A Theme

It looked like the two of them had been arguing for a while before Gu Xue arrived. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been so worked up.

The atmosphere in the meeting room was tense.

"Now, now, Miss Mihara, sit down. Sit down." Gu Xue reacted quickly. Seeing that something was off with Mihara Chisa, she immediately grabbed her hand and guided her into a seat.

Mihara Chisa glanced at Gu Xue, hesitated for a moment, then slowly sat down.

The anger in her posture faded.

"..." Misawa Hiroshi smacked his lips at the sight, feeling a little bitter.

Before Gu Xue showed up, he and Mihara Chisa had indeed been arguing for a while. But at first, he'd tried to discuss things calmly. He'd asked Mihara Chisa to sit down and talk several times, but she'd ignored him and snapped at him instead...

Now Gu Xue had only to tug on her hand, and Mihara Chisa sat down. Even her gaze had softened.

What the heck?

Misawa Hiroshi felt like he'd just wolfed down more than a hundred lemons.

Gu Xue had no idea what Misawa Hiroshi was thinking. Once Miss Mihara was seated, she breathed a sigh of relief, though she also felt a little helpless.

This was exactly why she'd joined the project.

Miss Mihara's personality was just so... awful. She didn't understand the need to be tactful at all. She was blunt, and on top of that, she didn't trust other people.

But everyone's patience had its limits. Maybe Misawa Hiroshi would put up with a lot because he felt sorry for her or something, but sooner or later, his patience would run out.

And Misawa Hiroshi was the sort of person who had very definite ideas about his work.

If Miss Mihara refused to compromise and kept acting this way, then even if things went smoothly this time, it was only a matter of time before she fell out completely with the creative team. Gu Xue didn't even want to imagine what might happen then.

Gu Xue couldn't bear to watch Miss Mihara go through another incident like the one with chief director Narita Kei.

So she'd come to make sure people didn't end up hating Mihara Chisa outright. She hoped she could act as a mediator and help resolve the conflict between them.

If it weren't for Mihara Chisa, why would Gu Xue have joined this project? What the heck was a "mid-career animator" supposed to mean anyway...? It was exhausting, and there was no reward in it. The pay wasn't bad, but if Gu Xue really needed money, she could just swallow her pride and beg her older sister, Gu Rou. Wouldn't that be quicker?

Her older sister would even give her more.

If you didn't love animation, who would join an animation studio?

Besides, if they really made a mecha show, Gu Xue was a hundred percent sure she'd get stuck doing the work. She might end up drawing the key animation for most of the project all by herself.

You couldn't expect newcomers to draw robots well. Without years of practice, it was simply impossible.

If they could draw robots well, they wouldn't be newcomers. They'd already be working in the industry. Why would they join an Anime Mirai project? What would they need to be trained for?

So... Gu Xue didn't agree with Misawa Hiroshi making a mecha show either. But she couldn't behave like Mihara Chisa. She needed to put it more tactfully.

More tactfully...

"Is there something wrong with your head?"

Gu Xue gave him a look of utter disdain. "Come on, chief director. Do you even know what year it is? You still want to make a hand-drawn robot anime? Look around. How many studios have the guts and the resources to make something like that now? Is it that other studios don't want to? They just can't. Animators who can draw giant robots well are practically antiques at this point. They're practically being put on display, and you want a bunch of newcomers to draw them? What happens if they can't finish the project? Will you draw it? Because I won't."

"I'm really not trying to put you down." Gu Xue took a deep breath and continued, "You started out as an animator, so you should know how difficult mecha shows are to animate. The fact that the industry switches to 3D whenever it has to deal with large machines or robots proves my point. You can ignore all that stuff Miss Mihara just said about the market. Plenty of people still love mecha shows, including me. I understand the 'romance of men' you're talking about, too, but you can't live on romance. You need to consider reality. I'll let it go that you went wild changing the storyboards last time. You were inexperienced, fine. But isn't it going too far to keep doing whatever you want? Who gave you the confidence to try making a mecha show when this is your first time directing and most of your animators are newcomers?"

Misawa Hiroshi was silent for a moment, then said quietly, "You did."

"..."

Gu Xue turned straight to Mihara Chisa. "Miss Mihara, please make sure he comes to his senses."

Mihara Chisa: "..."

"Then what kind of theme do you think we should do?"

Misawa Hiroshi gave a wry smile, putting aside his desire to make a mecha show. He stopped insisting.

It was his first time directing, and he couldn't rein in his urge to make the kind of anime he wanted. He'd let it go to his head.

Now he'd calmed down.

Mihara Chisa had tried to explain the market and the audience to him, but that was nowhere near as effective as Gu Xue chewing him out over the difficulty of the animation. He was a creator; talking to him about the audience was like talking to a brick wall. But when she brought up the difficulty of the work itself, something he could relate to, he understood.

More importantly, Gu Xue didn't agree with making a mecha show. If they couldn't pull it off in the end and she refused to help, how was Misawa Hiroshi supposed to draw it all himself...?

"Do you have any other themes you'd like to work on?" Seeing that he'd come around, Gu Xue softened her tone and breathed a sigh of relief. She'd just ripped into him without sparing his pride. If he'd dug in his heels out of stubbornness or to save face and insisted on making a mecha show, there would've been nothing she could do.

Thankfully, Misawa Hiroshi was reasonably sensible...

At Gu Xue's question, Misawa Hiroshi answered without even thinking. "A mecha show."

This guy was hopeless.

"Miss Mihara, do you have any good ideas?" Gu Xue turned directly to Mihara Chisa.

Mihara Chisa was silent for a moment, then shook her head.

Gu Xue: "..."

"Miss Gu Xue, do you have any good ideas?"

Seeing that the discussion had stalled, Misawa Hiroshi took the initiative and asked Gu Xue.

"Me...?" Gu Xue thought it over.

She didn't, actually. If it were a TV anime, she might have put serious thought into a story and made the anime she'd always wanted to see. But an OVA only ran a little over twenty minutes, and she couldn't think of anything that would work.

Besides, Gu Xue wasn't keen on this project at all. She hadn't wanted to be some mid-career animator in the first place, so it wasn't realistic to expect her to spend a lot of energy thinking up a story.

And the project was meant to train newcomers, so it needed to cover a bit of everything. It had to include everyday acting as well as action scenes. It was a bit of a hassle.

Gu Xue didn't want to spend the energy. She was about to shake her head and say she had no ideas, but at the last moment, she thought of a series.

Gu Xue looked at Misawa Hiroshi and said, "...How about a story about witches?"

"Huh?" Misawa Hiroshi gave Gu Xue a strange look. "Wouldn't that be too childish?"

"You wouldn't be wrong to call it childish... But I think a classic adventure story might appeal to a lot of people. Besides, most animators are men, right? They might be happier drawing girls, and more willing to do it."

"..." Misawa Hiroshi hesitated for a moment. "If we did a story about witches, what exactly would it be about?"

"The story..." Gu Xue looked at Mihara Chisa. "Miss Mihara, could I trouble you to bring over some animation paper?"

Could I get a few recommendation votes?