Tokyo: The evil god doesn't want to be the top star

The man being stared at by Masada Hizuka was the representative of Company S who was in charge of publicity and promotion within the production committee.

"Whether it's advertising, self-media, program announcements, cross-industry collaborations, previews, voice actor meet-and-greets, or cosplay, our promotion budget is three times that of Curse of the Darkness."

Seeing that the attack was directed at him, the representative of Company S launched a counterattack without hesitation.

"Even if the reviews and word-of-mouth of Cursed Blade are slightly better than ours, Attack of Dwarfs has a wider audience and a higher audience base. How is it possible that with five times the publicity and promotion budget, it only achieves one-fifth of the effect?"

"Are you trying to say that I, who am better at embracing the market, am so much worse at production than Tsuchiya Haruo, who only thinks about 'art'?"

Masada Hizuka shrugged off his words.

"No, we have no doubts about the production level of Director Hizuka. With the same doubts, in order to better adjust the subsequent publicity and promotion plan, we conducted an in-depth analysis and investigation..."

"Let me start with the conclusion... We believe that the huge difference in box office this time is mainly due to the difference in the movie theme songs."

The representative of Company S was obviously well prepared and continued his statement in a neither humble nor arrogant manner.

"What, the difference in movie theme songs? There has never been a saying that a theme song can make such a big difference in box office sales. If you want to find someone to take the blame, your logic should be more reasonable."

Upon hearing this, the representative of J Company, who was in charge of music production, flew into a rage.

"Don't worry, please take a look at our investigation report first."

The representative of Company S smiled crookedly, took out his laptop, connected it to the conference room projector, and displayed a large number of data tables.

"From the premiere to the next morning, our box office data was always slightly higher than that of Cursed Blade. The point at which our box office was surpassed was 14 hours after the premiere, which was the morning show of the next day."

"According to our data analysis, some of the moviegoers in the morning show were fans of the original novel who didn't get to watch the premiere, while others were influenced by the premiere's reputation and followed the trend to watch Cursed Blade..."

“This also coincides with the time when Yinghua released its official subjective film reviews.”

In the candlestick chart that looks back at the box office growth trend, the "red line" representing the box office of "Cursed Blade" was slightly lower than the "blue line" of "Attack of Dwarfs" at the beginning, but it rose and surpassed it in the 14-hour position...

"That only proves that Cursed Blade had a better impression and reputation, which boosted the box office. The film review in Yinghua did praise the theme song for its "finishing touch", but the movie is a whole, so how can the responsibility for the box office difference be attributed to a single song?"

The J company representative sneered coldly.

"After the box office surpassed, the gap between the two was actually only about double. The real gap was widened after the official release of the theme song "Gurenge" and the full version of the song MV of "Cursed Blade"..."

The scene changed, and the MV of "Red Lotus" began playing on the projector.

“Although this MV was edited with ‘old footage’, the overall effect was quite explosive thanks to the excellent quality of the song itself, the voice actor Kurokawa Tsubasa’s great singing skills, and the perfect fit of the theme and mood of Cursed Blade.”

"So far, the paid download volume of the song and MV of Gurenhua has exceeded 10, and it has received a huge response online. The publicity effect far exceeds that of the initial trailer, and netizens call it a 'real movie trailer.'"

"From that time on, a large number of potential viewers who had no strong desire to watch the film chose to go to the cinema after listening to "Red Lotus" on the Internet or watching the MV."

On the K-line chart, since the online release of "Gurenge", the box office growth trend of "Cursed Spirit Blade" has risen again.

“Perhaps, the movie Cursed Blade and the theme song are well combined, and the new MV also plays a role in secondary publicity and diversion. But if the content of the movie itself is bad, no matter how good the theme song is, it will not create such a chain effect.”

This data still failed to convince the J company representative.

"That's exactly what I'm going to say next... The turning point when the box office gap widened to five times occurred 12 hours after Guren Hua was released..."

"Like Attack of the Dwarves, Cursed Blade is a long-running anime, and its largest fan base and audience are naturally on the ACG bullet commentary websites."

“As usual, after the film is released and the theme song is released, video hosts will release animation re-creations and song covers out of love for the film or to attract traffic…”

"Although there was a tilt in the amount of money spent on publicity and promotion, the theme song of Attack of the Dwarves, Donate Your Kidney, received only average response from the audience."

The representative of S Company clicked on "NICNIC", the largest 2D bullet commentary website in District 11.

The "hot recommendations" on the homepage of the website are all secondary creation videos about "Gurenge" and "Cursed Spirit Blade".

"On the other hand, the song "Red Lotus" unexpectedly caused a lot of discussion in terms of song cover... because this song is too difficult to sing."

"Several top singers on N Station publicly stated after releasing their covers that they made some mistakes and were unable to fully present the song."

"But this situation has attracted more video hosts to take part in the 'cover challenge', and even many artists who have opened accounts have joined in."

"In a short period of time, hundreds of 'Red Lotus Cover Challenge' videos were updated on N Station, and netizens joked that it was 'Red Lotus Large Car Accident Scene'."

In these cover videos, those who "succeed in the challenge" will naturally receive a lot of praise. But for those who fail in the challenge, the cover singers will also make ruthless self-deprecation and receive sharp comments from the onlookers.

The challenge to cover the song "Gurenge", whether successful or not, has become a way to gain popularity, no longer limited to the fan circle of "Cursed Blade"...

"In just one day, the popularity of the cover of the song 'Red Lotus' spread from N Station to other social media and websites... In other words, this song has created a 'breakthrough effect'."

"The breakthrough of "Gurenge" has further attracted audiences who had previously "abandoned" or had never watched "Cursed Blade" to watch the film in theaters."

As the representative of S company said, after the cover craze began, the "red line" of "Damn It" seemed to have some kind of physiological reaction, and it stood like a pillar, leaving the "blue line" of "Attack of Dwarfs" to a place where even the taillights could not see it.

Chapter 69 Killing the Game

2024-07-13

"How is it possible... The theme song elevates the plot to its climax, the MV enhances the promotional video, and the cover song breaks through the circle and feeds back to the box office... A theme song actually led to the formation of such a perfect closed-loop matrix of box office diversion..."

Staring at the analysis results on the projector in amazement, all the committee representatives, including those from J Company, were speechless for a moment.

"By the way, according to on-site surveys by theater chains, the '10% higher than expected' box office of Attack of Dwarfs came mostly from viewers who went to the theaters but didn't buy tickets for Curse of the Dark Knight."

"In summary, we believe that the poor box office data this time is not a problem of publicity and promotion."

The representative of Company S added another blow, completely killing the meeting.

"Which music company and who wrote this evil song called "Red Lotus"?!"

After a while, Masada Hizuka asked weakly with the mentality of "I want to die with a clear mind".

"'Gurenhua' is produced by Bethesda. The lyrics, music and arrangement are all by the same person, called 'Xiafan'."

"By the way, the song "Sakura" that is currently ranked first in the "Tokyo Newcomer Music Awards" is also his work."

The representative of Company S sighed.

At this point, even if the reason is found, it is obviously impossible for "Attack of Dwarfs" to surpass the box office of "Damned Blade" by adjusting its publicity and promotion plan.

Perhaps, the phenomenal popularity of "Grim Regent" will cause the entire film industry to pay further attention to the quality of theme songs.

"What... Sakura... came down to earth... it's him again?!"

"One song 'Sakura' wasn't enough, and here comes 'Gurenge'. Where did Bethesda dig this freak newcomer from?"

The representative of Company A, who had remained silent until then, could not help but let out a low cry.

This time, Company A is in charge of the back-end peripheral production and sales within the production committee of "Attack of Dwarfs", and does not bear much responsibility for the box office results.

However, the three companies that made up the biggest investment in Attack of Dwarfs are still J-Company, A-Company and S-Company.

The intention behind the joint investment of these three companies is naturally the same as that of the "Tokyo Newcomer Music Awards", based on the strategy of "the past cannot be changed, so strive for the future", sniping Bethesda and the "Burning Series" in the layout of the film industry chain and IP creation.

At the Tokyo Newcomer Music Awards, the song "Sakura" from the human world took the first place, leaving J-company's "PPAP", A-company's "Please Marry Your Daughter to Me" and S-company's "Thousand Layers of Teasing Tricks" secretly fighting for the second place...

On the cinema side, the release of "Gurenge" helped "Cursed Blade" crush "Attack of Dwarfs" in advance.

The name "Xia Fan" has recently become a stumbling block in the "JAS Alliance"'s strategy to dominate the entertainment industry.

"This time, the huge gap in box office sales due to the movie theme song can only be said to be an unexpected situation, not the fault of Zhan. Although the box office performance is not as good as "Damn Blade", it has exceeded expectations and is enough to bet on the box office investment."

"So, don't be discouraged. Follow-up work will continue as planned. Let's stop here today."

With a sigh, Masada Hizuka smiled and boosted morale, then adjourned the meeting.

"This music producer's 'coming down to earth' is indeed worthy of attention. But he is a newcomer after all, and producing two hit songs in a short period of time should be the limit."

"That's right. The music promotion season starting next month will be the stage for the top singers and gold medal music producers from various companies to compete head-on."

But the representatives of J, A and S did not leave immediately and started talking about other business cooperation.

Even if "Attack of Dwarfs" lost to "Damned Blade" at the box office, as long as it meets the basic box office results and investment returns, it can be considered a successful investment film project.

The capital in the entertainment industry has no time to stay in the past and will only continue to pursue new profit targets.

"This time, we at J-Company are well prepared and are confident that we will be able to completely suppress Company B in terms of new album sales and concert revenue. If you are interested, you can invest in the music project we are planning."

The representative of J Company changed the subject, took out a stack of information, and started promoting their own new project.

"Don't be too confident. The popular singers of your company in the past two years are indeed quite popular, and the song production level is also online. But the new top female singer of Bethesda, Yayoi Tsuki, is also quite talented."

Recalling the "backstabbing" he encountered at the Tokyo Newcomer Music Awards, the representative of S Company smiled disdainfully.

The Burning Series under the Bethesda has not had many new singers become popular in recent years, and its mainstays are aging rapidly, so the series is on a downward slope.

But the female singer Yayoi Tsuki, who debuted the year before last, has a great appearance and figure, and her singing and dancing skills are top-notch. Her ethereal singing voice seems to have a charm that goes straight into the soul. In just two years and two albums, she has become a top singer and was praised by the media as having a "voice kissed by God."

"Yayoi Tsuki, among the new generation of singers, is indeed considered S-level... but that was in the past... Have you seen her sing in public in the past year?"

When the name "Yayoizuki" is mentioned, J Club's representative smiles ambiguously.

"Come to think of it, it seems to be true. Do you have any inside information?"

Smelling a different scent, the representative of Company A curiously came over and lit a cigarette for the other party.

"Hey, the paparazzi's gossip is not reliable..."

"But I heard that her hearing was seriously damaged and almost unrecoverable."

The J-company representative took a greedy puff of his cigarette and spoke while puffing out smoke.

"What? Yayoi Tsuki has hearing problems. If that's true..."

"Then Bethesda, the music market this year, is doomed."

The other two looked at each other in ecstasy.

It goes without saying what severe hearing damage means to a top singer.

……

Tokyo University of the Arts, lecture hall.

"Dear students, the theme of our music practice course today is 'From the box office miracle of the animated film "Cursed Blade", on the empowerment of music in the context of the new era'."

"In recent days, the animated film "Cursed Blade" has achieved great success in both word of mouth and box office. I'm sure everyone has heard the popular theme song "Gurenge"...."

"What, you haven't listened yet? I'll give you five minutes. Go to the corridor and listen now, then come back."

On the podium, the gray-haired professor was giving a lecture in a serious tone.

[Faith +1...Faith +1...Faith +1...Faith +1...]

[Current cumulative faith value 3280]

"As expected of a big-budget animated film that's a box office hit, isn't the faith growing too fast?"

In the first row of the classroom, Xia Fan sensed the increase in faith and sighed silently.

"Cursed Blade" set the fastest box office record in three days after its release, and also brought him more faith growth than "Sakura" in one month.

Chapter 70 Oracle Completed

2024-07-13

[You completed the oracle: sing a new sacrificial song, lead thousands of people to sing along, and the gods give you a sacrificial song: "I once thought about ending it all"]

"Oracle, is this complete? So, a cover song also counts as 'singing along', right?"

[God has sent down an oracle: Let ten thousand people listen to the new festival song and shed tears. After completing it, you will receive God's blessing.]

Thanks to the movie's box office success and the continued popularity of the "Gurenge Cover Challenge", the oracle that had been shelved for a while was finally successfully completed, but a new oracle was issued shortly thereafter.

"Another new song that makes people feel headache, and it's also 'tearful', does it mean that it will make tens of thousands of people cry?"

"Tian Yu Shen's aesthetic taste is really strange. I heard so many good songs in my previous life. Can't he sing something simple and easy to understand like "Little Apple" to make everyone laugh?"

Sensing the new song appearing in his mind, Xia Fan rubbed his eyebrows.

The theme of the song "I Once Thought of Ending It All" is to live towards death. It depicts the difficulties and challenges of life, and how to find hope and courage in difficulties.

The overall rhythm is brisk and the style is heavy. The lyrics describe a lot of lifeless and depressing scenes such as the remains of insects under the trees, abandoned bicycles, old arch bridges, etc., which run counter to the preferences of the pop music market.

People with high EQ would say it is too "literary", while people with low EQ would say it is a bit "out of touch with reality".

Although it once topped the cable radio station's J-POP song on-demand chart, its sales cannot be compared with previous super hits such as "Sakura" and "Gurenhua" due to its narrow audience and use.

It is not difficult for this kind of song to be listened to by tens of thousands of people without a suitable context, but it is not easy to make people cry.

"Ahem, Xia Fan, please answer this question. What is the fundamental reason why the song "Red Lotus" became so popular?"

Noticing that a top student was distracted, the professor did not hesitate to use his special skill: "asking questions by name."

"The one with the blood-boiling lyrics, the powerful beat, the unyielding emotion in despair?"