The second work Ren received was great and helped heal the emotional wound left by Attack on Titan. But when he saw the third project, his spirits soared.
This third work was one Ren was very familiar with. In his previous life, it had started as a game and was later adapted into an anime with spinoff manga.
This work was Steins;Gate! Everything is the choice of Steins;Gate!
The story takes place a year after the Shibuya earthquake. News about an artificial satellite crashing onto the roof of Akihabara's Radio Kaikan building causes a stir.
In Akihabara, a three-person team called the Future Gadget Lab is led by Rintarou Okabe, a university student who still indulges in his chūnibyō (middle school delusions). Along with his friends, he spends his days developing strange inventions.
Okabe goes to a lecture with his friend Hashida Itaru to earn some credits. There, they meet 18-year-old genius Kurisu Makise, who had already published papers in a prestigious American science journal.
The strange thing is that Okabe had just witnessed Kurisu lying in a pool of blood at the Radio Kaikan building only a few hours earlier.
To make matters more confusing, everything he experienced was predicted in a text message he had sent to Hashida a week earlier.
Eventually, Okabe discovers that one of the devices they invented by accident has the ability to send text messages into the past—effectively allowing them to manipulate time.
Time travel is a well-worn trope.
In many online novels, readers often encounter stories where the protagonist travels back in time from the future. This "rebirth" genre usually involves the protagonist correcting past mistakes and changing their fate, like preventing a loved one from dying or escaping poverty.
The appeal of rebirth stories lies in the fantasy of fixing regrets, which is why the genre is so popular.
But would altering the past really be that simple?
Most rebirth novels conveniently ignore the negative consequences of time travel for the sake of wish fulfillment. But in reality, meddling with time can trigger something much more dangerous—the butterfly effect.
The butterfly effect, also known as the topological chain reaction, refers to how small changes in a dynamic system's initial conditions can lead to massive consequences over time.
This theory is highly applicable to stories involving time travel.
Unlike rebirth novels that sidestep the butterfly effect, Steins;Gate fully embraces its consequences.
Many people who watch Steins;Gate often feel confused, thinking, "What's going on?" Some even give up on it because they don't understand the plot.
In his previous life, Ren hadn't played the Steins;Gate game. He first encountered the story through the anime but stopped watching early on because it didn't seem to make sense.
It wasn't until much later, when Ren had no other anime to watch and kept hearing praise for Steins;Gate, that he decided to give it another shot. And then he understood—it was indeed a masterpiece.
This was a series you couldn't watch in bits and pieces or skip around. You had to watch it straight through from start to finish to fully appreciate it.
That's because the confusing early episodes lay the groundwork for the butterfly effect. Every time they send a text message, something changes—even if they don't realize it. In ways they can't see, something, somewhere, is being altered. They may have already made irreversible mistakes.
"Whew... but this series is bound to get criticized in the early stages, especially by those haters who love to attack me," Ren muttered to himself.
After all, this story starts slow and gradually builds into a big, intense narrative later on.
Even the TV adaptation, which had cut many scenes from the game, still faced criticism for its slow pacing.
But there was little Ren could do about it.
If things got too rough, he could always just tell fans upfront that the story was a slow burn and that it gets more exciting later on.
Of course, he would need to make some changes to fit the world's setting—character names, habits, and the like, as he usually did with all his adaptations.
However, Ren didn't intend to change the core of the story, especially not the final plot twists. He believed that the mind-blowing twists were what made Steins;Gate a masterpiece. Altering that would ruin it.
What Ren planned to do was flesh out the characters more, adding content from the game that had been cut from the TV version. This would make the characters and plot feel more complete.
Once he had the idea, Ren immediately set to work.
He worked tirelessly all day, only stopping late at night before bed.
...
While Ren was working on preparing his new projects, the promotion for Ultraman Dyna had also kicked off.
Even though the series hadn't aired yet, Picca Comics launched an aggressive marketing campaign for it.
Billboards in subway stations, ads on large screens in city squares, posters on trains, and roadside advertisements—all prominently featured Ultraman Dyna.
Picca Comics had deep pockets, and they weren't holding back!
Online, Ultraman Dyna shot to the top of the trending topics.
Social media platforms buzzed with discussions about the upcoming show.
"Finally! It's about to air!!"
"Ahhh! I've been waiting so long for this! My kid was born during the wait!"
"So, is this Dyna part of the ancient giant race too? If that's the case, wouldn't he be weaker than Tiga? After all, Tiga was supposed to be the strongest warrior of the ancient times, right?"
"Maybe Dyna is Tiga's son. Look at the similar colors, and the promo materials show Dyna with three different forms, just like Tiga. Plus, the design resembles Tiga. My guess is that Yuzare stole Tiga away from Camilla, and the two of them had a child."
"That's what I think too!"
"Whether he's Tiga's son or not, I'm just super excited! When The Final Odyssey ended, I figured there had to be another Ultraman series continuing Tiga's world, but then Ultraman Nexus came out instead."
"What do you mean 'unfortunately'? What, you don't think Jun is manly enough, or Noah isn't cool enough?"
Everywhere you looked online, people were talking about Ultraman Dyna—even more than they had when Ultraman Nexus was airing.
Well, that's to be expected. After all, Ultraman Tiga was the first Ultraman in this era.
And with Ultraman Dyna continuing the world built by Tiga, it was only natural for Ultraman fans to have high expectations.
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