Chapter 275: Huge Funding
One week after returning to Japan, the remote mechanism between Tsuki Animation Company and Hinotori Publishing was established.
The production of "Gundam SEED" was quickly launched. The first step was to determine the character design and body design. Takumi was in charge of both, but he did not copy the original design.
Although the original "Gundam SEED" was popular, it was somewhat old, so this time Takumi dared to embellish the details. Since it was an idol drama, the more beautiful, the more attractive.
Based on maintaining the original, he embellished each character in three aspects. After he handed over the original design, all the artists were stunned.
"President, these settings are incredible!"
"No, it's too difficult! The body and characters are so detailed that it's difficult for us to cooperate."
The Gundam in the original Gundam animation was originally very difficult to draw, requiring very fine details and computer assistance. Now that the requirements for characters and images are so high, Takumi's original design makes it difficult for many artists to work.
"What do you think I prepared for half a year?"
Takumi snorted coldly. Normally, anime are launched in a few months, but the deadline for "Gundam SEED" is very long, due to its high demands.
Takumi didn't want to be limited to routine. Since he was going to do it, he had to turn the anime into a masterpiece.
"I'm giving you two weeks to familiarize yourselves with the drawing style." He told all the artists: "You must cooperate well during this time and meet my requirements, or I will fire you!"
This sentence made the artists' faces pale, but after receiving the punishment, Takumi also offered them a carrot.
"Just do your best. As long as you can draw well. It doesn't matter if the speed is lower in the future. I'll recruit more artists to win by quantity."
"And the production cost of this anime is extremely high...", he said with one finger: "2 billion yen, which will allow you to demonstrate all your talent."
2 billion yen. Upon hearing this figure, all the artists were stunned.
Such a high production cost had never been seen in the history of Japanese anime. This figure means that the production cost of each episode of "Gundam SEED" amounts to tens of millions of yen.
Tens of millions of yen per episode...
"Oh, oh, oh, oh!"
"It's simply insane!"
When the news broke, the anime departments in Osaka and Japan were shocked. The artists were excited to learn the budget. "Pokémon"'s production budget was 8 million yen per episode, and "Gundam SEED"'s was several times higher.
"Who is the president? He's playing a trick!"
Many at Tsuki Animation Company were curious. Takumi's identity had not been announced internally, but the collaboration with Hinotori Publishing had already aroused suspicion.
But Takumi dressed elegantly every day for work, his image changed drastically, and his information was very clear, so this suspicion did not grow.
"How great, so much funding! It seems the president wants to turn this anime into a quality film!"
"Do you think this will lead to a big loss?"
Some were excited. Others, nervous, but in any case, this funding greatly improved Tsuki Animation Company's morale.
This company's total assets do not even reach half of an anime's funding. Akiko was so excited that she almost fainted when she heard it.
But at the same time, this decision also shocked Hinotori Publishing for a while.
Genji personally called Takumi to ask him why he had made that decision. The higher the cost, the greater the pressure. Wasn't Takumi's approach very risky?
"Don't worry, you'll make money," Takumi said, reassuring him. He believed that Gundam SEED would not lose much money. In fact, it didn't matter if he lost money. The place where Gundam SEED made a profit was not in broadcasting.
Now that Japan's anime industry has gradually matured, derivative products can be sold. Takumi plans to use this anime to consolidate Gundam's leadership in one fell swoop, so that the value of models and derivative products in the future will definitely exceed 2 billion yen.
If others get ahead of him, he will undoubtedly regret it.
"Well...",
Genji could only accept it. That's the advantage of being a majority shareholder. Takumi took the initiative, and Genji simply made a suggestion. Before, if Takumi had wanted to spend 2 billion on anime, Genji definitely would not have agreed.
The huge production budget was decided, and the rest was to officially start work.
Artists took Takumi's original design and began to refine their skills. The anime departments of both locations also began to practice remote cooperation in production, and progress moved forward in an orderly manner.
During this stage, Takumi did not interfere in specific matters.
He wrote the script at home and composed the musical scores. To avoid suspicion, all the songs were anonymous. The character and machine designer did not announce it to the people below, and ordinary employees were unaware that he had created them.
There was no other option. Once people knew that all of this was Takumi's work, anyone who wasn't foolish would associate him with Mirai-sensei.
In addition, the news that reached ordinary employees' ears could not be hidden from Manga Paradise. Funds for "Gundam SEED" were also leaked soon, but they did not arouse suspicion.
"2 billion yen for anime production funds! Wow! How generous that rich kid is!"
Upon learning the news, Ryuji even more despised Takumi. What anime company is not saving money to earn money now? It's simply impossible to make a profit with a budget of 2 billion yen.
"Of course he's a prodigal son. In fact, he treats anime as if it were a movie."
Ryuji despised him in his heart. Movie box office is expensive, but anime doesn't have movie box office revenue.
At that time, Manga Paradise's Gundam anime started before "Gundam SEED". It was called "The Strongest Mobile Suit" and was promoted throughout Japan.
Eiji Takashima was a little nervous. He asked Takumi if he wanted to promote it, but he refused.
"No need, let's talk about it later."
The anime hadn't even started, why would he promote it? Manga Paradise's anime will undoubtedly air first, so it will be a good way to explore the market and pave the way for "Gundam SEED".
And Takumi also had another important point: the selection of voice actors. As an idol drama, "Gundam SEED" has very high demands in all aspects, and the same goes for voice quality.
Are there so many high-quality voice actors in Japan?
Takumi thought of the voice actors he knew from his previous life, but he found nothing after searching for a few days; perhaps due to Japan's different history, he didn't find them.
However, some regions and ethnic groups in Japan teach in bilingual languages, and the same is true in Japan. Television programs here use Japanese dialects and pure Japanese, which will not affect the viewing experience.
"Should I let Osaka's voice actors do the anime?"
Takumi asked, worried. It wasn't easy to make an anime in Japan. He wanted to try making a bilingual version of "Gundam SEED". Perhaps he could find a different effect. The Japanese dialect is very expressive for anime songs, while Japanese is inferior.
After all, there are very few phenomena like Shiori...
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