"Understood..."
Masahiro Masaura, the animation director working with Haruki and Kazuya, nodded after reviewing the latest batch of visuals.
With Haruki's vision now clearly established and the team aligned around the dreamscape aesthetic, Masahiro had called for a quick production meeting to discuss something less poetic: feasibility.
Most of the core staff had already gathered, flipping through printouts of the background layouts and early renders with a mix of admiration and unease. They were seasoned professionals and they knew exactly how much time and manpower these kinds of visuals demanded.
Masahiro glanced at Haruki and Kazuya. "The issue now isn't direction. We all know what we're aiming for, and frankly, it's one of the most unified looks I've ever seen in pre-production. But…" He hesitated. "Executing it consistently over the full runtime? That's a different matter."
"What's the bottleneck?" Haruki asked, though he had a feeling he already knew.
"Money," Masahiro said bluntly. "We can rally the right people experienced artists, solid post-production teams. But we're hitting the ceiling of what our current budget can realistically handle."
Haruki exhaled slowly.
They had finally decided the style. And the test shots so far had validated that direction. But now the real-world limits were catching up.
He and Kazuya stepped aside into the smaller meeting room to talk more candidly.
Kazuya leaned against the table, arms crossed. "We both knew this might happen. Dreamscapes look incredible but they're also slow and detail-heavy. That's fine for a trailer or short, but stretching that across a 90-minute runtime?" He shook his head. "With our funding, we'll burn out halfway through."
Haruki sat quietly, thinking.
Kazuya continued. "If we focus our resources on just the key scenes the emotional peaks we can keep the dreamscape aesthetic where it matters most and ease off in the rest. That's what most studios would do."
"But I'm not trying to do this halfway," Haruki said. "It's all or nothing."
Kazuya sighed. "Then we need more. A lot more. Another million yen at least. If we fully commit, we're looking at five million total."
That number already reflected favors and discounted rates veteran animators agreeing to work for less, and outsourcing companies cutting fees out of respect for Kazuya's reputation. If they'd gone through regular industry channels, the cost would've ballooned.
Haruki did the math in his head.
They had already committed 3.6 million. But with revenue from Initial D manuscripts, royalties from Natsume's Friends, and the upcoming volume release, they might just make it. Worst case, he could mortgage his old apartment to patch the gap until the income stabilized.
"We'll shift the marketing budget into production," Haruki said.
Kazuya raised an eyebrow. "And what about promotion?"
Marketing was critical. Even a great anime could flop without it. And while the original budget for promotion was less than a million, cutting it entirely would leave them exposed.
"It's only July," Haruki said. "We still have five months before the planned release in December. I've been serializing Initial D recently, right? Based on the projected manuscript fees after taxes, that should bring in about a million by the end of the year."
"And Natsume's Friends has been running for almost nine months now. With the volume release and potential anime adaptation, there's likely to be extra income soon. Worst case my old apartment back home could be mortgaged. It's nothing fancy, but it'd get me a few hundred thousand yen, enough to patch any shortfall until the manga royalties catch up."
Kazuya had a strange expression as he listened, and finally couldn't help but speak.
"Listen to yourself. You're sighing like you're broke. I've been working in this industry for years, and I've never even had five million in liquid assets. Meanwhile, you're patching a million-yen gap with spare change."
He grumbled a bit more, then added, "Alright. If it still ends up short later, we'll adjust the budget proportionally. But our agreed equity split won't change."
"Fair enough," Haruki said.
"But still, Haruki," Kazuya looked at him seriously. "You're basically throwing everything you've got into this. Aren't you afraid?"
"Afraid of what?" Haruki asked.
"Losing everything."
"I'm not afraid of losing money. What scares me is if these two anime flop. If they don't take off…" Haruki paused.
"What happens then?" Kazuya asked, frowning.
Then I don't get the system rewards. But of course, Haruki couldn't say that.
What he could do was make sure every yen went toward the quality that might tip the scales.
Meanwhile, while Haruki was busy juggling production and finances, things were heating up in the manga industry.
That week, publishers across Tokyo flooded the market with racing-themed series more than a dozen new titles all vying for attention. The editorial team at Shroud Line was on edge.
They'd expected this, of course. Before Initial D, racing manga had been almost non-existent in the market. But over the past month, Initial D had taken off rapidly. Its early chapters captured readers, and now every publisher wanted in.
The result: a wave of new racing manga rushed to serialization, most of them obviously rushed to capitalize on the trend.
Some were blatant copycats. A few even used taglines like "Beyond Initial D" on their promo posters, with stories that mirrored the mountain pass concept to a suspicious degree. And naturally, that drew the attention of fans who had just discovered the genre through Haruki's series.
To be fair, some of these copycat titles had a decent initial reception.
Which explained why Haruka had been unusually tense lately.
When Haruki saw her frowning as she came to pick up the latest manuscript, he could already guess what was on her mind. Naoya and Kenta had been talking about it for days, too.
So Haruki spoke up.
"Haruka, you don't need to stress about these imitators."
"How could I not?" she sighed.
"I know the smaller publishers won't match Initial D in terms of quality. That's not the concern. What I'm worried about is if one of the major houses decides to jump in once they see how popular this genre is. If that happens, even if Initial D keeps delivering great chapters, the competition will be fierce."
[TL:- Hey guy's, I've seen a few people ask about Kotone and Sora. Don't worry—they haven't been dropped. I've actually read ahead in the original Chinese version, and they do come back later.
Before that, both of them actually get a mini arc showing how they've been building their own paths in Tokyo, without relying on Haruki. So when they eventually meet again, it's not as side characters tagging along.
They'll be reintroduced once Haruki has become more of a big name in the Tokyo scene.]
(TL:- if you want even more content, check out p-atreon.com/Alioth23 for 55+ advanced chapters)