Inside the President's office, after briefly explaining the general outline of K-On!, Lin Zhiyan asked, "Are there any parts you don't understand?"
"Yes," Naoko Yamada raised her hand and asked, "President, does this mean you'll be serving as the animation's Assistant Supervising Director?"
"That's right," Lin Zhiyan nodded.
"In that case, why not just take the Supervising Director role yourself? With your skills, even a subject like this shouldn't be difficult for you, right?" Yamada found it utterly baffling.
"Well..." Lin Zhiyan paused thoughtfully. "Making this anime feels... too predictable."
"Predictable?" Yamada looked puzzled.
"How shall I put it? I've made too many depressing anime lately. I want to create something uplifting next, but directly taking on K-On! would be too obvious. I'd prefer my next work to keep the audience on the edge of their seats until the final episode, constantly wondering when I'll suddenly pull the rug out from under them."
Naoko Yamada: "..."
Is she deliberately trying to make the audience worry?
This... this is just too cruel!
She's practically a devil!
She could already imagine the audience's reactions before and after Lin Zhiyan's next animation was released.
President Lin is so handsome, yet so wicked. It's just... wow.
At this thought, she couldn't help but steal another glance at Lin Zhiyan.
Soon, she asked, "So, why did you specifically choose me?"
"It wasn't a must," Lin Zhiyan replied, half-truthfully. "Someone recommended you, saying that if it was you, you'd definitely make this animation a success."
"Someone recommended me?"
Naoko Yamada paused, her mind immediately jumping to the group owner of the "Paradise" chat group, "Tokyo Handsome Guy."
Hmm?
Suddenly, a realization struck her.
The group owner was called "Tokyo Handsome Guy," and Lin Zhiyan was strikingly handsome. Could it be that Lin Zhiyan was the group owner, the "Tokyo Handsome Guy" himself?
If Lin Zhiyan was "Tokyo Handsome Guy," then it couldn't have been "Tokyo Handsome Guy" who recommended her to Lin Zhiyan.
So, who had actually recommended her?
Her mind raced as she quickly asked, "Who was it?"
"I'm sorry, the source of this information must remain confidential. I can't tell anyone," Lin Zhiyan refused to answer.
"President, are you by any chance 'Tokyo Handsome Guy'?" Naoko Yamada asked again.
Lin Zhiyan paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "I've never doubted my own handsomeness, but I appreciate your compliment."
Naoko Yamada: (b-b)
She wasn't sure if Lin Zhiyan was genuinely clueless or just pretending to be.
Could 'Tokyo Handsome Guy' and Lin Zhiyan not be the same person?
That made sense. Usually, people who aren't good-looking would choose a username with 'Handsome Guy' in it. Since Lin Zhiyan is so handsome, he probably wouldn't bother with a name like 'Tokyo Handsome Guy'.
The possibility that they weren't the same person seemed quite high.
"Alright, let's get back to the main topic."
Lin Zhiyan steered the conversation back. "Do you have any more questions about the animation K-On!?"
"You'll be personally responsible for the animation's music, and you'll write the lyrics, compose the music, and arrange the insert songs, as well as the opening and ending themes. And the scriptwriter will be Takagi Makoto, correct?" Naoko Yamada asked, as if confirming the details.
"That's right."
"I've heard that although Takagi Makoto is part of our company, very few people have actually seen him, even within the company itself?"
"Are you curious about him?"
"Yes, I am very curious."
"Can you promise not to reveal anything related to this?"
"Of course, I promise I won't say a word."
"Alright, in that case, I don't mind telling you... In reality, there is no such person as Takagi Makoto. It's just a pseudonym I use. I originally created it because I wanted to write scripts with particularly delicate emotional portrayals, and I thought a pseudonym would be more suitable. But in the future, it's likely that most of our company's original animation scripts will be written under this name."
"You're Takagi Makoto?!" Naoko Yamada was very surprised.
In fact, some people in the industry had suspected that Takagi Makoto was a pseudonym used by Lin Zhiyan. However, the scripts Lin Zhiyan had written previously were completely different in style from those attributed to Takagi Makoto. While such theories persisted, they never gained widespread acceptance.
Most people assumed Takagi Makoto was simply Takagi Makoto, not a pseudonym for someone else. Some even speculated that Takagi Makoto might be Mamoru Hosoda's alias, as his appearance coincided perfectly with Hosoda's hiring at L.S. Produ.
No one ever expected Takagi Makoto to actually be Lin Zhiyan.
Now that Lin Zhiyan had revealed himself, he no longer felt the need to conceal the truth. He openly admitted, "That's right, I am Takagi Makoto. So, it's not that only a few people in our company have met Takagi Makoto—everyone has. But regarding my identity as Takagi Makoto, just keep it between us. As I said before, don't tell anyone."
Naoko Yamada took a deep breath and solemnly promised, "I understand. I won't say a word."
Lin Zhiyan stood up, retrieved the first season animation script for K-On! from his desk, and handed it to Yamada. "I was planning to give this to you a few days later, but since you know I'm Takagi Makoto now, it doesn't matter. Take it home and read it thoroughly. After you're done, we can discuss how to approach the animation in detail."
Naoko Yamada took the animation script, flipped through it casually, and quickly raised her hand. "Um... I just want to confirm, I'm the Supervising Director for this animation, right? I'm not just a figurehead, a puppet in name only?"
It was understandable why she'd think that. Lin Zhiyan was responsible for the music, character design, script, and even the assistant director position. Only the supervising director wasn't him, making her feel completely surrounded by him.
It wasn't strange to suspect she was just a puppet, a shield Lin Zhiyan had put forward to deceive the audience.
However, Lin Zhiyan looked somewhat exasperated. "Of course you're the Supervising Director. If I just needed a puppet, I could have grabbed anyone from the company. There was no need to specifically recruit you."
He paused, then continued, "Although I'm the assistant director for this animation, my main purpose is to support you. I'm here to prevent anyone in the production team from causing trouble just because you're an outsider and so young. It's to ensure the animation production goes smoothly. In fact, I'm working on my own new animation, but it probably won't be released until October next year."
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