After promising Ninjin Makoto, Aoki Haruhi discussed this matter with his wife upon returning home.
Nao Tsuda readily agreed.
Moon River Co., Ltd. was established to develop the film and television sector, with plans to target both Europe and America and Japan markets in the future.
In Japan, a peculiar country, animated films are the most profitable, taking longer and being more difficult to produce than live-action films, but often achieving higher box office results.
If Aoki Haruhi had such animation Producer under him, Nao Tsuda would be more than happy.
"I didn't expect your company to be such a hidden talent pool; how can you have all sorts of people?"
"That's right," Aoki Haruhi said with a hint of pride, "You don't even look at who discovered him."
In his previous life in Japan, Ninjin Makoto was hailed as Hayao Miyazaki's successor, known for his films' beautiful and delicate visuals, with his only weakness perhaps being his insufficient control over scriptwriting and storytelling.
As an animation director, or rather, an original artist, he was highly competent; every frame of Ninjin Makoto's animation could be used as wallpaper.
This is also why his animations have such a strong appeal.
However, the artistic mindset certainly differs somewhat from the script Author's mindset, and since Ninjin Makoto was also self-taught, there were bound to be some flaws.
In his previous life in Japan, even though Ninjin Makoto achieved a box office record of over 20 billion Japanese yen with Suzume, and was considered Hayao Miyazaki's successor, it was only on the animation level.
To put it bluntly, the structure and depth of thought in the stories he created were still a notch lower.
However, besides him, there wasn't another animation standard-bearer with such global box office success.
Let's see if Ninjin Makoto's animation path can be even better in this life.
After some discussion, Nao Tsuda gained a certain understanding of Ninjin Makoto: "I didn't expect him to be a second-generation rich kid."
"Yes," Aoki Haruhi nodded, "Ninjin Makoto's family is very well-known locally; Shintsu-gumi is also a very famous construction company nationwide. Actually, we don't even need to set up this animation film and television production company.
If Ninjin Makoto wanted to do it, his family could establish the company."
"Then why did he still agree to your suggestion?"
Nao Tsuda didn't quite understand this point. If he had money and connections at home, his family could completely help him achieve his dreams. Forming an animation film and television company with us, while achieving the same goal, would mean Ninjin Makoto wouldn't be the major shareholder in terms of equity distribution.
If she had such talent and conditions, Tsuda would definitely choose to start her own company without hesitation.
"Ninjin Makoto is a very strong-willed child," Aoki Haruhi smiled, "This guy seems not to want to rely on his family. I think I heard him say that he is quite resistant to inheriting the family business, which is why he desperately wants to develop in Tokyo.
To make animation, he first came to the company to make game.
However, after working for some time, he realized that being an original artist for game might still differ from his dream, which is why he fell into confusion and anxiety."
"Doesn't want to rely on his family," Nao Tsuda couldn't help but smile bitterly, "He really is a strong-willed and willful guy."
"Oh, and he's changing his name to Makoto Shinkai to show his determination," Aoki Haruhi added.
"Ah..."
How truly amazing, Nao Tsuda thought:
A hidden second-generation rich kid, pursuing his dream, came to Tokyo alone, experienced some twists and turns, and finally moved towards his ideal.
He even changed his name; it must be said that the determination he made is quite significant.
It feels like watching a mythical story, like the Prince's Enlightenment, right?
As soon as she thought of this, she couldn't help but laugh.
...
According to Ichihashi Fumie's original development plan for Moon River Co., Ltd., multiple subsidiaries would be established underneath it.
Among them, two were second-tier companies acquired from Europe and America with distribution capabilities. The purpose of these companies was primarily to give Moon River distribution rights in the Europe and America region.
Don't underestimate distribution rights; a production company with distribution rights and one without are two completely different things.
For movie box office, the cinema chain first takes half, then the distribution company retains its portion, and what's left goes to the production company. If the box office fails, once the distribution company has taken its cut, there's basically nothing left.
For example, if a game sells for 10,000 yen, the distributor always takes a percentage, right? There's always some money left for the Producer.
But for box office, the cinema chain takes half, and then the distributor first deducts their own spent distribution fees, and then deducts a share according to the agreed percentage (this percentage is based on the total box office, not the remaining portion).
So, if the box office fails, once the distributor has taken their cut, there's nothing left.
The Producer might not get a single cent.
Hollywood is truly a rip-off; they even dare to rip off Wall Street.
For example, a common distribution split in North America is 20% of the box office plus promotional expenses. If a film has a production cost of 30 million, the distribution company spends 10 million on promotion, and the box office is only 40 million, then the cinema chain takes 20 million, the distributor takes 18 million, and the Producer is left with 2 million.
If the box office is even lower, the Producer gets nothing.
Such a box office isn't even considered a complete failure; at least it's higher than the production cost.
If it's a major flop, with box office lower than production cost, the Producer can just prepare to be completely out of luck.
So, once Moon River Co., Ltd. obtains distribution rights, it can avoid being cut by other distribution companies in the middle and directly share profits with movie theater box offices, which naturally leads to higher returns.
Otherwise, according to Ichihashi Fumie, you might lose everything.
It's possible for a movie to seem like a huge box office success, but the Producer ends up with very little.
This way, Moon River Co., Ltd. cannot be built up.
From this perspective, running a game company is indeed much better. No matter what, as a game Producer, as long as the game can be sold, there will always be some returns; it won't result in getting nothing at all.
Of course, if your R&D costs are not covered by the returns, then you will also face a deficit and the company will go bankrupt.
But even so, it's still better than the film industry.
Conversely, this actually conceals a hidden operation—
After acquiring distribution rights and a production company, if the distribution company and the production company are separated, one can actually use the production company to swindle money from investors.
Of course, Aoki Haruhi, as a moral person who wants to achieve success in the future global market, would not do this.
But in reality, such operations to swindle investors are commonplace in Hollywood.
In addition to the Europe and America subsidiaries with distribution rights, Ichihashi Fumie also acquired some less essential companies to exchange interests with Dentsu.
Then, here in Japan, Moon River Co., Ltd. itself established two subsidiaries: one is Moon River Film, mainly responsible for all film and television production in Japan itself, and the other is a sub-subsidiary under this subsidiary, specifically for producing animated films.
This sub-subsidiary is tentatively named "Seaside Studio," adopting a studio model like Ghibli, and aims to become a company like Ghibli in the future.
After its establishment, it will be managed by Makoto Shinkai, and after discussions between Aoki Haruhi and Nao Tsuda, Makoto Shinkai will be allowed to become a shareholder and president through technical investment.
In other words, Moon River Co., Ltd. currently appears to have only released one "proposal daisakusen," but its structure is already quite extensive.
According to Aoki Haruhi and Nao Tsuda, this is called preparing for a rainy day, understanding the structure and preparing the tools before expanding.
But to outsiders, this might be called a poor student having too many stationery items; they haven't even started making movies yet, but they've already spread themselves so thin. Do you even have the goods?
...
After the planning was completed, the Aoki Haruhi couple, Ichihashi Fumie, and Makoto Shinkai held a board meeting to discuss all relevant matters and formulate detailed procedures and plans.
Now, they just need to execute according to the plan.
Registering a company in Japan is not difficult; it can be completed in at least one or two months.
However, even though the company's structure has not yet been fully realized, this does not hinder Aoki Haruhi's planning for Moon River Co., Ltd.'s future products.
"We can proceed simultaneously: one is to acquire and establish companies, and seek exchange and cooperation with Dentsu; on the other hand, we can first plan the products, which is the project development issue."
Aoki Haruhi said.
"What I'm thinking is, didn't our Pokeni release a galgame called 'Your Name' before?"
"Uh-huh."
"The original artwork for this game was almost entirely done by Niitsu Sang, so this is perfect. If Niitsu Sang takes over Seaside Studio, then this game can be adapted into the company's first animated film."
"Your Name" was Makoto Shinkai's masterpiece in his previous life; it would be a great pity if it couldn't be made into a movie.
Kyoto Animation had always wanted the adaptation rights to this game, wanting to make it into a TV animation, but Aoki Haruhi had always suppressed it.
At that time, Aoki Haruhi had a premonition that he would make this game into a movie in the future, but he had never found a suitable opportunity.
Unexpectedly, Makoto Shinkai ended up being in charge.
This can be considered a wonderful twist of fate. (Aoki Haruhi's arrangement)
"Besides 'Your Name,' shouldn't the company produce more film and television works?" Ichihashi Fumie suggested, "Now that Moon River Group has taken shape, with the ability to produce and distribute in both Europe and America and Japan, shouldn't we consider producing more works?"
Ichihashi Fumie looked at Tsuda and Aoki Haruhi with her big, jewel-blue eyes, eagerly.
I've even sharpened my knife; shouldn't I quickly slaughter two cows to try it out?
That's probably what she meant.
"Hmm." Nao Tsuda looked back at Aoki Haruhi, "Aoki-san, is there anything you'd like to produce?"
"In that case, I actually do have a movie I want to produce," Aoki Haruhi said.
When Moon River Co., Ltd. was established, he had already thought about such questions countless times.
According to Aoki Haruhi's idea, since Pokeni has achieved leadership and various technological breakthroughs in the 3D field, many by-products will naturally emerge, such as animation rendering, skeletal animation, motion capture technology, and so on.
These things can be used to make game, and also to make 3D special effects movies.
From a technical perspective, the current Pokeni is in no way inferior to Pixar in Europe and America.
The latter had already produced a 3D animated film like "Toy Story" last year and achieved great success, so the current Pokeni also possesses the same capabilities and could actually try its hand at it.
However, considering the current development of Moon River Co., Ltd. and some limitations in software and hardware, Aoki Haruhi still decided to be a bit conservative first.
Wait two more years, when Nvidia's graphics cards have iterated more, and 3D technology has advanced further, then I'll make the big movie in my mind.
After a moment of contemplation, Aoki Haruhi nodded and said, "The movie I want to produce will also be developed into a game in Pokeni later, considered a film-game linkage. This movie is called 'my robot girlfriend.'"
"my robot girlfriend" is a sci-fi film directed by Korean director Kwak Jae-yong, starring Ayase Haruka and Koide Keisuke.
The film was released in Japan on May 31, 2008.
It mainly tells the love story of Jiro and a robot girl. Their love creates miracles, overcoming Jiro's fate of dying in an accident, and transcending the barrier between biological humans and robots.
Jiro himself is a shut-in, but one day when he returns home, he discovers that his future self has developed a beautiful robot girl and sent her to the present, with the goal of changing the present Jiro and allowing him to have a happier life...
At first glance, it seems like a otaku's fantasy, but the film is actually quite touching, and as a sci-fi movie, it naturally requires some sci-fi special effects, which can be used to test the technology developed by Pokeni.
After listening to Aoki Haruhi's story, the two girls present were both very excited.
"It's a very interesting subject, and the ending of the story is something I never imagined," Nao Tsuda exclaimed beside him.
Her husband is truly talented; she is becoming more and more curious about Aoki Haruhi's mind.
What kind of mind could come up with such an interesting, romantic, and sci-fi story?
Ichihashi Fumie also thought the story was quite good.
Especially now, with the continuous popularization of computers, many people are actually concerned about what the future of artificial intelligence will look like.
However, most people have a sense of panic or pessimism.
But Aoki Haruhi's story is unique, telling the story of robots from a different and unconventional perspective, which is refreshing.
Although she had heard of Aoki Haruhi's reputation before, she only realized after meeting him that the President was even more impressive than she had imagined.
A person with extraordinary talent.
He must live in a fantasy every day, right?
No, it should be said the other way around: his daily life and work are a constant fantasy, right?
"In that case, I'll ask Fumie to start preparing, and at the same time, we'll need to recruit a few dedicated script Authors for the company."
"After the next script workshop, we'll put film production on the agenda."
Nao Tsuda said with a smile.
"Yes, President."
Please Support me by becoming my Patreon member and get 20+ chapters.
[email protected]/Ajal69
change @ with a
Thank You to Those who joined my Patreon