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Chapter 182. A Monster
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The handover on Cujoh Jolyne's side was done quickly.
After all, thanks to her previous experience with Pucci constantly coming to her for budget requests, this process of signing off and approving funds had become second nature to her.
Without any hesitation, she swiftly signed the budget approval and handed it over to Nasu Kinoko and his team, allowing them to retrieve the funds from the finance department at any time.
At the same time, Akiyuki Shinbo, who had been on break after finishing the filming of "Battle Tendency", was quickly contacted by Jolyne. He only stepped in occasionally when Pucci was overwhelmed with work.
Akiyuki met Nasu Kinoko and his team for the first time, but...
"Director Pucci, what exactly is President Cujoh thinking?"
This initial meeting didn't go as well as expected.
After the meeting, Shinbo complained to Pucci, "Diamond is Unbreakable has already been approved for production. Why abandon such a good sequel to film a fan work? Isn't this a case of putting the cart before the horse?!"
Shinbo had a valid reason to complain.
After all, fan works sit at the lower end of the industry's pecking order.
If it weren't for some hugely popular fan creations, most industry insiders, who only care about cashing in on the popularity, wouldn't even bother with them.
In this context, when Shinbo found out that not only had his director position for "Diamond is Unbreakable" been taken away, but he was also assigned to direct some unknown fan work, it was only natural for him to harbor some resentment towards Nasu Kinoko and, by extension, Jolyne.
It's like the reaction of certain Eastern country audiences who, after witnessing the brilliance of "The Wandering Earth", would find it strange if they suddenly had a good impression of a movie like "Shanghai Fortress".
"Can I take a look at this fan work you're talking about?"
Pucci, standing beside Shinbo, was intrigued.
Using the same metaphor as before, seeing "Shanghai Fortress" attempting to compete with "The Wandering Earth" would naturally spark curiosity, especially when audiences in that Eastern country were filled with newfound confidence in their homegrown sci-fi after the success of "The Wandering Earth".
Maybe "Shanghai Fortress" had something special after all.
While using "Shanghai Fortress" as a metaphor might be a bit insulting, the point still stands.
Given that Jolyne had never made any mistakes in the past and had always treated her staff generously, Pucci believed there might be something more to this decision and tried to comfort Shinbo, saying, "From the perspective of Green Dolphin Studio, President Cujoh's move makes sense."
"After all, if our Green Dolphin Studio wants to continue thriving in this industry and surpass the long-established companies, relying on just one series won't be enough."
"We need to create a second successful work, to establish more intellectual properties (IPs) and strengthen the studio's foundation."
What happens when a company has only one successful IP?
Pucci had seen this scenario play out too many times in his past life.
Take "Ultraman" for example. The franchise was once glorious, but the decline of Tsuburaya Productions was a harsh reminder of the dangers of relying too heavily on one IP.
Of course, one could argue that Tsuburaya's downfall was due to their own mismanagement—rife with corruption and chaos—turning profitable projects into barely break-even ventures.
That's why, even with a national-level IP like "Ultraman", they still couldn't maintain the weekly release schedule that newer franchises like "Kamen Rider" and "Super Sentai" could manage.
But if Tsuburaya's failure was self-inflicted, what about "Star Wars" across the ocean?
Another national-level IP, "Star Wars", was also sold off to a certain mouse.
Whether it was because the mouse offered too much, or because the traditional space opera genre had fallen out of favor, it all pointed to the danger of relying on a single successful IP.
At least with multiple successful IPs, if one fails, you can still recover the costs with another.
Take "Kamen Rider", for example—even when several consecutive releases were panned by audiences, Toei still continued to release new "Kamen Rider" series every week.
This is the kind of resilience that a mature company should have.
Jolyne probably realized this too, which is why she decided not to continue with "Diamond is Unbreakable" and instead pursue other projects.
No! Following this train of thought, maybe Jolyne had planned this all along!?
Otherwise, why did she separate them, giving each team their own project to lead?
Pucci, filling in the blanks with his imagination, increasingly believed that the fan work Jolyne had chosen must be something extraordinary.
Shinbo, who had initially felt wronged, began to see the logic in Pucci's explanation.
If the fan work didn't have something special, why would Jolyne give Nasu Kinoko and his team full autonomy, not only allowing them to access the studio's budget but also letting them have input in the filming process?
Was Jolyne really that foolish?
There must be some hidden detail he hadn't noticed!
With this in mind, Akiyuki Shinbo immediately searched online for Type-Moon and began to seriously look into the work that Jolyne had such high hopes for.
He also brought Pucci along to brainstorm together, thinking that "two heads are better than one."
But this was clearly unnecessary.
Because when Shinbo mentioned Type-Moon and Nasu Kinoko's name, Pucci instantly understood everything.
This wasn't just another successful IP.
This was a "monster" IP—an IP that might lie dormant during downtime, but once new content is released, it would dominate the gacha charts of every mobile game with an unstoppable force!
For an IP of this magnitude, Pucci had only one suggestion for Akiyuki Shinbo:
"Shinbo, should I just introduce you to the cast?"