Chapter 340 - 339 The Controversy

Chapter 340: Chapter 339 The Controversy

As a new week began, Haruto spent Monday and Tuesday coordinating the promotional campaigns for the television broadcasts of Slam Dunk and Initial D. Once that was finished, the volume of business matters requiring his direct attention diminished significantly for the following two days.

Having intentionally delegated various production rights to his subordinates, the daily operations of Haru-Yuki Animation no longer weighed as heavily on him as they once had.

Unless a transaction involved a massive capital requiring his official seal and signature, the ongoing productions, even high-stakes projects like Slam Dunk and Fullmetal Alchemist, could run smoothly without him. His team was now more than capable of delivering finished products that met his exacting standards, even if he didn’t check in for a week or two.

In fact, for the first time in a long while, Haruto had actually taken to downloading a library of single-player games onto his office computer. He now spent nearly half of his working hours at the company progressively clearing his gaming backlog.

"Now this is the life," Haruto muttered to himself, a small sense of accomplishment swelling in his chest after taking down a difficult mid-game boss.

However, once the level was cleared, it was time to get back to reality. A stack of documents sat on his desk, awaiting his urgent review. Looking back over the past few years, he realized he had barely had a moment of leisure, having poured every waking hour into building his empire. It was only natural that he would feel this sense of relief now.

After five years of effort, Haru-Yuki Animation had grown into a formidable force. While the writing department might still be average by industry standards, the technical and logistical strength of the other departments was undoubtedly top-tier within the animation industry. As long as Haruto provided the right blueprint, they could execute a finished product that would satisfy him completely.

Take the Slam Dunk anime, for example. Haruto had fully anticipated that fans would nitpick the early pacing, but the production quality was so high that even he found himself thinking, "Damn, this looks good," as he watched the final cuts.

Still, as he scanned the company’s financial reports and the future development proposals submitted by his staff, he found himself skimming them and setting them aside.

Haru-Yuki Animation had reached a point where its growth was naturally beginning to stabilize.

Though the company had risen to the front ranks of the industry in just five years, there was a ceiling to how far an animation studio could go.

Even in a parallel world, it was rare for a dedicated animation house to crack the top corporate rankings.

The top-tier ACG corporations were masters of massive IP management; animation was merely one branch of their operation, a high-end marketing tool to promote the brand.

Consider Pokemon. Its anime was world-famous, but the parent companies didn’t rely on the broadcast revenue for survival.

The lion’s share of that IP’s wealth came from video games and licensed merchandise.

At twenty-two years old, Haruto certainly harbored ambitions of turning Haru-Yuki into something that could rival the greatest entities in the industry.

However, he knew that this was a process that would take years, not months.

After reviewing a request for an additional twenty million yen in funding for the gaming division this quarter, Haruto considered it briefly before scribbling his signature on the document.

At noon, after clearing the paperwork, his assistant brought in a briefing for his afternoon schedule.

Prime Manga hoped he would attend a fan meeting organized by the magazine the following week. Kiyozawa Library wanted him to help promote the second season of Sword Art Online, even suggesting he participate in a guest appearance on a popular variety show.

Furthermore, even though Code Geass had concluded over six months ago, its international influence continued to grow. Foreign fans were clamoring for an overseas fan meeting.

There were even gaming companies expressing interest in the Pokemon IP, hoping to co-develop it or purchase equity in the project. After glancing through the list, Haruto wrote "Declined" next to every single entry.

Fan meetings didn’t hold much meaning for him at this stage. In the past, he had done them to gain exposure and build his reputation. Now, even if he held a hundred such events in a year, it wouldn’t significantly move the needle on his popularity. As for the international meetings or the offers to buy into Pokemon, Haruto merely rolled his eyes. The answer was a flat no.

After another two hours of work, his tasks for the day were finally complete. He decided to head home early. On his way out, hundreds of employees scrambled to greet him. Within thirty minutes, he was pulling his car into his driveway.

When he stepped inside, the house was silent and empty. Yukino was still away on a business trip and wasn’t expected back until tomorrow.

Shizuru had become the "golden child" of Prime Manga because Haruto had become so reclusive and rarely accepted their invitations. When she wasn’t drawing, she was being whisked away to every major city in Japan to satisfy the fervor of millions of manga fans.

Reina was in a similar boat. Though she still looked at Haruto with that complicated, lingering gaze whenever they met, she was currently one of the top authors, second only to Haruto himself. She had her own responsibilities to her publishing house and had to spend her time promoting her own works. Her latest series had been running for a while now, and its sales were approaching twenty million copies per volume.

Haruto reflected on the current lives of the three women closest to him. It had been less than a year since graduation, but with the exception of Yukino, his interactions with Shizuru and Reina Fujimoto had decreased significantly.

The days of everyone waking up early to share breakfast together hadn’t happened in over a month.

He let out a long sigh. He felt he had handled his relationship with Shizuru quite well. As Yukino had pointed out, it was possible Shizuru had developed feelings for him over the years of their collaboration. However, with the passage of time and the reality of his relationship with Yukino, those feelings seemed to have been tucked away in the back of her heart. Over time, he expected they would fade away. At the very least, there was no awkwardness between them now.

As for Reina, however... Haruto was strictly maintaining a boundary of "just friends." Over the past six months, he had politely declined her invitations to dinner, movies, or shopping on several occasions. There wasn’t much she could do about it. She was persistent and perhaps a bit of a romantic, but Haruto knew he had to exercise restraint. If he didn’t, the likely outcome would be a complete mess. He didn’t trust himself to perfectly manage a complicated emotional tangle with both Yukino and Reina if he ever crossed that line.

Besides, although he was still young, he was mindful of the fact that Yukino was several years his senior. He was already planning to propose to her once the current slate of projects finished airing this year.

Sitting alone in his house eating takeout for dinner, Haruto contemplated his career and the future of his life.

As April progressed, the temperature continued to rise. Several weeks passed, and the animation industry entered its greatest period of excitement in years. In the past, the market usually saw one of Haruto’s works standing alone at the top, but this season, it was a three-way war between his own properties.

The buzz surrounding Initial D, Slam Dunk, and Fullmetal Alchemist, airing on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday respectively, was roughly equal. In terms of ratings, Fullmetal Alchemist held steady at around 6.3%, Slam Dunk was at 5.9%, and Initial D sat at 5.5%. While there were gaps between them, the fanbases for all three were fiercely loyal and constantly debating which was superior.

By the time the calendar turned deeper into April, the main plot of Fullmetal Alchemist was becoming clear. The conspiracy of the Homunculi, the rot within the military, and the Seven Deadly Sins enemies were all coming into focus. The deliberate pacing had allowed for a deep sense of immersion, and the death of Maes Hughes in the middle of the month had managed to draw a massive flood of tears from the audience. Overall, its ratings were climbing slowly but steadily.

Initial D followed a similar trajectory. Its base of fans was already enormous; the only reason its ratings trailed behind Fullmetal was that the production quality and marketing budget were slightly lower.

Furthermore, the "Natsuki" controversy was a double-edged sword; while it drew in curious onlookers, some fans often avoided the series once they heard rumors of the plot point.

Among the three, however, Slam Dunk remained the most controversial. Several episodes in, the protagonist was still doing basic drills, brawling with delinquents, threatening to quit the club, or being distracted by the antics of the Judo club. Although Haruto had trimmed the early fat of the story, many fans still felt the narrative was too scattered. It had elements of delinquent brawling, comedy, and daily life, but very little actual basketball.

"So this show is called Slam Dunk, right? Where are the dunks? Where are the pros? All I’ve seen so far is a guy who’s good at fighting and a pro at causing trouble."

"I’m a bit confused too."

"Don’t take the title so literally. I think the comedy is great. I spend every Saturday night laughing until my stomach hurts."

"The ’Gorilla’ Akagi and the ridiculous pranks... the author has a wild imagination. Honestly, he could forget the basketball plot entirely and just let them be idiots, and I’d still watch every week."

"A pure comedy anime is never going to beat Code Geass. Comedy has a market, but it rarely reaches the very top of the industry."

"Please. You say that like people would care more if he just wrote a standard basketball show."

"Ninety percent of Initial D fans don’t know a thing about mountain racing, but they still love it. Stop blaming the sport. I didn’t know the rules of basketball before Slam Dunk, but I’m still tuning in every week."

"I have a gut feeling... this show might actually stall later on. Not ’stall’ as in low ratings, but I could see the popularity dropping once the novelty wears off."

"Ugh, here we go with the pessimistic takes again. It’s only been a few weeks. Have some patience. Do you really think he spent hundreds of millions of yen just to mess around? If we can see the flaws in the early pacing, do you think he doesn’t know?"

"To be honest, while the early plot doesn’t have much to do with basketball, the characterization is fantastic. I really like the protagonist, Hanamichi Sakuragi. He’s a delinquent, he’s a meathead, and he’s impulsive, but watching his antics just makes me happy. It’s a great stress-reliever."

"Exactly. If he had titled the show ’The Daily Life of a Hilarious Delinquent,’ I’d still watch it. The early plot is fine; people are just complaining because it doesn’t fit their expectations of a sports anime yet."

"Watch first, judge later. There are too many examples of this author’s works starting slow and then exploding. Only the new fans are jumping to conclusions. The veterans are just waiting for the story to hit its stride so they can watch the doubters eat their words."

As a high-investment anime production, Slam Dunk carried the expectations of the entire industry.

Fundamentally, there was nothing wrong with the early story; Haruto’s edits were simply designed to get to the competitive matches faster. In the original source material, the protagonist’s first real game, the practice match against Ryonan, didn’t happen until many Chapters in. A basketball anime where the lead doesn’t play a game for ten or more episodes was bound to draw some fire.

Haruto kept a close eye on the public sentiment. At this stage, some fans were simply impatient, frustrated that they hadn’t seen a proper game yet. Others, however, had already pivoted to viewing it as a pure comedy, which wasn’t quite what Haruto intended.

Another two weeks passed. Finally, after the Club Resignation Crisis was resolved, Hanamichi returned to the basketball court and underwent grueling basic training. The plot of Slam Dunk was finally moving toward its core.

At the very end of the latest episode, the preview made it clear: Shohoku was finally going to play a game.

The wheels of fate were turning.

The fans had no idea how rapidly Slam Dunk was about to transform. After the practice match with Ryonan, it would shed its image as a delinquent comedy and evolve into a hot-blooded, legendary sports masterpiece.

_______________________

Support me at patreon.com/CulturedOne and read 50 Advanced Chapters