The official website of Yume Animation and the online portal of Southern Alliance TV were overrun overnight by a wave of agitated fans.
By the time employees from both companies arrived at work the next morning, the uproar still had not died down in the slightest.
Under normal circumstances, having a show break out of its niche and dominate public discussion would have been good news.
But this time, both the station staff and the people at Yume Animation wore grim expressions.
The audience's reaction had gone far beyond simple excitement.
And among all of them, the one feeling that most keenly was Sumire.
She had a moderate obsessive streak, and unlike Sora, who drifted through things with an infuriating kind of calm, she kept a constant eye on every fluctuation surrounding Re:Zero - both in the real anime industry and across the internet.
She monitored comments, watched trends, imagined possible outcomes, and wore herself down in silence long before any real crisis had even arrived.
If fans were already reacting like this after episode thirteen, then what would happen once Petelgeuse, the Archbishop of Sloth, made his appearance next week?
Just imagining it made the back of her neck go cold.
The Rem fans were already furious. Once the story truly plunged into despair, it would not have been surprising if people started storming the Yume Animation homepage in droves.
And the worst part was that this suffering would not last for only one or two episodes.
For an entire month, Re:Zero would keep sinking deeper and deeper into misery, every episode heavier than the last, until Subaru's body and spirit were reduced to ruin - misunderstood, condemned, utterly broken - until he chose the simplest and most miserable answer of all: to give up.
Only then, in one of those loops, would Rem truly save him.
But before the story reached that point, Sumire did not even want to imagine how much criticism, frustration, and bitter commentary would pile up online.
"Relax. There won't be any problems."
Sora said it lightly, doing what he could to ease her nerves.
Sumire let out a weary sigh.
"You're far too composed for a Kantoku."
She already knew this was just the kind of person he was, so there was no point pushing further.
Even so, now that Sora had raised her into the role of chief Kantoku alongside him, the weight on her shoulders had grown heavier.
Her sense of responsibility for the anime's results had become something tangible, something real enough to press down on her chest.
At the same time, though, she knew there was nothing left they could do.
Episode fourteen of Re:Zero had long since been completed and submitted for approval.
Still, after hesitating for a moment, she voiced a suggestion.
"You could use your account more. Interact with the fans a little. Calm them down. Tell them that even if the next month is painful, it'll eventually lead somewhere worth it."
Even she, someone who already knew the full story, felt uncomfortable watching this stretch of the anime, despite the fact that it had been made by her own company.
For the television audience following it week by week with no knowledge of what came next, the impact would be even worse.
"Good idea. But I refuse."
Sora's gaze sharpened just a little.
"As the writer and Kantoku, the best thing I can do right now is nothing at all. No statements. No hints. If I show any kind of stance now, even slightly, it becomes an invisible spoiler. And that ruins the viewing experience."
Then he smiled, as confident as ever.
"Sure, fans might have all kinds of reactions while this part is airing. But in the end, every one of them will applaud the beauty of how this arc finishes."
"And where is that confidence coming from?" Sumire asked. "Aren't you worried people might drop the show halfway through because they can't take it anymore?"
Because he had already seen something like this unfold once in another life.
But Sora did not say that aloud.
At noon, the ratings for episode fourteen of Re:Zero's first season were released.
5.19.
Despite the flood of complaints online, the viewer retention on television remained shockingly high.
It was the highest single-episode rating the anime had achieved since its premiere.
At the same time, it pushed even more pressure onto the other major hit of the season, Dragon's Flaming Breath.
During the previous cour, the twelfth episode - the last one in that stretch - had ended with a rating of 5.37.
If episode thirteen managed to hold its ground, then the gap between the two series would shrink to less than 0.2.
On Sunday, episode thirteen of Dragon's Flaming Breath aired without issue.
Then, on Monday, the series made another major move.
Its first Blu-ray volume, containing episodes one and two, went on sale nationwide.
Across Japan's anime shopping districts and otaku-heavy commercial areas, posters for the series were everywhere.
The moment one stepped into a merch store, the first thing to catch the eye was always the same: stacks upon stacks of the anime's BD placed right in the most visible spot.
The Kantoku, Touga Kuze, and the scriptwriter, Natsuyuki Shirasawa, also threw themselves into the final stretch of promotion, appearing at events, press conferences, and public showcases for a full week to drive sales of both the discs and related goods.
And amid all of that, episode thirteen's rating was announced.
5.41.
A great many entertainment reporters could only sigh inwardly.
Another potential headline had just vanished.
Re:Zero was still rising.
And so was Dragon's Flaming Breath.
As for Sora, the new week brought him just as much work as ever.
Together with Sumire, he continued drawing storyboards for Re:Zero's second season. He was also working on the storyboards for Five Centimeters Per Second, while still getting dragged from one meeting to the next.
That Saturday, the first BD volume of Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World would also go on sale.
But Sora was simply too busy to attend launches, promotional events, or fan meetings.
With three anime projects under his control at the same time, there was no way he could carve out an entire week for publicity tours the way Touga Kuze and Natsuyuki Shirasawa had.
So all promotional work for Re:Zero's BD release was handed over to Noriko Animation and, above all, to Yumi.
And when it came to this sort of thing, she was far more active than he was.
Every event Sora could not attend, she stepped into without hesitation.
On top of that, she updated her NatsuYume account every single day with news about the BD release, appeared as a guest at anime conventions to help boost visibility, and even joined variety programs produced by Southern Alliance TV, bringing along several mid- and high-ranking members of the production staff to increase Re:Zero's exposure even further.
Because of that, Yumi barely showed up at the company for the entire week.
And just like that, the first week of October's anime market came to an end.
Then, before long, another Friday arrived.
For the past week, Japanese Re:Zero fans had complained endlessly about Sora.
But in the end, people always calmed down a little with time.
Rem's brutal death in episode thirteen had been devastating, yes, but it was only natural to believe she would probably return in episode fourteen.
The right thing to do was to let go of last week's pain, take a deep breath, and wait for a brighter, more hopeful continuation.
And the closer it got to eight in the evening, the more lively the fandom became.
"All right, everyone, keep your spirits up. The first BD volume goes on sale tomorrow. Kantoku Sora chose this timing for a reason. Episode fourteen is definitely going to bring us something special. So relax."
"Forget the trauma from episode thirteen. This is the moment Subaru makes his comeback, saves everyone again, and repairs things with Emilia."
"I know he'll probably solve the crisis in the end... but every time something new happens, the series just sinks deeper into suffering. I can't take it."
"But that's exactly what makes this anime so compelling."
"I really hope Kantoku Sora tones it down a little later on. Even if someone has to get hurt - or even die - in one of the loops, it doesn't have to be shown in such a cruel way. Those bloody scenes are hard to watch."
"Exactly. If the story demands that important characters be sacrificed, fine... but do they have to die that horribly? It makes me scared to even look."
"Honestly, Kantoku Sora wastes the budget in the strangest places. Those violent moments could've been implied and moved past. There was no need for close-ups, let alone to animate them in such exquisite detail. Rem's expression before she died last week is still tearing me apart. I'm sure, in those final seconds, she was still thinking about Subaru."
"She was probably still hoping he'd appear out of nowhere and save her, just like in the mansion arc..."
Souhei set his phone down and stared at the commercials now playing on Southern Alliance TV.
The restlessness in his chest only kept growing.
Watching an anime weekly felt completely different from waiting until the whole thing was over, buying the BDs, and marathoning it in one go.
When a series is already complete, all one has to do is look at its high ratings and strong reputation to know it won't betray the audience.
But when following a show week to week, no one knows what kind of story the next episode will bring.
That uncertainty was what gnawed at him the most.
At exactly eight o'clock, the image on the channel shifted.
The familiar opening of Re:Zero began to play, and at last, his heartbeat eased a little.
Episode fourteen began exactly where the previous week had ended.
Subaru discovered that Rem had been murdered and staggered through the mansion almost like a madman, desperate to find out whether anyone was still alive.
No one was.
And in the end, after reaching the deepest part of the manor, he was frozen to death by an incomprehensible force.
The moment Souhei saw the protagonist die, he released a long breath of relief.
He died.
Which meant -
the checkpoint had reset.
The next scene cut to Subaru back in the royal capital, standing before the familiar apple vendor, with Rem nearby, apples in her arms, staring blankly at him.
At that instant, Souhei's eyes filled with tears.
Thank God.
He came back.
The save point was still in the capital.
Rem had not died.
The worst possible outcome he had feared all week had not come true.
While watching the episode, he rushed to the comment section of Sora'sNatsuYume account to see what everyone else was saying.
"Yes! Rem's alive!"
"Kantoku Sora, I love you!"
"I knew it. There's no way he'd actually dare kill Rem for real."
"All right, misunderstanding cleared up."
A great crowd of fans were watching the TV broadcast while celebrating online at the same time.
And yet, even as that wave of relief spread, the episode itself kept moving forward.
The story returned to the familiar trajectory of that loop in the Royal Selection arc.
This time, Subaru did not waste an entire day.
He immediately departed with Rem on a ground dragon, heading straight for the road leading back to Roswaal's mansion.
Because they were racing against time and had set out a full day earlier, traveling without rest and without stopping at an inn, the two of them ended up encountering a group of strangely dressed people on the road.
The Witch Cult.
The same people who had once slaughtered the entire clan of Rem and Ram.
The moment he saw them, Souhei felt the bad premonition return in full force.
So that was it.
The ones responsible for killing Emilia and Ram in that previous loop had been these fanatics.
And if those same people had been capable of killing Emilia before, then what would really change now?
Just because Subaru and Rem were present, would the outcome be any different?
The answer came far too quickly.
The moment the battle began, Subaru was captured.
And Rem, in only a few exchanges, was surrounded and overwhelmed.
A fire spell scorched one of her arms so badly that it left her grievously wounded.
After that, Subaru was dragged into a cave.
And there, before him, appeared a man with an absurd haircut like a split watermelon and a face twisted by pure madness.
The true monster of Re:Zero's first season.
A complete lunatic.
The Archbishop of Sloth, Petelgeuse.
The instant he appeared, Souhei's unease hardened into something almost tangible.
No matter how one looked at it, this was not an enemy Subaru could possibly defeat alone.
Then the voice rang out from the television.
That deranged manner of speaking.
Those grotesque movements.
That sickening presence.
"My brain... trembles..."
At that exact moment, the character was born who, for the next two months, would become the single most hated existence for the overwhelming majority of Re:Zero fans -
a man who would haunt their thoughts and dreams alike, always accompanied by the same desperate wish:
that he would die as soon as possible.
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