In January, as the Final Season of Attack on Titan entered its ultimate stage, another work's anticipation caught up and began to rival even the AoT finale in online activity.
The second animated film of Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Arc.
In Rei's plan, the Attack on Titan anime would conclude before the spring holiday season, and the spring holiday slot would then be used for full-scale promotion of two films simultaneously: Demon Slayer and My Neighbor Totoro.
In mid-January, after Shirogane Animation, Illumination Production Company, and Hoshimori Group jointly released the trailer for the second part of the Infinity Castle Arc, the reaction was immediate. Bizarre visuals. A dark and oppressive atmosphere. Consistently relentless combat. A trailer under a minute in length that told every Demon Slayer fan in Japan exactly what it needed to tell them.
The battle between Upper Rank Two Doma, Upper Moon One Kokushibo, and the Hashira of the Demon Slayer Corps was about to begin. No one needed to be told how long they had been waiting for this.
Of course, whether in this world or otherwise, a popular anime serialising for three to five years was entirely normal. Releasing a theatrical film every two years for a work with Demon Slayer's reach was already fast by any reasonable standard. But even so.
"Finally, in my lifetime."
"February 19th, see you at the cinema."
"Let's charge together."
"The most exciting day for Demon Slayer fans. It's been two years. Do you know how I've spent these two years?"
"Didn't you spend them watching the Attack on Titan anime, Summer Time Rendering, Higurashi, No Game No Life, the Your Name movie, and Spirited Away? You're making it sound like Shirogane-sensei has been slacking off, when he's produced five or six works in these two years."
"That's true, but two years is still such a long time."
"When Demon Slayer was approaching its end back then, I even mocked Shirogane-sensei, saying it would likely be the peak work of his life and that he would definitely regret ending it so quickly.
Looking at it now, I was being narrow-minded. Shirogane-sensei is truly Shirogane-sensei. A god is a god. Although Titan's commercial value isn't as high as Demon Slayer's, it's genuinely a great anime on the same level. And in these next one or two months, I'll be able to see the ending of both Titan and Demon Slayer. I'm so happy."
"What do you mean Demon Slayer's ending? We still have to wait two years for the third film. But one thing you never have to worry about when following Shirogane-sensei is an anime drought. At most he likes to extend the ending window of some works, but I've never actually seen a botched ending from him."
"So far, the Shirogane-sensei work closest to a botched ending is Titan. Demon Slayer goes without saying. He just needs to depict the battles against Upper Moon One and Two and the fight with Muzan through to a smooth conclusion and Demon Slayer will be a milestone work in anime history. But the current Titan situation is delicate. There's enormous controversy around Eren's ending. The day it concludes will very likely also be the day the fandom splits completely."
"We can only trust Shirogane-sensei's judgment."
"Titan and Demon Slayer in January and February. Bleach in April, Naruto in July. What about next year?"
"There are rumours. Just rumours, but Shirogane-sensei appears to have new developments in the works for One-Punch Man and Hunter. Word has come out from inside Illumination Production Company."
"How can rumours like that be credible?"
"You don't understand. Shirogane-sensei doesn't strictly restrict his staff regarding this kind of information. He just tells them verbally not to publicise it widely. But the network within the anime industry is extensive, and without formal non-disclosure agreements or disciplinary measures, verbal restrictions mean very little.
There are always people inside Illumination Production Company who pass things along through peers at other companies. The credibility is not low."
"Then next year is going to be something. One-Punch Man and Hunter returning?"
"I'm already fired up."
A single Demon Slayer trailer and the online discussions around Shirogane had expanded in every direction at once. Fans saw the surface. But Rei's peers across the anime industry could read the pattern in this series of announcements.
Shirogane was preparing to make a large move.
No matter how popular a single work was, it was ultimately a lone effort. But Shirogane was coordinating the simultaneous activation of the numerous IPs he had accumulated over years, producing new works across the next two to three years in a manner that was clearly more than simply extending the life of existing franchises.
He was building the foundations of two major IP structures, Illumination Production Company and Shirogane Animation, into something that could sustain themselves permanently within Japan's anime market.
In the manga world of Rei's previous life, dominant publishers had remained steady across decades while individual popular series rose and fell. Rei's ambition in Japan, and eventually the entire world, extended beyond that model.
He intended to spend more than ten years, through a sequence of globally recognised popular anime, to build Illumination Production Company and Shirogane Animation into the equivalent of a world-class publishing empire focused entirely on animation. So that whenever anyone in the world mentioned an animation company, the name Shirogane would be the first to come to mind.
A total monopoly ecosystem would not be sustainable in the long run. In the future, Rei would also invest in and support local animation startups. Japan's anime creators were only twenty or thirty years behind the level of his previous life. They were not lacking in talent. Rei was a catalyst, accelerating the pace at which that talent would develop.
Among this generation of creators working in his wake, genuine geniuses would emerge. In ten or twenty years, under these conditions, Japan might develop original creators capable of producing works comparable to the classics of his previous life, among them Slam Dunk, JoJo, Rurouni Kenshin, Bleach, Naruto, and others.
"In One Piece, Roger launched the Great Pirate Era."
"In Japan, I hope I can launch a Great Anime Era."
That night, as Rei mapped out the path ahead, a smile appeared at the corners of his mouth.
He was in a genuinely good mood.
Miyu had told him something today. She had gone to the hospital for a test.
She was pregnant.
Which meant that next year, at twenty-five, Rei would become a father.
"I don't know if it's a boy or a girl, but this child will definitely be blessed. By the time they're old enough to watch anime, they'll be able to experience the full depth of everything their father created, retracing the path in a world shaped by his previous life."
"And in all likelihood, by the time they reach adulthood, some of these works will only then be approaching their conclusions." Rei took a slow breath.
The works he had brought to this world could not only bring joy to the anime fans here. They would accompany his own child's youth.
"Whether in my past life or this one, it's truly something to have walked this path."
Rei moved to the window of his study and looked out at the night sky. In Tokyo, heavy snow had begun to fall. His heart at that moment was clear and quiet. Eight years in this world. Every day of it had felt genuinely meaningful.
Time entered late January.
The second part of the Attack on Titan Final Season officially began broadcasting.
The plot of the second part was not complicated. This was the final battle. Where would there be room for elaborate conspiracies and buried foreshadowing?
Jean, Levi, Connie, Armin, Reiner, Mikasa. Former enemies, former companions, former traitors. For a shared goal. For the shared ideal of saving the world. Partners once more.
They jumped from the plane and landed on the mountain-sized skeletal spine of the Titan that Eren had become. And on the back of that Titan, summoned one by one, were the transformed forms of the past holders of the Nine Titans throughout history.
Eren, wielding the Founding Titan's full power, could command the power of every Titan that had ever existed. Every Titan that could appear across all of history or the future could be manifested by him, and under the blessing of his power they could be infinitely resurrected.
The surviving Marleyan warriors gathered nearby, deliberating over how to support the salvation squad.
The image of Paradis Island's own people, Armin, Levi, Mikasa, fighting against their countryman Eren for the sake of saving the world, struck a deep chord in the hearts of the survivors watching from a distance. Although the world stood on the edge of destruction, many who had not yet perished were reflecting. Had their own countries been right to prepare for Paradis Island's elimination out of fear?
If that island were truly populated entirely by descendants of devils, then why would people like these sacrifice themselves to fight against a fellow Eldian for the sake of humanity?
Because this world did not have an anime like Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, the audience could not immediately identify what the purpose of depicting these segments was. Most interpreted them as plot arrangements meant to reflect growing mutual understanding among the world's peoples, a meditation on the past, and a means of elevating the theme.
But any veteran anime fan from Rei's previous life who had seen Lelouch and then watched this finale would have found the subsequent direction easy to anticipate.
The salvation squad's objective was to defeat the countless Titans Eren had created, reach his head, and extract his main body from within the skeletal form.
In this section of the plot, Armin was swallowed by one of Eren's manifested Titans and could not transform into the Colossal Titan. Yet to reach Eren's position, the overwhelming power of Armin's Colossal Titan was unavoidable.
The turning point of the final battle came from this. After being swallowed, Armin did not die. He was simply immobilised. And his consciousness arrived in the Coordinate space, where he found Zeke's consciousness also wandering there.
It had been Zeke's royal blood that allowed Eren to access the Founding Titan's full power.
In the Coordinate space, others appeared. Eren's father. The man who had guided Zeke in his years as a Warrior. The girl named Ymir, Historia's companion, who had been captured by Reiner in the second season. Bertholdt. Many of the companions Zeke had known and lost.
Their wills manifested.
When the camera shifted back to the real world, the Titans that had been summoned from their forms had begun to assist the salvation squad.
After these two episodes of the second part aired, the fan discussion in Japan took a specific turn.
"Why? Why are there so many gaps in Eren's abilities? He clearly caught Armin, but why didn't he kill him directly? Why let his consciousness enter the Coordinate space?"
"Exactly. And the wills of Bertholdt and the others manifesting to help the salvation squad. I can understand that the Coordinate space contains the wills of all Eldians across history. As long as Eren wants to, he could summon any of them. But Eren doesn't want to do that? Then why are they able to manifest and help the people trying to stop him?"
"Did Eren do it on purpose?"
"How is that possible? Eren is determined, not thoughtless. If he doesn't want to destroy the world, he can stop himself. If he does want to destroy it, he should be ruthless about it. The decision is entirely his. Why would he help the people trying to stop him and create obstacles for himself?"
"Then there must be a gap in the bridge control method between the Attack Titan and the Founding Titan that Eren established through Zeke."
"That must be it. Like a running programme with too many unnecessary indirect components. There are bound to be errors."
"Anyway, don't overthink it. As long as the result is incredible, that's what matters. The production of the fight scenes in these two episodes is genuinely on another level. Whatever the plot mechanics, the actual battles are remarkable."
"Exactly. There's no point debating the technical details now. Once we reach the final episode, the specific logic will be clear."
The internet was saturated with Titan discussion.
The second Demon Slayer film was only weeks away. But what occupied every anime fan's immediate attention was the explosive and relentless final chapter of the Titan anime.
Even with only two weeks of plot remaining, suspense had not diminished.
Fans also acknowledged honestly that the twists in the finale did not carry the same shock as the Armored and Colossal Titan revelation in Season Two or the Midnight Sun episode in Season Three. But the quality remained well above standard. Rei had built this adaptation on the foundation of the original work's reputation, retaining everything that had made it exceptional and forcibly removing everything that had not. The viewing rhythm throughout had been smooth and uninterrupted.
February arrived.
Another Thursday.
From the afternoon, Ion TV launched a sustained promotional push for the Attack on Titan anime. Fans across Japan became active and restless in equal measure.
Whether Titan was a masterpiece was a question like Hamlet. A thousand viewers held a thousand different answers. Those who loved it saw art. Those who did not saw an overhyped work. Even in Japan, this debate had not ceased throughout the series' run, and it would not cease after it concluded.
But one thing was certain.
"No matter how tonight's episode or next week's final episode develop, the Titan anime has already become a milestone work in the history of Japanese animation. Even ten or twenty years from now, people will keep returning to it."
Yuna Hasegawa checked her phone. Ten minutes before the broadcast.
She was communicating with other Titan fans on the forums while this thought settled in her mind. She was a passionate fan. In her personal ranking, Titan stood alone at the top. Regardless of what others thought, that was her position.
Eight o'clock arrived.
Yuna's eyes fixed on the living room television.
The tragic theme song of the Attack on Titan anime rang out.
...
Stonesss
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