I loaded the geek game

Chapter 713: The First Episode is a Western Ghost Story
Takahashi Fumiya, an amateur film critic.

I run a personal channel on YouTube with a decent number of fans.

Tonight is the first night that GENIE’s new anime “Karasu Tengu’s Yokai Exorcism House” will be broadcast on TV.

Takahashi had been sitting in front of the TV early in the morning. He was planning to make a review video about this new anime on his own channel.

For this purpose, they even set up a video recorder and prepared to record the entire content of the new series.

This is how TV broadcasts work, there is no way to pause or rewind, so in order to better discover the details in this anime and make the videos you make have more content, you can only rely on peripherals.

Takahashi has watched the promotional video of "Karasu Tengu's Yokai Extermination House" several times on GENIE's official website.

To be honest, he is looking forward to this new anime.

After all, he was a loyal fan of GENIE's previous work "Miss Mary", and he was also a fan of the virtual anchor "Mary-chan" who had a subtle connection with GENIE.

Even if we put aside these personal emotional factors, the quality and sincerity of the new work shown in the promotional video of "Karasu Tengu's Yokai Exorcism House" are impeccable.

The pictures shown in the promotional shots are very fine and gorgeous, and the soundtrack is also of a high standard. It is obvious at first glance that a huge amount of money was spent on it.

Moreover, in the promotional video, there is a flash of a Gothic doll sitting in a dim cabin.

GENIE has clearly stated that Mary from the previous work "Mary, the Uncertain Lady" will make a guest appearance as a supporting role in an episode of "Karasu Tengu's Monster Retreat".

This time you have to watch it!

"GENIE is an animation company that only appeared last year, but in terms of the funds for producing animation, it is far ahead of most of the major companies in the industry. To put it more exaggeratedly, it feels like they don't care about the cost, and the first goal of making animation is not to make money."

"Perhaps their business policy is to invest heavily in building strong ships and powerful guns, and win by outstanding quality?"

"It's also possible that... GENIE isn't short of money at all. If that's the case, then the somewhat outrageous inference that has been circulating on the Internet might be true."

The outrageous inference that has always existed on the Internet refers to——

The person playing the virtual anchor "Mary-chan" who has close ties with GENIE Studio is actually the daughter of a wealthy family.

Whether it was debuting as a V under a disguise or setting up a company to produce animation, it was just that this young lady happened to be in the mood to experience life.

Therefore, whether you are watching live broadcast or anime, everyone should watch it and cherish it.

Maybe one day this mysterious young lady will get tired of playing and stop playing house with the common people.

Because of the existence of this hypothesis, Mary-chan's live broadcast room and GENIE studio attracted a lot of people to watch the fun.

"Is it really possible for a rich girl to have so much free time? And Genie is very ambitious. It doesn't look like she's just playing around."

When he thought of this hypothesis, Takahashi Fumiya couldn't help laughing.

It doesn't matter what the truth is, anyway, for a fan like him, the emergence of a company in the animation industry that is willing to spend a lot of money to polish its works is a good thing no matter how you look at it.

While waiting for the broadcast of "Karasu Tengu's Yokai Extermination House", Takahashi's phone kept vibrating.

There was a group chat in LINE called "GENIE Club" that kept popping up messages.

This small group is called a club, but in fact it only has three members, Takahashi and his two good friends from high school - Hidaka Tsunayoshi and Shimokawa Yoji.

Last year, it was also because of the two good friends that Takahashi watched the TV premiere of the anime "Mary Chan" together. Not only did he successfully accept the recommendation of the anime, but he also became a fan of "Mary-chan".

And now all three of them are in college.

Because they went to different universities, the three of them had less time to meet each other, but they still chatted on LINE from time to time.

Like tonight, because of the first broadcast of "Karasu Tengu's Monster Extermination House", Hidaka and Shimokawa were chatting enthusiastically in the group -

"Have you seen the promotional trailer for Karasu Tengu's Monster Extermination House? The main theme is 'Beautiful Picture Scroll of Monster Extermination', which is awesome!"

"Of course I have. Ms. Kamiya, the animation supervisor of GENIE Studio, is so beautiful! She can be a star without any problems."

“Where are you focusing your attention?”

"But she's really beautiful, like an office lady. So, is there a possibility that Miss Kamiya is the one that Marie-chan is looking for?"

"That's impossible. I can't imagine that they are the same person. I feel that the person in Mary-chan's story is more like the financial backer of that company. He won't show up in that documentary."

"You don't even know what contrast cuteness is!"

"…Hold on, your nerdy vibe is overflowing through my phone screen."

"Oh, what a pity. Speaking of which, Mary-chan's live broadcast frequency has dropped a lot this year. If she had been more diligent in live broadcasting, Mary-chan would have had a good chance of becoming a top anchor this year."

"Maybe it's because GENIE is too busy. Isn't it said that the second season of "Mary's Uncertainty" is already in production, and now a new monster show is being launched."

“That’s what I said. But I still want more people to feel the charm of the goddess of fortune. No matter who you are, become a believer of Mary-chan! Mammon forever!”

"Mammon!"

"..."

Takahashi casually flipped through his friends' chat history, and then found that the topic had shifted to the topic of Miss Mary being the "lucky goddess".

Whether it is the virtual anchor Mary-chan or "Miss Mary", such an image has been created.

In a sense, Hidaka and Shimokawa are both "loyal believers" of Mary-chan.

Especially this guy Hidaka, who always said that he was able to be admitted to Hokkaido University with such great success because of Miss Mary's luck.

...I don't know who was the one who practiced questions until the early morning every day during the preparation period.

Takahashi felt that Hidaka was able to get into a good university entirely because of his final efforts.

However, maybe the so-called "Goddess of Luck" also had an influence. That guy seemed to really want to prove to everyone that being a fan of Mary would really bring good luck...

Childish! Ridiculous!
After chatting for a few minutes in the group, Takahashi locked his phone and put it back on the desktop.

Then he glanced at the TV that was still playing commercials and clasped his hands together silently: "Ms. Mary, please continue to bless my channel data to rise."

But then again——

Anyway, it doesn't cost any money to "believe in" Miss Mary. It's just a matter of talking and thinking about it.

Takahashi, who is always rational and serious, also believes it to some extent.

……

It's half past twelve in the morning.

"Karasu Tengu's Yokai Extermination House" is broadcast on time on TBS TV.

After a passionate and gorgeous OP, the screen fades to black.

The first thing that catches your eye is the castle streets with a strong Edo period style.

The whole area is a two-story building made of brick and wood, with a thick black tile roof. Then the picture zooms out and several tall Western-style buildings of different styles appear across the street from the "Tibetan-style buildings".

You can even see the American flag flying on top of the western-style building.

This is the initial stage of the story of the anime, Yokohama at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate. The western-style building that appears in the picture is the American consulate that was the first to blast open the door to Japan.

On the streets you can see Japanese people wearing kimonos or suits, and near the consulate there are blond-haired, blue-eyed Westerners hanging out.

The opening shot is delicately painted, vividly showing the heterogeneous mixture of Japanese and Western culture during the period of the anti-Qing Dynasty movement.

This sense of conflict in the pictures, set against a special historical background, immediately caught Takahashi Fumuya's attention.

He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief: "Sure enough, GENIE did more than just make the images in the promotional video excellent."

The camera moves forward along the street and enters a Japanese-style mansion. Because a family crest appears in the picture, this should be the mansion of a daimyo.

A boy of five or six years old, dressed in a kimono, walked along the empty corridor.

"The upper teeth were placed under the porch floor, and the lower teeth were thrown on the roof. I lost my upper teeth, so, the floor... the floor..." the boy said vaguely.

In traditional Japanese buildings, the floor is kept at a certain distance from the ground to prevent moisture, so there is a small dark space.

The boy came to the outside corridor, squatted down, and raised his hand to throw his baby tooth onto the floor.

But his movements suddenly stopped.

There came a subtle and very dense sound under the floor of the corridor, like the sound of insects flapping their wings.

clap clap clap!

Then, groups of winged "flying insects" that flashed with strange light suddenly emerged from under the floor of the corridor!

The boy fell to the ground.

And on the floor of the outer corridor, the sound of flapping wings was still heard, but this time it was no longer dense, but even louder.

The little boy pinched his baby teeth and looked tremblingly at the small space under the floor again.

All I saw was a twisted woman curled up in the narrow darkness.

The woman had transparent insect-like wings on her back, which were hitting the bottom of the floor violently with a "pat pat" sound.

"tooth..."

She moaned and reached out towards the camera.

"Wow!!!!"

The scene ends abruptly with the boy's scream, and the story officially begins here.

Takahashi Fumiya's interest was successfully aroused by the opening plot, and he began to record the main points of the plot: "The first episode is actually a Western horror story? It's related to teeth... Tooth Fairy? Interesting."

As Takahashi began to write, the plot continued to advance.

The scene has shifted to a bookstore building, where one of the protagonists of this work, Ryuken Igarashi, is smilingly talking to a man dressed as a samurai with a long sword.

Samurai: "...That's how it is. This time, I'll leave the monster extermination to you, Igarashi."

"Sure, say hello to your master for me."

Igarashi is a feminine young man with squinty eyes. He looks shrewd and not to be trifled with.

"Yeah." The warrior stood up and left.

Igarashi and a maid in kimono were the only ones left in the study.

"What? I clearly asked you, Long Xian, to do something for me, yet you're still acting so arrogant." The maid was indignant.

"Hehe, don't worry about it."

"He doesn't say it, but he just looks down on us!"

"Well, well." Igarashi shrugged and walked to the counter of the bookstore:

"The samurai always look down on us businessmen. It has always been like this. They say that townspeople are calculating, greedy, and short-sighted. I am so tired of hearing this."

"But if you ask me, the samurai who only speak clichés and have no idea of ​​adapting are the ones who are truly short-sighted."

Igarashi opened the secret drawer of the counter and saw a long gun and a short gun neatly placed inside.

He took the short musket that looked extremely sophisticated in front of him, opened his slightly squinting eyes, and made an imaginary shooting gesture towards the camera: "After all, times have changed."

……

The opening of "Karasu Tengu's Monster Retreat" is fascinating.

The suspense created by the Western horror story Tooth Fairy appearing in Yokohama is enough to keep the audience watching attentively and looking forward to the subsequent plot development.

Then, through Igarashi's perspective, some of the background settings of this work are gradually unfolded——

Because the Black Ship Incident opened Japan's door to the world, the shogunate's rule was in turmoil.

The pro-shogunate faction, which was loyal to the shogunate, was fighting openly and secretly with the anti-shogunate faction, which was under the banner of "respecting the emperor" but actually intended to overthrow the shogunate's rule. In addition, Western forces were mixed in.

The entire Japanese society was in chaos and unrest.

Such a situation led to frequent incidents of monsters. In addition, as Westerners and Western ideas entered Japan, some strange stories that originally existed in the West also appeared in Japan.

This is how the Tooth Fairy that appeared in the first episode came about.

As Igarashi begins to investigate the Tooth Fairy incident, an old woman with black teeth begins to appear in the audience's field of vision again in the daimyo's mansion...

The suspense of the story was further heightened.

Takahashi: "So, the new work not only depicts the background of the conflict between Japan and the West during the anti-shogunate movement, but also the ghost story is developed based on this tone? The tooth fairy of Western children changing their teeth and the Japanese custom of blackening teeth are a very clever combination of the two..."

"So is this also the reason why Mary appeared in Japan during this period?"

The monster stories written by Mr. Suliu are still as exciting as ever!
It is good at creating suspense but never drags on, and the plot is smooth and exciting.

Moreover, the new work gives a completely different impression from the story told in "Mary Mary". Because it takes a different approach, it is very novel and does not feel like a rehash of the past.

Takahashi had previously highly praised the emerging animation scriptwriter "Suru" in his interpretation of "Mary Fluffy".

Sure enough, Mr. Soryu will not disappoint people. The new anime he directs has a very exciting plot.

Expectations are high!
Because it is the premiere tonight, TBS TV station broadcast two episodes of "Karasu Tengu's Monster Extermination House".

The second episode ends with Igarashi fighting the Tooth Fairy with a musket after the truth of the Tooth Fairy incident is revealed, accidentally unlocking the seal of an ancient shrine and releasing Karasu Tengu's divine power "Crow".

Because "Karasu Tengu's Yokai Extermination House" obviously had sufficient funding, the fighting scenes are very sophisticated and gorgeous.

Moreover, the setting that Igarashi uses firearms to defeat the ghost story is also very interesting.

The picture on the TV finally stopped at——

Under a large moon in the sky, Karasu Tengu "Crow" spread out its jet-black wings, covering most of the sky, and hung silently in the air, staring down at the camera of Igarashi.

Takahashi Fumuya was so absorbed in watching the show that he didn't come back to his senses until the ED was played, when he took a deep breath.

"……it's over?"

At this time, the clock had already turned to two o'clock in the morning.

This one and a half hour went by too fast, it’s totally not enough.

Another protagonist, “Crow”, also appeared. I really want to know what happened next!
(End of this chapter)