Although they had been full of grand ambition while making it, Misawa Hiroshi actually didn't have much confidence in how many viewers would watch it or what kind of reviews it would receive in the end.

Asking for recommendation tickets, thank you...