While Ren's new works received both praise and criticism, the New Year was approaching.
Before the New Year, Ren was invited to attend several award ceremonies.
For example, "Kamen Rider Kuuga" won the Xingguang Award, previously won by "Ultraman Tiga," and Ren received the Best Screenwriter Award. "Kamen Rider Kuuga" also won a Top Ten TV Show award.
Additionally, works like "Cells at Work!," "Fate/Zero," and "Final Holy War" received numerous awards at the Golden Rat Awards and the Huabiao Awards.
"Cells at Work!" won awards for Best Story, Outstanding Science Popularization, and Best Children's Manga at the Huabiao Awards.
This was expected.
"Cells at Work!" was highly educational and entertaining, pioneering the anthropomorphism trend in this world.
After "Cells at Work!" came out, a series of anthropomorphism works appeared in the domestic market, like "Fruit Heroes" and "Little Cell Adventures."
"Cells at Work!" could be considered the originator.
Speaking of which, after these works appeared, Ren even notified the game department to create a ship girl game.
After all, one of the most successful anthropomorphism games was about ship girls.
The saying "The country is dying, and ship girls are everywhere" wasn't an exaggeration.
However, Ren wanted to make a game different from the typical ship games. He envisioned a 3D arcade-style game with naval battles, where players could see the ship girls during battle damage and hear their reactions when their clothes were damaged.
Of course, the ships in the game wouldn't be World War II ships but modern warships.
Moreover, Ren's company wasn't making games just for male players. More and more women were willing to spend money on games these days.
So, Ren also asked the game department to create a game called Sword Boys, anthropomorphizing weapons like swords.
But these were just small matters!
The most important thing was that one of Ren's anime works was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Animated Film at the Oscars, along with four other works from Norway, South Korea, and Canada. It was also nominated for Best Manga Creator and Best Manga Adaptation.
In this world, the history of Chinese animation at the Oscars could fill a book.
The first time the domestic animation industry participated in the Oscars was in 1972, when "The Water Margin" became the first Chinese animation nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.
It used traditional Chinese ink painting style to convey authentic and unique Chinese culture to the world.
However, for a long time after that, domestic works didn't receive such nominations.
In 2001, "The Bright Bible" from Longxiang, one of the Big Five companies, became the next Chinese animation to step onto the Oscars stage.
Longxiang rode the success of "The Bright Bible" to surpass the other four major companies.
This success spurred the domestic animation industry to embark on an Oscar journey that continues today.
However, the number of award-winning works was limited. For example, "Silent Moon" and "Nightmare Street."
But in the past five years, the domestic animation industry seemed to hit a bottleneck, with no nominations for the Oscars.
Ren wasn't fixated on winning an Oscar. He just aired "Fullmetal Alchemist" overseas, and Jada handled the rest.
"Fullmetal Alchemist receives high praise overseas! Nominated for three Oscars!"
"After five years, domestic animation is nominated for an Oscar again. Can Ren bring home an Oscar for Chinese animation?"
The Oscar nominations brought significant attention to Ren, pushing "Fullmetal Alchemist" to the top of the trending list.
"All this fuss over a nomination? I thought it had won!"
"Yeah, this guy is out of ideas. Look at 'Home Tutor,' which he called a hot-blooded shonen manga. It's just a comedy!"
"I think 'Home Tutor' is pretty good. It's funny and might have the hot-blooded part later. It's called a setup."
"I think 'Fullmetal Alchemist' has a good chance at the Oscars. It fits foreign tastes."
"I agree. I saw the ratings and reviews on foreign sites, and they are mostly positive."
"You're making this up. Where's the data?"
"Haha, 'Fullmetal Alchemist' has a 9.9 rating on IMDb! Is that made up?"
"Wow, it's true. The Porter is amazing! How come I didn't hear about this?"
"That's because the Porter is low-key. He doesn't hype up everything like others."
Years of failed Oscar attempts had made many animators and viewers lose hope, rarely paying attention to the Oscars anymore.
But this nomination injected new life into the domestic animation scene.
After five years, a domestic animation was nominated again, reigniting hope among everyone, including relevant departments and fans.
Previously, without nominations, there was no hope.
But this time, with a nomination, the chances of winning Best Foreign Language Animated Film were 25%, with four nominees.
A one-in-four chance, 25%, was hope.
Even though the preferences of the judges might differ from website ratings, the ratings showed that "Fullmetal Alchemist" was well-received overseas.
In the past, works with different styles couldn't be accepted by foreigners.
But this time was different. "Fullmetal Alchemist" aligned well with foreign tastes.
The reviews on foreign media sites were good, and it had high ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb.
A 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes meant 95 out of 100 reviews were positive.
And a 9.1 rating on IMDb was impressive.
However, Ren and Jada were concerned that it might only get nominations.
Despite three nominations, many works in the past had a "one-day tour" at the Oscars, getting nominations but no awards, with some works having ten nominations but winning none.
But they decided not to worry too much. If they didn't win, they didn't win. The most important thing was to enjoy the New Year.
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