A perfect life starting from a light novel writer

This year's April in Dragon Kingdom was extremely miserable for the animation industry.

There are only 72 new animations aired in total, which is 30 less than last year.

And among them, there are 47 low-cost animations with an investment of less than 15 million, 21 animations with a medium-cost investment of 15 million to 30 million, and only 4 animations with an investment of more than 30 million.

This also includes the rebellious Lelouch. Although it is claimed to have a total budget of 170 million, in fact, the more than 20 episodes of the first season of this work have a total investment of 97 million. As for Whether the production cost will change later, Xia Yan will have to make adjustments based on the market response to the work.

Those high-cost animations of the battle, different world, fantasy, and passionate genres that were scheduled to be released in April last year were almost collectively moved to July after learning that Xia Yan's Lelouch was also competing at the same time. October or even January next year.

This makes the animation market in April this year look a bit miserable. The other three animations with investment amounts of more than 30 million are all romance, comedy, and daily-style animations. They really cannot compete with Lelouch. Presumably, the broadcast of Lelouch would not have caused a sharp drop in BD and copyright sales during the same period, so I had to bite the bullet and compete with Lelouch at the same time.

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However, the emergence of this phenomenon also makes many practitioners in the industry feel very unhappy.

Because including the three major animation companies Yuanling, Long and other companies, the works they originally planned to broadcast this quarter have also changed their schedules.

After all, the year before last and the year before last, I had suffered big losses, and my ambitious animation, which I had spent 70, 89, 80, 90,000,000 on, was defeated by Xia Yan's Magic Circle, Edge Walker, everything from TV station ratings to BD sales market, peripherals sales, overseas rights bidding.

I almost didn't get my money back.

Just hilarious.

This year, the three major companies are not convinced. You, Xia Yan, are awesome, right? How long will your Lelouch influence last? It only lasts a few months, so just avoid it. In July and October, in the animation market, we will still be weak in this industry.

Many people in the industry are also laughing at the behavior of the three major animation companies.

"I'm already mentally exhausted."

"Who can make three works a hit for three consecutive years? I'm not questioning Xia Yan's strength, but I think that no matter how good he is, there will always be a period of underestimation of his creations, right? Just twelve months a year, In those one or two months, I showed off my brain, created a piece of garbage, and confidently invested hundreds of millions to make it into an animation. Yes, I am talking about Lelouch. Is it possible that Lelouch will become a big deal after it is broadcast? Pounce!"

"Objectively speaking, your conjecture is entirely possible, but I just don't believe it."

"Who dares to bet? The three major animation companies are commercial companies. The less they save, the less they make money. They are not shabby."

"But think about it, the three major companies that have dominated the Dragon Kingdom animation industry for decades are now being suppressed and beaten by an animation production company that has been established for a few years. How can they tolerate it?"

"I couldn't bear it last year and the year before, so I was beaten!"

"What you said above made me laugh.

"In the animation market in April this year, what I'm looking at is Lelouch. There are only four animations with an investment of more than 30 million? It's really ridiculous."

"But I heard from my friends at Magic City TV1 that Lelouch's animation seems to have more than 20 episodes, and it is a medium-length animation that will be broadcast for two consecutive seasons! If this is not done well, the autumn animation market will also be affected. Influence it.”

"Animation novella? Real or fake?"

"But some of my friends also said that they heard that Lelouch is a kind of annual animation, with forty or fifty episodes."

"Don't believe the hearsay. Who knows what contract Modu TV1 signed with Xia Tang Animation? There will be more than 20 episodes at once, more than 50 episodes at once. I think the summer market may end and this animation will be finished. , as is Cyber ​​Friend Edgewalker.”

"But if it is really a new year animation, then you should watch it. If Lelouch's popularity can reach the level of Madoka and Edgewalker, and it lasts so long, I think the fans of Dragon Kingdom animation will be huge for a long time. Most of the energy will not be put into other animations.”

"Indeed, the purchasing power and time of Dragon Kingdom animation fans are limited. Many animation fans are students. A month's pocket money is enough to buy a few animation BDs, one or two figures or peripherals. They will only buy popular items on the market. Derivatives of the highest and best animated works, otherwise there wouldn’t be so many works from so many companies hiding from Lelouch. After all, time staggering is necessary.”

"Okay, let's see what happens when Lelouch No. 4 premieres."

In the animation industry, everyone's eyes are fixed on the broadcast of Lelouch.

Magic City TV1 has collaborated with Xia Yan on two animations in a row. The two parties are familiar with each other, and even competed for the right to broadcast Lelouch's works between April and June this year at an outrageous price of 70 million.

Of course, Magic City TV1 is not stupid. Xia Yan’s popularity in Dragon Kingdom is obvious to all. In the three fields of comics, animation and light novels, even if the fan groups overlap with each other, there are tens of millions of people who are willing to support Xia Yan. A terrifying market where works are consumed.

After his works were broadcast, major companies in the Dragon Kingdom were willing to pay large sums of money to sponsor their products.

Generally speaking, Modu TV1 can even make a huge profit from this transaction.

Starting from April 1st, the TV station has been broadcasting the preview video of Lelouch crazily whenever there is free time.

And the TV station's program schedule is also full.

Lelouch is broadcast at 8 pm on Sunday, but in fact, from the next Monday to the next Saturday, this animation will be replayed once a day in the morning, noon, afternoon, evening, and late at night, absolutely meeting the needs of TV fans at all time points.

It doesn't matter if fans don't have time to watch the animation premiere. It premieres once on Sunday and is replayed six times in different time periods on the other six days of the week. It's not that they can't find time to watch it, right?

After spending a lot of money to buy the animation, Shanghai TV1 must squeeze the value to the maximum. After all, it costs 70 million and can only be broadcast for three months. It's a rip-off.

As for the offline promotion in major first-tier cities, Xia Yan paid for it himself.

In the first three days of April, the new series that started this quarter were broadcast one after another.

As for the results.

It basically meets the investment amount of these works.

The TV stations in various places, or in Shanghai and Beijing, had a premiere ratings ranging from 0.1% to 3%.

The best work was the funny campus animation "The Neighbor with a Crazy Brain!" with an investment of 42 million yuan.

The premiere ratings were 2.72%.

This result can only be said to be so-so.

Although TV stations in Shanghai and Beijing have the potential to make a work soar to more than 6% ratings, in fact, without excellent works, no matter how large the traffic of their TV platforms is, it will be useless.

After a few days, as everyone predicted, there is no animation with explosive potential in the animation market this quarter.

Finally

The time came to the fourth.

A sunny day, for most ordinary people in Longguo, this day is no different from an ordinary weekend.

But for Xia Yan's fans, the forums and fan groups have already started celebrating the New Year since daytime.

"Finally I've waited for this day. It's three o'clock in the afternoon now, and there are still five hours."

"Brothers, go!"

"I don't know what Xia Yan is doing now?"

"He is holding a fan meeting in the capital. Don't say it. I'm there now."

"Damn, he's running so far to the capital?"

"He has been to five cities this week. I've never seen him work so hard. Looking at his attitude towards this work, I feel that Lelouch will definitely be of high quality."

"Indeed, this work is not at the same level as Madoka Magica and Edgewalker from the publicity, trailer, to production costs. The final results should be better."

"I still don't believe that the results of Madoka Magica will be surpassed."

"It's actually quite exaggerated. Two years ago, an animation with an investment of more than 10 million has become an insurmountable mountain in the animation industry of Dragon Country. Although Edgewalker is already very strong, the sales of TV animation BDs and theatrical BDs of this work have been fixed by now. They are all a little worse than Madoka Magica, ranking second in the Dragon Country history volume, what a pity. "

"Now in the entire Dragon Country, no one has the strength to challenge Madoka Magica's achievements, except Xia Yan Lao Ze himself. He has always said that Madoka Magica is not the pinnacle of his creative history, and he doesn't want to be a person who debuts at the pinnacle. I hope Lao Ze's wish can be realized in Lelouch. "

"I feel that if you want to surpass Madoka Magica, you must jump out of the inherent framework of Dragon Country's previous works. Although Cyberpunk is excellent, it still doesn't feel subversive, so the results are a little worse. As for Lelouch, anyway, according to the promotional trailer, it's all new things. Let's not talk about the superpowers. The giant robot element is the most important. If Lao Ze can shape this thing well, it feels like it will set off a huge wave of popularity among Dragon Country animation fans. "

In the major fan groups and forums of Dragon Country, fans' discussions about Lelouch before the broadcast continued until the evening, and after dinner at six o'clock, it reached its peak.

At 7 o'clock, it is the daily news time. After the half-hour news, it is the weather forecast and the usual long GG time of Magic City TV1.

The time came to 7:45

The ratings of Magic City TV1 finally ushered in the rapid increase that everyone expected.

From 2.31% after the weather forecast, it rose to 3.5% in three minutes, and then at 7:50, this data broke 4%

The employees of Magic City TV1 who pay attention to the real-time ratings of the TV station are also beating fast at this moment.

After all, the leaders of the station and a large group of employees in the station are now paying attention to these data with him at the TV station headquarters.

Although Magic City TV1 is one of the best TV stations in Longguo, he has never encountered such a situation that the ratings of the TV station have risen to 4% before the premiere of a work.

It is much stronger than the appeal of those so-called TV emperors and TV queens in Longguo.

7:55

Zeng Lu put down his mobile phone, stopped the water group, and turned on the TV of Magic City TV1.

As she expected, the TV station is still broadcasting the trailer video of Code Geass that she has watched dozens of times.

In this week, every frame of this video has been edited and analyzed by fanatical fans. Many people on the Internet have begun to analyze the plot of Code Geass based on the elements in the trailer video.

Zeng Lu has also paid attention to these analysis reports, so for an old fan like her, watching this animation is actually to explore.

What if I really guessed Xia Yan's plot setting?

I picked up the Coke and took a long sip. The sweetness and bubbles in my mouth stimulated my taste buds. At this moment, the TV screen stopped.

Zeng Lu suddenly became nervous, and the screen flickered.

The harsh chirping of cicadas sounded, and the distant view

One or two children were playing in the wild. When they turned around, they saw a huge volcano not far away, and frightened birds flying all over the sky.

Then there is

Overwhelming fighter jets and giant robots came across from the sky.

The shots on the screen deliberately portray the oppressive feeling of these weapons of war in depth.

In animation, you get what you pay for, and Xia Yan would definitely not save on the budget for the first episode of Lelouch.

Zeng Lu didn't know the plot of this work yet, but the animation's pictures conquered her in just ten minutes.

After taking care of the ordinary animations in Dragon Kingdom, I looked at Lelouch again

It's like arriving from a small mountain village to a film and television base. Everyone looks like a fairy.

A voice next to Yujie's voice sounded at this moment.

[On August 10, 2010 in the Imperial Calendar, the Holy Empire of Britannia declared war on the island country. The island country, which remained neutral in the Far East, and Britannia, the world's only superpower, focused on the underground resources of the island country in diplomacy]

The female voice briefly explained Lelouch's worldview in a brief and clear tone.

The world's only superpower?

Island country?

Zeng Lu was a little curious when she saw this setting.

The Dragon Kingdom plane belongs to that kind of multi-polar world. In addition to the Dragon Kingdom, there are two other big countries in the world that can compete with the Dragon Kingdom, so there is no concept of superpowers. Instead, it is like the Three Kingdoms on the world map.

As for island countries or something?

Even more so.

The islands surrounding the Dragon Kingdom are all Dragon Kingdom territory, and there is no island country.

Of course, Xia Yan gave the concept of an island country in his previous works, such as Initial D.

After the setting of Lelouch was revealed, the fan base of Xia Yan Long Kingdom immediately split.

"Island country? Isn't it the country where Tu Hai is located?"

"So this is the world structure of Tu Hai's world a few decades from now? The island country where Tu Hai is located was occupied by Britannia and became District 11, and many people died?"

"Holy crap, is this setting, old thief, real or fake? Isn't Tu Hai driving an 86? How come there are giant robots in this world!"

"They only said it was an island country, but they didn't say it was the Initial D world, right?"

"But both works are created by old thieves, and they are both set in an island country. However, Lelouch's technological level is obviously much better than the era in Initial D when mobile phones were not popular, but it should also be The gap is only within a few decades. After all, humans have not yet entered outer space. So, do we have a chance to watch the story of Grandpa Tu Hai flying a giant robot to fight for the island country in this animation?”

"?"

"What kind of imagination? How dare this old thief create something like this? I'm going to buy this animated bd."

"Akinayama, the god of racing, becomes the god of war who drives the giant robot of the island country? What kind of imagination is this? But don't tell me it's really interesting!"

"Okay, stop joking, even if the island country in Lelouch is the island country in Initial D. Tu Hai should not be allowed to appear. If Tu Hai really turns into a giant robot pilot, it is estimated that the dragon country will have millions Initial D racing fans are going to explode.”

Without Zeng Lu noticing, many people in the discussion group she joined were already having crazy conversations about the animation's opening plot introduction.

The opening narration world view introduction ends

Two children, Lelouch and Suzaku, stood in the ruins and looked at each other.

"Suzaku, I will destroy Britannia!"

Lelouch's eyes were full of hatred, and his childish voice fell. This sentence is the main thread running through Lelouch's entire work.

subsequently

The op song of this animation plays.

The main film begins.