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Chapter 143. The Boiling Industry
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"Sages judge actions, not thoughts, because if thoughts were judged, there would be no saints in this world."
Simply put, whether a person is good or saintly isn't judged by their thoughts or words but by their actions. For example, Liu Bei is often called a hypocrite who sought to win people's hearts, but during the chaos of his time, he didn't commit the atrocities of other warlords—like massacring cities or neglecting the people's lives. Regardless of his reasons for not doing these things or how others slandered him, this was Liu Bei's greatest virtue.
This is also why a certain Eastern nation, despite experiencing many chaotic eras, finds the Three Kingdoms particularly captivating. Without such virtue, the Three Kingdoms would be just another chaotic period like the Sui-Tang era.
Similarly, how can someone's inner thoughts be captured on film? Or, in the case of complete virtual filming, where memories are temporarily blocked and everything is performed through subconscious enactment, how can an actor's inner monologue be filmed?
It's essentially impossible.
Even Pucci and his team, when filming, shoot scenes without inner monologues first, then later film the inner monologues and splice them in during post-production. However, this results in a significant disconnect between the two.
It's like if two students plagiarize the same essay from the internet—anyone can immediately tell that something is off. Similarly, the signs of reshooting in full-dive filming are glaringly obvious due to the inherent realism of the technique, making it hard to match the actor's emotional state during the original shoot.
This is why, during the filming of "Battle Tendency", Pucci's team replaced inner monologue scenes with voiceovers to explain the characters' actions instead of continuing with the problematic approach.
Even the best actors struggle to recreate the exact emotions they felt during the original shoot when reshooting these inner monologues.
But now...
With stands controlled by their users' spirits, moving according to their will, if these stands aren't used for combat but instead are designed to look like their users, could they represent the characters' inner thoughts? Could they act as a visual representation of the characters' subconscious while shooting the main plot?
Given how poorly virtual filming captures inner thoughts, this possibility struck a chord with Kinoko Nasu, who had long struggled with adapting his own works to the screen. The heavy use of inner monologues in his novels often led to rewrites during the adaptation process, leaving the final film nearly unrecognizable from the source material.
Having seen the effects of this new stand-based technique, the first thing that came to this Kinoko Nasu's mind was: "Damn it! That studio tricked me!"
"Thirty years east, thirty years west, don't look down on the poor! We're not done yet!" shouted the usually calm Kinoko Nasu, passionately fired up.
…
Although not as excited as this particular creator, others in the industry closely following "Stardust Crusaders" were similarly intrigued by the potential of this new stand-based technique.
As word spread and more knowledgeable insiders began to recognize the significance of this innovation, even those who hadn't previously been interested in "Stardust Crusaders" turned their attention to the show.
"These young people today are terrifying," remarked a stubbly man watching "Stardust Crusaders" through a full-dive helmet in a room somewhere, visibly impressed.
In earlier works, Akiyuki Shinbo had used techniques like freeze frames and oversized text to bypass the challenge of filming inner thoughts, which had already shocked this man. But after being recommended "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure" by a friend, he slowly worked his way through the story until reaching "Stardust Crusaders".
Only then did he understand the true meaning of his friend's words.
"I knew you'd be interested in this new technique," Yoshiyuki Sadamoto said with a smile. "Didn't you always complain that current virtual filming tech wasn't good enough to capture your work perfectly?"
"Well, now that you've seen this new technology, don't you regret not waiting a bit longer to film your project, Anno?"
"...It is a shame," Hideaki Anno replied, ignoring his friend's teasing and seriously contemplating the possibilities. "But there are benefits to waiting."
"Huh?" Sadamoto blinked, puzzled.
"Well, if we wait, we could always justify a remake by using this new technology. Releasing a remastered version would give us an excuse to... 'give back' to the fans," Anno said, grinning.
"They might even be happy about it. After all, as long as the story is interesting and the visuals are compelling, they'll buy it. These fans are so devoted that they'll buy anything with the "EVA" name on it, even if the content has nothing to do with "EVA"..."
Having discovered through his "New Century Cash Grab Plan" that products ranging from razors and barbells to jewelry and car mirrors could sell well simply by slapping the "EVA" brand on them, Anno had long since figured out his audience.
If those unrelated products could sell, imagine how much more profitable a remade "EVA" using this new technology would be. Fans would surely flock to buy it, and they could release a whole new wave of merchandise alongside it.
A win-win!
"But whether we remake it or not depends on whether this new technology is really what we think it is..."