February 8th, Monday.
Afternoon at Madhouse, the animation company also known as "Madhouse."
Lin Zhiyan brought Sekiguchi Kanami, the character designer from Shirobako, to pay a visit.
Their primary purpose was to meet Masao Maruyama. The reason for this was that the President of Musashino Animation in Shirobako was based on Masao Maruyama.
This was a significant character, and Lin Zhiyan didn't want to alter his likeness without necessity. Since they were drawing the character based on Masao Maruyama's appearance, they needed to obtain permission.
Bringing Sekiguchi Kanami along was mainly to allow her to observe Masao Maruyama in person, which would help her with the animation character design.
In fact, since the establishment of L.S Produ, Lin Zhiyan had never officially collaborated with Madhouse. However, some L.S key animators had occasionally helped Madhouse with their animations during their free time. Additionally, when Lin Zhiyan was still at IG, he had drawn keyframes for Madhouse productions.
Every year, the animation industry holds gatherings for prominent figures. When Lin Zhiyan first established his independence from IG in 2000, he wasn't invited. But after 2005, especially after the groundbreaking success of Puella Magi Madoka Magica, he was invited every year. This led to occasional interactions with Masao Maruyama.
Despite the significant difference in their seniority, Lin Zhiyan and Masao Maruyama, a veteran in the industry, shared a good relationship.
At this point, Masao Maruyama was no longer the President of Madhouse, but he still served as a director at the company. He wouldn't leave Madhouse until 2011, when he founded the new animation company MAPPA, which later produced Jujutsu Kaisen and the final season of Attack on Titan.
In the reception room, Lin Zhiyan first exchanged pleasantries with Masao Maruyama before explaining his purpose for the visit.
It had only been three days since the announcement of the Shirobako project, but as it was Lin Zhiyan's new animation, Maruyama naturally kept an eye on it.
After understanding Lin Zhiyan's request, he nodded. "Alright, you have my permission."
"Thank you, Maruyama-san," Lin Zhiyan said, expressing his gratitude.
"Creating an animation about animation to celebrate the company's tenth anniversary? That's a brilliant idea," Masao Maruyama said with a smile. "Good luck. I'll definitely watch it when it airs."
Lin Zhiyan thanked him again.
Following that, the two discussed Shirobako and the character Masato Marukawa, who was based on Masao Maruyama himself.
Sekiguchi Kanami's primary role was to observe, and with Masao Maruyama's permission, she took a photo.
After leaving the Madhouse office building, Lin Zhiyan immediately took Sekiguchi Kanami to another animation company to find Kyoji Mizushima.
Kyoji Mizushima was the real-life inspiration for Seiichi Kinoshita, the Supervising Director character in Shirobako. However, only his name, character design, and some of his experiences were based on him; other parts of his backstory were modeled after the original Supervising Director of the Shirobako anime.
Lin Zhiyan had known Kyoji Mizushima for much longer. They had met back in 1995 during the production of Neon Genesis Evangelion. At the time, Lin Zhiyan was a key animator working on the series, while Mizushima was one of its directors.
Because they worked for different production companies, their paths crossed rarely during the animation process. However, after the series was completed, there was a celebratory banquet, which Lin Zhiyan attended. Despite being only 19 years old, his exceptional keyframe artistry garnered widespread admiration, including from the series' Supervising Director, Hideaki Anno, and Director Kyoji Mizushima.
After founding his own animation company, Lin Zhiyan had initially sought help from Kyoji Mizushima for production work. Both Death Note and Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion featured Mizushima's contributions, so securing his participation as a favor was a given.
Upon hearing Lin Zhiyan's request, Kyoji Mizushima agreed without hesitation.
However, after accepting, he couldn't resist nudging Sekiguchi Kanami and saying, "Um... Sekiguchi-san, could you draw me a little... handsomer when the time comes?"
"Huh?" Sekiguchi Kanami nearly didn't catch his meaning.
Lin Zhiyan chuckled and reassured him, "Don't worry, I guarantee he'll be drawn as handsome as you, Kyoji-san."
"As handsome as me? That would be truly remarkable."
Kyoji Mizushima's lips twitched slightly before he quickly added, "Speaking of which, if you're looking for someone to serve as the prototype for the Supervising Director in the animation, aren't you the perfect candidate right here?"
"Me?" Lin Zhiyan pointed at himself, then shook his head. "No way. I'll be appearing directly under my real name and as the President of L.S Produ."
That was one reason. The other was that Lin Zhiyan was simply too handsome to convincingly portray the Supervising Director from the animation, Seiichi Kinoshita, who had a history of major animation failures. Lin Zhiyan, on the other hand, had no such baggage.
Kyoji Mizushima, however, wasn't thinking that deeply. He quickly asked, "Apart from me, who else have you approached for a guest appearance? There must be others, right?"
"Before coming here, I went to Madhouse and asked Maruyama-san. You're the second," Lin Zhiyan replied. "We'll be reaching out to others in the coming days, including Mr. Anno."
"Anno" naturally referred to Hideaki Anno. As a character of significant narrative importance, Mitsuaki Kanno, modeled after Anno, was an indispensable part of the story.
Even if Lin Zhiyan hadn't already known Hideaki Anno personally, he would have made it his business to meet him and secure a guest appearance. Moreover, since Anno was a director Kyoji Mizushima deeply respected, Lin Zhiyan specifically mentioned him at this point. Otherwise, he might have used someone else as an example.
Kyoji Mizushima naturally knew that "Mr. Anno" in Lin Zhiyan's words referred to Hideaki Anno. He couldn't help but ask eagerly, "Will Mr. Anno also make a guest appearance?"
"I'm planning to approach him next. He should agree, though the Supervising Director character based on you is a major role with plenty of screen time. The character based on Mr. Anno is currently only scheduled to appear in one episode of the first half of the series, with a relatively small part," Lin Zhiyan explained.
"I see."
Mizushima didn't seem disappointed. "Still, I'll look forward to it," he said quickly.
Rebirth in the Great Surfing Era
After a pause, he added, "By the way, what kind of character is the Supervising Director based on me?"
"He has a few minor flaws, but overall, he's quite reliable. Yeah, that's about it," Lin Zhiyan replied, carefully choosing his words.
"Reliable? That's good." Mizushima looked relieved, completely trusting Lin Zhiyan's words without considering the possibility that he might be talking nonsense.
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