Omni-Anime: I Stand at the Forefront of Popularity

Chapter 19: Chapter 20: New Merchandise Has Appeared—How Can We Afford to Stand Still

She’d said there was still work to do—but in truth, she was a little short on everything.

The OP and ED filming wasn’t scheduled yet. She’d need to wait for a notice.

As for the actor promotion evaluation—even with the fifty thousand she’d just earned added to her accumulated points, she was still a bit short.

”I wonder what the promotion evaluation is like.”

Some kind of assignment in this world?

Or perhaps—taking on a different identity and entering some other world to complete a specific task?

”Let me check the comment section first.”

A proper idol had to gauge the audience’s reaction before anything else.

The ninja academy arc of Naruto was mostly finished. By Hanabi’s standards, she’d made surprisingly few changes. That, to her, was a failure. The story going forward—she had absolutely no intention of following the original track.

At the very least, she’d never liked this bullshit ninja world. Everything about it was warped.

But before planning the next phase, she needed to see the audience feedback.

The moment she entered the comment section, a hot post immediately caught her eye.

[Translators, get in here and take a beating]

Hanabi thought it sounded amusing. She clicked in.

It turned out the production team had already begun releasing character profiles—apparently in preparation for the upcoming broadcast version that would have a proper OP and ED.

The post’s author had zoomed in on Kakashi’s promotional image and taken particular issue with his name.

[”Hatake” is actually a mistranslation. The kanji that corresponds to the kana in his name isn’t that character at all—it’s 畑, which means ”cultivated field.” A dry field, specifically.]

[And ”Kakashi”—whoever decided to just transliterate that—his name in Japanese is 案山子, meaning scarecrow. So the more accurate translation of Hatake Kakashi would be: ”Scarecrow of the Dry Field.”]

[Reply 2: By that logic, shouldn’t Uzumaki Naruto be better rendered as ”Naruto of the Whirlpool” or something like ”Maelstrom Naruto”? 2333]

[Reply 3: ”Uchiha” is based on phonetics too]

[Reply 4: Fun fact—Hyuga Hinata’s ”Hinata” is also phonetic. Both readings of the kana can be rendered as ”Hinata.” Which is why in two different translations of Love Hina, the same boarding house was called ”Hinata-sō” in one version and ”Hinata Lodge” in another—same place, different rendering choices. That means Hyuga Hinata could technically be translated as Hinata Hinata...]

[Reply 5: LOL, and I thought Lisa Lisa was bad enough.]

[Reply 6: I want to see that old anime reviewer rip into this new show. A naming mess this rich is exactly his material.]

[Reply 7: To the commenter above—his new-anime reviews are mostly for comedic effect. A long-running battle shonen like this would be tough to fit into his format.]

Hanabi tilted her head.

Hatake Kakashi’s surname corresponded to the Japanese word 畑—a dry field. And ”Kakashi” meant scarecrow.

So his full name meant: the scarecrow in the dry field. In Japanese, it carried a connotation of profound solitude and hidden pain—suffering no one else could see.

In a sense, Hatake Kakashi’s name had always been a spoiler for his entire character arc.

Similar mistranslations and phonetic wordplay appeared all throughout the Naruto world. Even Naruto’s name was a pun on multiple levels. ”Obito” worked the same way.

Hanabi wasn’t particularly bothered by any of this. What she was more interested in was the shape of the audience. She’d have liked to see danmaku from other language regions—but there seemed to be no way to switch to other regions yet.

”Maybe once I reach the actor tier I’ll be able to. I wonder if I’ll get there before the Land of Waves arc.”

That would come down to how the OP filming went.

She kept scrolling. Another hot post.

[The bell test arc is a perfect modern retelling of ”Two Peaches Kill Three Warriors”]

This post’s author hadn’t written much—just the headline—but the comments had run wild.

[Reply 2: In ”Two Peaches Kill Three Warriors,” all three die. Here they passed the test just fine. Bit of a reach, OP.]

[OP: True, but you’re missing the context. The original story has Yan Zi using the peaches specifically to fracture the alliance between those three warriors and their patron families—making the three men compete against each other. And in the end, after all three died out of misplaced honor, their three families became more unified against the ruler, not less. An overt scheme that ultimately backfired.]

[Reply 4: So Kakashi offering two bells but making Team Seven close ranks and insist on passing together—same mechanism, opposite result? Like the positive version?]

[Reply 5: Oh I get it. Three coworker friends, two promotion slots—they end up resenting each other over it. But one of them feels guilty his friend lost, so he quits. The second one feels bad he caused it, so he quits. Then the third one decides he destroyed everything and quits too.]

[Reply 6: Which means Hanabi letting the other two crash and burn first, then rallying them together—what ancient story does that map onto?]

The reader comments were genuinely engaging.

Hanabi kept scrolling. A lot of people were talking about the upcoming broadcast version.

”Hm, character profile posts?”

Most were fan threads, but the official hot posts were there too. The Kakashi screenshot had come from one of those.

At the very top, naturally, was Uzumaki Naruto’s character profile.

[Uzumaki Naruto. Konoha Genin. The boy with the Nine-Tailed Fox sealed within him. Ninja ranked #1 for unpredictability. His goal: to surpass every Hokage who ever lived.]

[Uchiha Sasuke. Konoha Genin. A boy of the Uchiha clan. Top-ranked overall student. Carries a darkness no one knows.]

And the third profile—right after the two leads—was her own.

[Hyuga Hanabi. Konoha Genin. Younger twin sister of Hyuga Hinata. A genius who has ”lost” her Byakugan. Known for exceptional ”skill with genjutsu.”]

The image depicted Hanabi in the same red-umbrella look from Episode 1—the kimono, however, had been swapped out for the upgraded Hanabi-patterned version she’d acquired later, rather than the original Episode 1 style.

”They put quotation marks around ’lost’? And put quotes around ’skill with genjutsu’ too? Isn’t that basically a spoiler?”

Hanabi tilted her head.

Lucky, at least, that the profile hadn’t given away her mastery of Fire Style, Ice Style, and swordsmanship.

Hanabi scanned the replies. Some people had noticed the quotation marks, but it hadn’t sparked a real discussion thread yet.

”Good. If no one’s caught it, I’ll save the surprise for later.”

After officially joining Team Seven, Hanabi had claimed a spot in the ”protagonist trio”—and had even appeared in the official promotional materials.

”Though looking at this, the official promo seems to be leaning into me as one of the three main leads. But my actual role in the narrative is supposed to be a supporting character, isn’t it?”

Anyone paying close attention would notice: Hanabi’s actual screen time was quite low.

Most of her scenes had either been grabbed by using her camera card, or slipped in by forcing her way into scenes. A handful of genuinely dramatic and standout moments would presumably be retained by the broadcast version—but overall her presence was limited.

[The Dimensional Popularity Stage handles script filming. For non-leads, promotional activity is outsourced to local handlers.]

[Upon reaching a sufficient tier, you may spend popularity points to direct promotional strategy, or use the popularity shop or lottery to obtain related rewards.]

The Dimensional Popularity Stage helpfully supplied the answer.

”How interesting.”

Hanabi thought it over.

She was a supporting character—but the audience didn’t know that.

There might be room to play with something bigger here. Sculpt herself into the real protagonist lurking in the background.

”Oh—the popularity shop has reset. Manual refresh too.”

The shop she’d emptied out earlier had refreshed. Hanabi tapped to open it.

Three items appeared.

[Items Available This Period:]

[Actor Training (Japanese Traditional Etiquette): Special, 6 sessions. Instruction by a veteran Japanese etiquette instructor. During training, you will temporarily leave this world—world time will be paused.]

[Price: 10,000 popularity points]

[Domestic Market Expansion Strategy: Expand the broadcast to global simultaneous release. Promotion requires a certain amount of time to complete.]

[Price: 10,000 popularity points]

[Overseas Market Research: Search for audiences in other worlds. Scouting new markets requires substantial time investment.]

[Price: 30,000 popularity points]