With the investment finally secured, the studio slipped into a faster gear. For the time being, all hiring was handed over to Sumire, while Sora Kamakawa focused on something just as critical: negotiating the broadcast slot for Natsume - a series slated for the October cour - through a local Tokushima station.
The broadcaster had played it safe and declined to invest directly in the project. Even so, the ripple effect left behind by Voices of a Distant Star Distante across Japan's anime market was simply too loud to ignore. In a matter of weeks, the show had become a point of contention and fascination among studios and industry professionals alike, praised for its bold storyboards and the direction language Sora had pushed onto the screen. In Tokyo, more than a few teams had already begun to replicate - at the very least, attempt to replicate - those visual solutions in action cuts for their own productions.
That sudden success dragged Sora's name into the spotlight. Several specialized outlets were already framing him as a strong contender for a New Director nomination at the national awards held toward the end of the year. Winning was another matter entirely, but the simple fact that the industry seemed to agree his name would be in the conversation said enough. For someone who had grown up and started out in Tokushima, far from the usual centers of power, it was a striking debut.
Because of that, the broadcast contract negotiations weren't particularly hard. Prime slots - Friday and Saturday nights - were out of the question, of course. Those were largely reserved for productions the station itself had financed. But the Sunday 10 p.m. block remained a realistic opening.
The station's director - someone with a longstanding working relationship not only with Sora but also with Hiroshi Kamakawa - took just two days to review the proposal. After a short internal meeting, it was approved. The premiere was set: October 6th, Sunday, precisely at 10:00 p.m.
The contract was signed that same afternoon. That evening, Sora hosted the director for dinner, offered a few carefully chosen gifts in keeping with etiquette, and arranged a car to take him home. When it was finally over and the quiet returned, Sora exhaled slowly, as if he'd been holding his breath for days.
"Now that the date's locked in…" he murmured, eyes steady. "It's time to face the storyboards."
A series running over ten episodes wasn't something he could draw alone from start to finish. A production cycle demanded creative decisions, meetings, revisions, coordination - an endless chain of details that refused to wait. There was no world where he could pour everything into storyboards and still keep the project standing.
That was where Sumire had to carry her share. As assistant director and someone handling episode direction responsibilities, she wasn't just support - she was a pillar. Ideally, a seasonal anime would have three or four reliable episode directors to keep the workload sane. The problem was finding them.
The people Sora truly respected were too comfortable in their current studios to jump ship. And the ones willing to move quickly were exactly the ones whose ability he couldn't fully trust. In the end, he'd rather run lean and sleep at night, as long as he could believe in the quality.
If building the ideal team wasn't possible, then he and Sumire would shoulder it together. Besides, Sora had the original material as a reference point. That alone made the work faster - less time guessing, more time executing.
The first two episodes, along with the opening and ending sequences, would be entirely his. Those were the face of the show. If the beginning didn't hit, there was no reason for viewers to stay.
Once Sumire fully grasped the tone Sora was aiming for, she adjusted her approach to align with his. From episode three onward, they'd alternate: Sumire would storyboard episodes 3, 5, 7, and 9; Sora would handle 4, 6, 8, 10, and 13.
Episodes 11 and 12 - parts he considered quieter in terms of narrative - would be outsourced. The studio simply didn't have the manpower to produce every episode in-house. The only option was to spend more and choose subcontractors with solid reputations.
Just thinking about it left a bitter taste. If he could do everything internally, why would he ever want to rely on outsourcing?
"Man… I'm honestly jealous of Noriko Animation," Sora muttered, sinking back into the car seat with a tired sigh.
He remembered their work vividly: the consistency, the insane level of control, the stability from cut to cut. The reason was simple - most of their pipeline stayed in-house. No weak links, no scattered responsibility, no details slipping through cracks they couldn't see. But it wasn't a fair comparison. Noriko Animation had nearly two hundred employees. Yume Animation was still painfully far from that scale.
The next day, the company handled formal adjustments - updates to records and equity changes. There were only three investors in the project.
The first was Sora himself. Over the coming months, the debts he'd inherited would reach their deadlines one by one, while revenue from Voices of a Distant Star
continued to arrive. By listing the house he currently lived in for sale, and combining that with what remained after settling previous accounts, Sora committed five million yen to Natsume Yuujinchou.
The second investor was Sumire, who put in every last bit of her savings: one hundred and fifty thousand yen.
The third was Yumi, who contributed six million yen.
Sora granted Sumire two percent of the shares for more than just the money. She'd invested when the future of the series was still uncertain, when there was no guarantee of success - only the promise of pressure. More than that, he owed her for what she'd poured into Voices of a Distant Star, and for choosing to stay at the company afterward instead of walking away when she had every right to.
On May 29th, production officially began.
This wasn't a small-scale experiment like Voices of a Distant Star. This was a full series - an actual seasonal title. Word spread quickly throughout Tokushima and the surrounding industry circles. Studios and freelancers heard about it through their channels, but the most enthusiastic response came from voice acting agencies. In less than a day, Yume Animation's inbox was overflowing with resumes and profiles from up-and-coming seiyuu.
Ren, overseeing production coordination, began pulling on every connection he had, trying to secure staff wherever he could.
And then - right in the middle of that mounting momentum - Yume Animation received an unexpected visitor.
Yumi Noriko, the project's largest investor and the sole heir to a major animation studio, showed up in person. Sora had assumed she'd invest and immediately return to Tokyo.
He was wrong.
She asked for an office inside the company. As an investor, she claimed, she wanted to observe the production firsthand - study the details, learn the process - and turn the experience into articles and posts for her accounts. After all, before anything else, she was a content creator in the otaku space, always feeding her audience's hunger for behind-the-scenes access.
Going back to Tokyo would just mean sitting in a huge mansion, watching anime, writing pieces, and chatting with fans online. She could do the exact same thing in Tokushima - and on top of that, she'd get to witness the day-to-day work of a young, promising director up close. Better still, if the anime was well received, even if it didn't become a phenomenon, her popularity would inevitably rise.
And with that… maybe she could finally crush that obnoxious rival and claim the top spot in the anime creator community.
At the thought, a small smile curled at her lips.
When Sora heard her request, he nearly laughed - not out of mockery, but out of sheer satisfaction. An investor who not only funded the project, but also planned to use an account followed by millions to document the production and hype it up in real time?
That wasn't just support. That was free promotion wrapped in perfect timing.
How could anyone refuse?
He agreed without hesitation.
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