Animation Producer in a Fantasy World

To conclude, all my plans completely failed.

More precisely, it would be fair to say that everything went wrong from the moment Serika burst in here.

Why, you ask?

Because Serika’s face itself has enormous plausibility.

At least for men with normal tastes, everything Serika says would sound like the truth, and everything she does would appear as a noble act for this world.

The moment such a Serika pleaded that all controversies related to “Machine God Chronicles” were on her and not to blame me, the game was already over.

‘In addition, the fact that Serika introduced herself as Saya’s voice actress was quite significant.’

Even without that, Saya was already a character boasting popularity within the top three in “Machine God Chronicles”.

But when it was revealed that Serika was voicing Saya, the result was that all the favorability related to Saya was added to her as well.

In the end, this is the result.

“Come to think of it, Saya’s voice is quite similar to Elli’s voice from ‘The Disappearance of Elli and Hamel’, what’s the relationship between the two? Did you perhaps voice Elli as well, Ms. Serika?”

“Ms. Serika! Could you perhaps say Saya’s famous line from episode 5 here just once? You know, the line ‘When I quietly look at you, it feels like my heart is becoming fluffy.'”

“Ms. Serika, in your opinion, Saya really likes Kai a lot, right? So isn’t Saya the destined heroine of ‘Machine God Chronicles’? Right?”

‘Shit… this isn’t what I had in mind.’

I had planned to hold a WWE disguised as a debate with people criticizing “Machine God Chronicles”, draw all kinds of attention, and end up receiving tremendous criticism.

But now this place was nothing more than a fan meeting between anime fans and a famous voice actress.

Just as I was staring blankly at the sky with eyes full of despair.

“W-Wait a moment, everyone! I understand you’re excited, but please calm down a little now!”

Hikardo, who was in charge of leading this gathering, steps forward and starts controlling people’s actions.

“I know you’re all very excited right now, but this doesn’t seem right. Have you forgotten the purpose of why we gathered here today in the first place?”

“…The purpose of why we gathered here? What was that again?”

“Well… wasn’t it to worship Ms. Serika?”

“Damn… it’s Ms. Serika again. I’ve witnessed Ms. Serika. Now I must worship. Because that’s my mission…”

“…We gathered here today to discuss the content related to episode 17 of ‘Machine God Chronicles’. We even invited a special guest for that purpose, so it seems we can’t delay the schedule any further.”

At Hikardo’s words, the people who were worshipping Serika blink their eyes.

“…Special guest?”

“Who on earth is that?”

“Let me introduce. Professor Hermione, who was formerly in charge of conducting at the Imperial Orchestra, and is currently serving as the dean of the Arts Department at the Imperial Academy!”

As Hikardo says this and raises up a middle-aged man who had been sitting quietly in a corner of the discussion panel until now, everyone gathered here makes expressions of shock.

“Wh-What?”

“Someone like Professor Hermione came to a place like this in person? Really?”

Meanwhile, I was equally surprised.

Because if it’s Professor Hermione, I knew him well too.

‘Isn’t that the person who always criticized ‘Machine God Chronicles’ for lacking depth in the morning newspapers?’

When other newspapers were busy constantly praising “Machine God Chronicles”, he was like a dark knight, lonely and busy pointing out and criticizing the flaws in the story and setting errors of “Machine God Chronicles”.

For me, who was trying to lead the development of “Machine God Chronicles” into a mess by any means, he was an incredibly reliable ally, should I say.

As I was looking at that person called Hermione with expectant eyes.

Professor Hermione, standing next to the mustached man, cleared his throat for a moment and then looked around the audience before opening his mouth.

“Hello, everyone. I am Hermione, foolishly serving as a professor in the Arts Department at the Imperial Academy. You probably recognize me as the person who always posts articles criticizing ‘Machine God Chronicles’ in the ‘Gridiel Times’.”

Saying this, Professor Hermione shows a somewhat self-deprecating smile on his face.

I don’t know why, but it was a smile that seemed to mock his foolish past self.

“In the past, I thought the animation ‘Machine God Chronicles’ was nothing more than a cheap popular drama. I criticized it as a third-rate art genre that rushes developments for immediate interest without thinking about the consequences, or ignores settings for the sake of momentary impact.”

I couldn’t help but nod as I listened to Professor Hermione’s words.

Indeed, not a single word he said was wrong.

As expected of a well-educated person, every word coming out of his mouth was dripping with wisdom, should I say.

But then.

“However, last night, after watching episode 17 of ‘Machine God Chronicles’, I realized that my thoughts were wrong. This was a story where everything was thoroughly calculated from the beginning. And foolish people like me who only knew one thing and not two were just tricked by it.”

…So, what exactly happened?

Thoroughly calculated story? Where exactly?

I felt my words choke up at such an absurd statement.

“First, in this episode 17, some people are criticizing the scene where the Machine God suddenly goes berserk and kills Luke as a rushed development.”

It’s very natural for people to criticize.

Because I intentionally made a rushed development to get cursed at by people.

“But this wasn’t a rushed development. There were foreshadowings for all of these developments in advance.”

“…?”

Foreshadowing? What kind of foreshadowing?

What kind of foreshadowing is in the anime that even I, the producer, don’t know about?

“If you look at episode 1, the Machine God went berserk while Kai was unconscious. But the point to note here is not that the Machine God went berserk, but the fact that the berserk mode stopped automatically after defeating the Outer God.”

…What’s so strange about that?

“The fact that it automatically stopped the berserk mode after defeating the Outer God means that stopping the berserk mode was also Unit 0’s intention. In other words, it means that Unit 0 judged that there was no threat to Kai’s life around. But if we reverse this statement-”

“…If Unit 0 sees something that threatens Kai’s life nearby, it will unconditionally attack it?”

“Exactly. Unit 0 designated Unit 7, which was infected by the Outer God, as its enemy, and therefore completely killed Unit 7 despite Kai’s restraint. And as I already mentioned, the foreshadowing related to this existed from episode 1.”

“…..”

…No, that scene was just inserting one of the clichés of mecha anime.

In the cliché of mecha anime, it’s common sense that the berserk mode automatically stops after defeating the enemy!

But why are you giving meaning to such a cliché?

Why?

“Decisively, in the last part of episode 1 and the flashback scene in episode 10. Didn’t the Commander-in-Chief say ‘Everything is according to my plan.’ while watching the Machine God go berserk?”

“Come to think of it, there was such a scene.”

“And at the end of episode 17, the Commander-in-Chief is smiling while looking at Luke’s corpse. Is this really a coincidence? Really?”

Professor Hermione clenched his fists like Conan who had uncovered all the tricks of the culprit and said.

“In other words, Kai’s Machine God going berserk and Luke’s Unit 7 being destroyed. They were all part of the scenario set up by the Commander-in-Chief!”

“C-Commander-in-Chief’s scenario!”

“I thought it was suspicious that he was wearing sunglasses even inside the building, so that’s why he was the final villain!”

Everyone here exclaims at Professor Hermione’s words.

That is, everyone except me.

‘No shit, why is that foreshadowing.’

Originally in mecha anime, it’s a cliché for the organization’s commander-in-chief to plot something strange behind the scenes, so I just inserted such scenes!

I just threw in clichés of mecha anime into the animation to maximize dopamine injection.

For some reason, people think those clichés are foreshadowing and keep trying to connect the dots.

In the end, was all of this the karma I’ve accumulated so far?

“When I looked at each of those scenes separately, I didn’t know they were foreshadowing and cursed at the flaws in the plot development of ‘Machine God Chronicles’… Now I’m ashamed of my past self. I was truly foolish and pathetic.”

Professor Hermione heaves a deep sigh.

“If the director of ‘Machine God Chronicles’ had been an ordinary person, he would have been irritated by such nonsensical criticism I posted in the newspaper and immediately explained.”

“…But because he wasn’t an ordinary person, he just silently endured the nonsensical criticism I poured out. None other than for this masterpiece scene in episode 17!”

Saying this, Professor Hermione looked at me with eyes full of admiration.

“Ah…! So that’s how it was!”

“So for the viewers’ enjoyment, the director sacrificed himself, is that what you’re saying?”

“Sob…! What have the viewers done for him, why such a sacrifice…!”

Muttering like this, people fall to their knees on the floor as if their legs have lost strength.

To be honest, it was a really shitty scene to watch in real-time.

“So I would like to take this opportunity to cancel all the words I’ve said so far. And I declare. The Professor Hermione who criticized ‘Machine God Chronicles’ until yesterday is dead, and now I have been reborn as a fan who absolutely praises ‘Machine God Chronicles’!”

“Waaaah!”

“Resurrection! Rebirth! Blessing! Judgment!”

“The resurrected young lamb Professor Hermione! Bestow upon him the position of honorary president of our gathering, bestow it!”

“So Professor Hermione, who is your personally supported heroine? If you answer that you like Eileen or Chloe? Then we’re enemies, right? Right?”

“…..”

Meanwhile, I silently watched this scene of madness and then quietly slipped away.

With this, all hope has disappeared.