I'm Not A Master, I'm A Director
Chapter 423: Choosing an Actress for Mash
In truth, Shinji's state of mind wasn't exactly stable right now.
But it definitely wasn't because he was worried about Garden of Sinners' box office performance.
At this point, the film had already made a massive profit—he'd long since earned back his investment and more.
Even if it ultimately lost to Disney, Shinji would feel regret at most, not anger.
After all, what empire lasts forever?
He knew very well that he wasn't a god. Any box office record he created would eventually be broken.
Besides, Pirates of the Caribbean was, by any standard, an outstanding commercial film. Losing to it at the box office wasn't exactly shameful.
Worst case, he'd just find a way to win it back next time.
Of course, when it came to ratings, Shinji had no intention of losing.
With home-field advantage and a bit of "favorable officiating," if he still lost a round to Disney, then he really wouldn't have the face to stay in the industry.
No—what truly made him uneasy, even a little guilty was that the actress for Mash still hadn't been decided.
That's right. Even though the FGO project was already approaching filming, the official heroine of the story still had no confirmed actress.
It couldn't be helped—Mash was simply too special a character, completely different from everyone else in the story.
When casting for the Fate series, the easiest roles to fill were, without question, Heroic Spirits. As long as the Holy Grail's leyline hadn't run dry, you could just summon whoever you needed.
If it was one of those classic Type-Moon "Arturia faces," even better—no need to summon at all. Just pick one from the in-house lineup of the Blanket King, the Dutiful Son, or the French Village Girl.
Even for those minor Heroic Spirits with barely any screen time—where summoning the original would be inefficient—you could just have Yang Qing and Enkidu swap appearances and call it a day.
Below Heroic Spirits, the next easiest were characters from Fuyuki City. Since they were all locals, just bringing in the real person solved everything.
Poor Emiya Shirou, for instance—thanks to Shinji's relentless scheduling, he was stuck on set all day long, with no time left to go out and play the hero.
The real challenge for Shinji lay with characters who were neither actual Heroic Spirits nor Fuyuki City locals… yet played crucial roles in the story.
In FGO's first chapter, there were four such characters:
The protagonist Ritsuka, the heroine Mash, the ever-slacking doctor, and that scummy boss—the King of Mages, Solomon.
Each of the four had their own casting difficulties.
For Ritsuka, the problem was whether to go with Gudako or Gudao.
For the doctor and the scummy boss, the question was whether they should be played by the same actor.
That said, Shinji had already come up with solutions for three of them.
The issue with the doctor and the boss was that using the same actor would be a spoiler. To prevent the audience from guessing the biggest twist of FGO 1.0 too early—and thus dulling the emotional impact of the doctor's sacrifice—Shinji ultimately decided to cast two separate actors.
The doctor would be played by a gentle, delicate-looking young man, while the boss would go to a seasoned middle-aged actor with strong acting chops.
As for the protagonist Ritsuka, Shinji had already made up his mind.
He would go with Gudao—and not just any Gudao.
He would be portrayed by Charlemagne himself, the one hailed among Moon fans as the "Age of Gods Gudao."
Once the catalyst was secured, Shinji would summon him directly.
Normally, a standard Holy Grail summoning system would only bring forth the older, historical Charlemagne—the one whose face looked exactly like the king of hearts on a playing card.
But for Shinji, that kind of problem was trivial.
There were far too many loopholes in the Grail's summoning system.
All he had to do was have Merlin use his incubus abilities to subtly alter the cognition of the people in Fuyuki City—making them subconsciously believe that Charlemagne was a spirited seventeen-year-old youth.
The formation of a summoned Servant's Saint Graph depended on three factors:
1, Their true self in the Throne of Heroes.
2, The perception of the people in the land where they were summoned.
3, And the small "adjustments" made by the Master performing the summoning.
That was also why a Heroic Spirit would be stronger in regions where their legend was more widely known.
As long as he could successfully alter how the people of Fuyuki City perceived Charlemagne, Shinji could ensure the successful summoning of Gudao.
That said, changing the cognition of an entire city was no easy task.
First of all, the changes couldn't deviate too far from people's original perceptions—otherwise, the new ideas simply wouldn't "take root" in their minds.
Secondly, modifying the cognition of such a large number of people was an incredibly tedious and complex task. In a world where mystery had already declined, aside from Merlin—who possessed incubus blood—no other Heroic Spirit could handle something like this.
Sure, Merlin might bite his tongue just trying to chant a spell, but when it came to anything related to dreams, he was unquestionably number one.
Making an entire city subconsciously believe that Charlemagne was a young boy? For him, that should've been a piece of cake…
—Yeah, right.
A task that demanded both scale and precision like this was basically hell mode for someone like Merlin, whose life goals revolved around eating, sleeping, and scamming people online.
Ever since Shinji assigned him this job, Merlin had been showing up in Shinji's dreams every single day to complain—at least fifteen minutes each time.
The content never changed much:
"You heartless capitalist!"
"Make sure to pick yourself a nice lamppost in the Throne of Heroes!"
"Compared to you, Miss Tanaka is a kind and benevolent boss!"
—And so on, a nonstop stream of nonsense.
As for why it was only fifteen minutes a day…
Well, if he went any longer, he wouldn't be able to meet Shinji's quotas.
As for the fact that this dream-incubus kept barging into his dreams to rant every day, Shinji remained completely unfazed.
After all, he had gone through all that trouble to summon this "Fluffy Beast" precisely so he could put him to work.
Lying in bed all day in the real world, scrolling on his phone and running online scams?
Sorry, that wasn't happening.
"If he still has the energy to complain, that means he's not going to die from overwork. Just ignore it. Treat it like a daily stand-up comedy routine."
Shinji's response left Arturia heartbroken, and the "three idiots of the Round Table" on the verge of tears.
"Damn it, why didn't we think of using this guy like livestock back then?! What a huge loss!!" ×4
Smack!
Hearing the thoughts of his former boss and former colleagues, Merlin slammed his hand on the table.
"Don't push it too far, you lot!"
He tapped his staff against the ground, loudly protesting,
"What benefit do you get from working me to death?!"
"The only downside would probably be wasting a Saint Graph," Shinji replied casually, idly playing with his fingers. "Since I'd have to summon you again."
Merlin: "…"
So even if I die from overwork, you'll just drag me out of Avalon and make me work again?
At that moment, Merlin sincerely wished he could take back everything he'd ever said.
Compared to this seaweed-headed man in front of him, even a black-hearted capitalist looked downright compassionate.
"This is supposed to be a FGO project meeting—so why has it turned into a discussion about my labor dispatch?!"
Grumbling, Merlin scratched his head, glaring at Shinji with the resentment of a neglected housewife.
If looks could kill, Shinji would've been riddled with holes by now.
"Master, have you really decided on a male lead?"
Compared to whether their white-haired companion might actually die from overwork, Arturia was far more concerned about the co-star she'd be working with for the foreseeable future.
"Didn't you previously design a female version as well?"
Shinji gave a wry smile.
"Yeah… but after thinking it over, going with a male lead is still the safer choice."
From a comedic standpoint, Gudako was undoubtedly more entertaining. You could even play around with all sorts of running gags—like "Gacha Gudako" memes.
Gudao had his own jokes too, like "Astolfo is the best!" or "I'll eat every Lostbelt," but when it came to telling a serious story, he had the advantage over the female protagonist.
At the end of the day, Shinji's vision for FGO was still that of a proper, serious narrative.
And if it was going to be a serious story, then it couldn't drift too far into pure comedy.
Lighthearted and humorous moments were fine, but they couldn't overshadow the main plot.
Under that premise, having Gudako as the protagonist simply wasn't the best fit.
Not to mention, in this era, audiences weren't nearly as receptive to female-led films as they would be in the future Shinji came from.
Perhaps in the FGO game, Gudako was more popular than Gudao.
But games and film were two entirely different mediums.
Even though over 70% of male players had created at least one female character in games, most of them didn't do it because they wanted to gender-swap themselves in the story.
The real reason was much simpler.
Most games are designed so that the player views the world from behind their character, aligning the player's perspective with the avatar's.
If you chose a male character, that meant spending dozens—sometimes hundreds—of hours staring at a guy's backside on the screen.
And not many people were exactly thrilled about that.
And so the question arose—
Was this really playing a game… or just another form of suffering?
At least in Shinji's opinion, compared to staring at a burly man's back, he'd much rather look at a cute girl with a well-proportioned figure—unless the male character was something like Ultraman or a Kamen Rider.
As for those players who created female avatars, most of them didn't actually project themselves onto those characters.
Instead, their mindset usually fell into one of three categories:
"This is my cute daughter."
"This is my cute little sister."
"This is my cute wife."
Because from the very beginning, they didn't see the character as themselves, the sense of immersion in games was fundamentally different from how audiences connected with characters in films and TV.
Compared to watching cute girls interact with each other, audiences were far more drawn to a story about a boy (Ritsuka) and a girl (Mash) growing together.
Especially in this era—when the global "otaku density" wasn't nearly as high as it would be in the future.
"And so, the pressure now falls on Mash."
Resting his chin on both hands in a classic "Gendo pose," Shinji addressed the gathered Servants.
"To match a handsome guy like Charles, the heroine has to be equally convincing. So—any recommendations?"
Bang!
"I'll do it!" Mordred shouted without hesitation.
"Rejected." Shinji's reply was just as decisive.
"You've already got The Case Files of Lord El-Melloi II to film."
Jeanne raised her hand.
"I'd like to try."
Shinji shook his head.
"Also rejected. You're the core of the first chapter's story, it doesn't suit you to play the main heroine of the entire series."
"Then I—"
Before Arturia could even finish, Shinji cut her off.
"—You're out too. Same face as Jeanne."
Arturia's eye twitched.
"Since when is having the same face a crime?!"
Seeing that all the "Arturia-face" candidates had been turned down, Medea shyly raised her hand.
"As for the heroine… I think I could give it a try. After all, being able to play with Saber—ah, I mean, act alongside her…"
"…Right."
Out of respect for Medea, Shinji forcibly swallowed the line "I need a young girl, not an auntie" before it could leave his mouth.
"Hey, if it's the heroine of a long-running series, the pay must be pretty good, right? Even if each film doesn't pay much, it'll add up to a lot. Hehe~"
Rin let out a sly laugh.
"Shinji, for the sake of our childhood friendship—"
"—You're out too."
"Why?!"
Rolling his eyes, Shinji shot back, "You look too much like Charles. The audience might think you're playing both roles yourself."
Crack!
A corner of the conference table was instantly snapped off by Rin.
"Shinji-kun~ ⭐ I have a suggestion."
"Merlin, let's hear your 'brilliant' idea."
Even though he knew full well that the grinning incubus had ulterior motives, Shinji didn't have the luxury to refuse—especially with Rin on the verge of exploding. Diverting her attention came first.
With an unusually sincere expression, Merlin spoke:
"I suggest casting your little sister as Mash. What do you think? ⭐"
"…Sakura as Mash?"
Shinji's expression shifted visibly from "Jim Hacker?!" levels of disbelief to a more contemplative "Jim Hacker…" hesitation.