A few days later, the interview transcript in the animation magazine was released, and unsurprisingly, it sparked a round of discussion:
"'This performance of Demon Slayer isn't considered a highlight moment?' The first thought I had when I saw that sentence was—'Who is being so arrogant?' Then I realized, it's Lin Zhiyan; he actually has the qualifications to say that."
"If we're talking about Old Thief Lin's highlight moments, there are simply too many. Demon Slayer's current achievements really don't deserve to be called his highlight moment."
"The most iconic one should be Your Name, which became a global phenomenon, followed by Puella Magi Madoka Magica, I suppose? And then probably Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion? Back then, it dominated the charts and was a phenomenal anime that countless people imitated. Compared to the achievements of those previous titles, Demon Slayer really has a significant gap."
"He can't guarantee that a certain anime will be a hit? I don't believe it. Others might not be able to, but Old Thief Lin must have some unique secret technique; otherwise, how else do you explain why every one of his anime is such a hit?"
"I don't believe it. Others might not be able to guarantee it, but Old Thief Lin must have some secret technique; otherwise, how else can you explain why every one of his animations is such a huge hit?"
"If I say I don't believe Old Thief Lin didn't know Demon Slayer would be a hit, I'd be lying. At most, he just didn't know it would be a hit that transcends the anime circle—that's something no one could have predicted."
"The animation department and the cinematography department are both top-notch, and the other departments aren't bad either? Why not just say the entire LSP production team is top-notch? That is a fact, after all."
"He's on track to achieve his goal as a producer before 2022. It's 2019 now, so it seems LSP will have big moves next year and the year after. I just don't know what the main animation projects for those years will be."
Mentioning Lin Zhiyan's goal as a producer, many people quickly started guessing:
"Next year should be the second season of Uma Musume, right? I just don't know if the mobile game will be released by then. If it is, it could boost the popularity of the entire IP, drawing more attention to the animation. Once the animation finishes airing, they can just toss in the 'King's Power' of the mobile game, and BD sales should easily reach 70,000 or 80,000."
"70,000 or 80,000 isn't enough for Lin Zhiyan to achieve his goal as a producer. EVA had an average volume sales of 200,000, after all."
"70,000 or 80,000 still isn't enough for Lin Zhiyan to achieve his goal as a producer; EVA has an average volume sales of 200,000."
"If it's only 70,000 or 80,000 in sales, it wouldn't even beat the second season of Love Live!."
"If it's not the second season of Uma Musume, I really can't think of what trump card Lin Zhiyan would play. An original animation is definitely impossible, and neither a manga adaptation nor a light novel adaptation could achieve such high sales. The only slight possibility is a game adaptation with the 'King's Power' thrown in. But even if it were the second season of Uma Musume, I feel it's completely impossible for it to beat EVA."
"Do you guys think it's possible that Lin Zhiyan is just bluffing, and he actually can't come up with an anime project that surpasses EVA in disc sales or Spirited Away in box office?"
"TV anime is almost finished. In recent years, anime with sales of 10,000 or 20,000 could become the annual champion. The situation with animated films is relatively better, but it's hard to imagine an animated film appearing that would surpass Spirited Away in box office."
"Lin Zhiyan: I was just saying it casually, I didn't expect you guys to actually believe it."
In fact, when Lin Zhiyan publicly announced his goal online back in 2014, most people didn't believe it could be achieved.
When the first season of Uma Musume came out in 2018, Lin Zhiyan was interviewed by an animation magazine. Not only did he not conveniently forget his goal, but he even said that there was hope of achieving it before his new anime, for which he served as supervising director, was released.
Now that 2019 is almost over, with less than four months left, and having seen no new major anime from L.S Produ—leaving only 2020 and 2021—it makes people feel that Lin Zhiyan's goal is even less likely to be realized.
The saying that Lin Zhiyan's goal was just idle talk and shouldn't be taken seriously is gaining more and more traction among netizens.
However, even so, many people are still quite concerned about L.S Produ's new anime projects, especially those for 2020.
Although 2019 isn't over yet, some of the projects for anime airing in 2020 have already been announced.
But what surprised many people was that regardless of whether it was L.S Produ or L.S Animation, very little project information was released, which strongly suggested that both animation companies would be reducing production next year.
Of course, no one thought much of it, assuming it just wasn't time for the announcement yet.
Week after week went by, and the anime "Demon Slayer" continued to air one episode per week on television.
The strike of the "Hinokami Kagura" in episode 19 caused "Demon Slayer" to break into the mainstream, though no other clips managed to achieve the same level of viral success afterward.
However, the anime had already become a hit, attracting so many people from outside the fandom that it maintained extremely high popularity even without another viral moment.
It could be said that after episode 19 aired, the show became a chart-topping hit, and from then until its conclusion, no other currently airing anime could shake "Demon Slayer" in terms of popularity.
It was inevitable that no other scenes would go viral, as after the Mount Natagumo Arc ended, there was only the Rehabilitation Training Arc left.
The Rehabilitation Training Arc focused on introducing the leader of the Demon Slayer Corps and several core Hashira, as well as showing the main cast recuperating, training to get stronger, introducing Kanao Tsuyuri—who had appeared before but hadn't interacted much with the main cast—and receiving their next mission.
There weren't many battle scenes, and the plot didn't have many twists; it was mostly daily life. In such a situation, it was naturally hard to break through to a wider audience, but because there were no major flaws in the plot that would make people bored enough to drop the series, its popularity was maintained without dropping.
In short, the final few episodes landed smoothly.
The first season had a total of 26 episodes, and the final episode aired on the evening of September 29.
After it concluded, before everyone could even give an overall evaluation of the anime, L.S Produ suddenly announced a new animation project: production of the Demon Slayer theatrical film "Mugen Train Arc" was decided.
It is expected to be released in October 2020.
Once this news came out, the anime's fans were naturally pleasantly surprised and expressed their anticipation, saying they would definitely go to the cinema to watch it when the time came.
Many of Lin Zhiyan's fans, however, began to speculate: The theatrical film to be released in October 2020...
Could this be one of the two cards Lin Zhiyan wanted to play?
In Lin Zhiyan's view, does this theatrical film have the potential to surpass Spirited Away at the box office?
Or was it that Lin Zhiyan really just said it casually, only to gain attention for his own animation, and didn't actually believe this anime's box office could surpass Spirited Away?
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