Chapter 227: Chapter 226: Initial D, Sword Art Online, and Madoka Magica Are All Practically Locks for Gold

Support me at patreon.com/CulturedOne and read 50 Advanced Chapters

_______________________

As March arrived, the ACG awards season officially kicked off.

The selection process for the Naoki Awards followed a traditional path. Various light novel publishers submitted their best works to an organizing committee. A panel of judges then narrowed the field through two rounds of intense deliberation to determine the top ten finalists and, ultimately, the winner.

The Ryugin Awards for manga, however, did not leave everything to a handful of judges. Every reputable manga publisher in Japan was granted between one and four nomination slots based on their market share and prestige. Once these works were nominated, they were subjected to a month-long public review period on an official portal. Anyone could cast a vote for their favorite series. Only the twenty titles that secured the most popular support moved on to the second round, where a professional panel selected the final winners.

The industry believed that a manga meant for the masses should be recognized by the masses; if a series was only liked by fifty judges but ignored by millions of readers, the award would lose its soul.

The selection for Best Anime and Best Animated Film from Seika remained a bit more shrouded in mystery. Because the animation industry sits at the absolute peak of the ACG hierarchy in terms of sheer revenue and cultural impact, its inner workings were less transparent. Any studio could submit their work as long as it had aired within the previous year.

By the time the final results were due at the end of April, the committee would announce ten nominees in each category.

These production teams were then invited to a grand gala where the winners, Gold, Silver, and Bronze, were revealed live on stage.

Haruto did not need to devote much energy to most of these.

The only one that required his attention was the public voting phase for the Ryugin Award. Initial D was currently featured on the official voting portal, and legions of fans were flooding the site daily to support Takumi’s journey.

Although the public vote did not guarantee the Gold Award, it determined who moved to the final stage. Initial D currently held over twelve million votes, a staggering lead that was triple the count of the second-place entry. In reality, the final result was already a foregone conclusion. No matter how eccentric the final judges might be, they could not ignore a gap in popularity that massive. To hand the top prize to a lower-ranked series would be a public relations suicide.

The situation was much the same for the Naoki Awards. These ceremonies were designed to celebrate the Best of the Year. Normally, a series that had been out for less than twelve months would not have enough momentum to dominate, but Initial D and Sword Art Online were outliers of the highest order. For these two series to enter the fray was essentially like a pro athlete joining a middle-school tournament.

It was a total slaughter.

How could any regular debut hope to compete with these titles? Haruto’s fans spent their days refreshing the official sites, counting down the weeks until the gala when their favorite creator would be officially crowned.

"The Ryugin Award reveal is on April 15th, right?"

"Yeah, Ryugin Awards is on 15th. Naoki Awards is on 22nd. Best TV Animation and Best Animated Film from Seika Awards are on the 29th."

"All of them start at 8:30 PM on a Wednesday. Tokyo TV1 is handling the broadcast. Honestly, at this point, do we even need to ask?"

"The dates shift a little every year, so I just wanted to be sure. Haha."

"I mean, Initial D and Sword Art Online are practically locks for the Gold. Even though there are other good debuts, like Reina Fujimoto’s Absolute Realm, which is fantastic, there is still a noticeable gap between them and Haruto’s stories."

"The only real mystery is the Best Animated Film."

"And the absolute safest bet is Madoka Magica. It is even more of a sure thing than Initial D. If Madoka does not take the Gold, the judges better go into protection to escape the wrath of the fans."

"One thing, though... Since the TV and Film awards are on the same night by the same committee, is there a chance we will see Shiori Takahashi and the Warrior of Love on the same stage?"

"Doubtful they would be up there at the same time, but they will definitely be at the same event. They might even bump into each other."

"I am living for that. I hope the organizers seat them next to each other. I want to see if they will be glaring at each other or if the tension will be thick enough to cut with a knife."

"They probably will not care. One does manga and novels, the other does anime. They do not really overlap that much. It is mostly just us fans putting them in a rivalry filter."

"Do not be naive."

"There is competition everywhere in this industry. Initial D and Sword Art Online already have anime adaptations in the works. Once those air, you will see the fanbases tearing each other apart. In the ACG world, everything eventually converges on the animation stage to fight for supremacy."

"That is a fair point."

"Plus, the merchandise market, clothes, figurines, props, is limited. Fans only have so much money. People have to choose which series to buy for. I love Madoka and I love Asuna, but if they both drop a high-end figure at the same time, I am picking Asuna because my wallet is crying. It is a zero-sum game."

As the various awards programs ramped up in March, the focus of the ACG community shifted entirely toward the upcoming reveals. By the one-month anniversary of its release, the first volume of the Sword Art Online light novel had reached 14 million copies sold. Simultaneously, the fourth volume of Initial D hit the shelves, setting a new record with 6.17 million copies sold in its opening week. Both series were now undisputed kings of their respective magazines, leaving their competitors in the dust.

By late March, a sense of nervous excitement permeated Haru-Yuki Animation. Haruto spent almost every waking hour at the office. Now that the word was out, advertisers were lining up to negotiate product placements and collaborations for his upcoming project, 7 Years From Now.

Yukino was handling the administrative heavy lifting. She oversaw the production of the Blu-ray sets, merchandise design, distribution channels, and licensing deals for overseas markets. Because the name Warrior of Love carried so much weight, dozens of companies were eager to secure a partnership before a single episode had even aired.

On top of the production for the new series, Haruto had to coordinate with the awards committees. He was filming promotional clips and Winner’s Profiles for the four major ceremonies starting in mid-April, while also supporting the marketing efforts for Kiyozawa Library and Prime Manga. He was spread incredibly thin, working until he was bleary-eyed.

By the end of March, Tokyo TV1 had begun a month-long advertising blitz for the Big Four ACG awards.

At the same time, they were preparing for the spring season. While they were busy promoting their live-action dramas, the anime adaptation of 7 Years From Now was their crown jewel.

Seventy-eight new anime were scheduled to premiere in the spring season.

Among them were a big-budget adaptation of the popular game Azure Sky and an original high-fantasy adventure titled Spirit Flame, both with budgets exceeding one billion yen. There were six shows in the 700-million range and twenty-one in the 500-million range. From a purely financial perspective, Haruto’s project looked like an underdog.

Yet, nearly every industry commentator and seventy percent of fans on major anime portals predicted that 7 Years From Now would be the ratings king of the season.

No matter how star-studded the production teams for Azure Sky or Spirit Flame were, they could not compete with the legacy of Madoka Magica. If even half of the Madoka fanbase tuned in to support the Warrior of Love’s new work, it would become an undisputed overlord of the season.

Although the original game of 7 Years From Now was a niche title in the parallel world due to its low-budget pixel art, here, it had something much more powerful: the Warrior of Love brand providing it with unlimited hype and momentum.

Under the relentless promotional fire from Tokyo TV1, March faded away. April had arrived.