In the real world, at 8:00 PM, on Station 13's new anime recommendation page, as the largest anime website in the real world, Station 13 releases many new anime series every quarter.
Although the anime in the real world is vastly different from Tendo's previous life, lacking the three phenomenal "Death, Fire, Sea" (referring to Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece), this world has also produced many excellent anime, gathering a large number of anime fans.
On this day of Station 13's new anime release, these people habitually clicked on the new anime page, preparing to see what interesting new series Station 13 had introduced this quarter.
The moment they opened the website, their eyes were drawn to "Prequel of the Stars: Embers," which occupied a significant portion of the site's front page. Occupying such an important section on Station 13's homepage naturally attracted the attention of many Station 13 fans, who curiously clicked on this never-before-heard-of anime.
The anime began with a storyline belonging solely to the protagonist, Chen Kong. On screen, Chen Kong was curled up in his cramped dormitory, silently counting his remaining Star Coins. When he finally made it to the cafeteria and, after much waiting, managed to buy the cheapest nutritional meal, a blond-haired student snatched it away. Yet, facing this bullying, Chen Kong not only didn't fight back but even lowered his head and apologized.
"S-sorry..."
Seeing this scene, the bullet comments exploded.
'Huh? What kind of protagonist is this?!'
'Seriously, what era is this? Still doing this waste-stream protagonist opening. Verdict: another garbage anime from another dimension.'
'The synopsis says it's a classic heroic shonen, but why is this beginning so frustrating?! I don't feel like immersing myself in this kind of protagonist at all.'
'Boring, I'm out.'
'Such good production wasted, only to serve up such a pile of crap. It's 2025, who watches these waste protagonists now?!'
'Aside from good production, this new anime seems terrible in terms of plot and character design. How can such a protagonist attract viewers?'
'Does the production team misunderstand "growth-type protagonists"?'
The dense bullet comments were full of complaints about Chen Kong's timidity and weakness. In reality, it's not uncommon for a protagonist to be bullied in the first episode of many real-world anime.
But the unfortunate thing was that this first episode contained a large amount of Chen Kong's internal monologue, and his monologues basically showed him calmly accepting disdain and bullying from others.
This was undoubtedly very annoying. After all, most people who watch anime are young. And what's the biggest characteristic of young people? It's their fiery spirit! As the protagonist of a hot-blooded anime, everyone can accept you being weak, but they absolutely cannot accept you admitting your weakness in your heart.
However, where there's opposition, there's support.
'Those who don't want to watch can just close it themselves, don't affect others.'
'Exactly, it's just the first episode, what can you tell from that? Maybe the protagonist will become strong later and then have a blast?'
'CPDD! (Come Play, Let's Do Dating, a common internet slang meaning 'let's go find a partner to game with' or 'let's team up' in online games, here used loosely to mean 'let's do this together/support this')'
As the first episode of "Prequel of the Stars: Embers" reached its halfway point, the audience finally roughly understood the worldview of this anime.
'Interesting, so it's a world with superpowers? Then it seems that although the protagonist hasn't awakened his Star Core yet, his Star Core is definitely extraordinary. I smell a conspiracy.'
'The worldview is good, and the overall production is top-notch, but is the protagonist's personality really okay? This is my first time seeing a protagonist whose breakfast was stolen and he didn't even dare to say a harsh word. He's so timid it's speechless.'
'Hey, earlier comments, others are superpowered, and you're just an ordinary person. Do you dare to say harsh words to them? Are you afraid you won't die fast enough? I actually think the protagonist's reaction is quite reasonable.'
'Reasonable my ass! I'm here to watch anime and relax, not to be abused. I don't want reasonable, I want exhilaration!'
'Ordinary appearance, weak personality, what's there to watch about such a protagonist!'
The fierce debate among the audience continued until Chen Kong left the cafeteria and arrived at the training ground for the final assessment preparation stage. Due to his positioning as the weakest, Chen Kong, upon entering the training ground, consciously found an unoccupied corner to sit in.
His appearance did not elicit any reaction from the Children of the Stars in the area. It was as if, to these Children of the Stars, Chen Kong was merely an insignificant passerby, not worth their attention at all.
Chen Kong had long been accustomed to this and didn't take it too much to heart. After all, as the weakest, being ignored was better than being bullied, wasn't it?
After Chen Kong sat in the training ground for a while, he suddenly looked up towards the entrance of the training ground and actively stood up and walked over.
"Ten-Brother Tendo, Sister Caroline..."
"Yo, student Kong~"
The silver-haired young man walked in, pushing up his sunglasses, the cold light reflecting off the lenses unable to hide the charm of his azure pupils. Behind him, the cat-eared girl's emerald eyes briefly flickered with data streams.
And looking at Tendo and Caroline, who appeared for the first time in the frame, the style of the bullet comments changed drastically.
'Holy crap! Is this face real?!'
'White hair + sunglasses + blue eyes = my new husband'
'Cat girl unnie, I can do it! (Meaning 'I'm into her/she's my type')'
'Wow, this character called Tendo has a really high visual appeal, almost as high as mine.'
'Something's wrong, 100% wrong. Why do I feel like this guy's art style is far superior to the protagonist's?'
'Green-haired cool cat girl, white-haired sunglass guy, suddenly I feel like if you remove the protagonist, this anime is actually quite interesting.'
Unlike Chen Kong, the ordinary-looking, timid protagonist, Tendo's entrance was basically full of buffs. His distinctive personality and attire, coupled with his outstanding looks, and that confident aura that almost overflowed the screen, instantly captured the audience's attention.
And all of this was clearly presented before Tendo's eyes in the Stars World as popularity points.
[Your Popularity +1....]
[Your Popularity +1....]
[Your Popularity +1....]
Watching the popularity points notification continuously scroll and refresh before him, Tendo's smile was harder to suppress than an AK-47's recoil. Indeed, no matter the world, looks reigned supreme. This wave of 'face fans' alone was enough to make up for the popularity points he had initially taken out a loan for to enhance his appearance.
However, Tendo's preparations over the past two years were not just to harvest 'face fans.' He had meticulously designed every word, every action, and even every micro-expression to gain as much audience goodwill as possible at the beginning. Otherwise, he wouldn't have timed his arrival at the training ground this way.
Just as Tendo was reveling in his meticulous design, a bullet comment suddenly floated by.
'Lord Tendo, I'm your dog!!!'
"Pfft!" Tendo, who was drinking water, almost choked on it when he saw this bullet comment. A moment later, he wiped the water from his lips and said, a little awkwardly, "Are these kinds of fans really necessary?"
As the plot in the anime progressed to him showing concern and care for Chen Kong, a portion of the audience was completely captivated by Tendo's 'light of humanity.' Compared to the bullies who picked on Chen Kong earlier, Tendo's immediate concern about whether Chen Kong had eaten breakfast was practically the act of a super benevolent person. This character, with high visual appeal, outstanding temperament, and a good personality, perfectly hit all the audience's positive expectations for a popular character.
'What kind of angelic behavior is this!'
'Compared to those bullies from before, Tendo is simply light!'
'Director, I advise you to be smart and immediately replace the protagonist with Tendo!'
Watching the almost one-sided praise for him in the bullet comments, Tendo knew that his debut... was a huge success!