How to raise a random guy's wife

Mayu Sagara looked towards the sea at Hashima Island and noticed that she was in a daze, her eyes flickering, clearly deep in thought.

Although it's not obvious on the surface, Mayu Sagara, who is also a creator, knows that Hashima Isekai is in the midst of a brainstorming session, with various ideas flashing through his mind, trying to construct a vague outline of the plot.

Seeing the state of the boat trip to Hashima Island, Mayu Sagara finally felt a little relieved.

Not bad, it seems my suggestion was somewhat helpful.

The group waited quietly for a while before Bo Island, as if waking from a dream, exclaimed, "Ah, sorry, I suddenly..."

"It's alright," Kobayashi Megumi chuckled. "Just keep going if you have inspiration."

"Yes!" Poshima Izumi nodded vigorously. "Thank you all. I have a really good idea now..."

As if afraid that the thoughts in his mind would disappear at any moment, Bo Island hurriedly thanked everyone and said goodbye before leaving the office to go to his studio.

"I won't bother you any longer." Mayu Sagara waved and left.

Kobayashi Megumi shook Kobayashi Sora's hand, "Don't do this next time when there are other people around."

"Hmm? What?"

“It’s just…” Kobayashi Megumi carefully considered her words and found an appropriate description, “…deliberately seducing me.”

"Eh?"

Kobayashi Megumi gently tugged at Kobayashi Sora's collar, "With outsiders around, I'll have a hard time holding back..."

Secretary Kobayashi was completely powerless to resist and could only passively endure the president's...favor.

-

"The executive company is the core of the production committee. It's usually the company with the highest investment or the company involved in the core of the project planning and initiation. As the name suggests, it's the company responsible for executive tasks," Kobayashi Sora explained to Kasumigaoka Utaha. "Similar to the executives in a workplace dinner who are responsible for organizing and arranging affairs, the executive company, as the initiator of an anime's planning proposal, needs to navigate between various investors, raise production funds, chair meetings, draft contracts, and lead financial management and settlement distribution. They are usually advertising agencies, DVD and Blu-ray disc manufacturers, television stations, and other companies with strong backgrounds. Of course, there are also companies that are familiar with the overall process, have abundant resources in the industry, and have extensive connections."

“So you can get a 5% to 10% commission when the project is settled, the more you do, the more you earn.” Kasumigaoka Utaha raised a new question, “Then what is this ‘broadcast royalties = TV station royalties’? Didn’t we already give sponsorship fees before?”

"This is a bit complicated to explain. Let me first explain why it's called broadcast royalties." Kobayashi Sora explained step by step, "The act of a TV station broadcasting a program itself brings publicity. This fee is a prepayment to the TV station based on a certain percentage of the secondary usage fees generated in the future."

“But the TV station also benefits from broadcasting anime programs.” Kasumigaoka Utaha frowned slightly. “Isn’t it a bit excessive to charge this kind of money?”

"According to the draft guidelines issued by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications regarding program production transactions for broadcasting stations, there is also a point that clearly states this is a unilateral abuse of power by the television station." Kobayashi Sora spread her hands. "But you understand."

Kasumigaoka Utaha scoffed.

“Nowadays, each TV station has a different policy, and many TV stations don’t charge this fee at all.” Kobayashi Sora smiled. “Ultimately, this is a legacy issue from the last era.”

"How so?" In the past, Kasumigaoka Utaha wouldn't have been interested in these topics, but now that she's developing towards becoming a producer, she naturally wants to learn more.

“Now the production committee model is the mainstream, but in the era when anime was broadcast during prime time, the advertising revenue model was the mainstream. The higher the anime’s viewership, the better the advertising sales, and the more money the TV station made,” Kobayashi Sora pointed out. “But anime is different from variety shows or baseball. No matter how high the anime’s viewership is, the audience is only children, so the sponsors of anime programs face great limitations.”

The idea that "animation's audience is only children" was a very mainstream perception during a time when advertising revenue was the dominant model.

"No matter how high the ratings are for animation, the number of sponsors that can be secured is very limited. After all, it's impossible to air cosmetics and car commercials during the breaks in animation," Kobayashi Sora summarized. "That's why TV stations make demands on animation copyright holders. Since the advertising slots in animation programs can't be fully sold, you have to pay some revenue from secondary use of the copyright as a supplement, which is the so-called 'broadcast royalties = TV station royalties'."

“I should say,” Kasumigaoka Utaha pointed out sharply, “that since you can’t make me a lot of money, then give me a share of what you do make?”

"This is already pretty good; at least it's a revenue-sharing arrangement after making money, especially when advertising revenue sharing is the mainstream model..."

Kasumigaoka Utaha pressed further, "What is the advertising revenue sharing model?"

"In this model, the sponsors pay the sponsorship fee to the TV station through the advertising agency, and the TV station pays the production fee to the animation production company." Kobayashi Sora explained the situation at the time. "In this model, the advertising agency would deduct a 20% handling fee, and the TV station would also cut a portion of the production fee. The animation production company basically lost money on every episode it produced."

"It's true that building a platform is more profitable than creating content." Kasumigaoka Utaha tidied up her notes. "Thank you for your hard work. I'll go and do some more research."

"This isn't hard work at all, but you..." Kobayashi Sora paused, then, noticing that Kasumigaoka Utaha didn't seem inclined to leave, continued, "Aren't you going to have a proper talk with Eriri?"

Kasumigaoka Utaha lowered her eyelids slightly, "I've tried..."

"really?"

Why would I lie to you?

Kobayashi Sora raised an eyebrow. "You didn't just start the conversation and it already fell apart, did you?"

Kasumigaoka Utaha: "......"

Chapter 616 Her Fear

No answer was needed; Kasumigaoka Utaha's silence said it all.

“I understand your desire to break through your limitations. After feeling like I had control over a lot of things, I tried to control even more.” Kobayashi Sora drew a circle first, then another circle. “But when I reached out in another direction, I found that the things I could control before were starting to show signs of getting out of control.”

Kasumigaoka Utaha pursed her lips. "So?"

"My goal is to control more, not to control new things. Once I've realized my purpose, I'll decisively stop and stabilize my base before any further development." Kobayashi Sora stared at Kasumigaoka Utaha. "And what is your purpose?"

“Do you know you’re not particularly good at talking about your troubles?” Kasumigaoka Utaha rolled her eyes, “especially when Megumi isn’t around.”

“Although she’s not here, she’s the one who asked me to come. As a friend, she doesn’t want two people with social difficulties to part ways because of it.”

"This kind of true damage plus critical hit theory... that's typical of her."

"Then, from the company's perspective, the president doesn't want the relationship between the two ace employees to become too strained."

"So you came?"

“So I came.” Kobayashi Sora said frankly, “After all, it involves future career planning, and compared to her emotional thinking, my rational thinking is more suitable for this situation.”

Kobayashi Sora felt that Kobayashi Megumi had a bit of an elder-like quality. Faced with their child who was going through a divorce, she emotionally wanted the two to reconcile, but rationally she worried that forcing things wouldn't be good for either of them. She was torn between wanting to advise but not daring to, and not knowing how to advise when she shouldn't.

Since she couldn't control her emotional thoughts, Kobayashi Megumi simply stopped showing up and let Kobayashi Sora, who could think absolutely rationally, communicate with her.

Feelings are very subjective; the same relationship can appear differently to different people.

But what exists objectively exists.

Kobayashi Sora's task is to help the two people with communication difficulties complete the process of rational communication; as for the rest... that's their own business.

“Most creators in the industry are like a pile of shit when they're together, but scattered like stars when they're apart. Most excellent creators have strong personal styles, and these styles are not unified, and most of them conflict with each other. Excellent collaborations like yours and Eriri's are extremely rare.” Kobayashi Sora calmly explained, “It would be a real pity if this collaboration ended like this.”

"So how do we continue?" Kasumigaoka Utaha raised an eyebrow, "Let me be like a parasite, living on you, sucking your blood and growing big and fat?"

Kobayashi Sora shook her head, "You're already big and fat, why would you need to suck our blood?"

Of the four, Kasumigaoka Utaha was the first to enter the industry, but the first to produce a best-selling work was Kasumigaoka Utaha.

If we're really talking about bloodsucking, Eri Kasumigaoka is more like the one who sucks blood from Utaha Kasumigaoka.

Kasumigaoka Utaha crossed her arms over her chest. "I'll go tell Megumi."

"Don't steer the conversation in a strange direction," Kobayashi Sora said expressionlessly. "Besides, even if you tell her, she won't believe you."

"Tch." Kasumigaoka Utaha pouted. "I have my own plans. When I was working on the 'Panties' anime, I went there to learn about production. The problem is with Eriri, isn't it? We've talked about pursuing our own careers before, but why is she reacting so strongly this time..."

"I'm also puzzled by this."

Kasumigaoka Utaha asked directly, "What did Megumi say?"

"Because the feeling is different."

"what?"

“The time at the beach, although we almost parted ways, it was ultimately a misunderstanding,” Kobayashi Sora explained further. “And Eriri’s reaction at the time was quite strong.”

"Ah...indeed."

“Most importantly, the initial separation was for better development in creative work.” Kobayashi Sora pointed out the key point: “Now that you have terminated your cooperation, you are not developing in the direction of screenwriting, but in the direction of producer, turning from a creator into a resource integrator.”

"It's quite normal in the industry, isn't it?"

“But in Eriri’s view, this situation is like a creator who has been working with her for a long time suddenly giving up on creating, and doing so with great determination.”

Kasumigaoka Utaha understood, "Ah... that's definitely the kind of thinking she would have."

"If the last one was a farewell scene in anime, where people reunite after years of training, this one is more like a separate operation in a horror movie." Kobayashi Sora relayed Kobayashi Megumi's opinion. "As a fellow creator, Eriri understands what creation means to a creator, and how much determination it takes to stop creating—she is afraid."

“What’s there to be afraid of?” Kasumigaoka Utaha muttered. “She knows my predicament, and she was there when I was being scolded. It’s not that I want to be resolute, but I have no other choice right now—either stop or forge ahead, and I choose the latter.”

"Of course Eriri knew these things, so she was just afraid and didn't stop it."

"So what exactly is she afraid of?"

"If you can give up on creating, wouldn't it be even easier to give up on collaborators?" Kobayashi Sora replied, "That's probably what I'm thinking."

“What a classic slippery slope fallacy…” Kasumigaoka Utaha sighed. “Is she a child?”

Kobayashi Sora retorted, "Is there any need to doubt something like this?"

“...She’s just a child.” Kasumigaoka Utaha breathed a sigh of relief. “I understand. I’ll have a good talk with her again.”

"That's good." Kobayashi Sora didn't want to press the matter further. "Remember to report back after you're done talking, so we can keep track of the progress."

"You can tell how much progress we're making just by looking at Eriri's expression. She wears her heart on her sleeve."

Kobayashi Sora: "...Indeed."

"Go back and thank Megumi properly for me," Kasumigaoka Utaha said with a relaxed smile. "If it weren't for her reminder, I really wouldn't have thought of these things."

“I wholeheartedly agree.” Although Kobayashi Sora was capable of navigating complex interpersonal relationships and dealings of interests, she could never quite fathom these intricate and delicate emotions. “However, I was somewhat surprised.”

"what?"

"Even Kasumi Shiko, who is best known for her delicate emotional descriptions, didn't notice this emotion?"

Kasumigaoka Utaha rolled her eyes at Kobayashi Sora, "Because I'm good at describing these things, that's why I didn't notice."

"Ok?"

Chapter 617 Her Plan

"This..." Kobayashi Megumi chuckled, "is actually very simple."

"How to say?"

“Shiyu excels at depicting complex emotions that unfold layer by layer. The love stories she writes are more like detective stories.” Kobayashi Megumi drew a circle in the air with her fair finger. “So in real life, she tends to overcomplicate people’s emotions, believing that certain opportunities and clues are needed to glimpse the true feelings in other people’s hearts.”

Kobayashi Sora was somewhat amused and exasperated. "I never expected Eriri's ideas to be so simple."

This is what they call a fool defeating a master.

“However, this should prevent their relationship from deteriorating too much.” Kobayashi Sora felt a little relieved. “At least there shouldn’t be any major problems in the short term, and in the long run, there may still be opportunities for cooperation.”

"Hmm...not necessarily."

"Ok?"