After the holiday season, as 'Castle in the Sky' and other Spring Festival blockbusters wrapped up their theatrical runs, the film market quieted down again.
The television market followed suit. With no new projects from Jing Yu airing for some time, things mostly returned to their usual rhythm — except now the competition wasn't just between the six major stations, but included Yunteng TV as well.
Still, the traditional TV industry has been under heavy pressure these past couple of years due to the rise of streaming platforms.
Unlike Jing Yu's past life in China, Great Zhou's internet landscape was more orderly — laws against monopolies were strictly enforced, and the dominant players couldn't crush new competitors so easily just by leveraging capital.
So, while many capitalists had the means and interest to enter the streaming market, the three major platforms that had risen early on still held the lead.
The only difference now was that all three had grown their subscriber base from just over ten million a few years ago to well over a hundred million today.
Aside from the works aired by traditional TV stations, the original productions from these streaming platforms were also drawing large viewership.
Realizing this, many stations began considering launching their own platforms to compete.
But entering late into the game was deadly. It wasn't just "a step behind, a step behind forever" — in reality, being late by one step meant immediate death. Just like in Jing Yu's past life, even Mango TV had its own streaming platform, but it never gained much traction.
That's why Jing Yu's early equity stake in Qingyun Video turned out to be incredibly valuable — not only did it grow nearly tenfold in value, it also gave him additional leverage.
The annual dividends from those shares were secondary. What mattered was that, as the second-largest shareholder in Qingyun Video, other companies often held back when competing with him — since they also needed to consider whether their future projects would be aired on Qingyun's platform.
With the company flush with cash and no way to burn through it all just by filming, Jing Yu began expanding into other areas of the business.
Departments for game development and merchandise sales were being strengthened. For 'Ultraman Tiga', 'Attack on Titan', and 'Gundam SEED', post-production and filming were happening in parallel, and games for all three titles had already entered early development.
In the past, due to limited manpower and tight budgets, Jing Yu had to finish a film or show before he could even think about derivative products like games.
Now, he could run all these projects simultaneously, maximizing the return. As for merch?
Jing Yu had already struck deals with manufacturing partners — the moment his shows aired, factories would immediately start producing toys and collectibles according to his specs.
By March, the entire company was humming along in an orderly rhythm.
As the company boss, Jing Yu found himself with more free time than ever.
The scripts had long been finished and handed off. Among the three productions, the only role that had mildly piqued his interest was Levi in 'Attack on Titan'.
But with Levi's height canonically under 160cm — a crucial part of the character — it was hard to adapt that without killing a key gag. Jing Yu eventually chose not to play the role.
So he poured his energy into music production for the three shows.
All three — 'Ultraman Tiga', 'Gundam: SEED', and 'Attack on Titan' — were known for legendary soundtracks.
From Gundam SEED's Akatsuki no Kuruma, Fields of Hope, Shinkai no Kodoku,
to Tiga's Miracle Reappears, Love Theme from Tiga,
to Attack on Titan's entire soundscape — honestly, it wasn't "a few good tracks," it was "which ones aren't masterpieces?"
In past adaptations, Jing Yu had usually only restored the most iconic tracks from each original, leaving other compositions to his in-house music team to handle.
But this time...
Everyone at the company realized something: their boss couldn't sit still.
Barely a month into enjoying his first real chance to live like the wealthy man he was — relaxing, traveling — he'd instead dragged the entire music department into the studio.
"I heard from someone in the music team that the boss has gone absolutely feral," one employee gossiped. "He's composed six songs this month and is already looking for vocalists to record them."
"He's a goddamn monster! Honestly, I never believed one person could be this good. Think about it — just as the hype from 'Evangelion', 'Fate/stay night', 'Your Name', and 'Castle in the Sky' started to cool off, he immediately drops three new productions. He's not even acting in them, yet now he's gone beast mode on the soundtrack side?"
"Don't try to understand the boss. You can't. His fans think he's impressive, but only insiders know how ridiculous his achievements really are."
"That said, are the new tracks any good? I mean, most of his music is solid, but there's still a range — the Fate/Zero soundtrack wasn't as memorable as Fate/Stay Night, and while the music for 'Hikaru no Go' was super fitting, nothing topped 'Déjà Vu' from 'Initial D'. That song's still in the top 30 after all these years — every newbie driver blasts it after getting their license."
"I'm telling you, the boss is on another level this time. The music department's already full of talent, and we recently hired a few more industry elites — but after recording just a few of the new tracks, they were completely crushed by the quality."
"You serious?"
"Dead serious. Especially the Attack on Titan pieces. I ran errands for the boss one day and sat in on a session — just the demo gave me goosebumps."
"No way."
"Swear to God. One of the new female vocalists nailed the vibe perfectly. The moment she started singing, chills."
"Man... our boss is seriously a 'slacker' — no filming, no new scripts, just drowning himself in music."
"Don't forget — he's a legit piano and violin prodigy too. A bunch of music-only fans in Dazhou still follow him just for his early music-themed dramas. They don't even watch his movies."
While rumors of Jing Yu's "music addiction" spread among employees, the music team itself was suffering in silence.
Even though the reference tracks had been fully translated into Great Zhou's language, finding performers who could recreate the emotion and nuance remained a massive challenge.
For some of the piano and violin-driven pieces, Jing Yu even stepped in personally to record.
By April, the summer TV season was approaching.
Jing Yu still had no new series airing this quarter. After all, 'Attack on Titan', 'Gundam SEED', and 'Ultraman Tiga' were all in post-production, which wouldn't wrap up until at least July.
That said, two internally produced dramas from his company did go live this season — and Jing Yu even made brief cameos in both, appearing for just a few minutes as a promo gimmick.
Still, these projects couldn't sell at high prices. Unlike his past hits that fetched over a hundred million just for broadcast rights, these new ones, written by other company writers, only brought in modest profits.
On Yunteng TV, their viewership hovered around 4% — and that was mostly thanks to Jing Yu's cameo.
Jing Yu, keeping an eye on things, could only sigh.
He wanted his team to create their own breakout hits — but clearly, that goal was still far off.
"Then again, if it were that easy to create a smash hit, the six major stations wouldn't have been trampled by me for years," he muttered.
The creators behind the source material he'd adapted — Shinkai Makoto, Miyazaki Hayao, Watsuki Nobuhiro, Maeda Jun — were all certified geniuses.
Is Jing Yu's own team producing work on that level? Statistically unlikely.
Come mid-April, as the summer series began airing, viewers who had been spoiled by Jing Yu's past works began growing restless.
It was like watching 'Slam Dunk' and then trying to enjoy some generic sports anime.
Or finishing 'Death Note', only to find every other psychological battle show laughably childish.
It wasn't that Great Zhou's industry hadn't progressed — actually, the average quality had improved significantly since before Jing Yu's rise.
But it still couldn't compete with the stories he was adapting.
Even moviegoers flooded the company site with demands:
"Doesn't Jing Yu have any new film projects lined up? It's been weeks since 'Castle in the Sky' ended — not even a rumor?"
"Forget movies. Let him finish those three series first. If he splits his focus, they'll just get delayed again."
"I'm losing it. It's been half a year since his last new drama."
"What are you talking about? He just released two movies two months ago."
"Movies don't count! They're barely two hours. I want a series!"
"Just give me 'Gundam SEED' already! After 'Evangelion', I couldn't find a single decent mecha series. Finally, he's doing another one — but it takes half a year to make each show! It's agony!"
"That's why he's making three at once! Otherwise, he'd be dead before he finishes them all."
"Daily reminder: Jing Yu, stop slacking. Make more art. Don't waste your precious life doing useless things."
By late April to early May, Jing Yu was laser-focused on final checks for 'Ultraman Tiga'.
There was no precedent for tokusatsu-style shows in Great Zhou, and nobody in the company had experience with live-action kaiju battles. That meant Jing Yu had to personally oversee every script and VFX sequence.
He felt confident, though.
In his eyes, their version of 'Tiga' already far exceeded the original.
Modern Great Zhou had a massive technological edge over Japan in the 90s, and with several billion invested in production, there was no way their version would look worse.
Still, while the visuals were upgraded, Jing Yu stayed loyal to the original's pacing and structure.
He only optimized where needed — this wasn't the kind of work where you rewrite everything just to show off.
So by late April and early May, Jing Yu was finalizing the scripts and cuts.
And then, in mid-May...
On May 20th, BlueStar Media& Film & TV, Yunteng TV, and Qingyun Video
jointly dropped the trailer for 'Ultraman Tiga',
breaking their long silence with perfect coordination.
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T/N:
Hello everyone! ✨
Just a quick heads-up — I won't be posting any updates next week (Monday to Saturday) because I'll be traveling for vacation ✈️🌴
Thank you for your understanding 💙 I'll see you all after the break! 😊