At the Type-Moon company, Shirou stretched his arms and let out a big yawn.
"Ah... finally done." He rubbed his slightly sore neck and glanced at the clock.
"Two-thirty, huh. Time to get some sleep."
If Shinji hadn't rewatched the Ryuudou Temple scenes twice, they could have finished earlier.
[He refuses to rewatch scenes where he embarrasses himself, but horror scenes? He rewatched those twice, wasting time. Shinji really is something else…]
Shirou shook his head as he stood up, leaning on his knees. He was ready to head to the small room in the break area to sleep when he noticed that Shinji was putting on his jacket.
"Shinji, you're heading back now?!" Shirou asked, surprised.
Shirou had thought that Shinji dragged out the HF review so late because he intended to sleep at the company. But here he was, getting ready to leave?!
"Of course, I'm going home!" Shinji replied. "If I don't go home at night, Sakura will be furious. And then, old and new grudges will pile up—trust me, that would be the real nightmare."
As he spoke, Shinji raised his hand to his forehead, mimicking the horns of a Japanese oni to emphasize his point.
Shirou's face darkened. "You realize that by the time you get home, it'll be nearly 4 AM. How is that any different from staying out all night?"
Shinji retorted, "Of course it's different! As long as I get home before Sakura wakes up, it doesn't count as staying out all night! It's just coming home late from watching a movie. But if she wakes up and I'm still not home, then it's considered staying out all night!"
It's like how a procrastinating author only needs to update before 6 AM the next day for it to count as meeting their daily goal.
As long as Sakura doesn't get the impression that Shinji returned the next day, she has no reason to get angry. Shinji could even use the excuse of being too tired from coming home late to sleep in and avoid contact with her for the entire day.
Since the whole "diet prank" incident, Sakura had been plotting revenge, and Shinji had no intention of giving her an excuse to punish him.
However, Shinji forgot one important thing: when someone really wants to pick a fight, it no longer matters whether or not you did something wrong. Your mere existence is enough of an offense.
Moreover, the three friends left at home for their movie marathon didn't go to bed as early as Shinji thought. In fact, due to their repeated rewatches of Shinji's embarrassing moments, they ended up staying up even later than him.
So, when Shinji sneaked back home, hoping to slip quietly into bed, he ran straight into Sakura, still in her pajamas, at the staircase.
The next day, Shinji was sentenced to listen to the line, "Doesn't this make me look like a total loser?!" a thousand times in a row for the "crime" of stepping through the front door with his left foot first.
"I was so stupid... I should've asked Arturia to check if Sakura was asleep first."
Almost driven to the brink of collapse, Shinji let out this lament.
◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆
As the latest work in the Fate series, HF quickly became a hot topic upon release.
"Have you seen the Ryuudou Temple murder case?"
This was the most popular greeting on film discussion forums at the time.
Suddenly, everyone who frequented the internet noticed that everyone around them seemed to have watched HF and made it their go-to topic of conversation.
However, most of those who had seen HF wouldn't admit that they got scared themselves, but rather, they made others go through the same experience out of a "no way I'm suffering alone" mentality, pushing clueless newcomers into the horror later on.
Soon, it became clear that, in terms of pure horror, HF wasn't even that scary.
Horror film buffs noted that while the Ryuudou Temple Hassan murder scene was well-shot, it wasn't any scarier than other horror movies.
The reason HF gained such notoriety was that Fate fans—many of whom had little experience with horror—went to watch HF simply because of its title.
In reality, if you look at the entirety of HF's first episode, the horror elements account for less than a third of the content. But since this part happens in the latter half, it gets mentioned frequently.
Setting aside the horror aspects, when looking at HF's first episode as a whole, viewers found it quite eclectic, touching on a variety of genres.
It featured heart-pounding youthful romance, saccharine moments between couples, laugh-out-loud clownish antics, exhilarating action scenes, and moments of genuine horror.
Shinji's excellent storytelling skills kept HF cohesive, despite its diverse range of elements.
The only real downside was that, after getting used to the fast-paced storytelling of FSN and FZ, the slower buildup in the early parts of HF felt a bit jarring.
But regardless, HF, as an OVA series, boasted a production scale and level of polish far beyond what other OVAs could achieve.
Just look at Ultraseven, produced by Tsuburaya Productions. It was released only two years before Ultraman Tiga, but the two feel like works from completely different eras.
I'm not talking about the quality of the script, but the difference in special effects, fight choreography, and set design.
A similar contrast can be seen with another Tsuburaya OVA, Ultraman Neos, whose production value pales in comparison to Ultraman Gaia. You can easily tell the budget difference with the naked eye.
And HF?
If someone were to splice together the fight scenes between Lancer and Archer, or Saber and Berserker, from two different works, you'd hardly notice any difference at all.
Aside from the fans who had already seen it, you could hardly tell which scenes were from UBW and which ones were from HF. The production quality was so excellent that, combined with the Fate franchise's immense popularity, all 200,000 initial DVD copies of HF sold out within just two days. Stores everywhere announced they were out of stock.
This scarcity created a sort of hunger marketing, which only increased HF's reputation and further drove demand for the DVDs. As a result, Bandai, the distributor, had to work overnight to increase DVD production. Even VHS tapes, which were almost obsolete by that point, saw a sales spike as some fans turned to them as backups due to the DVD shortage.
If things continue as expected, the first volume of HF might even become this year's best-selling VHS in Japan... probably. Who knows if the later volumes of HF might pull off some kind of miracle? After all, this is Fate, and creating miracles is practically a tradition.
Facing such brilliant success, Bandai was ecstatic. Though the company had already been doing exceptionally well over the past two years—with their film division even surpassing industry giant Toho in terms of profitability—most of that success came from the Fate franchise, a legendary IP, and its equally legendary director, Shinji Matou.
So when Shinji announced he was taking a break from films this year to focus on television, Bandai's film division feared their performance would drop sharply. But Shinji Matou proved to audiences that even with a TV series, he could still make Bandai huge profits.
Even the toy division capitalized on the Fate craze and made a fortune off the hype.
If Bandai had any regrets, it would be that the five-year merchandise deal they had with Shinji Matou was already halfway over. Given the current level of Fate's popularity, the franchise could easily stay hot for another five years, and if Shinji could maintain the quality of his work, it might even last another ten.
That's what pained Bandai the most—they hadn't made enough money, but the deal was nearing its end.
"We have to renew our contract with Shinji Matou as soon as possible. Even if we can't guarantee exclusive rights to all Fate merchandise, we must at least secure exclusive rights to the toy models!"
That was the directive handed down to Bandai's executive, Udagawa Nao.
Even though there were still two years left before the agreement expired, negotiations involving hundreds of billions of yen in profits would take months. It was essential to prepare early.
However, Udagawa herself wasn't entirely confident about sealing a new deal with Type-Moon. Sure, she had gotten pretty close to Shinji's uncle, Kariya Matou, but in Japan's professional world, personal relationships didn't usually help much in negotiations. Especially not with someone like Shinji Matou, whom Udagawa still vividly remembered from their first negotiation, where he had been unrelentingly sharp and meticulous.
When Udagawa Nao arrived at Type-Moon's office in Fuyuki City with a determined "do or die" attitude, she was surprised to find that Shinji and several familiar faces were preparing to head out.
"Is everyone here for a team-building event or maybe a year-end party? It's a bit early for that, don't you think?" Udagawa asked.
Shinji, rubbing his stomach with a helpless expression, replied, "We're heading to the cinema to check out the finished segments of a new film."
"Are you sick?"
"No, it's just that Sakura put bugs in my lunch earlier... Anyway, Ms. Udagawa, would you like to join us to check it out?"
"Wait, did I just hear something alarming? And why are you changing the subject...?"
Udagawa wanted to dig deeper, but Shinji didn't give her a chance. "Come on, what do you say? This is the first time we're using the new technology. It's a revolutionary technology that can change the film industry, crossing into a new era."
Although Shinji had already tested the glasses-free 3D technology on standard screens, today would be the first time it would be used on an IMAX screen. IMAX screens are incredibly expensive—just touching them can cost tens of thousands of dollars in repairs.
So this was the first time a glasses-free 3D film segment would be shown on an IMAX screen.
"New technology, huh?"
Udagawa wasn't particularly impressed by Shinji's talk of new technology. In her view, no matter how advanced the technology became, it only made the special effects look more realistic. From the audience's perspective, new tech might seem magical, but for industry professionals, it didn't fundamentally change the craft.
Still, she decided to follow Shinji to see what this mysterious director had up his sleeve.
<+>
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