In the morning, Toshio Suzuki of Studio Ghibli visited Aoki Haruhi at Pokeni, carrying a basket of chocolates and flowers.
He was there to congratulate him on the successful launch and great sales of the game.
"Thanks to Pokeni, the box office for princess mononoke has recently increased quite a bit," said Suzuki-san.
The film market in Japan is truly a unique phenomenon in the world; with a limited number of cinemas and population, it can achieve the second highest box office in the world in this Time, second only to the United States.
It is actually a very remarkable thing.
Among these, there are several rules and ways of playing that are different from other countries.
The first is about film scheduling in cinemas.
In other countries, whether China or the United States, each film actually has a release window, lasting approximately 1 to 3 months.
If the performance is good enough, the screening Time will be extended appropriately.
However, Japan is different; as long as a film is released, it is shown 24 hours a day, non-stop, and some films, if the attendance rate is high, can continue to be shown for up to more than half a year.
The second is about the box office.
The golden period of a film is the first month.
After all, for most audiences, after a film is released, those who want to see it will mostly have gone to see it in the first month; those who do not want to see it will not have much desire to watch it even if it is screened for a year.
Therefore, in Europe and America and China, the first-week box office performance already determines the overall box office trend, and the first month's box office can reach more than 50% of the total box office, only to become increasingly sluggish thereafter.
However, the box office in Japan is not like this; if a film has a long screening period, and the attendance rate remains high, the box office will continue to rise, maintaining a longer box office cycle, and the results generated will be better.
princess mononoke belongs to this type.
Many people want to watch it a second or third Time after seeing it once...
Even after more than 2 months, almost 3 months, it still has a very high attendance rate.
Coupled with the recent explosion of the princess mononoke game, it once again stimulated viewing demand, bringing many players who had only played the game but not seen the film into the cinema.
So, from the data, Toshio Suzuki could clearly see the traffic brought by Pokeni.
It was not entirely flattery or sycophancy.
After Aoki Haruhi invited him to the office, Suzuki-san first said a lot of nice things, such as how well Pokeni's game was made.
He said that the princess mononoke game was truly amazing, and so on.
Then, Toshio Suzuki recounted to Aoki Haruhi the argument between Goro and Hayao Miyazaki that had happened during their previous meal.
"Eh?"
"This is Goro's insight?"
Aoki Haruhi blinked, feeling that it was truly very strange.
Hayao Miyazaki-senpai truly has an inexplicable obsession with hand-drawn animation.
But his son is so courageous in trying new things.
What should he say?
Regarding 3D animation, Goro is actually quite farsighted, and from Aoki Haruhi's understanding, a large number of excellent 3D animated works will certainly appear in the future.
"Goro's intuition is actually quite keen."
But that does not mean that 2D animation has no market; on the contrary, for some transcendent idealists, 2D is a more conducive way for them to express their ideas.
It has abstractness, and 2D graphics can also be made very exquisite.
However, Aoki Haruhi still fully affirmed Goro's pioneering spirit.
"Whether it's 3D or 2D, they both have their own markets, and future drawing techniques will certainly become more and more advanced; it might be more important to make good use of tools to express oneself," Aoki Haruhi said.
"Ah ~ I wish Hayao Miyazaki could think that way too," Toshio Suzuki said, feeling very troubled.
At the same Time, he also secretly admired Aoki Haruhi.
This young man is truly so likable; he sees things with great clarity.
He has his own set of principles and is very intelligent; in conversations with Aoki Haruhi, you can gain many insights.
How wonderful it would be if Aoki Haruhi were my son!
Toshio Suzuki couldn't help but think this.
In that case, Studio Ghibli could be completely entrusted to him.
What a pity, what a pity, Aoki Haruhi is just Aoki Haruhi.
"These father and son are particularly stubborn; they probably won't be speaking for quite some Time," Toshio Suzuki laughed, "But work still has to move forward.
Who would have thought that a disagreement would lead to an argument?"
Aoki Haruhi had also heard of such arguments; in his previous life, during the production of Tales from Earthsea and From Up on Poppy Hill, Hayao Miyazaki and Goro had many quarrels, and cold wars lasting several months were not uncommon.
They are truly a stubborn father and son.
But, Toshio Suzuki, this old fox, telling me all this, isn't he too cunning?
Don't I know you?
It's hard for an upright official to settle family disputes; Suzuki, that old rascal, telling me this, actually hopes that I will mediate.
After all, the father and son's dispute also arose from the game and its associations.
That's probably what he means.
"Alas, these two are truly cut from the same mold," Aoki Haruhi said, "It would be good if they could communicate more and consider problems from each other's perspectives."
"Who says not so?" Toshio Suzuki saw that Aoki Haruhi did not engage, and there was a hint of disappointment in his eyes.
"Then, I will take my leave," Toshio Suzuki said, standing up.
"Alright, Suzuki-san."
Aoki Haruhi stood up and saw him to the door, "I will definitely visit Ghibli in a few days when I have Time."
"Eh?"
Suzuki P's eyes suddenly lit up.
The subtext of Aoki Haruhi's words was: I will go and persuade Hayao Miyazaki-senpai then.
After all, if you visit, it's impossible not to see Hayao Miyazaki, and given Hayao Miyazaki's personality, he is very likely to complain to Aoki Haruhi.
In such a conversational atmosphere, wouldn't Aoki Haruhi naturally do the ideological work?
Toshio Suzuki smiled, quickly expressed his thanks repeatedly, "Then, Hayao Miyazaki and I will await President Aoki's arrival."
"No, no," Aoki Haruhi said with a smile, "You are all my seniors and important mentors in my life; I will be the one asking for your guidance then."
The two exchanged pleasantries, and Toshio Suzuki happily left the Pokeni office building.
I was right about Aoki Haruhi, this child.
A son should be like Aoki Haruhi!
...
A few days later, Aoki Haruhi indeed kept his promise and paid a visit.
Before going, he even called Toshio Suzuki.
Toshio Suzuki said that Hayao Miyazaki was there now and told him to come quickly.
After hanging up the phone, Aoki Haruhi couldn't help but shake his head and smile wryly.
Alas, Suzuki-san, that old fox.
Upon arriving at Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki warmly received Aoki Haruhi.
He, Toshio Suzuki, and Aoki Haruhi chatted for a while in the conference room, and then Suzuki excused himself, leaving only Hayao Miyazaki and Aoki Haruhi.
Aoki Haruhi couldn't help but chuckle inwardly.
...
"Haruhi-kun, I have already played the princess mononoke game you made; it's truly amazing," Hayao Miyazaki said with emotion.
"Thank you, thank you, Miyazaki-sensei."
"When playing the game, I had one feeling: it was as if the world of princess mononoke suddenly became real and three-dimensional," Hayao Miyazaki recalled his experience of the game (mainly observing), "It was as if the characters, and nature, all had life.
They were all living according to their own lifestyles, habits, personalities, etc., following objective laws.
Yes, living."
Hayao Miyazaki turned his head and said seriously, "Living, that's the feeling."
Wow.
Aoki Haruhi said he was truly flattered.
To receive such high praise from Old Miyazaki.
"No, no, it might be that the immersion of the game gave you such an illusion."
"The most obvious feature of a 3D RPG is this: as a game, the biggest difference from animation is that you truly experience it, rather than passively following the camera to watch and accept.
The initiative is in the player's hands, and you have infinite possibilities," Aoki Haruhi explained with a smile.
"Mm-hmm," Hayao Miyazaki nodded.
He seemed to understand, yet not quite.
He suddenly remembered something and turned to look at Aoki Haruhi.
"Didn't I meet San on the opposite side of the river for the first Time?"
"Mm," Aoki Haruhi nodded.
"But, when we went around to the other side of the river, we couldn't find any trace of them," Hayao Miyazaki asked curiously, "Where did princess mononoke and the white wolves go then?
Did they return to their habitat?"
"Uh..."
Aoki Haruhi's face was full of black lines.
"Mr. Miyazaki, you might be imagining what game can achieve now too beautifully. Perhaps in the future, it can support them with sufficiently powerful artificial intelligence and autonomy, just as you said, they can have their own personalities and habits, living according to natural laws.
But, for current technology, this is impossible."
What Aoki Haruhi said was that it's impossible now.
But that doesn't mean it won't be possible in the future.
In a sense, Old Miyazaki's wish is beautiful and very forward-looking.
But the foundation of all this is technological development.
First and foremost, hardware must constantly improve, chips must constantly improve, bringing huge leaps in computing power, and then on the basis of sufficient hardware support, algorithms can be improved.
In the future, when artificial intelligence develops to a certain stage, it will be possible to achieve the effect Hayao Miyazaki described.
Each character will have their own independent AI; when they talk to you, it will no longer be fixed dialogue written by planners, but dynamic, highly intelligent interactions, just like living people.
They just live in game.
Aoki Haruhi certainly wants to achieve these things, but there's still a long way to go before reaching that point.
"Huh?" Hayao Miyazaki asked in confusion, "So where did princess mononoke and the white wolves I saw then go?"
Uh...
After all that, you still don't understand.
Aoki Haruhi explained with a smile, "They have actually disappeared; they are no longer in game."
"Disappeared? Why?"
"It's like this," Aoki Haruhi extended one palm, "This part uses footage from the animated film.
To put it plainly, it's original footage editing.
It's like an independent module."
Then he extended his other palm, "And this is the real scene from game at the Time."
He placed both palms side by side.
"The animated segment of the original footage ends after it's played. This thread terminates here.
Afterward, the camera returns to game, and in reality, princess mononoke and the white wolves never truly existed there."
Aoki Haruhi crossed his two palms, then separated them.
"These are two systems that don't interfere with each other; the animation is only called upon when it needs to be triggered, and then it's destroyed and gone."
"Oh, I see."
Hayao Miyazaki nodded seriously.
Aoki Haruhi looked at him, guessing that Old Miyazaki still didn't quite understand.
But he probably understood one thing: what is seen in game is not necessarily something that truly exists within it.
"Then why did princess mononoke appear again later, and we were able to fight her?"
Alright...
As expected, he still didn't understand.
"You can understand it this way: the princess mononoke that exists in 2D animation is different from the princess mononoke with a 3D model that actually exists in game. They are not the same person."
"Huh?" Hayao Miyazaki was greatly surprised.
"Well, you can think of it as us creating many different princess mononokes, it's just that they look the same.
When we fight princess mononoke for the first Time, we put a little person into game.
After this plot ends, this little person is destroyed.
Later, when players use princess mononoke to fight, we will create a new princess mononoke and put her in.
Although they look the same, in reality, it's no longer the original princess mononoke."
"Ah..."
Hayao Miyazaki's mouth hung open; he could hardly believe what he was hearing.
In fact, what Aoki Haruhi said was true; sometimes, to save resources, once something is created, it must be destroyed and then a new UID generated. Although the two princess mononokes look the same and have the same functions, their identity cards, their identification IDs in game, are different.
"This feeling is like traveling through different parallel worlds every day. Although you face the same group of people, this group of people is not the same as those in your previous universe.
Even if this group of people dies, it won't affect the lives or deaths of those in the previous universe," Aoki Haruhi concluded.
"Ah..."
Hayao Miyazaki opened his mouth, unsure what to say for a moment.
Although he didn't quite understand, he was deeply shaken.
"princess mononoke is too pitiful, isn't she?
She was used only once and then destroyed."
Aoki Haruhi thought this old man was truly adorable and really wanted to laugh, "Yes, poor princess mononoke."
...
Besides the characters in game, one other thing also puzzled Hayao Miyazaki:
"Oh, Haruhi-kun, I saw that there are many rivers in game, but why can't we swim across them?"
"If we could swim across the rivers, wouldn't it be more realistic and vivid? Yakul himself can swim."
"Ah hahaha," Aoki Haruhi burst out laughing, "Well, Mr. Miyazaki, you might have some misunderstandings about game."
"It's like this: what you're saying is very constructive and forward-looking, a very meaningful idea, but those are things that only future products might be able to achieve.
With our current technology, we can't do that yet."
Aoki Haruhi stood up, searched around, and found an A4 paper on a nearby table.
Then he picked up a pencil and quickly drew a river on it.
"Look, this is the river in our game. Although from this angle, it looks like a river, flowing continuously. But..."
Aoki Haruhi turned the paper sideways, making it a thin line.
"In reality, it's just a piece of paper like this. If we look at it from the side, there's no water underneath.
If we let Ashitaka walk into the river, his body would pass right through.
Then game would immediately be exposed."
"Huh?"
Hayao Miyazaki nodded in deep agreement, "How amazing."
The conversation with Aoki Haruhi today was truly eye-opening.
"However, water, glass, transparent materials—these are the most difficult things to create in game."
Aoki Haruhi held up the paper, placing it under the sunlight. Beams of light penetrated from outside, passing through the thin paper and falling onto Aoki Haruhi's face.
He brought the paper closer to Hayao Miyazaki.
"It's the same principle as painting. Monet painted countless haystacks in his lifetime, but in reality, he wasn't painting hay, nor was he painting people."
Hayao Miyazaki smiled, then continued, "He was painting light."
"Exactly. Water, glass, transparent things—these are not difficult to make. The most difficult thing to make in game is light."
Aoki Haruhi said, "To allow players to experience realistic and dreamlike light effects, especially the changes that occur when light refracts through these mediums, that is the most difficult."
"Hmm, I understand," Hayao Miyazaki nodded seriously, "When you say light, I understand."
Light means everything.
It not only has brightness, color, and change...
Light itself is a very magical thing.
Even in the real human world, it's the same; it is precisely because of light that humanity has continuously explored the future.
Since the first Time humanity looked up and saw starlight, the pace of human exploration of the universe has never stopped.
And for artists, they spend their entire lives studying this very thing.
By mastering the effects of light, one can achieve incredible animation.
Hayao Miyazaki felt this deeply.
Ah...
He truly loved this child, Aoki Haruhi.
He was handsome, adorable, and exceptionally intelligent and wise.
Not only did he understand so much technology, but he also had immense talent in painting.
After listening to Aoki Haruhi's explanation, Hayao Miyazaki even felt that Aoki Haruhi had reached an extremely high level in his painting philosophy.
The difficulty is not the entity, not game, not the painting, but light.
To comprehend this point is quite remarkable.
In comparison, Goro is truly far behind.
Hayao Miyazaki closed his eyes with a sigh.
How wonderful it would be if Aoki Haruhi were my son.
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