As the summer season began, production on both 'Attack on Titan' and 'Gundam SEED' had fully wrapped up, with only post-production work left.
Jing Yu had already assigned new tasks to the company: 'Hyouka', 'Ef: A Tale of Memories', and 'My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected'.
After years away from romance genres, Jing Yu's return had fans thrilled.
However, for staff inside Jing Yu's company, these three works felt a bit... elementary.
Compared to his past masterpieces — whether it was fantasy, sci-fi, or epic warfare — these high school romance slice-of-life projects required far less investment, planning, or production scale. The commercial ceiling was also lower.
Naturally, the budgets were smaller too — not like previous projects where billions were thrown into a single show. These were in the tens of millions, enough to do them justice without waste. After all, how extravagant can a high school setting get? Too much polish and it starts to look fake.
Still, this was Jing Yu's new work. Even if everyone believed the ratings would never match 'Attack on Titan' or 'Gundam SEED', they also wouldn't flop.
In the Great Zhou, many celebrities still had their eyes on casting opportunities.
Of course, Jing Yu was mainly using these three shows to give new talent signed under his studio a chance to shine.
Main roles were reserved, but a few side characters could be opened for other stars to fight over.
By mid-April, several celebrities in Great Zhou's entertainment scene started openly fighting online over those roles. Their fandoms went to war across social media.
As for Jing Yu himself, he had little interest in acting in high school romances. He preferred to stay behind the scenes.
But when scripts were handed off to the relevant departments, his staff practically begged him to do at least a cameo. They also wanted Yu Youqing and Xia Yining to guest-star, too.
Seeing their hopeful eyes, Jing Yu could only sigh.
He understood them. Even a simple cameo by him, Yu Youqing, or Xia Yining — with their built-up popularity — could easily boost ratings by a percentage point or two.
After some thought, since it was only a guest role to help the show gain traction, he agreed.
Despite its scale, Bluestar Media & Film was still over 90% reliant on Jing Yu's works. If he stopped producing, or stopped appearing to boost interest, and just let his staff create freely?
Someone crunched the numbers: original projects made by others in the company last year barely broke even. No losses, but profits were minimal.
In other words, not making money is the same as losing money. Given the Great Zhou's economy, investing hundreds of millions into a field should return tens of millions a year at least.
Jing Yu's long-term vision was to develop his company into a self-sustaining creative powerhouse — one that would keep producing hits even after he retired.
But reality was harsher than ideals.
At least for the next few years, the company would struggle to turn a profit without him. So even if he didn't want to act in lead roles, he still had to show up here and there — no escape from responsibility.
With over a thousand employees on payroll, even just base salaries added up to tens of millions monthly. Although the company earned hundreds of millions every month in licensing and royalties from past works, Jing Yu wasn't about to let everyone slack off and still get paid.
The grind had to continue — screenwriting, music, production plans, budgeting, forming crews — all progressing smoothly.
While these romance shows were faster to film, there was no need to rush. With ample time, things could be done right. Jing Yu wasn't a procrastinator, and all three crews were quickly assembled.
Then came the publicity trickle:
'Hyouka' – A high school romance with a mystery twist?
'My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected' – A youth slice-of-life show.
The tags for these two on the company's official site seemed fairly normal.
But then came 'Ef: A Tale of Memories', tagged as "healing youth."
Fans immediately panicked.
"Healing youth? Are you serious, Old Thief?"
"So you're not even pretending anymore? Just flat-out admitting you're here to emotionally destroy us?"
"This 'healing youth' label is hilarious. Old Thief's comedic timing is on point."
"Yeah, sure, 'healing.' I totally believe you, bro. Y'all buying this?"
"I already know what this is. Some fans love the pain. They're thrilled. This is gonna be like the trauma triangle in 'White Album 2', or the tear-jerker ending of 'Your Lie in April'. Those fans are partying."
"Honestly, all of Old Thief's recent works are pretty painful. 'Evangelion': end of humanity. 'Attack on Titan': dead mom right out of the gate. 'Gundam SEED': protagonist vs childhood friend, and wherever he goes, people die. Heck, he got mentally manipulated by Flay. So... can this one really be worse?"
"Depends on how you define pain. 'Gundam SEED' might have a higher body count — entire cities or colonies wiped out — but it somehow feels less emotionally crushing than 'Attack on Titan'. Some works might not kill anyone, but still hurt like heck. Like Mako's 720-degree spin in 'Initial D' — that still stings."
"And what's with the titles? One's super short (Hyouka), one's super long (My Youth Romantic Comedy…). What even is a 'romantic suspense' genre?"
"Who knows? Depends on the plot. 'My Youth Romantic Comedy' might be something chill like 'Kimi ni Todoke'. After watching so many VFX-heavy dramas, it's refreshing to have something lighter."
As the official site steadily released info on the three romances, they gained traction during the workweek.
'Attack on Titan' and 'Gundam SEED' had dominated forums for so long that people were a little burned out. Any fresh news from Jing Yu was like a breath of air — and briefly overtook even the 'Attack on Titan' and 'Gundam SEED' threads.
But once the weekend hit? Everything flipped.
On Saturday, from morning onward, every major forum was once again flooded with 'Attack on Titan' threads.
After all, last week's emotional bombshell hadn't faded. Everyone knew the slow-paced story arc was over, and action was finally returning.
Official info hinted that the Survey Corps was heading into the final battle against Reiner and Bertholdt.
By daytime, Yunteng TV's ratings had already risen 2 points above average. By 8 PM, ratings passed 5%.
By 10:30 PM? Ratings had hit 13%. When the episode aired, it surged past 15%.
It was terrifyingly stable.
Since the Spring Festival, 'Attack on Titan's ratings had been in that range. No room left to rise — the audience was maxed out. But it wasn't dropping either.
That consistent 15% was enough to crush Jing Yu's competitors, who could only watch helplessly.
As expected, this episode showed the full Survey Corps advancing toward Wall Maria, where Eren's home had been destroyed.
This episode highlighted Armin's importance. Everyone assumed Reiner and Bertholdt had fled — that there was no danger.
Only Armin sensed something was off and suggested searching the wall's interiors for an ambush.
"Why would Reiner and the others ambush the Survey Corps? Weren't they already escaping?"
"They're here to capture Eren. So far, it's clear Eren is special — even more than Reiner, Bertholdt, or Ymir. Both the people inside and outside the walls want his powers badly."
"Old Thief keeps teasing Eren's Coordinate power, but won't explain how it works. Why did it stop working after that time?"
"Guess we'll have to wait for the lore patch."
"What frustrates me is — I thought Eren was a regular guy who rose through hard work. Turns out, he's just a regular kid who got powers from his dad's sacrifice."
"That's the thing with Old Thief's works — strength always comes from bloodlines. In 'Evangelion', Shinji only syncs with Eva Unit 01 because of Yui. In 'Gundam SEED', the lead is a genetically enhanced human. In 'Attack on Titan', everyone strong is because of lineage — Eren inherits his father's power, Mikasa and Levi are from the Ackerman clan."
"Yeah, but what's the alternative? Pretend hard work alone always wins? That's even more unrealistic. Tons of people work their guts out and still fail."
"Sure, but Old Thief does lean hard into the talent/gene trope, and it can be disheartening."
"It's still good writing. If you get too picky, you'll run out of shows."
As fans watched, discussions turned philosophical again — echoing the last episode's theme of "ordinary vs extraordinary."
If Eren hadn't eaten his dad, he'd have been dead long ago. That's not heroism — that's luck and legacy.
Naturally, the discussion evolved.
Jing Yu, though a fan of old Japanese anime, was always bothered by one thing:
Almost every hit shonen from his previous life had the same flaw:
In the late game, the protagonist suddenly got a legendary bloodline.
In 'Bleach', Ichigo's dad turned out to be a top-tier Soul Reaper.
In 'Naruto', Naruto went from nobody to reincarnation of Ashura, child of prophecy, Hokage's son...
In 'Dragon Ball', Goku was a member of an alien warrior race.
In 'One Piece', Sanji and Luffy were both descendants of monsters.
You'd start watching for the "ordinary guy beats genius" narrative...
But eventually, it turned out: there are no ordinary heroes — only stronger geniuses beating weaker ones. You were tricked.
Once a long-running series started playing this card, it often marked the beginning of the story falling apart.
So naturally, long-time viewers of Jing Yu's dramas had mixed feelings.
Jing Yu was well aware of the issue, but changing the entire setting was difficult.
Fortunately, fans weren't too harsh — just some light roasting.
Back in the episode: on Armin's suggestion, the Survey Corps began thoroughly checking every nook of the wall — no blind spots.
Then, the tension snapped.
One soldier peered into a crack — only for a sword to pierce through and slice half his head off.
Reiner had been hiding inside — and attacked!
"Holy crap, Reiner's evil! Straight-up murdered a random guy!"
"Eh, what's the point of complaining now? The Survey Corps is here to kill him, too."
"Wait — where's Ymir? Not here? Did they send her back to their homeland?"
"Probably dead, right? Titan powers can be inherited. If that faction is smart, they'd kill Ymir and pass on her power."
"Nooo, I wanted more Ymir x Historia content!"
"You're dreaming, bro. Stop ruining their pure friendship with your fantasies."