Reincarnated Into Anime World

"Anime!"

Anime! My long-lost weeb inside me is rising up once more. It's not as though my interest in anime has died down after reincarnating. But living in this world filled with characters from my previous life's anime makes this all feel like an anime itself.

I love anime, but apart from one studio that produces good anime, everything else that existed here is just shit. Or, if you want to put it nicely, it's not really up to standard compared to my previous life's anime.

Studio Ghibli exists here, and it's still one of the top studios to produces various short films, films, and anime for Japan.

I mean, how do you think Akira was so rich and influential?

Of course, there are other studios, like the one who produced "A Silent Voice", the movie Shouko and I watched during our date. But movies on that level were rare.

Most anime was mediocre in both plot and graphics.

Maybe that's one way to get rich fast, I guess. But it's such a pain in the ȧss to just sit down and write/draw all day long.

[A/N: Me now.]

Anyway, I wasn't the only one who reacted to Akira's words. Some were considerably more...reactive to Akira's words, while some just completely blanked out.

They must not know what anime is.

Tsk...they are not people of culture.

"You see, I've been wanting to create an anime for a long time now, but to no avail. With my older age, my inspirations get lesser and lesser." Akira sighed sadly, "So, I will need all of your help. Come up with the best original anime song you know, and I'll make an anime based on your song."

Mutterings and mumbles could be heard around, though it was significantly more apparent near areas where the top 10 members are, except for me, that is.

Why? Simply because this competition wasn't fair, to begin with. Anime might have spread to other countries, but it still originated from Japan. Copies can never surpass their originals, so how could foreigners compete against the two Japanese in the top ten?

They might produce better music, but if it didn't fit into the theme of "anime", then it would still be judged as "bad" no matter how good it would be if introduced to the world.

Akira raised a hand, and the hall instantly quietened down.

I can't help but be impressed. This was the mark of a true leader and influencer - with just one hand, you could silence everyone.

"Relax. I might say 'anime', but the more appropriate term for foreigners to describe would be a 'movie' like your Marv*l or 'cartoon'. Of course, it would be best if you could create a Japanese song since I'm Japanese, but I wouldn't judge you down because it's from the wrong country. That's racist~."

Hearing Akira's clarification, the top ten sighed in relief. It would be easier for them to compete now, but it didn't change anything for me.

This is my territory. And I refuse to lose in my own turf. Try as Akira might, humans are innately biased, and it's tough to completely eliminate his biasedness.

To begin with, Akira is creating an anime. And even if he promised to use the best music out of all of us, would it really be popular amongst the primary audience, the Japanese, if a foreign type of song appears?

That's why I'm refusing to lose this battle. It's luck for sure, but I say luck is part of one's skills.

"Well, if you have any other questions, you can come forward and ask me or any of the judges present personally. If there is nothing else, all of you may continue dancing." Akira waved and went back down the stage, and the cheers sounded once more before the music restarted.

Cheers for what, though? I don't know. Humans are strange creatures.

"Hm, I worry for you know." Maruno patted my shoulder as he shook his head, "I don't know whether you watch anime or not..."

"You don't have to worry about that. My music will be perfection."

Maruno seemed surprised at my confidence before he started laughing again, "Hahaha, good. Confidence is always nice to have. Just don't get too confident, okay? The other Japanese dude is also pretty good at composing."

The "other Japanese dude" Maruno referred to was the man in the sixth position, Hiroyuki Sawano.

Hiroyuki Sawano is famous for his various anime pieces in this world, but while many of them were pretty good compared to other anime songs, they didn't compare to my previous life's songs.

Still, I'm wary of him. I may not idolize him, but it can't be denied that he's a good composer and pianist.

"Yeah, Hiroyuki Sawano. I know him, not personally, of course." I replied, "He's a famous composer, but I don't plan to lose now that I reached here."

Maruno merely looked at me and shrugged, "Well, good luck then. I'll be cheering you on."

"Thanks."

Now, to gain even further advantage, let's personally chat with Akira. He may be a pervert and annoying old man he may be, but he's still a judge that I need to impress in the end.

After talking to him, I would probably get a headache, but I can look forward to dancing after this ordeal.

∞

The following week will be hectic. Most guests continued staying wherever they were staying, and the competitors and the audience didn't meet much at all.

We were all trying to compose an original song to play for the final competition.

But now that I had a system, I won't be satisfied with just tenth anymore.

Is it greedy? Yes. Greed might be a sin, but greed is also one of the reasons why humans were able to progress so much in so little time. Greed for knowledge, greed to turn imagination into reality, greed to satisfy their dėsɨrės...in fact, the disease that caused the population of boys to drop sharply resulted from greed for girlfriends by a bunch of wackos.

All this greed allowed us to achieve the previously thought impossible things. Look where we are right now.

It might not be the best place, but it certainly is getting better and better.

Anyway!

I'm trying to recreate some of the top hits from my previous worlds. I could only remember some of the more famous ones, but I'm trying to merge them all into one even better song.

[A/N: Just to clarify, MC's eidetic memory only works from this life onwards. The memories of his previous life are slowly starting to haze and fade away unless MC keeps thinking about them and uses his eidetic memory to start remembering all those things again.]

Tokyo Ghoul OP, Jujutsen Kaisen OP, Angel Beats OP, Steins; Gate, Kimi no Na Wa, and more...

Of course, I can't possibly mix and mash all of them into one piece. The songs all had different emotions and feelings flowing through them.

So while others were struggling to compose a piece from scratch, my problems included trying to find the songs from my memories and trying to piece them together in a way so that they would work.

I know my limits, and I don't plan to add more than 3 songs into one piece. Of course, while 1 might be the most optimum and safest choice, a 2-songs mash-up would also sound pretty nice (I hope).

Let's see what I can do, then...

🎵 Sugar, spice, and everything nice

These were the ingredients chosen,

To create the perfect little song.

But Professor Fuutarou accidentally,

Added an extra ingredient to the concoction--

Chemical X

Using its ultra-super powers

Romance? Action? Harem?

What sort of anime should Fuutarou's song create?

But it will definitely be the best, that's for sure. 🎵

Hmm...it seems like The Powerpuff Girls opening isn't suitable to be hummed. It sounds absolutely garbage, especially with my impromptu improvisation of the lyrics.

But then again, creating the lyrics isn't my job~.

The first thing I should probably decide on is the theme. Each theme would portray a different sort of emotion, with some exceptions here and there.

Romance plus comedy plus harem? Some light-hearted tune that would express their daily lives would be the best.

Romance, but on a focusing more on the emotional aspects of relationships? Some heavier and moodier themes would emphasize the fragility of relationships and enhance the drama present.

Action? This was the easiest. Some pop music to be the base, and modify it according to the type of action. For a more light-hearted action anime, some upbeat pop would be nice, whereas, for a more dark-themed action anime, some heavy pop would be better.

These three to four genres are what I planned to narrow my options from. Most popular anime falls into these three to four categories anyway.

Now that I know what to choose from, the next part would be to understand what appealed to the current audience the most. The ball and dance allowed me to know just that as it gave me plenty of opportunities to ask.

Even if I didn't get the opportunity to ask, I would probably be able to guess the general idea anyway. Most of the audience came in either a pair or in groups of three.

They might be fierce businessmen or politicians, but in a place where their influence or position doesn't matter much, their decision to vote is mainly based on their wives' or children's decisions.

Most of the children who came were girls, and most Shoujo or Josei-themed anime mainly focused on a more emotional romance. Of course, there might be some exceptions, but the questions I was able to ask the various guests allowed me to remove those exceptions.

So? While the action genre is not entirely out yet, it also cannot be the main focus. Perhaps I could mix a heavy pop with a heavy emotional song instead?

It's a slight misconception that merging songs were complex. Honestly, it wasn't hard to combine songs together if you knew how to play the pieces separately and both were in the same key. Of course, the more songs you try to integrate together, the harder it will be. But that's not my focus now.

I have some ideas, but nothing beats actually playing the song to test out my music...

∞

And so, time continued to fly past as we all readied our final piece. The first four days were to create the song from scratch, while the next two days were for us to play for some mock audience and take a sneak peek of their reactions to their songs and improve accordingly.

They allowed us to do this for two reasons. One, so that they would know what to expect, and two, to have a song at a qualified level to play for the audience. After all, no one came here to listen to some self-created music that might sound nice to the creator but absolute garbage to the audience.

Wouldn't it be embarrassing?

Maruno wouldn't stop giving me praises, and while I thought my face to be thick, it (apparently) wasn't thick enough to withstand his constant barrage of compliments.

"You'll do fine, Uesugi." Maruno adjusted his tie in front of the mirror as he spoke, "I believe in you and your song. I really hope your song gets chosen; I can't wait to see the anime with your theme song on it."

"Never knew you to be an anime-watcher."

"I usually don't have the time to watch it, so I was never really interested in it. But if it's yours, then I'll always have time to spare."

And it's always these sort of stirring things that he could utter with a straight face that makes me embarrassed...

*****************

A/N: Fuutarou doesn't know that he's the same type of person as Maruno. I know it's slow, that's why I'm trying to write and publish as much as I can during the holidays. Thus, as promised, here is another chapter. It's not daily updates, but it's something.

If you want to support me or/and want chapters in advance, link:

patréon..com/spirits_everywhere. We are currently 8 chapters ahead~