Tokyo Sound

The work has received a lot of attention and has been discussed a lot, but not all of them are encouragement and praise. On the contrary, there is also a vast ocean of criticism and accusations. Some are serious criticisms, some are just parroting others, and some are perhaps just to entertain themselves when they are bored in their spare time.

Regarding the latter, the supervisor and other production staff expressed their understanding.

“If people don’t create, they will always stand at the highest point of aesthetics, looking down at the troubles and sweat. And when you stop creating, your talent will no longer be important, and all you have is taste. But taste will engulf you, make you exclude others, and become narrow-minded. So... create.” The friend on the same set seemed to be sighing, and also seemed to be narrating.

This excellent friend of mine always has his own views on the world.

Matsuoka Yoshitsugu scrolled through the pages and took the criticism into consideration.

"The production quality is just average, I don't know what to brag about."

"Am I the only one who thinks it's illogical for a middle school student to be a hero in a death online game?"

"The animation in this episode is too bad. How serious are the production team? They could have done it well but they made mistakes. This is a problem with their attitude."

"The rhythm is too chaotic. How can this be considered an excellent masterpiece of the season? Japanese animation really has no future."

"The voice actor's roar is really irritating"

"These few seconds of fighting are just a joke."

Matsuoka Yoshitsugu read the comments and felt a little upset. He knew very well that the production team was not slacking off. On the contrary, they were basically producing episode after episode seamlessly. Everyone was like a precise and non-stop machine. During the serialization period, it was a long-lasting battle, and everyone was exhausted physically and mentally.

The anesthesia of alcohol still dominated his senses. He endured the discomfort in his stomach and clicked on his blog.

Although he had no habit of writing a diary since he was a child, on the day he arrived in Tokyo, he still applied for an account to record this impulsive choice.

When I have free time, I write about my daily life, fill the tree hole with negative energy, what I see and hear when I work, and the behind-the-scenes records of my voice acting. Of course, these fragmented self-entertainment essays are not as good as those of serious writers, and the number of views is in the single digit. But as my identity as a voice actor grows, there are also many passers-by who follow my CV and personal recommendation account to read.

The latest blog post is a short essay of less than 100 words. It tells a very normal thing - when the first episode of "Sword Sanctuary" was broadcast, I watched and celebrated at home with two friends who are also voice actors.

There were two photos attached, showing the two drunken men sprawled on the floor. Of course, their faces were covered with raccoon emoticons to obscure their features. I wanted to use mosaics, but that would suddenly turn the style of the photos into evidence photos of a murder scene, so I gave up.

There were messages in the comment section, but the content was completely different from the heartwarming essay.

"My acting is so shabby. I don't understand why I was chosen. Maybe it was just luck. Anyway, this celebration is really exaggerated."

Matsuoka Yoshitsugu propped up his dizzy head. He had an impression of this user because he had commented on many articles, mostly accusations. He didn't understand why he was so stubborn.

He covered his forehead which was a little hot, poured a glass of cold water and drank it to relieve the effect of the alcohol. After thinking about the words for a few seconds, he replied to this paranoid person.

"We will continue to hone our skills and deliver works that will satisfy everyone."

Unexpectedly, the other party responded very quickly, making people wonder if he was checking his own blog.

"Anyone would say something like that. Anyway, you've already got the role, so even if your performance is mediocre, you won't be replaced midway. And choosing you shows that the production team's vision is not that good. It's only natural that they are now criticized for promoting more than quality."

Matsuoka Yoshitsugu typed.

"Please believe me, whether it's the voice actor or other Sta..."

Before I finished typing, the other party had already added another comment.

“Your performances are too inconsistent. Was it really a fair selection at the audition? Was there no shady dealings? The person in the article must be Takizawa from the same company, a minor character in this drama, who relies on his looks and marketing. The same goes for the others, too. They sound terrible and ruin the show—”

Matsuoka Yoshitsugu's typing action paused slightly.

Is the competition at the audition fair?

He recalled the many faces he had seen that day, many of them were well-known seniors and talented people. Even among the newcomers of the same period, there was Takizawa...

Yes.

On that day, in his heart, the only competitor he set for himself was not anyone else but his good friend.

I have seen that person being homeless, I have seen that person reading by lamplight at night, I have seen that person walking through the Chimen Gate covered in fine snow, and I have seen that person demonstrating strong empathy in front of the microphone.

Matsuoka Yoshitsugu didn't have much to be proud of, but on that day, he won.

I got this job and this role from my best and most respected friend with all my efforts.

Almost immediately, he glanced at the slander again, and a surge of anger erupted in his heart, a perfect combination of anger and drunkenness.

Matsuoka Yoshitsugu quickly deleted the mild sentence he was typing and responded instead.

"I don't care about the criticism directed at me personally, but the slander against others is absolutely unforgivable. People like you who know nothing, who can only hide in the shadow of the web page and dare not even reveal your name, are cowards, and you have no right to point fingers at them!!"

Standing in the forest of numbers, everyone was wearing white camouflage masks that covered their hideous faces, and all around them was creepy laughter.

These nicknames and words are all dark projections. Data is constantly copied, mixed, and churned by gears.

The pumice stone bubbling with acid forms the skeleton, soaked in the wax pool of dreams, generating simulated muscles, as perfect as the saints recorded on the stone tablets, holding up the monotonous brush of depression, painting the future with a layer of gray.

A pack of menthol cigarettes

'Memories are like the fragrance of flowers~ We agreed that no one should forget~ Guarding the sunshine in the dark night~ Sad but pretending to be strong~ You are braver than me in the days of waiting~?'

Yin Ze was awakened by the ringing of the phone.

As we all know, the best way to ruin a song is to set it as a call reminder or alarm. So men always change their ringtones to show the outside world that their souls are getting greasy and aging.

After opening his eyes, the first thing he saw was the design draft on the computer screen, with a digital pen in his hand.

The social animal-specific overclocking function of the Life Corridor is so terrifying that after it is turned on, you can fall asleep as fast as Nobita-kun. It only takes two hours to charge, and you can wake up as a brick-moving hero with full energy. With this unsolvable trick alone, Master Yin can single-handedly drive the average index of internal circulation in the entire industry, ushering in an era of great overwork and sacrifice that has never been seen before.

It's just that it consumes too much nutrition. If the supply is not enough, the waist will feel empty and painful.

"I'm drawing it now, finishing it, and I'll definitely give it to you..." Yin Ze resumed his memory before going to bed. He picked up the phone and answered it, procrastinating three times in a row.

Yoshida Tomoki is indeed a productivity-oriented devil who even includes the time employees spend going to the bathroom in Excel. Ever since the desperate producer found that he was the best in East Asia in terms of deadlines, he has been constantly reducing working hours, trying to make the best use of resources and testing his peak. This is similar to the food delivery platform using big calculations to determine the labor limit of the riders and continue to increase the load...

The only messages I received from the producer of The Last Stand these days were greetings and greetings. The process of filling out the illustrations made me feel like I was actually a cartoonist, and a crazy, suicidal type who would update three chapters a week.

In addition, according to the theory of relativity in the workplace, Yoshida-san hasn't felt this comfortable for a long time.

All the difficult and time-consuming tasks of the art team were packaged and compressed and thrown to Teacher Yin. Before each overtime, he would say "please" and send a pleading emoji with his hands folded together, and then wake up from his sleep under the workstation a few days later to take a look.

Yo? The source file is already in your mailbox!

Where can I find such conscientious external aid? If I didn't still have good intentions, I would have dressed myself up as a Phoenix Warrior, drove a van to the residence, tied him up with nylon ropes and brought him to the third development department, and acted like James Bond in the company.

"What are you talking about in your sleep?" Kashiwa Ippei's puzzled voice came.

"Oh, it's you. What's wrong? Is there something wrong?" Master Yin came back to his senses and continued drawing.

"…It's Matsuoka who has something to do." Kashiwai Ippei was silent for a while, "His social media account has been attacked."

"What?" Yin Ze was stunned, and his fluent writing stopped instantly.

"You can check out his blog and Twitter account," said Kashiwai Ippei.

After hearing this, Yin Ze immediately switched back to the desktop, opened the webpage, and logged into his account and blog.

Matsuoka Yoshitsugu's social media account has always been plain and simple. After all, he would not shamelessly repost swimsuit photos to attract attention, nor would he think hard about daily content to increase his followers like Shimazaki Nobunaga. Although it is a public account for voice actors, apart from routine publicity, it is just some personal feelings and scattered daily records. The number of followers and followers is very small, and comments are even rarer.

But now it is very lively, or rather, noisy and a bit messy.

"Voice actors are supposed to serve the audience, so are they just going to accept compliments?"

"Being accused of poor skills, you get angry? Openly fire?"

"As an actor, my professional and interpersonal skills are far from enough"

"You are a public figure after all, is it okay for you to do this?"

"It all started with a user who kept saying nonsense on Matsuoka's blog. Matsuoka had drunk a lot of alcohol that day, and he couldn't help but get into a heated argument with the user. Neither side was willing to admit defeat. Matsuoka eventually wrote a special article to reprimand these people. You can probably imagine what happened next. In short, it ended up like this." Kashiwa Ippei sighed, "His reply was quite sharp. To be honest, I didn't expect that he, who has always been calm, would argue with others to this extent..."

"I think what he said is quite right. Is there any problem with that?" Yin Ze scrolled the mouse wheel to browse quickly.

"The problem is not whether what he said is right or wrong, but that he said it." Kashiwai Ippei paused, "It's not a good idea for the main player to personally go out and compete with the haters."

"Why is it not good? After reading it over and over again, I found that the most sharp words he used were 'coward' and 'shameless'. He is still too conservative and only uses such flowery words to insult people," said Yin Ze.

"No, please don't do anything weird again." Kashiwa Ippei felt that the tone was a little off, and kept saying, "If you go and scold someone, it will only make things worse."

"Anyone with a discerning eye can see who is the one causing trouble here? Why do you sound so worried?" Yin Ze asked.

"When flies fly at you, will they care whether it's a rotten egg or a cream cake? When mosquitoes surround you, will they care whether you were a hero or a villain?" Kashiwa Ippei was a little helpless. "If the audience feels bad, they will say it, even if it's unreasonable. This is the convenience or even the right given by their position. No matter how unhappy you are, you have no choice but to accept it, because you are facing a huge group, so large that you can't pick out some of them to debate. If you want to speak, you can only speak to the entire group. And most importantly, you make money from this group."

"Even if there was no problem with the performance, it was the audience who were shouting and throwing mineral water bottles onto the stage, which finally annoyed the actor, and then he received a few complaints, and suddenly he became extremely angry and felt that he was provoked?" Yin Ze asked.

"Yes. Because others bought tickets and spent money," said Kashiwai Ippei.

"Don't talk so high-level, this matter can't be extended that far. But then again, sometimes I really think your society and system are sick. It's common to see politicians wearing slogans canvassing for votes on the streets, standing on the streets and bowing to everyone passing by, their postures are sincere, their aspirations are grand, just like a bodhisattva saving the world, and then they turn around to pick up girls and toss new people. What kind of group consciousness do you talk about, strictly following the hierarchical order, obeying the collective and authority, but in fact they are eager to defeat the superiors. Convergence consciousness, not causing trouble to others, and taking other people's opinions as the basis and standard for behavior, is actually a hint for others not to disturb themselves. When offended, they appear harmonious on the surface, but secretly report behind their backs." Yin Ze said with some amusement, "They are particularly sensitive. It's not so bad in modern society, but a few decades ago, they were even more arrogant and would commit seppuku when encountering problems. Maybe it's a bit stereotyped and can't represent everyone. There are indeed differences. I just want to ask, are you tired of living?"

"…It's no use for you to tell me these things." Kashiwa Ichi flattened his face on his mattress, rubbing his eyes. "The agency advised Matsuoka to issue a general apology, but he didn't want to. He said it would be better to just close his social media accounts."

"it is good."

"Not so good. He just took over the Sword Saint and is on the rise. I heard his name is on the shortlist for the Rookie of the Year Award." Kashiwai Ippei said, "Now he doesn't say anything and just closes his account. Those netizens who are not satisfied will not get any follow-up and the comment section will be gone. They will just gossip on other forums. This will still affect Matsuoka's reputation."

"So what solutions have you prepared?"

"Just let it go. Things on the Internet will be fine after a while."

"Where's the office?"

"My colleagues all know that he has good intentions. The company still supports him and will help him find more unremarkable jobs like narration and voice acting. The resources for animation series will be temporarily suspended to prevent people with ulterior motives from making trouble when they see his CV."

"How long will it take?" Yin Ze asked.

"I don't know." said Kashiwai Ippei.

"Does he know about these arrangements?"

"We've talked to him, and he understands, but he's still a little disappointed. I hope you can talk to him. After all, you two have the best relationship, and this is the main reason why I'm calling you."

"Okay, I'll be right there."

Yin Ze hung up the phone, saved and sorted out the documents in his computer, picked up a coat and went out.

At midnight, the street is like a calm river, with trees standing silently and casting heavy shadows.

The black and gold Yamaha R6 had not arrived yet, so he had to take out the pink beauty that had been put into cold storage, lift the dust-proof plastic, start the engine, and rumble into the night and neon lights.

He had memorized the route to Matsuoka's house by heart. After turning the monotonous street corners and avoiding those nightlife enthusiasts, more than ten minutes later, he saw the old low building that was quite similar to his own small residence.

The little alpaca slowly stopped beside the road covered with fallen sycamore leaves, with one foot on the cement road to support the body of the car. But he unexpectedly saw a familiar face.

"Mr. Yanze?" Yin Ze stretched out his hand and greeted him.

The man looked over and was quite surprised. He then waved at him and said, "Hey, it's been a long time."

"It's a big change." Yin Ze said with a smile. The athletic boy who was full of energy and college-like appearance at the same meeting and dumpling-making activities has become much more mature. Under the street lights and moonlight, his unshaved stubble makes him look less lively and more calm.

"You are still the same." Iwasawa Toshiki nodded and paused. "You are still here at this time. Are you looking for Matsuoka?"

"Yeah." Yin Ze got out of the car, "You know everything?"

"Of course." Iwasawa Toshiki gave a bitter smile. "To be honest, I've never seen Matsuoka get so angry when arguing with someone. I didn't expect him to be so tough and just close the account without even sending an apology."

"It's good. At least I won't feel any bad about it." Yin Ze said.

"I just feel a little sorry for that guy. He had finally made it this far, and the Rookie Award was within his reach, but he encountered this." Iwasawa Toshiki pursed his lips and looked up at the calm night sky. "...Actually, the one who messed with his blog was a classmate of Matsuoka in the training center."

"Really?" Yin Ze was slightly stunned. He had not expected this.

"I also know that guy. Like Matsuoka, he also ran away from his hometown to Tokyo alone, working part-time while taking voice lessons. If you must say, he is not a bad person. As for thriftiness, he and Matsuoka have a lot of common topics. I vaguely remember that they even discussed how to make the most of weekend supermarket promotions." Iwasawa Toshiki said slowly.

"Why would you do this if you have no grudge against me?" Yin Ze shook his head.

"It's simple." Iwasawa Toshiki looked at the man, the bitterness on his face deepened, "It's jealousy."

"envy."

"At that time, that person's grades were always among the best, he was very proficient in various skills, he did not repeat a grade, graduated very smoothly, and then joined the agency." Iwasawa Toshiki continued, "But, it stopped there. For a long time, he could only play passers-by, and he was always rejected in auditions. His life was very difficult, and in the end he still had to get up early and work part-time to survive. He had obviously completed the prototype of his dream, gritted his teeth and completed the courses in Tokyo, a high-consumption city, and took the most critical and difficult step, but suddenly found that he seemed to be unable to go on and there was no way forward. At this time, he suddenly found that classmates who were similar to him were making rapid progress. Matsuoka was obviously the same as him, not only that, but he had also repeated a grade and failed the selection, but now he has left him far behind..."

"He is being too picky. His impression of Matsuoka is still stuck in the past. He has never thought about the efforts he has made after they separated," said Yin Ze.

"Yeah. But sometimes, even if you understand, you still can't face it." Iwasawa Toshiki said softly, "That person must have worked hard when he debuted, but he didn't get the corresponding rewards. Without opportunities to participate in performances, he had to work part-time jobs everywhere. He was worried about falling into the mud of 'slow death of newcomers' that his teacher warned him about, so he became impatient and a vicious cycle began to turn. In the end, he worked hard and was exhausted both physically and mentally, but he got nothing and didn't get what he expected."

"Where is that classmate?" Yin Ze hesitated for a few seconds, "It's impossible for him to be standing right in front of me, right?"

"It's not me... it's just that it's almost the same." Iwasawa Toshiki pulled the corner of his mouth, "I've been here for a long time, and I've been walking around here for a long time, but I haven't gone up."

"Why don't you go up?"

"I have known Matsuoka for a long time. At that time, we were all very motivated and boasted every day. He said that if he could make a stable living with his voice in the future, it would be a great success. Although I encouraged him at that time, I was a little pessimistic in my heart." Iwasawa Toshiki looked at the old low building nearby, "This industry is not a particularly good job, and the competition is quite fierce. Most of the people who want to do it are quite twisted."

"Matsuoka, how should I put it? His voice is just average, not irreplaceable. Although he is very dedicated in his performance, there are many people in the industry who are excellent in technology but unknown. His image is also a little poor, which does not fit in with the popular idol voice actor trend. The most important thing is that he is not good at communication. Even though he is kind and honest, I think this will become a disadvantage." Iwasawa Toshiki said, "After the course, I thought that if I was doing well, I must find a way to guide this guy. But I didn't expect... You already have several main roles, and I am still matching modal particles. You are fine, but I am really surprised about Matsuoka."

"Remember that word I said before? Jealousy."

Iwasawa Toshiki clenched his hands together gradually, and his voice sounded somewhat painful.

"When I found out that Matsuoka had this incident and his career had come to a halt, I didn't know what to say. He and I had known each other for such a long time and had been friends for such a long time. In addition to the feelings of surprise and worry in my heart... I actually felt a little relieved.

“I don’t even know what I’m happy about.”