After all, most anime viewers were teenagers and young adults. Stories centered on love had a way of sinking straight into the heart of that kind of audience, almost cruelly so in how immediate the emotional immersion felt. Perhaps that was why, on the very night the episode aired, the comment section of Sora Kamakawa's account was hit, for the first time, by a full-scale uprising from the fans.
"Kantoku Sora, couldn't you at least give the two of them a happy ending? Why did Hotaru have to die and turn into a firefly?"
"This episode completely wrecked me. In the first seven, I got emotional and teared up a little, but I could still hold it in. This time... I really couldn't."
"Kantoku Sora seriously has no heart! I get it now - this anime of his is built around the softest parts hidden inside people. Family, friendship, love... everyone has a place in their heart they try to protect, and sooner or later this show finds the exact spot and strikes."
"I've got nothing left to say. Hotaru, rest in peace. And I hope Shoushi finds happiness... but I also hope he never forgets that night, that sky overflowing with drifting lights. That was the romance the youkai named 'Hotaru' gave him with her entire life."
"After watching that episode, only one line of poetry remained in my heart: may this life be like the wandering glow of fireflies, accompanying the long night of the one you love as a faint and gentle light... Ah..."
"That's a beautiful line. Didn't expect cultured people like this in the Natsume Yuujinchou fandom."
"Damn it. I came here because of the promotion. Who was the liar that said this was a healing anime? I'm crying my eyes out. This destroyed me."
"That final scene, with the firefly landing on Shoushi's fingertip, completely shattered me. Does anyone know Kantoku Sora's home address? I want to mail him some razor blades."
"Please, I'm begging you, stop making us suffer. Can the later episodes be a little kinder? Give these youkai a good ending for once. Shigure, Hotaru, Tsubame, Hishigaki, Tsuyukami... in only eight episodes, how many youkai has this man already sacrificed?"
"Only the little fox from the last episode made it out safely. Seriously, how can someone who's only eighteen be this ruthless? Would it really hurt that much to give the characters he created a happy ending?"
"I never thought the day would come when I'd watch a youkai anime and desperately hope the youkai could be happy... It's almost ridiculous."
"Can you anime fans from the four prefectures of Shikoku stop discussing Natsume Yuujinchou spoilers on NatsuYume all day? The rest of us in other regions have only gotten to episode two, and you people keep talking about episode eight nonstop. It's driving me insane."
"Is episode 8 really that emotional? I want to watch it so badly... but going by the BD release schedule, the fourth volume probably won't come out until late December or January next year. This is torture..."
"When is one of Kantoku Sora's anime finally going to get a nationwide simultaneous broadcast? Can't the four major Tokyo television networks do their jobs for once? They keep throwing their weight behind trash like Maki, while a real talent like Kantoku Sora is still stuck fighting it out in the Tokushima region. I heard Yume Animation is still on the verge of bankruptcy... If Japan's anime industry has felt more and more hopeless these past few years, it's because of useless capital like this that never does anything worthwhile."
...
The next day, the ratings for episode 8 of Natsume Yuujinchou in the four prefectures of Shikoku reached 4.75%, climbing a little higher than the previous episode once again.
And although the fans complained without restraint, the volume of discussion and the sheer heat surrounding that episode had already surpassed anything the series had seen since its premiere.
And so, November came to an end.
Time moved forward into December, the final month of the autumn anime season.
By that point, the overall landscape of the season had more or less settled into place. Most of the series had entered their endgame, and many of the titles that had performed well early on were now beginning to receive harsh criticism from their own fans.
Romance anime inevitably sparked faction wars. No matter which pairing the story chose, the fans on the losing side would always end up furious, cursing the series to the bitter end. Fantasy battle anime, meanwhile, had reached the unavoidable stage of confronting the final boss. And more often than not, the villain who had been built up with such care throughout the story would suddenly start acting strangely at the climax - either posturing far too much or losing all intelligence at the crucial moment, as if the script itself no longer knew what to do with them.
It was easy to begin well. Ending well was the hard part. In the anime industry, a work that began like a tiger and ended like a snake was practically the norm.
Even Akane no Sora, which had been praised nonstop since its debut, failed to escape that pattern. Starting from episode 8, both the pacing and overall quality of the story had begun to slip.
Still, the popularity it had amassed in its early stretch was simply too great to collapse that quickly.
Because of that, the second BD volume of Akane no Sora still saw growth in sales and held onto first place on the weekly BD ranking with 47,012 copies sold.
The second BD volume of Natsume Yuujinchou also rose in sales, remaining in second place with 39,745 copies.
Reincarnation of the Maou ranked third.
Card came in fourth.
The Dragon King Next Door remained in fifth.
Overall, the result did not differ much from what the industry had already predicted.
The ones left especially disappointed were a portion of Natsume Yuujinchou's haters.
They had believed the first BD volume sold so well largely because, during that period, so many people within the industry had publicly showered the series with praise. They assumed that once the second volume was released, the novelty would wear off and anime fans would stop buying into it. But reality turned out to be the exact opposite - the second BD sold even better.
Then, once December began, the organizing committee of the Tokyo Anime Festival finally released its list of nominees.
There were dozens of categories, hundreds of names and titles included across the festival, but the public's eyes immediately locked onto the two most important ones: the five nominees for Anime of the Year and the five nominees for Best Animation Kantoku.
The audience reaction, however, was not quite what the committee would have preferred.
Because in neither of those major awards did the name Natsume Yuujinchou appear.
Nor did Sora Kamakawa.
How was that possible?
Did Natsume Yuujinchou not deserve it?
Only when people scrolled further down the nomination list did they finally find Sora's name - and the series alongside it.
Nominated for Best New Animation Kantoku.
Nominated for Best Anime Screenplay.
Nominated for Best Anime Music.
And in all three cases, the nominee was the same person: Sora Kamakawa.
Once that information became public, both industry professionals and anime fans were deeply stirred - though each side saw the matter from a very different angle.
"Kantoku Sora is paying the price for being too young. Based on the show's score, audience reception, and BD sales this season, Natsume Yuujinchou deserved at least one slot in the Anime of the Year nominations."
"How were they supposed to give it one? Yume Animation and Kantoku Sora don't have partnerships with any of the big national networks. There's no one on that committee speaking for him. You really think awards like this are that fair?"
"Still, they gave him three nominations, didn't they?"
"That's not the point. They were never going to nominate Sora for both Best New Kantoku and Best Animation Kantoku at the same time. Imagine if he actually won both. That would be a slap in the face to half the industry. A newcomer sweeping everything in his debut year? The veterans would never swallow that."
"But no matter how you look at it... this boy is already monstrous. Eighteen years old. Not even a full year since his debut. And he's already got three nominations. If he keeps going at this pace, his future is enormous."
"Heh... who knows? How many Kantokus has the Japanese anime industry seen who debuted at their peak and then vanished afterward? Let's wait and see whether his next work can draw the same attention and results as Natsume Yuujinchou."
...
Just by looking at the nomination list, industry insiders could already read a great deal between the lines.
Even so, taken as a whole, very few people believed the selections were outrageously absurd.
Natsume Yuujinchou had an excellent reputation and strong results. That much was undeniable. But at the end of the day, its seasonal BD sales still trailed behind Akane no Sora.
It did not matter whether Akane no Sora had achieved that under the blessing of a more powerful broadcast platform. A fact was still a fact.
On top of that, Sora Kamakawa's status as a newcomer truly weighed against him.
The Japanese anime industry had never handed two awards of such importance to a novice before.
In practical terms, even if Natsume Yuujinchou and Sora had been nominated for those top categories, almost no one believed they would actually win in the end.
So to many, whether they were nominated or not was merely a matter of prestige.
Nothing more.
Sora's fans, however, were far less restrained.
On the day the list was announced, they spent hours furiously tearing into the committee, outraged that neither Best Animation Kantoku nor Anime of the Year had included Sora Kamakawa or Natsume Yuujinchou.
But after an entire day of shouting, cursing, and venting their anger, the rage gradually cooled.
And their focus began to shift.
Fine. Those two major awards were gone.
But the three categories where he had been nominated...
At the very least, he had to win those.
And amid all of that uproar, on the first Sunday of December, episode 9 of Natsume Yuujinchou aired right on schedule.
...