The next day, once TV Tokyo aired its interview, Kamiyā Yuu successfully gained a whole new wave of fans online. His favorability among the ACG community skyrocketed. To ordinary people, everything Kamiyā Yuu had said simply reflected perfectly normal values.
And yet, words expressing perfectly normal values somehow counted as a breath of fresh air in present-day District 11. It was hard to tell whether something was wrong with District 11's society or with the industry itself.
After this incident, another title was appended to Kamiyā Yuu's existing moniker of [All-Round Director]: [The "Strongest" Animation Director in History].
It meant exactly what it sounded like: in terms of actual fighting ability, he ranked first among animation directors. Being able to subdue a knife-wielding attacker barehanded in a single move had even amazed quite a few practical-style martial artists.
After interviewing Kamiyā Yuu, the TV Tokyo reporter had genuinely gone and found a professional fighter to ask for his opinion on Kamiyā Yuu's one-move takedown. After watching the surveillance footage, the professional fighter concluded that both Kamiyā Yuu's practical execution and reactions had been extremely fast. An average professional fighter might not have been able to pull it off, especially given the even greater demands it placed on one's mental composure.
Quite a few fans also guessed which anime Kamiyā Yuu had been referring to when he said that he had studied combat techniques for the sake of creating animation.
It was 'RWBY', which Western media had called the pinnacle of action animation. The series combined martial arts elements with all sorts of wild ideas to create an unprecedented sense of impact in its action scenes. Its combat was simultaneously grounded in reality and unimaginably intense.
That one remark from Kamiyā Yuu's interview breathed a little new life into 'RWBY' in District 11. Aside from fans who went back to rewatch it, a small group of interested viewers was also drawn in.
If studying combat techniques to make an anime was enough to let him effortlessly subdue an armed attacker, then just what would the anime itself look like?
Overnight, Kamiyā Yuu became one of District 11's hottest topics. In terms of the social influence of an animation director, he was probably no longer much inferior to veteran figures of the industry.
Even the nationally renowned novelist Kirigami Ruri could only play a supporting role in this incident.
News of the attack soon spread overseas as well, where the online response was hardly small.
[Now I finally understand why Master Kamiyā was able to make 'RWBY'.]
[He actually dared to attack the father of 'RWBY'?]
[I'm honestly afraid Mr. Kamiyā might accidentally kill the culprit.]
[If there had been a few more attackers, would they have forced Mr. Kamiyā to unleash his Semblance?]
[I don't know why, but I keep imagining Director Kamiyā pulling out a black case, turning it into a giant sword, and cutting the attacker down in one strike.]
When the incident reached China, Kamiyā Yuu successfully became a popular meme.
One image showed him twisting the attacker's right arm backward and pinning him to the ground, accompanied by captions such as:
[You know nothing of power!]
[Foolish attacker, do you even know who made 'RWBY'?]
When Kamiyā Yuu saw piles of comments like these beneath the surveillance footage on BIUBIUBIU, he could not help but laugh.
He had never imagined that one day he too would become a figure on the level of the "Three Giants of Asia."
...
However, the incident's popularity rose quickly and vanished even faster.
Less than five days after the attack, all news concerning Kamiyā Yuu being assaulted by an unidentified man had seemingly disappeared without a trace. Reality and the internet returned to business as usual.
At this point, the effects of the joint novel launch finally began to show.
Or more accurately, once the publicity surrounding the attack faded, the joint novel launch became the beneficiary of its lingering afterglow.
The promotional PV for the third volume shown at the joint novel launch sparked heated discussion among anime fans. Thanks to the residual attention from the news, the PV directly climbed to first place in monthly popularity among promotional videos on the NICENICE video website, even surpassing the trailer for a Hollywood-style Western romance blockbuster.
The PV received several million views and tens of thousands of comments, falling only slightly short of the actual 'Fate/zero' anime itself.
Overall, District 11 still maintained the habit of watching anime on television. Combined with its population size, online anime viewership was nowhere near as exaggerated as in China, so several million views was already an impressive figure.
The quality of the 'Fate/zero' novel promotional PV was genuinely very high.
More importantly, Kamiyā Yuu had said at the novel launch, "Please look forward to Episode 11."
Did that mean the anime would actually contain the spectacular [Ionioi Hetairoi] scene shown in the promotional PV?
Many anime viewers found it hard to believe.
Even the promotional PV alone made audiences feel as though the production budget was being burned at an unprecedented rate. If the anime itself genuinely achieved that level of quality, just how much money would it cost?
Burning money?
No, this was more like dropping a nuclear bomb on the anime industry!
However, since the studio producing 'Fate/zero' was Yosuganosora Animation Studio, the idea did not seem completely baseless to most viewers.
Yosuganosora Animation Studio had already become synonymous with high-quality anime in District 11. Every one of its works belonged to the budget-burning category, delivering viewers an unparalleled experience in both story and visuals.
Besides, 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' had already earned Yosuganosora Animation Studio enormous profits. It really was possible that they might splurge extravagantly and produce visuals as shocking as those in the PV.
During this period, several freelance key animators and animators who had participated in the production of Episodes 11 and 12 of 'Fate/zero' also came forward to ride the wave of attention.
They could not reveal the contents of the anime, but they could talk about what had happened during production.
[Not long ago, Yosuganosora Animation Studio commissioned key animation at six or seven times the normal rate. As far as I know, quite a few key animators accepted commissions from Yosuganosora Animation Studio. All of them were brought in to handle the absurdly large amount of animation required for a certain episode.]
Those comments from the key animators essentially confirmed to the public that Episodes 11 and 12 of 'Fate/zero' represented an unprecedentedly lavish production effort by Yosuganosora Animation Studio.
With the third volume of the novel now on sale, readers who had finished it already knew how the anime's story would develop next.
There were less than two days until Episode 11 aired, and every viewer who liked 'Fate/zero' was eagerly anticipating its animation quality.
The descriptions in the novel alone had already left many readers' blood boiling.
The King of Conquerors, Iskandar, would unleash [Ionioi Hetairoi]. Judging from the grand scale described in the novel, the story would finally begin to feel like an actual "war."
Meanwhile, the clash of ideals among the four Heroic Spirits participating in the [Holy Grail Dialogue], including the Heroic Spirit Zhao Yun, was another major highlight.
Based on the novel's plot progression, Episode 11 would cover the [Holy Grail Dialogue].
Episode 12 would feature Lancer Zhao Yun standing alone against the million-strong army of Iskandar's [Ionioi Hetairoi].
Under the combined effect of all this deliberate and accidental hype, the 'Fate/zero' anime finally began showing the potential to rival 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' in popularity.
Episode 11 might very well mark the beginning of a dramatic surge in its ratings.