Andrew was a veteran employee at Guyuan Company, where he worked as a director.
He had witnessed both the glory days and the decline of Guyuan.
Despite everything, he never left because he loved Guyuan's tokusatsu (special effects) shows. His childhood was filled with Guyuan's series like "Hunter's Legend," "Witch Teacher," and "Skull Man."
He joined the company with the dream of creating tokusatsu shows.
However, last year, he received a piece of news that was hard to accept: Guyuan had been acquired by a manga company, and the rights to their film library had been sold off!
Was this still Guyuan? Was there any hope left for the company?
Even the once-famous IPs couldn't save Guyuan. What changes could this small manga company, which had never done tokusatsu before, bring?
With such thoughts, he wrote his resignation letter, planning to leave the company he had dedicated half his life to.
But when he went to see the new boss, the boss handed him a script.
Ha! Could this script save Guyuan? Save the company he cherished?
Andrew laughed coldly, deciding to see what this company had that made them so confident they could sell off Guyuan's film library.
But after reading a bit, he thought...
Wow, it's really good!
Yes, it was amazing!
The more he studied the script, the more he was amazed.
The show had many monsters with complete settings, and some stories were filled with biting satire and metaphor!
What seemed like a silly "giant fighting monsters" show was actually full of reflections on human nature, history, and environmental issues.
Moreover, the show borrowed heavily from Lovecraftian mythology, with the final boss based on an Old One, a detail that caught his eye since no one had ever combined Lovecraftian elements with tokusatsu before.
Looking at the completed fifty-second episode, Andrew took a deep breath.
No matter what, this was the best he could do!
At the end of April, Jada reached a deal with Nanjing TV.
Nanjing TV was a lower-ranked station.
Choosing this station was a last resort.
Higher-ranked stations wanted the show but offered poor time slots.
These top stations didn't lack content. Although Guyuan was a veteran tokusatsu company, its recent productions had been terrible, and now it had been acquired without retaining any old IPs. A new IP wasn't worth a good time slot.
Mid-ranked stations tried to slash the price and also offered mediocre time slots.
But Nanjing TV was different. They offered a good price and a prime time slot.
7:30 PM to 8:30 PM!
This was prime time!
With each episode of Ultraman being about twenty-five minutes, they could air two episodes!
This was the time when most families were resting and watching TV.
Getting this slot was unexpected for both Jada and Ren.
But Nanjing TV was also taking a gamble.
Their ratings had been declining for years, and due to budget issues, they couldn't afford good shows for first-run broadcasts.
When they heard Guyuan was looking for a station to sell first-run rights, they jumped at the chance.
They knew Guyuan and Picca Comics.
After seeing the final product and considering that the project involved Ren, a Gold Mouse Award winner, they thought it would be better than their usual acquisitions.
Even just promoting the Gold Mouse Award could attract Ren's fans to watch.
Thus, the deal was sealed.
Such good news had to be shared with the fans.
"It's set! On the 4th at 7:30 PM, 'Ultraman Tiga' on Nanjing TV. Don't miss it! Share and comment for a chance to win a Spark Lens. Let's become light together."
This Weibo post quickly drew many of Ren's fans.
"Wow, Ren is writing for a tokusatsu show?"
"'Ultraman Tiga'—not sure what it is, but it sounds impressive."
"Ren, where's the new food manga you promised? Hurry up!"
The post quickly became a trending topic.
On a popular platform, a hot question emerged: "What do you think about manga artist Ren working as a tokusatsu writer?"
---
Zhang Yang was a well-known tokusatsu writer.
Of course, his fame wasn't because his shows were good.
It was because, in his ten-plus years of work, most of his shows had ratings below five on Douzhir.com.
Recently, he had changed careers due to lack of work, which made him bitter. He thought people were too tasteless to appreciate his work.
When he saw online that a manga artist had become a tokusatsu writer, he was furious.
A mere manga artist writing tokusatsu? What could he possibly produce?
Alright, I'll target you!
Without hesitation, Zhang Yang furiously typed on his keyboard.
"What does a manga artist know about tokusatsu?"
His comment quickly rose to the top, mostly filled with mocking replies.
"Ren won a Gold Mouse Award. What awards have you won?"
"Awards? He hasn't even won the Golden Raspberry for bad films."
"Ren might not know tokusatsu, but at least he's still a writer."
Seeing these mocking replies made Zhang Yang even angrier.
The worst was being mocked for not being a writer anymore.
He took a screenshot and posted it on Weibo.
"I'm calling it now, 'Ultraman Tiga' will flop! If it doesn't, I'll lick my cat's butt!"
This Weibo post quickly went viral and trended within hours, drawing many onlookers.
"Awesome! Just for this, I'll definitely watch it."
"Wow, who would go that far?"
"+1"
"@Ren"
"@Ren"
Ren was soon tagged repeatedly.
Ren didn't care about being called out. He didn't think "Ultraman Tiga" would flop.
But the bet involving licking a cat's butt was interesting.
Without hesitation, Ren liked and retweeted the post.
"Better wash your cat's butt well. It might taste better."
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