After Episode 10 aired, Mizushiro's name spread far and wide. It wasn't just anime fans anymore; even people outside the usual circles were talking about him. Many who had never followed an anime so closely now remembered the name, searching it up online so that, when they met in person, they could voice their thoughts or give him a piece of their mind for the emotional whiplash he had caused.

Meanwhile, Haruki and the newly promoted assistant director, Tsubakito, worked together to reduce Kazuya's workload. Madoka Magica had completed all its episodes, they left a small team mostly on standby for emergencies, while the rest of the staff had already begun pre-production on Code Geass.

With a massive budget of 1.5 billion yen, production was not the only issue; managing it brought just as many headaches as opportunities. Everyone was carefully reviewing the details, preparing for the challenges ahead.

As they worked through the plans, Haruki finally spoke up.

"It still doesn't match the quality I have in mind," he said."I know some of you think we can hold back a bit in the first season, then go all-in later. But I want this series to stand the test of time. Not just succeed now, still be talked about years from now."

At those words, everyone in the room drew a sharp breath. They understood what he meant. Haruki was thinking bigger than the moment, he was aiming to set a standard, something future creators would look back on as a benchmark.

"This story already has what it takes: strong themes, a clear voice, and a distinct style," Haruki went on. "We just have to build everything else around it to match."

Shiori raised a concern. "But this will take our budget to two or three billion yen, and I don't think we'll be able to recover it. The story is fictional, but it has real-world references. So in the West, there might be backlash, and we need to prepare for that too.

"I know you've told everyone to make the anime first and not worry about profit," she went on, "but we need some profit, right? You don't want everything to be a loss. And second, we're going to need a world-class animation team. We have a team, yes, but for the core positions, I don't think we have the capability. It'll force our studio, which doesn't have much management capacity, to take on something we're not ready for."

Everyone was thinking the same thing. The story itself was already regarded as strong, even great. But pushing for that level of quality carried enormous risk. To meet Haruki's vision, they would need to bring in top-level talent: an art director and a chief animation director capable of delivering at a world-class standard.

Kazuya was talented, no doubt, but not yet in that league. Without Haruki, it might have taken him another fifteen years to build a résumé of shows on that caliber.

Hearing all this, Haruki briefly thought he might be getting carried away with his expectations. But just as he was about to speak, Kazuya cut him off.

"If we're never going to handle that kind of work, then how will our studio live up to its name?" Kazuya said. "We've made three animations so far. I can say Madoka Magica left its mark on the magical girl genre, and 5cm/s made a small mark too. It was our first anime, so that's understandable.

"But if we want to leave a mark on anime itself, not just on a genre but on the entire medium, then we need to do this project," he continued. "And if we pull this off, just think how much industry recognition we'll get."

For a moment, they all forgot the problems they'd have to face. Their determination took over. But immediately after, they realized it also meant they wouldn't be seeing their families much for half a year.

As the week of meetings passed for Haruki, Friday finally arrived. As usual, Kazuki picked up his daily dose of Echo Shroud. For the past two weeks, Mizushiro had been giving readers whiplash they could barely handle. It felt like he was keeping his fanbase on life support, with Madoka and Fullmetal keeping them on edge, and JoJo keeping them alive just enough so they didn't go crazy and start sending strongly worded letters.

As he picked up Echo Shroud and started reading Fullmetal, Kazuki remembered the lesson he'd learned from previous chapters. If he wanted to keep a happy face after reading Echo Shroud, he had to read Fullmetal first, then JoJo. If he read Fullmetal last, the emotion would carry over to the rest of his day. Only Mizushiro was capable of nearly killing his fanbase and then bringing them back to full health.

After reading, he found the Fullmetal chapter to be a good conclusion to Ed and Scar's battle. Then, turning the page to JoJo, all the tension from Fullmetal and last week's Madoka episode lifted.

The previous chapter had revived the Pillar Man. In this one, the first page showed Joseph on a high vantage point with binoculars, scoping the base where Speedwagon was being held. At the city gate, officers were inspecting everyone who passed through. When Kazuki turned to the next page, he saw Joseph dressed in women's clothes with makeup on, saying:

"I have brought some fabulous tequila. Will you boys let me in?"

The officers were shocked at the sight of a made-up Joseph in a dress and immediately yelled for him to put his hands in the air.

Seeing this, Kazuki couldn't help but burst out laughing. He couldn't reconcile it. How was this the same person who had drawn the accursed chimera scene he wanted to forget? If he put the two images side by side and asked random people on the street, he was sure 100% wouldn't be able to tell they were drawn by the same mangaka. This might have been the single funniest image he had seen all year. He knew instantly that it was meme-worthy, and on second thought, all of JoJo's chapters are meme-worthy.

As he kept reading, Joseph knocked out the guards using Hamon and stole their uniforms to infiltrate the military base.

Inside, the Pillar Man disappeared from his chamber. Checking the cameras, they saw him morph his body like rubber, slip through the vent, and reappear in the room where everyone was gathered. He started attacking, and Joseph revealed himself to battle the Pillar Man.

At the end, the words "To be continued" appeared. Seeing this, Kazuki felt the urge to make a meme. It had been a while since he'd made one, so he snapped photos of a few JoJo panels along with the "To be continued" page.

Shout out to Anibal Valenzuela Suazo for joining my p-atreon! your support means everything to me.

(TL:- if you want even more content, check out p-a-t-r-e-o-n.com/Alioth23 for 60+ advanced chapters)