In the morning, Lin Zhiyan arrived at the company.
Taking advantage of the time before work, he walked around and noticed that everyone didn't seem to be in very high spirits.
Especially in the production department office, there were even some people sighing.
"What's wrong? Didn't you sleep well last night?" he asked with a smile.
"President."
Everyone looked at Lin Zhiyan and greeted him.
Then, Atsushi Hosokawa, the production manager for Demon Slayer, replied: "President, the reaction to the first episode of Demon Slayer that aired last night doesn't seem to be very good online."
The others nodded in agreement.
"Is that so?"
Lin Zhiyan acted as if he had just found out.
He took out his phone, searched for topics related to Demon Slayer online, and then said: "It looks pretty good to me."
After saying that, he read out a few positive reviews:
"The voice actors are all famous, their emotional delivery is spot on, the music is handled by Yuki Kajiura and Go Shiina—two musicians I really like—and I also really like the theme song performer, LiSA; the song is quite good, the overall art style is exquisite, and the pacing and storyboards are quite well done. The story itself might not be that outstanding, but the production is genuinely excellent."
"LSP's production quality is truly impressive; the viewing experience is far better than the original manga."
"It feels pretty good so far; looking forward to what comes next."
"You can see the care the animation production team put into every aspect."
After reading a few, he looked at everyone in the production department office and said with a smile, "Isn't this quite good?"
"President, you're deliberately picking the positive reviews to read, aren't you?" a female production assistant who had been with the company for two or three years couldn't help but retort.
Lin Zhiyan put away his phone and replied, "I am picking the positive ones, but even the negative reviews only criticize the source material we chose this time—no one is saying our company's production quality is bad. Since that's the case, there's nothing to be dejected about, is there?"
"But..."
Everyone naturally knew that the lukewarm reception of Demon Slayer wasn't the animation production team's fault and had nothing to do with L.S Produ. However, this was, after all, L.S Produ's featured anime for 2019.
Everyone naturally knew that the lukewarm reception of Demon Slayer was not the fault of the animation production team and had nothing to do with L.S Produ. However, this was, after all, L.S Produ's flagship animation for 2019.
As for the flagship animation, its first episode was released to lackluster reviews, and its popularity could only be described as decent—it wasn't particularly high, and it certainly didn't reach the level of the chart-topping hits that L.S Produ's previous flagship animations had achieved.
To say that they weren't disappointed at all would be a lie.
Lin Zhiyan, however, didn't take it to heart at all. After all, he was well aware of the potential of Demon Slayer. It wasn't time for this animation to really shine yet. It was no surprise that after just the first episode, its popularity wasn't very high and its reputation was merely average.
It was only because everyone was so accustomed to L.S Produ's flagship animations being strong performers year after year that they felt disappointed when Demon Slayer didn't show the same dominance after its first episode aired.
In reality, if this were any other animation company, they would probably be overjoyed with the performance after the first episode. After all, while the reception was just "not great," it certainly wasn't "bad," and while its popularity didn't reach the level of a chart-topper, it was by no means low either.
To put it bluntly, it was simply that the people at L.S Produ held themselves to too high a standard.
Lin Zhiyan naturally wouldn't tell them how strong Demon Slayer's future potential was, only saying: "...
To put it bluntly, it was just that the people at L.S Produ had too high standards for themselves.
Lin Zhiyan naturally wouldn't tell them just how much future potential "Demon Slayer" had. He simply said, "There's no 'but' about it. You weren't the ones who decided to make this animation; I was. Your task is to do a good job with it; everything else is not for you to worry about. Even if anyone should be disappointed, it should be me..."
He paused, then added, "It's only the first episode; it's still very early. Don't be misled by those negative reviews. Just keep control of the quality of every episode, and when the time comes, they will know just how wise a decision it was for us to choose to adapt this work."
"Huh?"
Everyone was a bit surprised.
They hadn't expected Lin Zhiyan to still be so confident in this animation at this point.
"Alright," Lin Zhiyan clapped his hands. "Buck up, everyone. I'll say it again: it doesn't matter if the original work is good enough or not. Regardless of whether it's good or bad, we must give it our all to produce an animation that satisfies the audience."
After boosting their morale, Lin Zhiyan returned to his office and became as busy as ever.
As time passed week by week, episodes of "Demon Slayer" continued to air.
After the very first episode, there were indeed quite a few people who gave the anime negative reviews, wondering if LSP had chosen the wrong work this time.
Starting from the second episode, the number of negative reviews decreased, and praise actually began to grow, with everyone complimenting LSP's production quality and how well they had adapted the series.
This wasn't surprising; after all, those who gave negative reviews initially didn't do so because LSP's work was poor, but rather because they felt the original work wasn't worthy of LSP's talent. Furthermore, while the original "Demon Slayer" didn't have many standout features, it also had very few flaws and successfully avoided many pitfalls. Under such circumstances, those who were going to give negative reviews basically did so after the first episode.
They wouldn't wait until the second episode.
To put it simply, those who continued to watch into the second episode didn't care about the quality of the original work, and since the production quality of the anime was genuinely strong and the plot lacked any major turn-offs, it was only natural that its reputation would improve.
As its reputation improved, the anime's popularity also slowly began to rise.
With the progression of the plot and the increase in combat scenes, the anime's popularity shifted from "not high" to "high."
As for the reason, it is mainly because the moves used by the characters in the animation have very spectacular special effects, creating a strong visual impact that attracts many elementary school students to watch.
High school students or adults, having seen many excellent animations or manga, often feel that the plot of "Demon Slayer" is not outstanding at all, and even if Ufotable's production is very attentive, it is difficult to make them interested.
Elementary school students are different.
For them, complex plots or settings are not good at all; simpler is better and easier to understand. Having not seen many excellent works, they also don't find the story of "Demon Slayer" clichéd.
Of course, the more important reason is that the special effects of this animation are so well done, giving them a feeling of coolness.
Cool is enough.
The cooler it is, the more it can win the hearts of elementary school students.
Plot?
What's that? It's not needed at all.
While some people didn't even realize it, and there were still quite a few people on the internet disparaging the "Demon Slayer" animation, it was actually quietly becoming popular in various elementary schools.
Discussions about this animation also became a major topic for many elementary school students during recess.
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