"It's not cohabitation, it's just sharing an apartment! Just sharing an apartment!"
After Tsubame's firm protests, everyone finally stopped calling it cohabitation and accepted it as simply "sharing an apartment."
Nibbling on fries, Tsubame huffed angrily, "Seriously, why does everyone always like to team up with Hazuki to tease me? Wait, Momo, why am I the only one speaking up? Say something to them!"
She glanced at her best friend, Momoji Mochizuki, only to find that Momoji, who blushed briefly at the start, had been completely focused on devouring her food since then.
A Big Mac, a Double Cheeseburger, four pieces of chicken wings, a box of chicken nuggets, and a large cola—all of it had already made its way into this cute girl's stomach.
Momoji patted her belly and then looked at the box of chicken nuggets in front of Tsubame. "Tsubame, are you gonna finish those?"
"You're still hungry?!"
"I'm almost 90% full. I haven't had McDonald's in a while, so I want to eat a bit more."
Even though they were best friends, Tsubame still clung protectively to her nuggets. "No way! I barely got to eat any of them myself!"
In the end, Hazuki shared some of her own food, sparing Tsubame's nuggets from Momoji's greedy gaze.
While chewing on a burger, Ichin whispered to Umiko, "Umiko, how does she eat so much and not gain weight? I mean, she doesn't even exercise much."
Umiko calmly munched on her chicken wing, glanced at Momoji's still-flat stomach, and replied thoughtfully, "Gifted metabolism, maybe?"
"How about adding a food vlog featuring Momo to our daily vlog content?" Ichin suggested with a grin.
"Ichin, we're a game development studio," Umiko reminded him.
"True… what a shame. Food vlog videos get tons of views, especially when it's a cute girl eating. And Momo's appetite is the real deal, not just some fake-eating act."
Considering his idea for a moment, Umiko nodded with agreement. "Yeah, that is a shame, indeed."
By 7:30 PM, Utaha finally returned, accompanied by Sonoka Machida.
Seeing that besides Ichin and Kō Yagami, Umiko, Aoba, and Rin Toyama were all still working, Utaha asked curiously, "You guys still haven't gone home?"
Aoba smiled and replied, "We have a medical checkup on Wednesday, right? So I want to get more work done this week. That way, I won't slow everyone down if I fall behind."
Umiko, busy at her desk, added, "I found two bugs in the Hollow Knight demo. I need to fix them now. Not sure if they'll appear in the official release later on."
Ichin poured a cup of tea for Sonoka and invited her to sit down. Then, he gently pulled Utaha to sit beside him. "How did the business meeting go today?"
Sonoka patted her chest with a smile. "You still don't trust me, huh? With me around, there's no way Utaha would get a bad deal! Both of us will be involved in the animation project to make sure the script doesn't deviate from the original story. And right now, both Fujikawa and Kyoto Animation's official accounts have already made the announcement public!"
Hearing that, Ichin took out his phone, and sure enough, he found the announcement on Twitter.
"That's pretty fast. Did they mention when the anime will air?"
"April next year. The workload for the initial phase is huge." Sonoka counted on her fingers as she spoke, "The anime will be a single season of 12 episodes. Utaha's novel will have a total of seven volumes. The content is solid and doesn't need any unnecessary original scenes to fill gaps. As long as they faithfully adapt the novel's story, the anime will be rich and engaging. The last two volumes of the novel will likely be released around the same time as the anime's airing."
Considering how many light novels usually have tons of volumes, The Metronome in Love is actually quite suitable for adaptation. It doesn't have the ridiculous length of some series, nor does it feel like it's just trying to pad word count. The story is written with a consistently tight pace.
If it's adapted into an anime, there's no need to make pointless changes to the plot. As long as the original content is respected and presented in animation form, it'll be perfect.
When the topic of the anime adaptation came up, everyone else also paused their work and gathered around.
"An anime adaptation? And it's being done by Kyoto Animation?" Aoba's eyes sparkled with excitement. "I love the anime they make, especially Free!"
Aoba's enthusiasm received unanimous agreement from Kō Yagami, Rin Toyama, and Umiko.
"Yeah, Free! is really amazing."
"Even though Kyoto's other works are also great, Free! is still my favorite!"
"Ahh, now that you mention it, I feel like rewatching it. I remember it's available on Bilibili. We can watch it later instead of digging out the Blu-ray collection."
Wow, who would've thought? They all love Free!? Ichin definitely didn't see that coming.
Looking at the group, Ichin turned his attention toward Utaha and Sonoka Machida.
Utaha calmly replied, "Compared to Free!, I prefer Clannad and Hyouka."
Meanwhile, Sonoka seemed a bit shy as she raised her hand.
"Uh... I actually like Free! a lot too. I even bought all the Blu-rays."
Ichin didn't even feel like commenting on that.
Scratching his head, Ichin decided not to dwell on the Free! discussion and directly asked, "Will the anime adaptation take up a lot of Utaha's time?"
"Don't worry, not much at all."
Sonoka raised two fingers as she explained, "There are only two parts Utaha needs to be involved in. First, finalizing character designs. Second, approving the script. Once the animation team creates the anime-style character designs, they'll send them over for Utaha to decide whether to approve or suggest changes. The same goes for the script. We made sure Utaha has enough creative control to ensure the plot stays true to the original novel. Other than that, there's nothing else she needs to handle. She won't have to run around; just showing up at the publisher on time is enough."
That setup was indeed ideal. It would save Utaha a lot of effort since she only needed to do the final approval and give some input. Adapting a screenplay wasn't really her area of expertise, so simply reviewing the work was perfect.
With a gentle smile, Utaha held onto Ichin's arm and said, "This workload is pretty easy for me. And when the time comes, you'll help me out, right, Ichin?"
"Yeah, once the script is ready, I'll go over it with you."
At this moment, Aoba raised her hand excitedly, "Utaha, if you get to meet the Kyoto Animation people again, could you ask them when Free! Season 4 is coming out?"
"Sure! I'll ask them for you when I get the chance."
Watching everyone chat so enthusiastically, Ichin's face softened into a gentle smile.
In this world, Kyoto Animation had never experienced that devastating fire. They were still continuously creating amazing works. That was truly a good thing.
...
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