L.S.Produ, President's Office.
A producer came to see Lin Zhiyan, handed him a project proposal, and said, "President, this is a proposal I just finished. Could you take a look at it when you have some time?"
"Sure."
Lin Zhiyan nodded, then took the proposal and flipped it open.
As he read it, he couldn't help but be taken aback, because the title of the anime on the proposal was actually "Plastic Memories."
Of course, this was just a preliminary draft, not a detailed script. It simply introduced the world-building of the anime, what it was roughly intended to be like, and who the main production staff would be.
For the scriptwriter, they planned to approach Naotaka Hayashi, the scenario writer for the "Steins;Gate" game. For music, it read: "Masaru Yokoyama (tentative)." As for character design, it was split between original concept design and specific character design; they planned to find a well-known illustrator for the original concept, while the specific character design would be handled by internal company staff, though both were still tentative.
Even the director was listed as tentative.
It was clearly a proposal based on a script by Naotaka Hayashi.
Although he could tell, Lin Zhiyan still looked up and asked, "Has the script been settled?"
The producer in front of him nodded: "For the Steins;Gate anime, wasn't I the actual executive producer? I had some contact with Mr. Hayashi back then and told him that if the opportunity arose, I would ask him to help write a script for an anime, and he agreed."
Lin Zhiyan didn't ask further, but instead lowered his head and began to think silently.
If he remembered correctly, in the other timeline, the sales for this anime were a bit low, though its reputation was quite good. And as an original anime, it wouldn't necessarily lose money.
So... should he go ahead with this project?
After thinking for a minute or two, Lin Zhiyan said, "Go ahead with it. Confirm all the 'tentative' personnel listed above, and then show me the second draft of the project proposal."
Upon hearing this, the producer in front of him was overjoyed and quickly replied, "Understood."
Lin Zhiyan picked up his pen again and scribbled on the project proposal in his hand, making revisions to the parts he didn't quite approve of, and only after finishing did he return it to the producer.
After the producer left happily with the revised project draft, Lin Tomohiko, in the president's office, began to think about something else: the next phase of the plan.
Tsukasa is a wholly-owned subsidiary that Lin Tomohiko established in 2013.
Unlike L.S.Produ, although this company also produces animation, its purpose is not to make money, but to achieve certain strategic goals. That is why Lin Tomohiko sent the producer who created the Plastic Memories project there.
It is worth mentioning that the first anime produced after its establishment was an adaptation of Rage of Bahamut, the first game from L.S.Games. Future games released by L.S.Games will also be adapted one after another.
In addition, the number of anime produced by L.S.Produ will gradually decrease, while the number of anime produced by Tsukasa will gradually increase.
In other words, L.S.Produ will gradually transition from an animation studio to a production company, becoming the headquarters that coordinates everything.
Of course, this does not mean that one day L.S.Produ might stop making anime altogether.
On one hand, the headquarters will continue to handle various planning tasks, but the actual production will mostly be handed off to the subsidiaries. On the other hand, the headquarters' animation production will focus on quality over quantity, meaning perhaps only one or two animations per year, but all aimed at becoming blockbusters.
This will allow the L.S.Produ legend to continue, while also avoiding missing out on some well-received animations that are worth producing.
This has already been planned for a long time, so there is nothing to deliberate on.
What truly needs consideration is: what should the next animation be?
"Your Name" elevated Lin Zhiyan's status and position too high, to the point that it is a bit difficult for him to return to the field of TV animation.
Although there have been many animated films since 2014, most of them do not match Lin Zhiyan's current status and position.
Makoto Shinkai's animation after "Your Name," "Weathering with You," could perhaps be done, but in terms of genre, it has a somewhat high overlap with "Your Name." Lin Zhiyan has always changed genres for every animation he's done; the only ones that could be said to have a high degree of overlap are "Code Geass" and "Gurren Lagann."
But these two anime can only be said to both have mecha elements; if you exclude those, they are fundamentally not the same type of animation, and one could even say they are worlds apart.
Now, to make "Weathering with You" is equivalent to breaking the character persona established previously, which ultimately is not a good thing.
Moreover, although "Weathering with You" had a box office of 14 billion yen, it still falls short of "Your Name," and in terms of word-of-mouth, it's not even in the same league.
It could be said that it was entirely the foundation laid by "Your Name" that allowed "Weathering with You" to reach 14 billion yen at the box office. If it weren't for the box office appeal that "Your Name" brought to Makoto Shinkai, it's doubtful "Weathering with You," given its quality, would have even reached 10 billion yen.
Knowing full well that it is inferior to "Your Name" in every aspect, is it really worth making "Weathering with You"?
If it is to be made, then, for the most part, modifications will have to be made to the original version.
The problem is, how can it be modified to make "Weathering with You" a better animation?
Animated films are different from TV animation; a single change often affects the whole, so if it really is to be modified, it likely wouldn't be a minor tweak, but rather a major overhaul.
Can "Weathering with You" after a major revision really be better than the original?
If it can't be made better than the original, then it's better not to change it at all, or simply stop being a copycat and create a new original animation instead. After all, the max-level keyframe skills are still there; even if the quality of an original animation can't be guaranteed, at least the visual effects can be, and the company's production standards are beyond reproach.
In other words, even if the story is mediocre, the production quality is at least guaranteed.
With the foundation laid by "Your Name," there's no need to worry about the next animation not having an audience.
Even if the next animation is trash, at least for the first few days of its release, it can still attract quite a few viewers. It's just that if the quality really isn't up to par, that's when they'll fall from their pedestal, leaving countless fans disappointed.
After the massive explosion of "Your Name," the harder the fans hype it up, the harder the fall will likely be.
If they just copy "Weathering with You," or make modifications based on the original "Weathering with You," although they probably won't be able to satisfy every fan, they at least don't have to worry about crashing and burning too badly.
Is it better to play it safe or take a gamble?
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