The White Box

One day in late June, a single Blu-ray disk landed on Kenjiro Toki’s desk at GF Bunko. The white label had ALL ABOUT MY LITTLE SISTER—EPISODE 1 printed on it.

This was the disc containing the complete episode, as passed out to people involved in the project—the white box, to use industry parlance.

Midafternoon the next day, the gang decided to hold an episode-one screening-slash-wrap party at Itsuki’s apartment. Toki had already seen the copy sent to editorial, but Itsuki had yet to stick his DVD in a player. Watching it by himself would give him butterflies, to be sure, but he also wanted to watch it alongside all the people who supported him this whole way.

So into his apartment came Kenjiro Toki, Nayuta Kani, Haruto Fuwa, Miyako Shirakawa, Kaiko Mikuniyama, Ashley Ono, and Chihiro Hashima. The latter hadn’t paid a visit in a month in a half—“I know you’re busy with your studies,” Itsuki had said to him, “but I really, really want you here today.” He had also invited Aoba Kasamatsu, but she couldn’t attend due to some work at home. Hoshiimo, original illustrator for All About, lived too far away to come over, and while Itsuki texted Setsuna about the meetup, he didn’t get a reply—ignoring his notifications again, probably.

Chihiro had taken the opportunity to outdo himself in the kitchen, filling the table with all sorts of lovely dishes as Itsuki poured beer (juice for the underage Nayuta and Chihiro) into everyone’s glasses. The brand was Kansha no Nama Gold, literally gratitude draft gold—produced by Sankt Gallen, one of the oldest names in Japan’s craft scene. As the name suggested, it was meant as a gift for expressing your thanks to other people, and as a beer, it didn’t try any fancy stunts. It was a straight-down-the-middle golden ale—not very flashy but still worth drinking.

Once everyone had their pours, Itsuki put down the bottle and addressed the crowd.

“Well, we had a lot of trouble along the way, but we’ve finally managed to put episode one in the books! My novels never would have made it this far without everyone here, so thank you all very, very much!”

“Wow, Itsuki.” Miyako laughed. “Actually being sincere for a change?”

“Yeah, really,” Toki added. “I wish you were like this all the time.”

“Sh-shut up!” The red-faced Itsuki took a moment to clear his throat. “Anyway! Thanks for everything, guys, and I hope I can keep relying on you! Cheers!”

Everyone clinked their glasses as they all kicked off the party.

Once lunch was over, and everyone was feeling a little inebriated, it was time to put the white box in the player. Ever so timidly, Itsuki removed the disc from the plastic case and slowly, carefully, inserted it into his Blu-ray player. Turning the TV on, he pressed the “Play” button on his remote.

In another few moments, the All About My Little Sister anime began to play with the time code numbers ticking off the frames on the top of the screen.

“Here we go…” Itsuki looked intensely nervous as he focused on the screen with everyone.

The first thing they saw was an external view of Kazuma and Ichika’s school. The camera inched toward the building, revealing a shot of a classroom interior. There was Ichika, breezily solving a complex problem on the board and basking in the cheers of her classmates. And there, in the classroom one floor above, was Kazuma getting yelled at for dozing off—the classic brother-sister juxtaposition.

Itsuki had already looked at and approved the anime character designs, but it was the first time he got to see the Akatsuki siblings moving around. They weren’t an exact match for Hoshiimo’s novel illustrations, but all of Kazuma’s and Ichika’s core traits survived the transition to the anime design—and here they were now, moving and talking and everything.

It was a typical slice-of-life scene, but something about it made Itsuki’s heart soar. And Haruto, noticing his laser focus on the screen in front of him, couldn’t help but sigh a little.

The episode concluded, the ending sequence and the next-episode preview played, and after a few more seconds of black, the disk stopped. But Itsuki kept looking at the screen as everyone’s eyes naturally drifted toward him.

After a few more moments, he finally blurted out:

“…Yeah.”

He gave himself a short nod, then turned to the others.

“I think that was pretty good,” he said—hesitantly, shyly, but with a smile in his eyes.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

The quality level on episode one of All About My Little Sister wasn’t “incredible”—nobody would say that. One could name several series that had better visuals overall, as well as stronger action scenes and more compelling sex scenes. But it was still something Itsuki, the creator, could look at and say, “Yes, this is absolutely All About My Little Sister.” Ichika and Yukiko were cute, and Kazuma and Shingo acted all studly and cool. The action scenes didn’t exactly go overboard on the frame count, but they were carefully designed to avoid simplicity—and with the more “adult” scenes, Ichika was depicted nude in a way that you’d think you could see it all but just barely couldn’t.

There were some disappointing elements. The line about “how big your penis has gotten” was changed to “how big you are under the belt,” and scenes with a lot of characters definitely suffered in the visual department. But Itsuki could still confidently declare that this—yes, this—was truly the All About My Little Sister anime. Considering how this was a last-minute replacement for a failed anime project, the people involved kept clashing with one another, the production schedule was ridiculously tight, and there was absolutely a chance it’d turn into Chevalier of the Absolute World all over again, it was safe to say this was the best-case scenario.

Itsuki, alongside Tarui, Hirugano, and the rest of the anime staff, had struggled mightily to make this happen…and now, here it was.

…So this is what getting an anime is like.

This sense of achievement.

This sense of euphoria.

This excitement, as if his future was suddenly wide open.

This overwhelming sense of omnipotence, as if he could go all the way to the end of the universe.

Itsuki had similar feelings at the end of each novel he wrote, but he had never felt anything this intense since, probably, his new-writer prize.

Toki telling him about the anime adaptation. The manga version. Meeting Kaiko Mikuniyama. Meeting the staff for the first time. The script meetings. The cast audition. The drama CD recording. The anime announcement getting leaked. All the sudden emergencies. Screenwriting the final episode. The anime voice recordings…

All these anime-related experiences flashed before his eyes, and now he could feel them like they were his own flesh and blood. When characters level up after earning enough experience in an RPG, this is what it must feel like, he thought. All that accumulated experience, suddenly bursting forth and blooming.

Itsuki Hashima gained a level!

“Let’s get the All About anime moving as fast as we can. No matter how it turns out, it’s gonna be an experience I’d never have otherwise, I think. I wanna see what Haruto saw. What a certain someone else saw. I gotta see it.”

Now he knew, on that day he gave the okay for the anime project, he hadn’t made the wrong decision.

I’m gonna keep going. I’m gonna go higher and higher. And someday, I’ll be standing in the same realm as Nayuta Kani…

“Yeahhhh… That was good!”

Flush with emotion, Itsuki whispered it to himself once more—a single warm tear running down from each eye.