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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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Chapter 31: Movies and Animation
Producing an anime involves a long and complex series of steps.
Production approval meetings, overall series composition at the production studio, character design, staff selection, forming a production committee, finalizing the budget (important!), scriptwriting, storyboarding, and so on.
Even when simplified, these are just some of the many stages that must be completed.
Why does anime production require steps that rival, or even surpass, movie production in complexity?
The answer is simple: Money.
It takes a ‘lot’ of money to make an anime.
Even Osamu Tezuka, hailed as the "Father of Manga" in Japan, poured the earnings he made from serializing double-digit numbers of manga across weekly magazines into anime production.
He himself admitted that all the money he made went straight into making anime.
It's common knowledge—even outside the industry—that animators are underpaid.
And yet, anime production demands a large team and generates a wide range of expenses.
So it's long been accepted that production costs start in the hundreds of millions of won (tens to hundreds of thousands in USD).
Naturally, this also means it takes a lot of time.
“Screw all that! We’re doing this at lightning speed!”
Director Daito rushed to simplify the entire process.
“Work! I need work! I need results! Results!”
Thanks to the “Kindness” (read: sabotage) of his coworkers, he narrowly avoided having his salary docked.
However, moving forward, every team dinner and after-work gathering became ’his’ responsibility to pay for.
You might think, “Well, that’s not ‘too’ bad,” but the real problem wasn’t just the people in the meeting—it was that animators from the production studio caught wind of it and swarmed him too.
“Director Daito! I ‘knew’ I could count on you! Damn it!”
“(Slurp)… Hey Director, your salary tastes real good.”
“You mean Director Daito’s paycheck? Ahh… I miss those days. It’s already been a while.”
“Grrrrgh…!”
Each day was suffering incarnate.
The money was bad enough, but the psychological warfare from his coworkers was enough to make him feel like he was slipping into a daze.
Still, even amidst all this chaos, Director Daito endured it all in silence—biding his time and waiting for a comeback.
And then, one day…
“The 'D Note' anime will air in Q1 next year. We’re setting the broadcast for January 2009.”
“W-What…?!”
“What are you saying, Director Daito?!”
“Objection!”
Everyone exploded in protest—but Daito, as if he had seen it all coming, just smiled coolly.
“Speak your mind.”
“It’s already September this year! Normally, after an anime is greenlit, it takes at least a year to a year and a half! How do you expect to pull this off so fast?!”
Hearing this, Daito nodded solemnly at the production team.
Thinking they'd finally gotten through to him, the team smiled in relief.
That smile didn’t last long.
“A year and a half? Why would it take ‘that’ long?”
“Well… things like series composition and scripting alone would—”
“The full series is already completed, and we secured an agreement during a meeting with the editorial department to receive the full storyboard for 'D Note' through to the final chapter.”
“...!!”
“If the entire plot is already laid out, then writing the script will take, what, a month? No—honestly, we can just jump straight into storyboarding the direction.”
At ND House, most of the core staff for the project had already been selected in internal meetings.
Sure, the big tasks of forming a production committee and securing budget still remained, but considering this was the work of Wakayama Jun, whose name was currently blowing up in the industry, those hurdles wouldn’t take long to clear.
It was tight, no doubt—but that was Yamaguchi, the producer’s problem, not something Director Daito had to lose sleep over.
Sensing the storm ahead, Yamaguchi swallowed hard and turned to Daito with unease in his eyes.
“With a schedule that aggressive… even ‘you’ won’t be able to handle it, Director.”
“You think it’ll be tough just for me? No, we’re ‘all’ going to suffer.”
Daito raised his head with a dramatic look, then grinned.
“So much that we won’t even have the strength to go out for company dinners.”
“...!”
“We’ve been played…!”
“How conniving…!”
Jeers flew at Director Daito, who flashed a smile full of pearly whites.
“B-But what exactly is the upside to running such a brutal schedule? I-I mean, it’s just… inefficient!”
“No! Don’t say that—!”
Yamaguchi tried to stop one of the staff from voicing that concern, but it was already too late.
“There’s a reason.”
As if he’d been waiting for this very moment, Director Daito’s eyes gleamed.
“This is confidential, but I’ve heard that 'D Note' is set to conclude in January next year. And if that’s true—what happens if we time the anime broadcast to align exactly with the ending of the manga?”
They could seamlessly convert the readers—those riding the high of the finale and feeling the void—as an instant anime audience.
No matter how massive 'D Note'’s popularity was at the moment, even the hottest series cool down once they finish.
But if they timed the anime to immediately follow the end of the manga?
They could ride that momentum, while it was still fresh—while people were still talking.
It was perfect. Obvious. Unbeatable logic.
And once he laid it all out, no one could refute it.
Which is exactly why everyone had been dancing around it—trying not to give him that opening.
Yamaguchi shot a sharp glare at the staffer who’d spoken up.
And that staffer?
They grinned.
“No way…”
Yamaguchi quickly turned his head toward Daito.
The staffer and Director Daito were already exchanging a smug, knowing smile.
“From the start…”
It had all been part of Daito’s wicked (??) plan.
“Let’s give it our all to make the early broadcast work… even if it means pulling all-nighters.”
That night, the halls of ND House echoed with the anguished cries of animators.
＊ ＊ ＊
“Huh? A movie too?”
At Jung Junhyuk’s question, Matsuda—sitting across from him—nodded.
“It hasn’t been officially announced yet, but once we get the go-ahead from the original author, it’s basically confirmed.”
“I don’t really mind. If anything, I’m grateful.”
As always, they had just wrapped up a storyboard meeting in Junhyuk's workspace when Matsuda dropped the news about a film adaptation of 'D Note'.
“But is that okay? I mean, won’t that overlap a bit with the anime’s schedule?”
“Actually, the reaction’s been pretty positive. There’ll be some changes here and there, sure, but both are sticking to the original story. As long as the quality’s decent, there’s no reason for the two to be directly compared. In fact, they’re expecting a marketing boost from the double exposure.”
“Hmm… so that means the movie might come out before the anime?”
Since the film script was already locked in, it wouldn’t take long to enter production.
With just a bit of tweaking, a movie could very realistically wrap up and premiere much faster—even if it was greenlit around the same time as the anime.
That’s how it usually works. Usually.
“But apparently, Director Daito’s fired up. Word is, he’s aiming to get the anime on air by January next year.”
“…Sorry, what?”
Junhyuk, thinking he misheard, stuck a finger in his ear and asked again.
“Next year… as in 2010?”
“Next year as in 2009.”
“That’s even possible? Anime production takes at least a year, no matter how fast you move.”
“Exactly. We were worried it might turn out rushed, too, but Director Daito has such a solid track record with the series he’s handled that we decided to trust him—for now.”
ND House was already a fairly well-known animation studio back when Junhyuk was still just an editor.
And the titles they’d released since weren’t half-bad either, so Junhyuk nodded along, convinced.
Whether it was a film script or an anime script—sure, it was interesting. But honestly? It was probably better for the original author to keep a healthy distance.
At least, that’s what Junhyuk thought at the time.
He had no idea just how deeply involved he was about to get.
＊ ＊ ＊
Summer break had ended, and the heat that had lingered in the air had finally settled.
By mid-November, the lukewarm breeze had turned crisp and cold.
As always, tucked away in a quiet corner of the old school building, Kanna and Jung Junhyuk were eating lunch together.
“I really should start a new project soon.”
“Says the one who’s once again stuffing her face with a calorie bomb of a—”
Whoosh!
Before he could even finish his sentence, Kanna’s fist grazed past Junhyuk’s face.
“Next time, I won’t miss.”
Junhyuk nodded like a wind-up toy, his eye twitching.
“I really should start a new project soon.”
“W-Wait. You’re seriously just gonna pretend that punch didn’t happen—”
“I really should start a new project soon.”
“......”
Already conditioned by fear, Junhyuk backed off under the intensity of Kanna’s glare and reluctantly went along with it.
“R-Right… time to get back to work, huh…”
“Child actors get forgotten quickly if they’re inactive for too long.”
With a sigh that carried genuine concern—or so it seemed—Kanna took a big bite out of her bread.
Junhyuk nearly blurted out whether she ‘really’ looked that worried, but instead, he swallowed the thought along with a sip of his drink.
“Oh, by the way. Is 'D Note' not getting a movie adaptation or anything?”
“Cough! Heuck—! Uh, I—I dunno?! Haven’t heard a thing! Hahaha…”
“Got it.”
At that, Kanna rested her chin on her knees and stared out the window blankly.
“The main heroine’s not even close to my age. Voice acting was one thing, but a live-action film would be a stretch.”
“Yeah, I know.”
It had only been three months since her break started, but to Kanna, it already felt like an eternity.
She was no longer a little kid, but not quite a full-fledged adult either—a weird, in-between age.
For actors, it’s one of the most limited and difficult periods for landing age-appropriate roles.
She’d done a few small gigs, like magazine shoots or minor parts here and there, but she hadn’t had a major project in a while.
She’d probably have to tough it out for another three years at least. The question was… could she stay relevant and active during all that time?
As she gazed at the raindrops pattering down outside the window, beginning to drift into melancholy, a carefree voice broke through her thoughts.
“Hey, you never know. Maybe when you head over today, you’ll have a nice fat role or two waiting for you.”
“Yeah, right. I’d be over the moon if even one came in. Most days I’m lucky to find ‘any’ roles.”
Kanna replied without even glancing away from the window.
Being an actor meant constantly living with unease. On set, you had to keep your nerves sharp, always anticipating what might happen.
At school, classmates and even teachers often looked at her with a weird mix of expectations and envy. It was… exhausting.
So, oddly enough, this downtime felt a little peaceful to Kanna. If you asked her why—
“You know…”
“......”
“You’re dozing off again…”
—it was probably because of this weird, clueless boy who treated her like she was completely ordinary.
＊ ＊ ＊
Later that day…
“Wait, seriously? Two offers?!”
As usual, Kanna had just finished her lesson at the agency when she looked at her manager in disbelief.
Her manager held up two scripts—one in each hand—and passed them to her.
“One’s for a voice acting job, the other’s a film role.”
“Voice acting?”
For actors in Kanna’s age range, demand was pretty low.
That’s why many young actors turn to voice work to stay active in the industry.
Still, with her limited voice acting experience, Kanna found it a bit surprising to get a new offer.
“It’s for the heroine in the anime adaptation of 'D Note', the one you worked on before. The movie’s also 'D Note', but they’re offering you the role of the protagonist’s younger sister.”
“Whoa…”
The voice acting role felt more like a lucky coincidence, but still—
To be cast twice, and in a series she genuinely liked? It was the kind of news that made her want to throw a party.
Pumped up and ready to give it her all, Kanna clenched her fist with determination—
“But the schedules overlap quite a bit. I don’t think you’ll be able to do both. You’ll have to choose one. What’ll it be?”
“Uh…?”
Just like that, despite her fiery resolve, the moment of choice came crashing down on her.
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HELIO SCANS
[Translator - Hestia]
[Proofreader - Kaya]
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