Tokyo: The Manga Begins with the Funeral of Frilian

Shiori Shirakawa turned to look at Yuma Kamiya.

"This person and Onodera-senpai must get along very well."

"They are one species."

Yuma Kamiya opened the car door.

"Get in the car."

On the way back to Tokyo from Karuizawa.

Shiori Shirakawa was in the passenger seat.

She opened the envelope that Joe Hisaishi had handed her.

Besides the property certificate, there was also a note.

The note had only one line of pencil writing on it.

"Give it to that elf from a thousand years ago who forgot how to cry."

She put the note back into the envelope and then turned away.

My gaze was fixed on the snow scene flashing past the window.

"Kamiya-kun."

"Um?"

"What you just said at his house, that the death of the immortal species is not an abrupt end but a slow fading process, was that something you came up with on the spur of the moment or something you prepared beforehand?"

"I came up with it on the spur of the moment."

"You're lying every time you say something like that."

Yuma Kamiya gripped the steering wheel tightly in his own hands.

Shiori Shirakawa didn't ask any further questions. She opened the folder on her lap.

Then take out the red pen and write it in the music production section of the production cost budget.

A completely new number was written.

Zero.

After returning to Tokyo, she placed Joe Hisaishi's property certificate in the safe in her studio and locked it away.

It was not used as collateral.

She placed the envelope and note in a drawer in her bedroom.

It was placed next to that old calculator that had been used for three years.

She went straight to the royalty budget for Volume Thirteen.

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The funds allocated for Joe Hisaishi's score were used.

Kamiya once asked her why she was the way she was.

She said that this falls within the scope of the finance and general affairs manager's responsibilities.

"And he said 'borrow,' not 'use now.'"

"When will he need it?"

"When we get old, we'll go to Karuizawa to visit him and then return it to him."

Yuma Kamiya did not refute.

One winter night, Shiori Shirakawa added another set of tableware to the low table.

She told Hoshino Rin that Joe Hisaishi lived alone in Karuizawa.

His refrigerator only contained frozen dumplings.

After finishing the background drawing of the demon race that night, Hoshino Rin drew a Steinway piano in her sketchbook.

A bowl of steaming miso soup sat on the lid of the zither.

She tore that page out.

He then slipped the torn-off page into the storyboard that Fujita planned to send to Joe Hisaishi later.

About half a month has passed.

Joe Hisaishi sent back a handwritten receipt.

On the back of the receipt were only six words: "Soup received. Acceptable."

Hoshino Rin pasted the receipt on the wall in the corner of the studio.

It was right next to her rather narrow table.

Fujita saw the receipt when he went to pick up the new storyboard he had been assigned.

He stood in front of the wall and laughed for a long time.

"Is he growing cabbages in Karuizawa?"

He doesn't grow cabbages. He grows musical notes.

As that spring was drawing to a close, Dongyang Animation withdrew from the production committee.

On the same day, Shochiku Music and TV Tokyo also issued formal notices regarding the withdrawal of their investments.

Shiori Shirakawa filed the three notices according to their dates.

The folder was labeled as having been withdrawn, and then I turned to the latest page of the production cost budget.

The production cost of the twelfth episode of the first season was 150 million yen.

The proportion of funds owned by Kamiya Studio itself is 51%.

Joe Hisaishi participated in the composition in his personal capacity, and subsequently incorporated the copyright of the soundtrack into his shareholding after a valuation.

It accounts for eight percent.

A new production company established by Keisuke Fujita.

After their team and production resources were converted into shares, they held a 15% stake.

For the remaining twenty-six percent—Shiori Shirakawa wrote four words in that column: "Pending recruitment. No rush."

Fujita and his team found an old warehouse in Itabashi Ward.

The old warehouse was used as a temporary workshop.

The warehouse was formerly the factory of a printing plant, after which the printing presses were moved away.

All that remained were rows of empty iron frames, and the ground was covered with ink stains.

Yamazaki brought over a dozen old pencils from his hometown.

Then, Yamazaki distributed these old pencils to the many newly recruited animators.

Tamura's contract with Kyoto Animation has not yet ended.

Every evening after get off work, he would take a night bus to Tokyo.

After arriving in Tokyo, I started drawing original artwork in the warehouse.

I painted until dawn, and then took the early bus back to work.

"You'll die if you do that."

Fujita handed him a can of coffee.

"If you're dead, you're dead."

Tamura took the coffee and gulped it down.

"Anyway, I do outsource my work in Kyoto. At least here I can draw what I want."

Xiaolin was the first to arrive at his post.

Her belly was already noticeably swollen.

But she remained steadfastly seated at the color mixing table, sitting there for as long as eight hours.

Every evening, her husband would ride that bicycle to the warehouse.

He carried an insulated lunchbox and a folding recliner.

Then he waited patiently in that corner of the warehouse, waiting for her to come home from get off work.

After Kobayashi finished adjusting the colors of a scene...

He stood up and walked a few steps.

Her husband followed behind her, carrying a thermos filled with warm water.

"Was your wife always this hardworking?"

Yamazaki asked Kobayashi's husband.

"I used to work even harder."

Kobayashi's husband handed her a thermos. "During the last three months of 'Winter Stardust,' she stayed up for seventy-two hours straight without sleeping. After finishing the color correction for the last shot, she collapsed on the color mixing table. Mr. Fujita carried her back to our apartment, up four flights of stairs. At that time, she couldn't even climb the stairs, but she was still muttering—'The color of that sunset isn't warm enough.'"

Nonaka was the last to join.

He left his job at GG Corporation.

The equipment was moved from the product photography studio to a corner of the warehouse.

He spent three days on it.

He used black cloth and foam boards to build a temporary photography studio.

Fujita asked him what he lacked, and he replied that he lacked nothing.

The only thing missing was a shot of him filming Frillie's eyes.

"I've been looking for that shot for three years."

Nono was wiping the camera lens.

"It's not just an ordinary close-up; it's a close-up that captures the sense of the passage of time. I couldn't do that before because no one let me shoot it."