The Third Anime Plan (1)

Looking at the results, the new theatrical film “Spirit Adventure”, following “The Disappearance of Elli and Hamel”, could be considered a moderate success.

Seeing that “Spirit Adventure” was maintaining decent box office results and the TCG based on it was also receiving a good response, I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Phew, now I can finally relax a bit. At this level, His Majesty won’t be able to say that “Spirit Adventure” was a failure.”

This animation called “Spirit Adventure” wasn’t planned by me, but was a work commissioned by the Emperor, so I couldn’t help but be especially nervous about it.

Meanwhile, Serika and Kaya, who heard my monologue, looked at me with truly dumbfounded expressions.

“…No, Director. I usually don’t want to say anything about your monologues, but that doesn’t seem right.”

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“Do you know how much of a hit “Spirit Adventure” is throughout the Empire? And how enthusiastic people are about the card game based on the IP of “Spirit Adventure”?”

At Kaya’s words, I unconsciously tilted my head.

“Well…? I don’t particularly think this level is a success.”

“Pardon?”

“Because when I consider the potential of “Spirit Adventure” as a work, or the TCG based on it, I don’t think this much can be called a success.”

“…Huh?”

At that moment, not only Serika and Kaya who heard those words,

But even the staff who were discreetly listening to our conversation nearby opened their mouths wide, but.

At this moment, I had uttered those words with at least 100% pure sincerity.

Because although it’s something the people here couldn’t even imagine,

I clearly remembered what position ‘that work’ which became the original for “Spirit Adventure”, and ‘that game’ which became the motif for the TCG card game, held on Earth.

‘Just… I can only say it’s freaking awesome.’

It was the 21st century on Earth.

Where new animations and subcultures that didn’t exist before pop up every day, and.

If it’s even slightly uninteresting, it’s immediately eliminated from the market, truly reminiscent of a world of survival of the fittest.

In such a lawless jungle-like world, those works managed to reign at the top of the subculture market for over 20 years.

Of course, that doesn’t mean they held an overwhelming first place in that market sector for 20 years straight, but.

Nevertheless, if you see an old person in that era, they were works that clearly showed why you should think of it as “survival”.

So, I just couldn’t think of the current success of “Spirit Adventure” and the TCG as a ‘success’.

Since we’ve copied those works anyway, shouldn’t it be right for them to be a hit across the entire continent at least?

Especially considering that a considerable amount of money from the crowdfunding had to be invested because enormous costs were incurred in printing and releasing the cards to be used in the TCG.

“…That’s only natural. If we just printed the cards it would be one thing, but didn’t the costs increase exponentially because we even applied magical processing to make them compatible with the Duel Disks?”

Kaya said that while looking at me with eyes that seemed to reproach me, but.

At least I didn’t regret at all the fact that we released the cards at such enormous cost.

Why?

The Shadow Duel using monsters materialized in reality, which could never have been achieved with 21st century science and technology.

I couldn’t miss the opportunity to create the Shadow Duel that all duelists around the world had been desperately longing for, just because of a few measly coins.

I can tolerate other things, but I absolutely can’t compromise on the Shadow Duel.

And whatever happened, we paid it back, so isn’t that a happy ending?

“By the way. How is the recent storyboard work going? I think it’s about time it should be completed by now.”

Recently, Kaya had brought me a storyboard for an animation about vampires, and.

I had given Kaya various pieces of advice while looking at that storyboard.

And since considerable time had passed since then, I thought it should be about time for the storyboard to be completed.

“Well… I’ve modified the development of the work as you said, Director. But I still can’t grasp how to set the theme of this work. At this rate, my storyboard is nothing more than half a work.”

“…Hmm.”

To be honest, I’m not a person who likes putting themes into works.

Isn’t it enough for animation to just be fun, why is there a need to put philosophical stuff in it and make people’s heads hurt?

However, without uttering such words, I nodded after examining the storyboard Kaya handed over.

“No, this is excellent as it is. To be honest, I want to propose to His Majesty to make a new animation right now.”

“Really? Is that true?”

Kaya showed a bright expression at my high praise, but soon shook her head with a somewhat fearful expression.

“…But even so, it’s impossible to make two animations simultaneously with just the support funds from the Imperial Family. Even if this storyboard is made into an animation, there’s no guarantee it will succeed like your works, Director…”

“Hmm.”

Certainly, that was as Kaya said.

Although I recently pulled in considerable money through crowdfunding, that was money to be used for the production of the sequel to “Sky of Destiny” so I couldn’t touch it carelessly, and.

If we split the support funds from the Imperial Family in half to produce animations, their quality would drastically decrease.

Also, since Kaya’s ability to produce animations was a bit inferior compared to mine, there was a possibility that it might not be very successful even if it didn’t fail, and.

But.

‘No, I can’t miss this. I absolutely can’t miss this golden opportunity to meet an honorable death!’

It’s painful to say this now, but.

My ultimate goal is not social success through animation, but to make one big score and then retire leisurely.

But due to things getting messed up, I was living the life of a slave who had to produce anime without any rest from “Machine God Chronicles” to “Spirit Adventure”.

That’s why I carefully thought about what the fundamental cause was for how things had come to this point, and.

As a result, the answer I came up with was none other than.

‘It’s because I’m the only one making animations. This shit doesn’t end because I’m currently monopolizing the animation market in this world!’

But, as can be seen from the animations that large merchant groups made in the past and then went bankrupt without a trace,

The animation production ability of this world was still far inferior and behind compared to what I make.

Of course, I had lived in a world where the history of animation production was nearly 100 years, while.

It was a very natural phenomenon since it had been only 2 years since the genre of animation appeared in this world.

That’s why I came up with this idea.

‘What if I’m not the only one who can produce high-quality animations? And as a result, if a strong competitor appears in this market that I’m monopolizing?’

That’s why I squeezed out non-existent time and sincerely helped with Kaya’s storyboard production.

Because Kaya, who had the future aspiration to become an anime slave in my place, was my only hope at this point.

But now I have to throw away the only chance to realize my dream just because of a lack of mere money?

I absolutely can’t allow that.

No way, absolutely not.

Hiding such sinister intentions, I opened my mouth looking at Kaya with a deadly serious expression.

“No. I can’t give up like this. Absolutely not.”

“…Pardon? What does that mean?”

“Isn’t this storyboard the precious result that Miss Kaya created by putting everything into it? How can we leave such a precious thing without seeing any light?”

Because if you make an anime with this storyboard, Kaya, my retirement date will be brought forward even by a day.

“I think there’s no reason for your heart to be broken before anything has even started. Isn’t there a saying like this? Courage is knowing fear, and making fear your own. So how about Miss Kaya somehow finds the courage?”

I blurted out words I had picked up somewhere to somehow persuade Kaya.

But.

“…Courage is knowing fear, you say?”

Kaya’s eyes began to sparkle at those words.

“…That’s right. Why didn’t I think of that? I felt like something was missing while depicting the confrontation between humans and vampires, and this was it!”

“…Pardon?”

“No matter how special abilities they have, there can’t be humans who aren’t afraid of fighting monsters like vampires. But even so, the protagonist was moving forward with courage while making even that fear his own! The excellence of humans is the excellence of courage, and the hymn of humans is the hymn of courage. How could I have forgotten such a simple fact?”

Grab.

Saying this, Kaya suddenly grasped my hand.

“This is what you wanted to tell me, right Director? Thank you, Director! Thanks to you, I was able to find the theme that will penetrate this work!”

“…?”

No, what on earth did I do?

I just… I think I only said that the important thing is an unbreakable heart?

“Ah, as expected, you’re amazing, Director. Then, what should we make the title of the work? Hmm… Since the name of the protagonist you gave was ‘Luka Luizer’, in honor of him…”

Kaya snapped her fingers and said with a bright smile.

“I’d like to call it “Lulu’s Mysterious Adventure”, what do you think, Director?”