The literary era since 1979

After Fang Yan and Pan Yaoming accepted the hospitality of Youfei Pavilion, they checked into the carefully arranged hotel.

Yoko Suzuki and Yui Hashimoto did not leave immediately, but stayed in Fangyan's room and talked about the Kyoto University reunion party.

Ever since "Love Letter" started a trend of beautiful pure love novels in Japan, more and more students, especially fans of "Love Letter" have joined in, enriching the scale of the association, strengthening the translation team of Chinese literature, and a craze for learning Chinese has begun to become popular on campus.

"There is no greater kindness than this."

Fangyan smiled with satisfaction.

"We, and the teachers at the Family Relations Association, feel the same way."

Yui Hashimoto said that in the past, the people who translated Chinese literature in the relatives' association were only working or retired sinologists, and some of their students. Even after entering publishing houses, they always published some serious Chinese literary works with the idea of ​​repaying their teachers.

"Now that Mr. Fang is a role model, many Japanese publishers are beginning to focus on Chinese literature."

Suzuki Yoko said: "For example, Wang Zengqi, Shen Yanbing, and Shi Tiesheng are planning to introduce their novels to Japan and translate and publish them."

Just as the three were chatting, Pan Yaoming, who had put away his luggage, knocked on the door and joined the conversation.

"I have already had preliminary communication with the mystery magazines such as Phantom Society and Crow City on behalf of Mr. Fang."

Yoko Suzuki said, "They are very willing to spread Japanese mystery novels and culture to Hong Kong, and are also very interested in the Mystery World you founded. I hope that as one of the conditions for exchange, you can select some excellent novels and translate and reprint them."

"Of course that's no problem."

Fangyan is also happy to promote the "forensic reasoning genre" he has pioneered and domestic mystery novels to the world.

Pan Yaoming grinned. In this way, the mission of this trip to Japan was basically half completed.

As for the other half of the task, Yui Hashimoto and Yoko Suzuki have already taken care of it. They have established contact with leading Japanese comics industry companies such as Shueisha, Shogakukan, and Tokuma Shoten. Each of them welcomes Fang Yan and Pan Yaoming to their company at any time to discuss comics licensing and distribution in person.

"When are we going to leave?"

Pan Yaoming cast an inquiring look.

"Don't worry. It's not easy to get the copyright of comics."

Fangyan waved his hand and said that market research must be done before introducing the book. It is not the case that just because an anime is popular in Japan, it will be popular in the Hong Kong and Taiwan markets. In addition, the whole process of negotiating with overseas publishers, translating, producing and distributing the book is very long.

It could take as short as half a year or as long as two years, so the purpose of their trip is to obtain the letter of intent for the authorization of the selected comics.

"We do need to do some research first. It was only after your recommendation that Sanlian Bookstore boldly introduced and distributed Dragon Ball, Doraemon, and Saint Seiya." Pan Yaoming said, "In fact, I don't know much about the Japanese comics market."

"I also have only a limited understanding of the Japanese comics market."

Fang Yan said: "It doesn't matter. Although I don't understand it, I have someone who knows this business. We will go visit him tomorrow."

Suzuki Yoko understood and said, "Teacher Fang, are you talking about the president of Kadokawa who started his own business from Kadokawa Bookstore?"

"It should be 'former president'."

Fangyan corrected her and then asked her to postpone the schedule of discussing the "Love Letter" movie with Kadokawa Pictures and Shochiku.

"I understand. I will tell these two companies when I return."

Yoko Suzuki said that Haruki Kadokawa, Tadashi Okuyama and others were looking forward to Mr. Fang writing at least one song for the movie "Love Letter".

"Give them some reassurance, and also call Akimoto Yasushi to the meeting."

Fangyan raised a mysterious smile.

…………

The next day, at the headquarters of Dimension Culture Company.

Kadokawa Lehiko put down all the work at hand, personally greeted Fang Yan and Pan Yaoming, and took them to the editorial office of Dengeki Bunko.

"All this is thanks to you."

"Don't say that. I just paid the money. It's you who really did the work."

Fangyan looked around and saw posters of light novels, games, and comics on the walls, and the whole room was filled with the atmosphere of the second dimension.

"No, no, no, you not only provide money, but also unparalleled vision."

Kadokawa Toshihiko burst into laughter. "Remember Norwegian Wood?"

Pan Yaoming looked confused, but after listening to the translator's explanation, he gradually understood that "The Love Letter" and "Norwegian Wood" are not only similar in terms of character relationships and plot stories, but also in the sensation they caused in Japan after the novels were published, which is also extremely similar.

"Love Letter" started the trend of beautiful pure love novels, while "Norwegian Wood" started the trend of youth pain literature.

Moreover, dialects and Haruki Murakami have successively triggered "dialect fever" and "Haruki Murakami fever" in the Japanese literary world.

“The benefits brought by this book alone are immeasurable.”

Kadokawa Koyohiko said that the reason why Dengeki Bunko, and even the entire company, was able to gather so many talents so quickly was not only due to the connections he had accumulated over the years, but also the fame and reputation brought by "Norwegian Wood", so that light novel and comic writers all came to submit their works.

Pan Yaoming lowered his voice and said, "Yanzi, do you think it would be possible for our bookstore to publish this book, Norwegian Wood, in Hong Kong?"

"I think there will be no problem with this. I will talk to him about this matter when we have dinner."

Fangyan said: "First of all, let's deal with the Japanese comics task first."

Kadokawa Toshihiko handed out the information about the Japanese comics market that he had collected a long time ago to the two of them, and said:
"The most popular company right now should be Shueisha. Popular comics like Dragon Ball, Saint Seiya, Fist of the North Star, and City Hunter all come from its Weekly Shonen Jump. Other companies involved in comics can hardly catch up."

"Nevertheless, this will not seriously affect the electric shock library."

Fangyan flipped through the materials and said, "After all, our operating strategy is two-dimensional comics and light novels, so we can still compete with differentiation."

Kadokawa Koyomi nodded in agreement, "I'm doing the same thing now. The first batch of comics signed by Dengeki Bunko avoided the limelight of Shueisha and Shogakukan as much as possible. They didn't choose hot-blooded fighting, sci-fi mecha, urban thieves and other fields, but focused on Western fantasy that no one cares about."

"Western Fantasy?!"

Pan Yaoming was very surprised. “Could it be that Japanese comic readers also like this?”

Fangyan rolled his eyes, but did not stop the translator from making a beautified translation. After all, this was also a question he wanted to know.

"Although the sales volume is not as hot as "Dragon Ball" and "Fist of the North Star", the results are also very impressive." Kadokawa Lehiko smiled proudly.

Fangyan asked: "Can you let me see what works you have signed so far?"

Kadokawa Toshihiko agreed readily, walked to the desk, took out a list, and handed it over.

After taking a quick look at the comics, Fangyan found that he had never seen anything like them before, and was sure that they were not the comics that became popular in later generations.

So, an idea came to his mind, and he considered how to reasonably and subtly recommend a group of potential cartoonists to Kadokawa Koyomi, such as the author of "Slam Dunk", Takehiko Inoue, and the "even more procrastinating" rich old thief, and his wife Takeuchi Naoko.

The IP value contained in "Sailor Moon" far exceeds that of "Yu Yu Hakusho" and "Hunter x Hunter".

As for the writers of the three most popular comics, "Naruto", "Bleach" and "One Piece", they are probably not in college yet.

"Among them, the one I am most optimistic about is The Record of Lodoss War."

Kadokawa Lehiko took the initiative to recommend it.

Upon hearing this, Fangyan immediately became very interested. After asking, he found out that when Mizuno Ryo was helping to design the game "Sword World", he directly used the main story of "Record of Lodoss War" that he had started to conceive in high school.

The background of the story is roughly the end of the Age of Gods and the outbreak of the Heroic War.

During the War of the Gods, there was a violent conflict between the God of Light and the God of Darkness. The Mother Goddess of Creation and the Evil God of Destruction had their final battle on a piece of land at the southern end of the continent.

The battle ended with the destruction of the evil god's body, but before his death, the evil god cursed the continent.

In order to prevent the curse from spreading to every corner of the continent, the Mother Goddess of the Earth used up her last bit of strength to cut off the land at the southern tip of the continent, making it an independent large island. This island was later called the "Cursed Island" by Rhodes Island.

"Ancient legends, lost continents, mysterious elves, a world of swords and magic, epic heroic legends, magnificent wars. This is the first time in the history of Japanese fantasy novels that such a wonderful Western magic story has appeared."

Kadokawa Toshihiko's tone was full of excitement. "When I heard the news, I immediately contacted Mizuno Yoshi. Not only did I get the publishing rights for this game, but I also signed a copyright contract with Mizuno Yoshi for the light novel and comics of Record of Lodossle War."

"This is indeed suitable for adaptation into light novels and comics."

Fang Yan smiled and said, "If the sales and word of mouth are good, we will consider making The Record of Lodoss War into an animation."

"Mr. Fangyan, that's exactly what I meant."

The blueprint envisioned by Kadokawa Lehiko is not limited to a library of two-dimensional light novels and comics, but a large company like Tokuma Shoten that spans the fields of animation, film, media, music, etc. Otherwise, why would he give up his job as the president of Kadokawa Shoten?

"Western fantasy can indeed become an important development direction for the library."

Fangyan cast a meaningful look and said, "But I think we still have two or three areas to explore."

Kadokawa Toshihiko's eyes widened in shock, "Fangyan-kun, please tell me, which fields are they?!"

Fang Yan held up three fingers, "Mystery, girls, and romantic themes related to "Love Letter"."

………………

Noon arrived quickly and everyone went downstairs to a revolving sushi restaurant on the street that was doing good business and sat side by side.

Kadokawa Koyomi picked up a piece of eel sushi, dipped it in soy sauce with wasabi, and said as he ate:

"Mr. Fangyan, I understand what you mean by mystery and girls' two-dimensional, but what do you mean by romance two-dimensional?"

"It means exactly what it says. Dengeki Bunko is going to dig up and publish a batch of love-oriented two-dimensional comics and light novels."

In a voice that only the two of them could hear, Fang Yan said "harem type", "pure love type", "sadomasochism type" and "polyamory type".

Kadokawa Toshihiko opened his mouth so wide that he could swallow five or six sushis in one bite.

You understand the "pure love" and "sadomasochism" types. After all, "Love Letter" and "Norwegian Wood" are among the best works. As for the "harem" type of novels, there is "Genji" in "The Tale of Genji", who has complex and ambiguous relationships with many women.

But the only exception is the "polyamorous love" genre. So far, there are few such works in the literary world or the comics industry.

"Hey, aren't Love Letter and Norwegian Wood both stories about polyamorous love?"

Fangyan rolled his eyes and said, when it comes to love taboo themes, you are the ones who create the most extravagant, heavy-tasting, perverted and deformed works.

But on second thought, the Japanese literary and art circles today are still relatively conservative and traditional, not so unrestrained, open and blatant.

"It's only a triangle. I thought this polyamory meant at least a quadrilateral relationship."

Kadokawa Koyomi said with a wry smile.

How can you, old man, have such impure thoughts!

Fang Yan's mouth twitched. "It's not impossible to have a love triangle, but it's very complicated to write about such relationships."

Pan Yaoming said with great interest: "Yanzi, why don't you give us an example?"

Kadokawa Lehiko and others' eyes lit up and they also turned their eyes to Fangyan.

Fang Yan was stunned, but couldn't resist the enthusiastic invitation of the crowd, so he knocked on the table and thought about it seriously.

When the tempura passed before his eyes, a gleam of light flashed in his eyes and he picked up the tempura with chopsticks.

At the same time, I had an idea in my mind that the classic among classics in polyamorous love is none other than "Tokyo Love Story".

It just so happens that "Tokyo Love Story" was a manga first, and then a TV series.

The two men and two women create an unexpected love quadrangle, but the whole story presents the emotional texture between people in a delicate way, tells the cruel truth of love, and also reflects the love outlook of urban young people in the 80s.

Moreover, after it was introduced to China and aired, it is not an exaggeration to say that "the streets were deserted", and it has become the memory of a generation.

"Mr. Fangyan, can you write this story?"

Kadokawa Lehiko's eyes were full of anticipation, and he could fully anticipate that "Tokyo Love Story" would become a hit once it was published.

Fang Yan suggested: "Of course you can write novels, but for comics, you'd better hire a cartoonist."

"Don't worry about that. I already have a preliminary candidate in mind."

Kadokawa Koyomi thought of Fumi Shibamon, whose works PS Junpei, Ms. Himeko, and Girlfriend mostly tell the story of young people's mentality and love, and are quite popular among young female readers. As a result, he has become a standard-bearer of the "new type of manga". (End of this chapter)