Late March 2018.
Even though it was the weekend and peak cherry blossom season, Shiga Taka didn't go out. Instead, he stayed home, keeping the TV on and looking after his child, while scrolling through news on his phone.
"I feel like the new anime lately have been getting more and more boring."
"The sales figures aren't great either. During the golden years, it took 40,000 to 50,000 in sales annually to take the top spot. Back in '06, Lin Zhiyan's Puella Magi Madoka Magica even won the annual championship with an initial volume of over 110,000 and a cumulative total of around 130,000. Now, let alone 130,000, most anime don't even reach 3,000, and 10,000 is enough to take the annual crown."
"Yeah, it really does feel like the industry is finished."
"Just for this season, only Kyoto Animation's Violet Evergarden is worth watching. The others seem completely lackluster. Especially that Darling in the Franxx—despite the god-tier production team and the massive promotional campaign, the quality turned out so mediocre. I really didn't expect that."
"Darling in the Franxx? I do quite like 02, but compared to those classic mecha anime from the early days, there's definitely a huge gap. Still, this is a half-year series, so I'll keep looking forward to the story in the second half."
"I only like Violet Evergarden; the visuals are just insanely beautiful. The last time I felt visuals were this beautiful was 13's 'Your Name', although 'Your Name' is an animated film, which is a bit different from a TV anime."
Mentioning Lin Zhiyan and "Your Name" naturally shifted the topic to his new anime:
"It's been over four years since 'Your Name' finished its theatrical run, and there's still zero news about Old Thief Lin's new anime. Don't tell me he's actually planning to retire?"
"He said back then his goal was to achieve two 'number ones' first. I guess he plans to secure those before releasing his own anime. But if that's really the case, I feel like he'll never release another anime of his own."
"Yeah, the industry is falling apart, how is he supposed to take number one?"
"I said back then that it was impossible for any anime to exceed the disc sales of 'EVA' or the box office of 'Spirited Away', and looking at it now, I was right."
"Forget about surpassing 'EVA' or 'Spirited Away', even the myth surrounding Lin Zhiyan's own company is barely holding on. While LSP manages to maintain high popularity with every anime it releases, its output is extremely low. As for L.S. animation, which has a high output, although the reputation of the anime they produce is generally quite good, there are quite a few that have flopped in terms of sales."
"Yeah, even though we've entered the streaming era now, where anime relies more on selling copyrights to make money and sales are no longer the most important factor in determining whether an anime is profitable, I still didn't expect even Lin Zhiyan's company to struggle."
"By the way, besides 'Teasing Master Takagi-san', are there any other anime this season produced by LSP or LSA?"
"I don't know, I only see this one from LSA, and none from LSP at all. I heard that LSP's main focus this year is 'Uma Musume' in April, and the project, from the game to the anime, was personally planned by Lin Zhiyan himself."
"'Uma Musume'? What's the difference between it and ordinary moe-anthropomorphism anime? Old Thief Lin hasn't made anime for a few years, has he started to like this style?"
"Who knows. Sigh, anyway, let's just look forward to it for now."
Watching the discussions online, Shiga Taka couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
Indeed, it felt like recent anime were becoming less and less interesting.
In the past, he could follow seven or eight anime per season; now, he might only follow two or three.
Once, as long as it was an anime produced by Lin Zhiyan's company, he would definitely follow it. Nowadays, he only watches anime produced by LSP as they come out; as for anime produced by LSA, he often can't bring himself to watch them.
He was older now, had started a family, and had children, so he didn't have as much time to follow anime—that was certainly part of the problem, but it was also true that the industry was declining.
It felt impossible for Lin Zhiyan to secure both number one spots.
Logically, whether he took first place or not had nothing to do with him, but if it were true, as netizens speculated, that Lin Zhiyan wouldn't produce any new anime himself if he didn't take first place, that would be a great pity.
Some might think that anime planned by Lin Zhiyan still counted as Lin Zhiyan's anime, but in his view, the two were vastly different.
He still preferred anime personally produced by Lin Zhiyan.
He really wanted to see a new anime after "Your Name."
Thinking this, he sighed again.
Soon, he opened the Google search interface and began searching for information related to "Uma Musume".
It was said that both the game and the animation were planned personally by Lin Zhiyan, and the animation was set to air in April. He had assumed that even if the game hadn't been released yet, it would be soon, but that wasn't the case. According to the news, it seemed he would have to wait until winter for the game to launch—at least another half year.
He also searched for information related to Lin Zhiyan. A new animation seemed nowhere in sight, although there were many works planned by Lin Zhiyan recently.
Almost every game from L.S Games had Lin Zhiyan involved in the planning, and every single one was a hit, including "Granblue Fantasy," which he had played himself and which ranked among the top in the world for generating revenue.
Of course, according to claims on the internet, Lin Zhiyan only provided the game concepts; in reality, the executive producers were the planning staff at LSG.
Additionally, there was another hit mobile game, "FGO," which was a work by Type-Moon. However, according to information disclosed online years ago, Lin Zhiyan held shares in Type-Moon, and Type-Moon had even been established with Lin Zhiyan's initial funding.
According to an online report, the many highly successful games have earned Lin Zhiyan a fortune, leading some to suspect that the reason he hasn't personally produced any new animations in recent years is because he has made so much money in the gaming industry and gotten a taste of how lucrative it is.
However, while such suspicions are understandable, more people speculate that Lin Zhiyan is simply focused on achieving those two "number ones" first, and he certainly hasn't slacked off on animation projects.
Since 2014, almost all of LSP's hit animation projects have had Lin Zhiyan's involvement.
LSP's official website has even announced a number of animation projects slated for broadcast in the second half of this year and even next year, all of which were planned by Lin Zhiyan.
He hasn't let his success and earnings from gaming lead him to neglect the animation side of things.
In Shiga Taka's view, Lin Zhiyan's goal of achieving those two "number ones" is impossible, but as long as he doesn't give up on animation, there is still hope for new works.
One can only hope that Lin Zhiyan will see the situation clearly sooner rather than later.
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