Prologue | Will We Win Or Lose | Remake our Life!
Part 1
It was mid-November. The school festival, the major autumn event of Daigeidai, was over, and there was a relaxed atmosphere at the university.
However, in the midst of all this, a strange atmosphere filled the small hall of Building 7, where the Department of Film and Visual Arts was located.
The students gathered were mostly second-year students. The assignment for the second year students was given during the summer and fall. Today was the review of the assignment, which was done in the form of a contest.
There was a buzz in the hall. It was not because they were curious about what the outcome would be. No, everyone was interested in the result itself. But that information had already been given in advance, so it was not the reason for the buzz.
This year's contest is a scoring method that compares the total score of points on Nico Nico Douga, the number of views, the number of My Lists, and the number of comments. In other words, the results were already available on the Internet, and most of the students gathered here knew which work was the top.
If so, why is the place so noisy?
The reason was simple.
The results were so unexpected.
"Why, sensei!"
Students were yelling and crowding towards their teacher, Kano Misaki, who was on stage.
"Was the result unexpected?"
However, Kano, who was the one being pressed, was surprisingly calm.
"Of course! I can't believe this ...... such a result"
The student clenched his fists and spat out the words in frustration.
The other students in the hall must have probably felt similarly. Here and there, I could see frustration, upset, and confusion about the results.
As if to break through such an atmosphere,
"Come on, attention, attention."
Kano-sensei clapped her hands and told the students to be quiet.
The buzz quickly died down and all eyes turned to the teacher.
"Everyone did a great job on their assignments last semester. Although there were differences in quality, all teams completed their work and uploaded it to Nico Nico Douga. I appreciate that."
Sensei grinned there,
"But it seems like everyone had their own thoughts about the result."
The teacher signaled to the assistant at her side and projected a slide on the screen that displayed "Evaluation Methods".
"Everyone already knows about this evaluation method. And the results are already posted on the Nico Nico Douga website."
Sensei operated a pen-shaped remote control and projected the next slide.
"I'll explain it to you again here. I'll tell you how it happened."
Sensei again made eye contact with the assistant and switched the slide to the PC browser. The buzz in the hall begins to build again.
However, in the midst of all this, there were only two teams that remained silent and just kept their eyes on the screen.
It was Team Kitayama △ (Try) and Kuroda Group.
Both members of the team knew this. We had a different feeling about the work from the other teams, and there were a number of things we thought about this result.
"Hey, what does this mean?"
With an anxious look on her face, Kogure Nanako muttered.
"Well, it turned out to be what Kyoya thought it would be ......, didn't it? I can't answer that question, though, because it's not him."
Rokuonji Tsurayuki answered with his arms folded, looking somewhat wise.
"Right! We made it by trusting him!"
Gahaha, laughed Hikawa Genkiro, one of the team's most physically active members.
"But where did Hashiba-san go?"
Glancing around nervously is Saikawa Minori, a first-year student in the Fine Arts Department.
"He is probably plotting something again, isn't he? Without telling us."
"Hmph," Kawasegawa Eiko replied with a look of astonishment.
Team Kitayama △ had almost all the members.
In such a situation, only the team leader, Hashiba Kyoya, was not present. Attendance at the class itself was not absolutely necessary, but was acceptable as long as a representative from each team attended.
But even so, it was indeed unusual to have no representative at such an event.
"Nanako, is something bothering you?"
Kawasegawa calls out to Nanako, who still looking dejected.
"No, it's not about the result, it's"
She glanced to the side.
"I see. That's something I'm curious about, too."
Kawasegawa also glanced to the side and nodded.
"But that's part of Hashiba's thinking."
"Yeah, right."
Everything was thought up and decided by Hashiba Kyoya. The team members create and act accordingly.
"Shinoaki, I wonder how she feels when she looks at it..."
Nanako mumbled and looked at her friend a few meters to the side.
She is the chief of the Kuroda group's animation and a former main staff member of Team Kitayama. Shino Aki stared at the screen with a quiet expression.
From her face, it is hard to tell what she is thinking.
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Part 2
At the same time.
A grassy space above the old No. 2 cafeteria. It is a strange place, always unpopular and suitable for secret talks even though it is an open place.
"Is there a good reason you're calling me out in the middle of class?"
There, with Hashiba Kyoya, the representative of Team Kitayama and,
"Hihi, well, that's how it is."
Kuroda Takayoshi, a representative of the Kuroda group.
Both of them had skipped class to come here. To be precise, Kyoya had followed Kuroda's invitation.
'I need to talk to you'. The reason for calling Kyoya was very straightforward. Kyoya immediately understood that the details would be discussed there and nodded.
It was the time of year when the season changed from fall to winter, and the cold air in this area, which is located in a suburban basin, was foreboding of cold weather. Normally, people would naturally go somewhere indoors to talk.
But neither of them seemed to care about any of that. They seemed to be watching what each other would say and how they would move, rather than the cold.
"Are you sure you don't want to go to class?"
In response to Kyoya's question, Kuroda said,
"The results are already there. Perhaps in class, they'll do some sort of clarification of that, but if you're a producer and you can't figure out what she's trying to do, there's nothing you can do about it."
Kyoya nodded at Kuroda's words.
"On top of that."
His tone was quiet. It sounded strangely clear and unclouded, without the creepy laugh that Kuroda usually has.
"Hashiba, there's something I want to confirm."
Suddenly a strong wind blew, causing the grass to wave all around. Clothes were flapping and flapping like flags. It seemed to signal the start of a battle.
Eventually, the wind died down, and the two faced each other head-on.
Hashiba Kyoya's face was smiling.
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Part 3 (POV Kuroda Takayoshi)
Even in October, temperatures around here remain high. The hot, humid air slows down the precision of production. It seems as if the content of this country might be controlled by humidity.
"Haa, you have the luxury of thinking something stupid, even me."
I walked along the river's edge, carrying two convenience store bags in both hands. This area is quite far from the university, and I almost never see anyone who looks like a student. This is not surprising since I chose this area for this purpose.
On the second floor of a small building, I headed for a room that was brightly lit even late at night. When I rang the intercom, a familiar bearded face answered.
I hand the guy the bag in both hands.
"Here's a little something for you. Morito to the staff, please divide it amongst yourselves as you see fit."
Morito Nobuhiko, the bearded man, grins,
"Shouldn't I tell them it's from Kuroda? Everybody's going to be happy."
"Don't tell them. The punchline is that everyone will wonder if it's some kind of trap."
"Haha, that's right."
Kekeke, Morito laughs a dirty laugh. Well, I can't say the same for others.
"Hey, can I talk to you for a second?"
I nodded and I walked out of the building, the door behind me closed. Whenever Morito spoke this way, it was usually when he had a progress report or other production-related communication.
A few minutes after I went outside, Morito came out with a cigarette and a can of coffee in his hand. He seems to be in a good mood, as he is grinning a lot.
"Progress is not bad. We were in a bit of trouble until last week, but things have improved quickly. This is the latest progress, and this is the outlook for the future."
As expected, it was a progress check. This is the kind of talk we shouldn't let the drawing guys hear unless it's part of some kind of aim.
They can be made to feel unnecessary urgency by hearing about the impending situation, or conversely, they can be caught off guard by being informed that the process is proceeding at a leisurely pace. Both are unnecessary in production.
When I told him that before, Morito started changing the place like this from the next report.
"After that, I uploaded the trailer just as Kuroda had said, and the response was even greater than I had anticipated. Since then, the attention rate over here has been ridiculously high."
"Looks like it."
I was not particularly touched by it. I just did what I had to do in this situation.
No strategy, no bullsh*it, just a regular activity. Moreover, that was not a video made for the trailer. It was just a bonus that we uploaded it with captions.
"How's Shino doing?"
In response to my question, Morito gives a big smile.
"That's awesome! The pitch is getting better, and we're getting more sheets faster and at a higher quality than the other guys. If it weren't for her, we wouldn't have been able to complete the project at all!"
Morito shows overaction, both good and bad, so it is best to make a judgment based on that premise. Nevertheless, it must have been a very good job judging from this reaction.
"Be careful not to overwork. That kind of creator needs brakes, too."
"Well, it's okay because I've already divided it by time as you said."
It was predictable that Shino would work as expected. For better or worse, she is not the type to be influenced by other staff members. I knew that if she was interested in what she was doing, she would not stop until it was accomplished.
She was my ideal, a real creator. Dedicated to your work, that's easy to say, but not many people can do that. Even among these rare people, Shino is extremely valuable.
Using such materials requires preparation and readiness. Therefore, we proceeded with the production with the utmost care, removing to the utmost limit the burden of anything other than drawing.
This should be a system that even that guy couldn't do.
"No, but I think we can afford this. It's not going to be a game, is it?"
I felt a twitch and the muscles in my cheeks tense.
"They don't seem to be doing anything, so I'm pretty sure we've already won, right?"
I glare sharply at Morito.
"Don't joke about that kind of carelessness, how many times do I have to tell you?"
"I-I'm sorry...don't make such a scary face, okay?"
At my rebuke, Morito bursts into laughter. He is an excellent production assistant, but his bad point is that he tends to underestimate opponents.
"But you want to be reassured, don't you? Our opponent has a music video with content we don't understand and received mixed reviews, while ours is a fully animated work of a level that you wouldn't expect from a student, and we are ahead of them in the number of viewers of the first work. Where is the element of defeat?"
He seems to be trying to justify himself, throwing out various winning factors.
However, there is still something that concerns me.
"--It's Hashiba."
Yes, I muttered so.
"Hashiba is over there. That's enough to worry about."
Morito looks dubious at my words.
"Kuroda is undertaking a challenge from him excessively, but is he really that great? ... From the outside, he just looks like a nice guy surrounded by girls."
He said and shook his head.
Well, maybe I worry too much, as he says. As a result, that guy couldn't do anything about it, and maybe that's the end of the story.
I'm doing everything I can. I am confident that I have created something that will win overwhelmingly in all aspects: popularity, perfection, and skill. There is no element of losing overall as a work.
And yet.
(That guy must be thinking of something. If it's as I expected, it's...)
It's not like it's shockingly scary. It's not like it's a threat that's always on my mind. Yet, the image of losing is always stuck in my head, not the image of winning.
In baseball, it would be like a game in which you had the lead from start to finish, but in the last inning you get hit by an unfortunate series of potent hits to end the game. The image of a mysterious defeat lies in the mind, as if the game was over before you realized it.
"I'm going home."
After saying that briefly, I turned my back to the production site.
"Y-Yeah. See you."
Morito tilted his head and returned to the work place.
I walked through the city again in the lukewarm air. Although the path along the river's edge was not popular, the overlapping sounds of swarms of winged insects and croaking bullfrogs added to the heat.
The sound of an ambulance approached from the distance and drove away right next to me. The neon lights of a pachinko parlor flash yellow and red repeatedly, painting my face with a gaudy display of paint. Where the lights hit, winged insects are attracted and try to stick to my face in a sticky manner.
As I brush the winged insect away with my hand, I clear my bewildered mind.
(What am I worried about?)
So far, Hashiba has yet to make a decisive move. I have watched the videos he has released as much as possible. Perhaps he intends to make the link between the first and second works stronger, and make the second work the one that clarifies the parts that were unclear in the first work. Even an idiot can understand that much.
However, there is no certainty that just that alone will win over the animation we produce. Even if they bring back Rokuonji and enhance the content, it will be difficult to beat the perfection of a full animation with a paper-thin PV.
Yes, normally, there would be no competition in this fight. That is why it is more of a mystery to me that he accepted this fight with confidence.
"What are you trying to do--Hashiba?"
He was a dirty bast*ard. In his first production as a first-year student, he made continuous attempts to make a spectacular splash.
Regarding the work that the uptight Kawasegawa had created, I expected that he was going to hit the audience with the level of perfection anyway, and I was right. However, Hashiba's work was unexpected.
If you can't understand it, it means you can't compete with it.
"Keh, I just remembered something stupid."
Compared to those days when we had to deal with people of a lower level, now it's much more idealistic. We have come to a point where we can beat each other at such a level. I am happy about that.
But that's why we can't afford to lose.
Unless I beat up a stronger guy, there's no way I'll be able to win the bigger fight I'm about to have.
"We're going to win."
I say a word I rarely say. Because up until now, I've taken winning for granted, so I haven't dared to say it.
But now may be the time to break that rule, because it's not the kind of opponent we can win against by taking advantage of the luxury of time.
If saying it out loud can help me get a little bit of good luck, I'll just do it.
"Out of the way."
I grasp the winged insects clinging around my face and knock them down to my feet.
This is how I've lived my whole life.
So this is how I will continue to live.
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