At Yosuganosora Animation Studio, Kamiyā Yuu arrived outside Gogyo Ruri's office and knocked on the wooden door.
"Kuroneko, am I interrupting?"
"Big Brother, what's wrong?" Gogyo Ruri raised her little head and looked at him in confusion.
Kamiyā Yuu glanced around the office as he explained, "Mm... I need to let you know that Cuts 358 through 434 of Episode 7 need to be redone."
The office wasn't particularly spacious, and it was filled with all sorts of clutter. The desk in the center, however, was much simpler, containing only animation tools and a computer.
Kamiyā Yuu had expected her to have figurines displayed on her desk.
Today, Gogyo Ruri was dressed differently from usual, wearing a white lolita dress. Unlike traditional lolita outfits with their elaborate decorations, this one featured a simplified design better suited to modern fashion, which happened to be the style Kamiyā Yuu preferred.
Her eyes had also changed from their original crimson to heterochromatic red and gold, giving her an unusually beautiful appearance.
Gogyo Ruri set down her pen and thought for a moment.
"Yes, if I remember correctly, these cuts are the ones where 'Volumen Hydrargyrum' first appears. Is there a problem?"
"There are problems everywhere. None of it meets the storyboard requirements," Kamiyā Yuu sighed as he walked into the office, handing her the stack of key animation drafts.
Gogyo Ruri accepted them with both hands and carefully flipped through them.
After a while, she looked up at Kamiyā Yuu and frowned.
"I understand. But these scenes are extremely difficult to animate. We'll need cooperation from both the Key Animation Department and the Photography Department."
There was actually a very simple way to judge whether an anime was well-produced.
Look at how it handled lighting.
Natural lighting.
Reflected lighting.
Ambient lighting.
Every aspect involving light required extremely complicated animation work and visual effects.
A perfect example was an anime that looked fairly ordinary at first glance but was, in reality, produced with even greater care than works from Kyoto Animation—
'Hanasaku Iroha.'
The series was notorious for giving off an inexplicable NTR atmosphere and had therefore earned nicknames such as 'Hanasaku Thunder Bluff' and 'Blood-Stained Iroha.'
As for why it was associated with Thunder Bluff...
That required explaining an old internet verse:
"On Thunder Bluff stands Kitamura,
Chief Eri reigns like Cairne Bloodhoof.
Wherever Bloodhoof's hooves tread, flowers bloom—
And men and women alike are left in tears."
In Japanese, 'Netori' referred to "having the woman you love stolen by another man."
Its romanization—'ne-to-ra-re'—was abbreviated as NTR.
Coincidentally, Chinese players also used NTR as shorthand for 'Niu Tou Ren' —"Tauren" from World of Warcraft.
And where did the Tauren live?
Thunder Bluff.
As for Kitamura Eri...
She was a voice actress.
Because many of the characters she voiced ended up involved in NTR scenarios, fans jokingly dubbed her the Tauren Chieftain.
That was a bit of a tangent.
Returning to 'Hanasaku Iroha'...
Its art style looked ordinary at first glance, but closer inspection revealed astonishing attention to lighting.
Natural light.
Diffused light.
Glass refraction.
Transmitted light.
Reflections.
Every detail was handled with incredible care.
In Kamiyā Yuu's opinion, its meticulous craftsmanship far surpassed even the flashy CG effects piled on by ufotable in the original 'Fate/zero.'
'Volumen Hydrargyrum' posed exactly this sort of challenge.
In the original anime, the production relied heavily on visual effects from the Photography Department.
The final result achieved the desired effect...
But it also looked rather out of place.
After all, when an entirely 3D object suddenly appeared in an otherwise 2D world, how could it not feel jarring?
Kamiyā Yuu's remake wasn't going to depict 'Volumen Hydrargyrum' using purely 2D techniques.
Pure 2D couldn't fully convey its unique physical properties.
Instead, he planned to combine 2D animation with 3D visual effects.
On one hand, the mercury construct's physical behavior had to be convincingly portrayed.
On the other hand—and this was the more troublesome aspect—the reflections and lighting across its liquid metallic surface had to interact naturally with the surrounding environment.
The rejected animation Kamiyā Yuu had just reviewed was already considerably better than what had existed in his previous world.
It simply hadn't reached his standards.
Kamiyā Yuu naturally reached out and ruffled Gogyo Ruri's black hair.
"Then I'll leave it in your hands. You can discuss the details with Uehara-sensei or Chinatsu. I've got to head over to the Sound Department now for voice recording. Honestly, I'm starting to regret accepting this voice acting job on a whim."
Gogyo Ruri leaned forward slightly, looking up at him through her colored contact lenses with a teasing smile.
"Indeed. Big Brother always acts on impulse. Those are the thoughts of a half-hearted person."
"But since it's Big Brother... you'll always find a solution."
"Your Holy Angel Cat shall remain here, awaiting your triumphant return."
Now and then, Gogyo Ruri would throw in a few chuunibyou-style jokes.
Despite her petite stature, she possessed an almost instinctive ability to act adorably.
Kamiyā Yuu could only describe it as "weaponized cuteness."
He had never been particularly fond of women deliberately acting cute in real life.
Back in his previous world, whenever he watched so-called "otaku dance" videos performed by female streamers on Bilibili, he frequently suffered secondhand embarrassment.
He often found himself wondering whether anyone could really perform such embarrassingly cute dances in front of other people.
As he left the office, Kamiyā Yuu waved with a smile.
"Kuroneko, you'd better worry about your own side first. If the revised cuts still don't pass inspection, the overall production schedule will become dangerously tight."
...
By the time he drove to the Sound Department, it was already after four in the afternoon.
The recording studio was empty.
Every other voice actor had already completed their work for this episode of 'Fate/zero.'
Only Kamiyā Yuu's lines remained.
Entering the office, he immediately spotted Shindō Tsukasa sitting alone on the sofa, smoking while absentmindedly flipping through a magazine.
"Sorry for making you wait, Shindō."
Shindō Tsukasa stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray and sighed helplessly.
"You finally made it. Well... fortunately, your voice acting doesn't take much time. Otherwise, I'd probably be spending the night here."
"Don't complain. You're making it sound like I deliberately showed up late."
"I was complimenting your voice acting."
"Come on. Let's head into the recording booth."
Once Shindō Tsukasa and the sound engineer had finished preparing on the opposite side of the recording studio, Kamiyā Yuu didn't even bother opening the script.
Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath to settle into character.
Watching the silent footage playing on the monitor, he began voicing Zhao Yun.
"'The king's path?' What a nostalgic phrase. But our understanding of kingship in the East is fundamentally different from yours in the West."
"Me? Although I was only posthumously granted the title Marquis Shunping, there is nothing inappropriate about calling me a king."
"How laughable! We have an old saying in China—the victor becomes king, the loser becomes bandit. If I defeat all of you here today, then I shall stand above King Arthur, Iskandar the King of Conquerors, and Gilgamesh, the oldest Heroic Spirit in human history. What say you?"
He recited each line flawlessly from memory.
Throughout the entire recording session, Shindō Tsukasa never once called for a retake.
From a professional standpoint...
The performance was impeccable.
Even if he had stopped the recording, he wouldn't have known what advice to offer.
Sitting on the other side of the recording booth, listening carefully through his headphones, Shindō Tsukasa could only shake his head with a sigh.
"Even voice acting... he can do it perfectly."
"Kamiyā... just how many times are you planning to surprise people?"