"Who would miss you?" Nao Tsuda said with a mischievous smile.
"Don't you miss me?" Aoki Haruhi squeezed her waist tightly.
The two of them stood on the streets of Ginza, surrounded by people coming and going. Nao Tsuda had her hands in her pockets, showing not a hint of hesitation or shyness.
"Not at all." Nao Tsuda smiled slyly.
"Hmph." Aoki Haruhi snorted and let her go.
Between the two of them, Aoki Haruhi was actually the one with the thinner skin—can you believe that?
Nao Tsuda, that girl, was actually quite feminine. She was very beautiful, had a great figure, and was both capable and intelligent.
It's just that sometimes, she was stubborn as hell.
When it came to things she refused to lose at, even if you pressed her head into the ground and rubbed it, she wouldn't say the word "surrender."
Aoki Haruhi thought to himself, with such a foul-tempered woman, besides me, what other man in this world would like her?
Thinking of this, Aoki Haruhi felt a bit nostalgic for that first night.
At that time, Nao Tsuda had a look of shyness he had never seen before.
...
The two of them strolled along the street for a while before Nao Tsuda walked into a cosmetics store to browse.
Both American and Japanese cosmetic brands were quite good, and young people liked them a lot.
For Japanese girls, they could go without food in their lives, but they couldn't go without makeup.
"Miss, would you like to try this newly arrived lipstick?" the sales clerk greeted her attentively.
Nao Tsuda then sat down in front of the counter.
After trying on the lipstick, she smacked her lips, looked at herself in the mirror from different angles, and then looked up at Aoki Haruhi.
"What do you think?"
Aoki Haruhi took a look. "It's a bit dull and doesn't really suit you. You already look quite cold, and adding a dull-colored lipstick makes you seem even more aloof, like an Ice Queen."
Nao Tsuda smiled slightly, not minding it too much.
But then again...
"Ice Queen" seemed to suit her just fine.
She leaned over, asked the clerk to select a few shades from the counter, placed them on the table, and then pointed at them, asking Aoki Haruhi, "Do you think there's any difference between this one, this one, and this one?"
The ones she picked were wine red, berry red, wine red, auntie red, and tomato red...
Except for the tomato red, which was slightly different, the other shades were very similar.
Aoki Haruhi examined them one by one and distinguished the colors.
"The wine red one is probably better for the evening; it's too formal. The berry color is actually quite nice; it makes people want to take a bite. If you want to look more vibrant, use this one..."
Aoki Haruhi held up the tomato red one and smiled.
Nao Tsuda and the sales clerk were both dumbfounded.
Honestly, even girls themselves aren't necessarily able to tell lipstick shades apart, but this man could distinguish them clearly at a glance.
Everything he said about the pairing was spot on.
The sales clerk was completely bewildered.
She couldn't help but think, is this guy... you know, that kind of guy?
Do girls these days usually bring their best friends along to pick out lipstick?
"Hmm, as expected of someone who makes games; you're very sensitive to color." Nao Tsuda applauded him.
"Of course."
Aoki Haruhi was feeling quite proud inside.
In his previous life, he was just an ordinary programmer; how would he be able to tell lipstick shades apart?
Never mind lipstick shades; he couldn't even tell what kind of makeup a girl was wearing, or if she was wearing any at all.
But in this life, the original owner of this body was extremely talented in painting. After merging with those memories, distinguishing colors was now incredibly easy for him.
Aoki Haruhi could even mix these colors himself.
He could even mix lipstick colors that looked better than these.
Of course, this mixing was on a palette; it definitely couldn't be applied to the lips.
...
Nao Tsuda continued trying on lipstick, asking casually, "How is the re-release of Pokeni's onmyoji performing on the MD?"
Aoki Haruhi smiled happily, "Just so-so. It's at about 70,000 copies so far."
Tsk tsk.
Nao Tsuda raised her eyes slightly, looking at Aoki Haruhi, who looked like his tail was about to wag up to the sky. She couldn't help but laugh, "That's truly amazing, for a galgame to sell to this extent."
The sales performance this time was quite good; 70,000 copies in just three days.
A significant portion of the sales was contributed by old players.
After all, the new onmyoji not only had a significant improvement in image quality, but the IF route also fulfilled the players' wishes, making up for their past regrets.
So, it was only natural that it achieved such results.
If he had known that adding one DLC would sell so well, Aoki Haruhi would have done it a long time ago.
However, from the players' perspective, he could still understand this matter very well.
In his previous life, the players of Legend of Sword and Fairy had all hoped and expected that Softstar would make up for the regrets of Legend of Sword and Fairy 1 in one of the installments, allowing Ling'er to survive.
Even if it was just an IF route.
As long as the official team opened this route, it could spawn related animations. Even if players knew it wasn't the main storyline, they would still get some comfort in their hearts.
"That's so good," Nao Tsuda sighed.
Pokeni and DUN had aligned interests regarding this game; if the new onmyoji sold well, then DUN would also make money.
I can only blame myself for being too excellent.
Aoki Haruhi thought to himself, letting DUN catch a ride on his coattails.
But then again, without DUN, Pokeni wouldn't have survived until now.
Due to Nintendo, the two-part onmyoji series didn't have increased production later on.
Yes, old Nintendo was just that overbearing. If you wanted to produce, you had to go through them; without Nintendo's authorization, you couldn't produce cartridges privately.
As long as you were on Nintendo's platform, the number of cartridges produced had to be controlled by Nintendo.
So, up until now, the sales volume had been stuck at around 300,000 copies.
Mermaid Heart came from behind, and its sales volume had now reached 400,000 copies, which could be considered a miracle among galgames.
As for the recently released reverse degree person, it also had sales of over 300,000 copies. At first, Aoki Haruhi thought this game might break 500,000, but now it seemed there was still a distance to go to reach that goal.
Calculating carefully, these games had brought Pokeni a profit of nearly 4 billion.
Adding the income from Diablo, Pokeni now had nearly 10 billion in its account; they were simply rolling in money.
Aoki Haruhi hadn't expected that it would only take two short years to reach this point.
...
"Aoki-san."
Just then, Nao Tsuda's voice pulled Aoki Haruhi back from his happy contemplation.
Aoki Haruhi looked down and saw that Nao Tsuda had wiped off her original lipstick and was now wearing a milk tea orange shade, which made her look a bit more lively.
But it still gave one the urge to take a bite.
"Want a lipstick?" Nao Tsuda asked with a smile.
"Huh?" Aoki Haruhi was stunned for a moment.
Nao Tsuda held up the lipstick in her hand and said with a mischievous smile, "Aoki-san, you look so good; you would definitely be quite charming wearing lipstick."
The sales clerk next to them was stunned for a moment, then covered her mouth and giggled.
However, she clasped her hands in front of her chest, tilted her head, carefully imagined what Aoki Haruhi would look like wearing lipstick, and silently swallowed.
"Could you please not say such strange things? I'm a grown man; how could I possibly..."
Aoki Haruhi looked at himself in the mirror and was slightly stunned.
He remembered something very interesting and very important.
...
"Hmm? Spokesperson?"
Leaving the cosmetics store, hearing this request from Aoki Haruhi, Nao Tsuda was a bit confused for a moment.
"Yes." Aoki Haruhi nodded. "Nao-chan, do you know the boss of Johnny's? I want to talk to them about a collaboration."
"Hmm... I don't know him, but I can find someone to introduce us."
After all, DUN produced video tapes and was quite close to TV stations, media, and so on. Even if there were no business dealings before, through acquaintances, they could certainly make a connection.
Nao Tsuda thought for two seconds. "Hmm, finding an advertising spokesperson for a game seems like a pretty good idea."
But why Johnny's?
...
The president of Johnny's, Nishidagawa, was someone who made Aoki Haruhi feel a wave of disgust just hearing his name.
Even Nao Tsuda felt afraid.
If it weren't absolutely necessary, he really wouldn't want to deal with this person.
Legend has it that Nishidagawa's background is extremely deep, with his influence extending so far that almost the entire entertainment industry in Japan is connected to him.
This man could be described as a powerful figure who covers the sky with one hand in the entertainment world.
But up until now, Nishidagawa has never appeared in front of the media, and there isn't even a single public photograph of him; he is incredibly mysterious.
While his character is quite poor, his eye for talent is sharp and his training methods are superb. Almost everyone who comes out of Johnny & Associates becomes a nationwide star.
For example, Hiroyuki Sanada, Goro Noguchi, Hideki Saijo, Kenji Sawada...
The scumbag Masahiko Kondo, who caused a huge scandal recently, is also a Johnny's artist.
This man deeply hurt Ms. Anita Mui and abandoned Akina Nakamori, who had always been devoted to him. He even used Akina Nakamori to promote himself in 1990.
After her heart was broken, Akina Nakamori hit rock bottom. Not only did she turn to alcohol, but she even attempted to take her own life, and now her voice is ruined.
Last year, Akina Nakamori wanted to make a comeback with a concert, but the results were disappointing.
Thinking of this, Aoki Haruhi couldn't help but sigh.
...
However, his reason for seeking out Johnny's was that he had his eye on one person.
That person's name is—
"Kimura Takuya?"
At 61 years old, Nishidagawa's hairline was already quite high, his face was covered in wrinkles, and he had large bags under his sunken eyes. His lips appeared somewhat dry and pale.
Overall, however, his eyes were bright and full of energy.
Especially when he spoke, he gave off an inexplicable sense of friendliness.
When Nishidagawa heard the name [Kimura Takuya] specifically requested by Pokeni, he found it somewhat hard to believe.
Because this young man was still very young and had almost no fame to speak of.
Yes, Kimura Takuya, who would become the undisputed number one male idol in Japan in the future, was currently just an insignificant minor artist within Johnny & Associates.
It wouldn't be until next year, 1993, when Kimura Takuya would start starring in dramas like 'The Dancing Girl of Izu' and 'Asunaro Hakusho' and appearing on various variety shows, that he would start to become famous.
And it wouldn't be until 1996, when he starred in the urban romance drama 'Long Vacation', that he would truly become red-hot.
The finale of 'Long Vacation' reached a viewership rating of 36.7%. In it, Kimura Takuya played a younger man, a 'puppy dog' type, whose sweet interactions with the female lead made him the dream man for countless women.
When the drama aired, it caused the social phenomenon of 'No one goes out on Monday nights.'
So it was normal for Nishidagawa to find it strange. Right now, the big star of Johnny's should be Noriyuki Higashiyama, yet Aoki Haruhi chose Kimura Takuya, who had only just begun to show his potential and had little popularity.
After thinking for a moment, Nishidagawa smiled.
"President Qing has quite the eye," Nishidagawa said. "Kimura has been blessed with a handsome face that people never tire of looking at. Although he hasn't become a major idol yet, it probably won't be long before he takes off."
More than just taking off, he would practically set the entire sky of Japan ablaze.
However, Nishidagawa saying this didn't necessarily mean he truly believed in Kimura; he was just talking him up to raise his value, which would help the agency negotiate a higher price.
...
Nao Tsuda's lipstick had reminded Aoki Haruhi of Kimura Takuya.
In his past life, Kimura Takuya had a very famous advertisement. In 1996, he endorsed KANEBO lipstick. This was the first time a male had endorsed female cosmetics, and it caused a sensation in the advertising world at the time.
In that era, if a lipstick could sell 500,000 units in a year, it was considered an absolute bestseller. After using Kimura as the spokesperson, they sold 3 million units in just two months.
Both men and women loved him.
To what extent did the craze go?
Lipstick posters featuring Kimura would be torn off the walls within a single night, leading KANEBO to eventually hire security guards specifically to protect the posters.
Having a man endorse lipstick was truly brilliant. From any perspective, the marketing person behind that KANEBO ad was a genius.
The reason Aoki Haruhi thought of Kimura Takuya immediately was also because his current market value wasn't high yet. Once he became completely famous next year, he might not be able to afford him.
"So, what kind of product does Pokeni want Kimura to endorse?"
Before coming out for dinner today, Nishidagawa had done a bit of research on Pokeni, but the more he investigated, the more confused he became.
Pokeni was clearly a small company specializing in galgames.
Nishidagawa didn't know much about games; he only knew that this type of game was roughly a plot-driven romance game.
Pokeni didn't produce game consoles themselves, so their need for celebrity endorsements shouldn't be that great.
After all, from the completion of a game's development to its release, there was only about a month of promotion. If an artist only did promotion for that period, it would be very cost-ineffective for a game company.
And Pokeni didn't have any products with long-term operations.
This made it quite baffling.
Aoki Haruhi took the prepared materials out of his briefcase, placed them on the table, and pushed them toward Nishidagawa. "I want Kimura to be the spokesperson for our company's newly developed Pokémon IP."
"IP?" Nishidagawa felt a bit confused.
"IP stands for Intellectual Property. But in terms of the contract definition, it encompasses all products and derivatives developed around Pokémon. Do you understand?" Aoki Haruhi asked patiently.
"Oh."
Nishidagawa still didn't quite get it, so he first flipped through the materials Aoki Haruhi had provided.
After a bit of explanation, Nishidagawa finally sorted out his thoughts.
"I see. So, anything related to this so-called [Pokémon], you want Kimura to endorse, right?" Nishidagawa asked. "So, what kind of products are we talking about?"
"Centering on Pokémon, we will continuously develop corresponding games in the future. Next will be an animated series, then toys, figurines, and various merchandise using Pokémon images and content, such as water cups, or entertainment facilities... and so on..."
Aoki Haruhi explained one by one, very meticulously.
Of course, Nishidagawa was indeed an old-school businessman; it was necessary for him to understand the details.
"Then how long does your company intend to sign him for, and how many endorsement activities will be scheduled for Kimura each year?"
"Regarding the duration, we hope to sign him for ten years," Aoki Haruhi said.
"Ten years?!"
Nishidagawa was somewhat shocked.
Just how much confidence did this Aoki Haruhi have in Kimura?
Or could it be...
He sized Aoki Haruhi up, unsure if this guy had some kind of specific preference.
Like, having a particular obsession with Kimura Takuya or something.
"Yes, ten years." Aoki Haruhi was immersed in his own construction of a future imperial blueprint and had no time to think about such nonsense.
Seeing his frank and composed manner, Nishidagawa couldn't help but laugh.
"That's a bit of a long time," he frowned.
"However, Pokeni can state whatever demands you have. We can clear up these details in the contract later."
"Mhm, good, alright." Aoki Haruhi smiled slightly.
Indeed, there was no need to discuss contract details today.
And it wouldn't be Nishidagawa himself discussing them; Johnny's would surely have specialized personnel to handle contract matters in the future.
However, from the other party's attitude, Aoki Haruhi was certain of one thing—
Nishidagawa did not oppose Kimura endorsing Pokémon.
...
Dinner ended, and the two had chatted very pleasantly.
"President Qing, I admire you. You are a man with ideas, the courage to act, and great decisiveness." Nishidagawa stood up and extended his right hand to Aoki Haruhi. "Johnny's looks forward to cooperating with Pokeni."
Aoki Haruhi smiled gratefully. "As do we."
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