In a sense, the 'Throne of Heroes' project really had suffered from unfortunate timing. The project had only just been announced at the joint novel launch event when Kamiyā Yuu was attacked by an unidentified man at the subsequent book signing. As a result, the news was overwhelmingly dominated by reports of the attack on Kamiyā Yuu. Only after some time had passed did the 'Throne of Heroes' project finally enter the public eye again.
The announcement of the game's details, the public release and sale of the 'Type-Moon World Setting Collection', and the implementation of the 'Heroic Spirit Completion' project were all major news within the ACG community. Yet just as their influence was beginning to spread, they were once again overshadowed—this time by the previously scheduled rebroadcast of 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica'.
More than one million concurrent online viewers might not have been particularly remarkable compared with the number of viewers represented by television ratings, but this was unquestionably the first time in Japan that an anime had reached one million simultaneous online viewers.
In China, watching a Japanese anime was very simple. Even if none of the major video websites carried it, a quick Baidu search could usually turn up downloadable resources.
Japan, where the anime were actually produced, imposed much stricter restrictions because of copyright issues. If someone wanted to watch an anime, they generally had two options: watch it for free when it aired on television, or pay to watch it online.
The former naturally accounted for the majority, which was why recording devices were so common in Japanese households. If someone had to attend school or work and couldn't watch a program they liked when it aired, they could simply record it and watch it later.
There were even Japanese residents who used VPNs to access Chinese video websites and watch anime for free.
In Kamiyā Yuu's previous world, Japan's revised laws against illegal downloading officially took effect in October 2012. Following complaints from television stations, the government monitored Japanese IP traffic accessing major Chinese video websites such as Youku and Tudou, cooperating with those sites to block Japanese IP addresses.
Even that failed to stop the enthusiastic Japanese public. It wasn't long before a video app capable of bypassing the IP restrictions appeared.
Still, those willing to resort to every possible means to watch pirated copies remained a minority. If someone missed an anime's original broadcast and still wanted to watch it afterward, there were basically only two choices: pay to watch it online or purchase the anime's Blu-ray release.
Some animation studios were also willing to place completed anime into the libraries of video websites. Whether viewers had to pay depended entirely on the studio's decision. After all, allowing an anime to be watched online for free could deal a devastating blow to Blu-ray sales.
Once the rebroadcast of 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' ended, major online ACG media outlets rushed to report the news that its concurrent audience had surpassed one million. Mainstream newspapers also covered the astonishing achievement, praising 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' as Japan's most representative long-form anime since 'Violet Blooming Garden', and crediting it with breathing new life into an animation industry that had been languishing as a whole.
Mount Fuji Newspaper: "'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' Rebroadcast Surpasses One Million Concurrent Viewers!"
Asahi Newspaper: "A Historic Moment for the Anime Industry: 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' Rebroadcast Achieves One Million Concurrent Online Viewers."
TV Tokyo: "An Incredible Phenomenon in the Anime Industry: The Madoka Magica Economic Sphere Takes Shape, Potential Market Value May Exceed 100 Billion Yen."
Animation Community: "An Anime You Must Not Miss in Your Lifetime—'Puella Magi Madoka Magica'."
The reports followed the prevailing direction of public opinion, with almost all of them offering praise.
Nearly four months had passed since 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' concluded, and it was now the most active period for the anime's commercial activities. Any official anime award remotely related to the industry inevitably had to nominate 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica', and all sorts of accolades naturally fell upon the anime that had created an "industry miracle."
September—the 17th Animation Kobe Award for Best Television Anime.
As the name suggested, the award had been established by the city of Kobe in Japan. Most of its history overlapped with that of Kamiyā Yuu's previous world, except that in this world, the Animation Kobe Awards had been established in 1985, more than a decade earlier.
Thus, although Animation Kobe was technically a regional award, its traditional prestige could not be ignored. The works that won there were invariably outstanding titles that left a profound mark on the history of Japanese animation.
Early October—in the annual anime readers' poll held by Chiyo Bookstore's anime magazine 'Newtype', 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' won more than ten awards, including Best Supporting Character (Kyubey), Best Female Lead (Kaname Madoka), Best Theme Song ('and I'm home'), Best Screenplay, Best Character Design, Best Art, Best Cinematography, Best Color Design, Best Animation Effects, Best Anime Director, and Best Anime.
Virtually every award category that 'Newtype' could offer was conquered by the frenzied reader vote, with 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' receiving nearly ten times as many votes as the anime in second place.
These were merely awards presented by the anime magazine 'Newtype', so fundamentally, they didn't mean much by themselves.
However, judging from the abnormal number of votes, rather than saying the awards were boosting the anime's popularity, it would be more accurate to say that 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' had caused the popularity of the awards themselves to skyrocket.
On the day of the rebroadcast, it simultaneously received the Tokyo Japan Animation Grand Prize, Best Feature-Length Anime Award, and Best Innovative Anime Award.
The Tokyo Japan Animation Awards were currently the most authoritative anime awards in Japan, with most of the judges consisting of veteran figures from the animation industry. For an anime to win even one of its awards was already an extraordinary achievement.
All that could be said was that 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' was simply too exceptional.
Any award related to anime had no choice but to nominate it immediately. If certain awards wanted to distinguish themselves by deliberately excluding 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica', the overwhelming wave of popularity surrounding the work would instead cause outsiders to question the credibility of the awards themselves.
Just as 'RWBY' had swept numerous major awards across Europe and America after airing for a while, these accolades represented only the beginning.
Japan's internet seemed to have returned to the period immediately after 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' concluded, with discussions about the anime everywhere.
By comparison, the performance of Japan's other anime that year was almost too miserable to look at. 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' had stolen all the attention virtually.
This was especially true for the anime that had aired in April. They had struggled under the crushing pressure of 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica', and just when July and October arrived, and the completed anime's influence finally began to decline, the success of 'Fate/Zero' became yet another enormous mountain looming over them.
...
Regardless of how the outside world evaluated the anime, in Kamiyā Yuu's eyes, 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' was simply an anime he had already finished producing.
All the ideas he had wanted to test had been validated through the work, and the audience's response satisfied him.
The commercial value of the anime could be left to the company's operations department. His job was to continue creating new and outstanding anime.
The lull in Yosuganosora Animation Studio's production schedule happened to give him ample time to plan the storyboards for the next part of 'Fate/Zero'.
The 'Throne of Heroes' project had slowed down his storyboard work, leaving him only around one episode ahead of actual production. That was already brushing against the minimum buffer required for the production schedule.
Using the scripts he had already organized, he began revising the storyboards for Saber's release of her Noble Phantasm's True Name, Excalibur, as well as the aerial dogfight between Berserker Lancelot and Gilgamesh.
Both sequences placed extremely high demands on an anime director's skill.
For the former, the director needed a clear understanding of the overall visual effect and the essence of the character, creating a sequence capable of conveying the character's ideals strongly enough to move the audience.
The latter demanded extensive directing experience in camera work and visual effects. If executed properly, the aerial dogfight could become a spectacle no less impressive than Ionioi Hetairoi.
As it happened, these were precisely Kamiyā Yuu's greatest strengths.
As he continued studying the advanced directing experience of his previous world, he had essentially reached the point where he could freely create any animated plot or scene he wanted and bring it to a nearly perfect level of execution.