"I see."
After looking at the drawings Fang Zheng brought, Yamada Elf nodded.
"Indeed, just like you said, Mr. Fang Zheng, the drawings are beautiful, but they lack life... To be honest, I think Black Cat draws better than her."
"Okay, okay, let’s talk business."
Glancing at Zhenbai beside him, Fang Zheng coughed, trying to change the topic, but Yamada Elf got even more excited.
"But you have to admit, Mr. Fang Zheng, a case like this is really rare! After all, most people can’t reach this level even if they want to!!"
"Hmm? Oh... indeed, if you put it that way, you’re right."
Hearing Yamada Elf’s words, Fang Zheng was momentarily stunned, then immediately understood what she meant.
Indeed, just as Yamada Elf said, artists like Zhenbai are "one in a million" in the manga industry.
The reason is simple, generally in the manga industry, many mangaka at first make the same mistakes as Zhenbai, but at that time their skills are quite low, so the drawings naturally aren’t very pretty. It’s like soulless drawing skills paired with soulless character settings, such things couldn’t possibly have a market.
But Zhenbai is the opposite; she combines soulless character settings with almost divine drawing skills, creating a powerful contrast. Such a rarity at a manga festival is hard to come by, no wonder Yamada Elf looks at Shiina Mashiro as if she’s seen some rare animal.
Just as Yamada Elf said, not everyone is capable of having this kind of ability.
"I’ve got a great idea!"
At this moment, Yamada Elf suddenly slapped the table in excitement and jumped up.
"I thought of a great story!"
"Oh? What kind of great story?"
Hearing this, Fang Zheng became interested, and Shiina Mashiro also silently adjusted her sitting posture, watching her.
"Okay, here’s the story, listen up!"
Yamada Elf started excitedly gesturing wildly as she explained to the two of them.
"The main character of the story is a male high school student, but he’s a playboy. Due to family changes, parental divorce, this playboy doesn’t believe in love. To him, love is just a toy, so he wanders among various women, but in fact, he feels his life is like an empty shell, those women are just his means of seeking thrills."
"Mm-hmm, then what?"
"Then one day, this playboy wakes up to discover that everyone in the world has fallen asleep! No one can be woken up! Everyone is in a state similar to hibernation! So naturally, this playboy can start doing whatever he wants!"
"That’s it?"
Upon hearing this, Fang Zheng pouted a little, while Yamada Elf clapped her hands vigorously.
"Here’s the key part, listen carefully, Mr. Fang Zheng! At first, this playboy starts doing whatever he wants, but he quickly gets bored. However, one day, when he’s scavenging for food at a convenience store, this playboy sees a convenience store part-timer, and of course, this part-timer is also in a hibernation state. But this playboy realizes that the part-timer, just like himself, is also an empty shell, so he becomes interested in her, and takes her back home! What the playboy didn’t expect was, after... you know what... the part-timer actually starts moving!"
"Oh? Then what? Did the part-timer wake up?"
This plot twist was quite interesting.
"No, no, no."
Yamada Elf shook her head vigorously like a rattle.
"If she woke up, it would be meaningless. In fact, the girl just entered a sleepwalking-like state, and of course, at first, the playboy doesn’t pay attention to her, but what he didn’t expect was that the sleepwalking girl, unlike the other hibernating people, needs to eat and drink, so he has to start taking care of her, and gradually, the playboy is attracted to the girl, and feels the true meaning of love..."
"I see, using Huang Yuyi as inspiration! Truly a Racial Talent!"
Hearing this, Fang Zheng suddenly realized and clapped the table in amazement.
As everyone knows, Japan’s small film industry has always been the best in the world, especially in Asia, where it’s the very best. But in fact, Japan’s original adult industry wasn’t about things like the so-called "Shibuya girl amateur.AVI" we see now but instead had rich meanings.
Especially in the 1980s and 1990s, during that time, Japan’s small films and adult animation claimed to serve the audience, but they also illustrated societal issues and phenomena for reflection. You could say that even if Japan made a film like "Widow Alone at Home.AVI", it would contain social thoughts and humanity discussions about problems like mother-in-law and daughter-in-law issues and how feudal conservatism harms women. It was almost like a racial talent of the Japanese.
You could say that at that time in Japan, whether small films or animation, they were both sexy and deep, completely different from the later purely filming ones. They were full of social interrogation, the dark side of modern humanity, the conflict and reflection of morality and lust, depths not comparable to later amateur small films.
It’s only unfortunate that as society and times progressed, everything aligned with fast-food consumerism, and Japan’s once-proud racial talent was thus replaced by more fast-food like mere small films... From a certain angle, this is somewhat disappointing indeed.
Like the story script proposed by Yamada Elf, just from the short summary, many social topics can be seen, for example, the impact of parental divorce on children, the youthful confusion of Japan’s younger generation. If you delve deeper, there’s quite a lot to find.
And this story does indeed suit Shiina Mashiro’s kind of soulless exquisite art style, because according to Yamada Elf’s setting, the initial male protagonist is just an empty shell, while others fall into a hibernation-like slumber, this precisely fits Shiina Mashiro’s art style, it’s just......
"The conflict in the story is the key."
Fang Zheng furrowed his brows, thinking carefully. Although in the beginning, Mashiro surely has no problem with this story, but later on, it becomes an issue. After all, according to Yamada Elf, this is a protagonist’s gradual growth process, namely a story where an empty shell gradually turns into a human being. With Mashiro’s current art style, drawing an empty shell is no issue, but whether she can draw the growth process is another matter entirely.
"There’s nothing I can do about that."
Yamada Elf spread her hands helplessly, after all, she’s just a light novel writer, not a manga artist, the advice she can give is only so much. When it comes to drawing itself, she’s also powerless. If she could draw, she wouldn’t need to ask Eiriri to handle the illustrations for her.
"Anyway, thank you so much, truly worthy of being a genius light novel author, outstanding, really outstanding."
Fang Zheng gave Yamada Elf a thumbs up, and she smiled proudly.
"Oh ho ho ho ho, of course, just look at who I am, I’m the famous light novel writer Yamada Elf, you know!"
Though a bit narcissistic, Fang Zheng also agreed with Yamada Elf’s point. To be honest, if it weren’t for Yamada Elf being a famous light novel writer now, he would have long invited the Elf to join his new company to dive into EROGAME. After all, if Yamada Elf were willing to join, then Fang Zheng’s new company’s issues except for voice actors could be said to be entirely resolved.
Of course, with Yamada Elf’s ability, voice actors aren’t even necessary; releasing a game directly would be completely fine. After all, there are quite a few EROGAME relying solely on visuals and text without voice actors, like the three doujin masterpiece "Tsukihime" and "Cicada’s Song". If Yamada Elf were willing to join, Fang Zheng is confident in creating a new one of the three doujin masterpieces in this world.
Unfortunately, Yamada Elf is already famous, so of course, she wouldn’t dive into the industry now.
Ah, finding someone with potential who isn’t famous yet and likes to write ERO scripts is really tough.
Anyway, the other party did point a path after all, and after thanking Yamada Elf, Fang Zheng left with Mashiro.
".........So nice."
Walking on the way home, Mashiro couldn’t help but speak up, Fang Zheng turned to look, only to see Mashiro quietly gazing ahead, her eyes showing unprecedented envy and longing.
Though in terms of honor and status, Mashiro is much higher than the Elf, after all, Yamada Elf is just a famous light novel author domestically in Japan, while Mashiro is a world-renowned artist. But when it comes to creativity, Mashiro is obviously inferior to the Elf, for the latter, after merely looking at Mashiro’s art, came up with quite an attractive story outline in less than five minutes, whereas Mashiro herself couldn’t grasp the essentials even after racking her brain for a long time... it can only be said that each person has their strengths.
By the way, the story about the experienced comic artist girl and the innocent photographer that Yamada Elf mentioned to Fang Zheng before has now started serialization with quite a heated response, and the company has already approached her to discuss an animation, illustrating that Yamada Elf’s talent in creation is indeed remarkable.
Especially considering that idea was something she thought of instantly after listening to a single sentence from Fang Zheng, making it even more evident.
It goes to show that for some people, inspiration is something they wholesale by the kilogram, have so much they can’t use it up and generously give it away.
But for others, I’m afraid it’s measured in milligrams, simply not enough to use.
Shiina Mashiro loves comics and yearns to create her own world, yet no matter how much she tries, she just can’t find the thread. But Yamada Elf can easily toss her an idea, not even thinking of it as wasteful———because she can find more.
"Fang Zheng."
At this moment, Mashiro seemed to have made up her mind and looked up at him.
"Can we go on a date tomorrow?"
"Of course, no problem."
For the Time Dragon, this was naturally not a problem.
In terms of time management, Fang Zheng is certainly a professional.

Comments

Loading...