After the K-On! theatrical film, Lin Zhiyan didn't know what to have Naoko Yamada work on next. However, the film wouldn't be released until at least the second half of 2011, so it was still quite early.
There was no need to make a decision immediately.
After finishing the plan and writing the script for the K-On! theatrical film, Lin Zhiyan set it aside and got busy with other matters.
As for the subsidiary Trigger, it was primarily being run by Hiroyuki Imaishi. Unless there were major losses, Lin Zhiyan wouldn't interfere.
Over at L.S Games, the first game to be made, Rage of Bahamut, already had its general planning proposal provided by Lin Zhiyan. Specific production was being handled by people he had specially poached from elsewhere. Although he had to listen to periodic reports to keep track of production progress, it didn't require much worry.
Your Lie in April had already concluded, and the second season of K-On! and the third season of Natsume's Book of Friends were about to finish, so there wasn't much left to do in those areas.
The remaining task was the promotion for the October anime season, which included Shirobako and the second season of A Certain Magical Index. This was also the main focus of his work.
Of course, the focus of the promotional work is concentrated on Shirobako. After all, A Certain Magical Index II is the sequel to a popular anime and has the foundation laid by the original work; as long as it's promoted in a standard, straightforward way, it will be able to attract a large number of viewers to follow the series.
Shirobako is a new work with no established foundation from an original source, and it's also an anime with a niche workplace theme. If it isn't promoted heavily before it airs, it's unlikely that anyone other than those interested in anime production or those already in the anime industry will pay attention to it before it premieres.
Fortunately, this anime has two promotional advantages: one is that this anime project was created specifically to celebrate the tenth anniversary of L.S Produ, and the other is that it is produced by the legendary, super-popular animation director Lin Zhiyan, and it is the first anime since Puella Magi Madoka Magica for which Lin Zhiyan has written the script under his own name.
The significance is very special.
These two advantages were not possessed by the original Shirobako from the other timeline. To put it bluntly, the reason the original Shirobako was able to become a hit and, in an environment where the disc market was incredibly sluggish, managed to sell an average of 18,000 units per volume in 2015 without the support of "King's Power," was purely due to the rock-solid quality of the animation.
For this version of Shirobako by Lin Zhiyan, while the quality certainly had to be top-notch, his goal for the average sales per volume was far beyond 18,000. Therefore, they couldn't rely solely on quality; the pre-release promotion also needed a major push.
The project was announced on February 5th, and over the following months, more information, including the main promotional visual, was released bit by bit. The first PV came out in August, but it was only about half a minute long and mainly focused on showcasing the professional images of the five most important characters: Aoi Miyamori, Ema Yasuhara, Shizuka Sakaki, Misa Toudou, and Midori Imai.
The second PV, released in September, was the official one. It contained clips or scenes from the actual show, such as:
At the beginning of the first episode, during the high school graduation ceremony in the club room, the five girls—the soon-to-graduate Aoi Miyamori, Ema Yasuhara, and Shizuka Sakaki, along with their two underclassmen Misa Toudou and Midori Imai—each held a donut, each saying a small part of the line: "Someday, absolutely, definitely, no matter what, the five of us will work together to make an anime!"
Then, the five of them formed a circle, bumped their donuts together, and raised them high while shouting the slogan: "Lots of donuts, create with all our might!"
The five beautiful girls are all smiles, looking as if they are brimming with happiness, which gives a very healing feeling. The five of them promising to work together to produce an anime is in itself very inspiring.
Following this sequence are individual shots of the five girls.
Although each person only has a few seconds of screen time, it still gives a very healing and even passionate feeling. For example, main character Aoi Miyamori driving the Musashino Animation car, speeding on the road to pick up keyframes; Ema Yasuhara sitting at her desk, skillfully drawing keyframes; and Shizuka Sakaki standing in front of the sound studio building, looking confident as she arrives for an audition...
In short, this is a very healing and inspiring promotional PV.
Of course, key production information, such as animation director, script supervisor, and music director Lin Zhiyan; character designer and chief animation director Kanami Sekiguchi; and the animation production company L.SProdu, are given at the beginning of the PV. At the end of the PV, there is a more detailed list of production staff, including the sound director, director of photography, art director, color designer, 3D director, etc.
Not long after the promotional video was released, various advertisements for the animation began to appear. First, it was widely publicized online, followed by offline efforts on streets, in stations, on trains, and in various other locations where animation advertisements could be placed.
Additionally, Lin Zhiyan accepted interviews from several animation media outlets, answering questions about the new animation, "Shirobako."
For example—
Q: "Why is the animation called 'Shirobako'? Does it have any special meaning?"
A: "'Shirobako' is a professional term in the animation industry. It refers to the pre-broadcast audiovisual copies that are specially made and distributed to relevant production staff. In the past, these were VHS tapes, but now they are basically DVDs or BDs. Because they are usually put into a white box, it is called a 'Shirobako' (white box). It's quite a sentimental object to the animation industry. Since I'm making an animation about animation production, this name is, in my opinion, the most appropriate."
Q: "An animation about the production of animation will inevitably involve the entire animation industry, right? Will it mention any famous events in the industry?"
Q: "An anime themed around anime production will inevitably involve the entire anime industry, right? Will it mention any famous incidents in the industry?"
A: "Famous incidents? Not really, but common phenomena, there are quite a few. Besides, for this anime, I used my own connections to invite many well-known figures in the industry for guest appearances, and there will also be scenes featuring myself and the production staff from my company. You can look forward to that."
Q: "Doesn't it feel a bit unrealistic for the animation industry to have five beautiful girls as the protagonists of 'Shirobako'?"
A: "How should I put it... the animation industry does give people the impression that there aren't many beautiful women, but in reality, there are quite a few; I won't give specific examples, though. Moreover, not everyone in this anime is a beautiful girl; there are still many characters who didn't appear in the PV. Besides, from the audience's perspective, they definitely want to watch anime production with beautiful girls as protagonists. If it were a group of forty-year-old middle-aged men as protagonists, it might indeed feel more realistic, but the number of viewers would certainly be much lower. There's no need for that."
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