The next day.
In the morning.
At Zhang Ye's Studio.
Little Wang sorted out a stack of information related to the domestic animation industry and placed it on Zhang Ye's desk. It was a thick stack, and Zhang Ye flipped through it page by page. Since he wanted to enter this line of work, he definitely had to understand it clearly and do the relevant homework. Zhang Ye would never fight a battle he was not confident of winning.
Industrial situation.
Operation mode.
Works over the years.
Basically, it had everything.
Little Wang said hesitantly, "Director Zhang, please reconsider it."
Zhang Ye chuckled and said, "Hasn't it already been decided?"
Little Wang said, "But if we didn't check, we wouldn't have known. But when we did, we were shocked. Everyone already knew that the domestic comics industry was having a hard time, but we didn't expect it to be this difficult. Look at this information. When we were organizing it, our hearts turned cold. Sister Ha and Brother Zuo only read half of it before they facepalmed and left. The situation of the domestic comics industry is much worse than we imagined. Do you know how the domestic animation companies are keeping themselves alive these days? They're all relying on some stereotypical children's cartoons to 'survive'. After a few years, there hasn't been any development at all. It's really tragic. "
Zhang Ye laughed and said, "That's why it's time for us to make our move."
Beside him, Little Zhou sighed, "No one is as brave as you. The more dangerous it is, the more difficult it is, the more you charge forward."
Zhang Ye said, "That's true. If it wasn't difficult, I wouldn't be bothered to do it. Hur hur, alright, stop bickering with me. Have you settled your business?"
Little Wang immediately said, "I've already arranged to meet them."
Little Zhou looked at his watch. "We should be arriving soon, right?"
Zhang Ye said, "Go and pick them up."
"Alright." Little Zhou went downstairs.
Zhang Ye carried on reading the information.
…
Downstairs.
Sun Xiaobei and the others had already arrived.
Li Zhi took a deep breath. "What do you say when we get there?"
Chen Xiang was also extremely nervous. "Yeah, why do my legs feel a little weak."
"Me too." Zhao Chengfei wiped his sweat and said, "Why don't … why don't I not go up? You guys can go up instead. That's Zhang Ye we're talking about, the biggest hooligan in the Asian entertainment circle!"
Sun Xiaobei was speechless. "How can you say that? What do you mean by a hooligan? I just like to scold people and fight."
Zhao Chengfei retorted, "Then aren't they just slackers?"
Sun Xiaobei: "…"
Chen Xiang said, "Do you guys think that Teacher Zhang can really cooperate with us?"
Hu Kebang said, "I also think it's a little unreal."
Sun Xiaobei said, "As for how it is, we'll know when we meet Teacher Zhang."
Chen Xiang gritted his teeth. "Alright, let's go."
…
A few minutes later.
They were here.
The four of them finally saw Zhang Ye in person.
Zhang Ye smiled and shook hands with them. "I'm sorry to have made you guys come all the way here. I should have brought my team over to look for you guys, but I'm a little hated these days. I'm afraid that people will throw bricks at me wherever I go, so I don't dare to show my face on the streets. That's why I got someone to invite you guys over."
How are you more hateful!
You're the target of everyone's hatred!
Everyone laughed. Eunuchs had no human rights.
However, Zhang Ye's opening words made Sun Xiaobei and the others heave a sigh of relief. They realized that Zhang Ye was not that difficult to get along with.
Zhang Ye asked, "Who's in charge?"
Sun Xiaobei stepped forward and said in a manner that was neither overbearing nor servile, "The few of us are all shareholders and also college classmates. If there's anything, we'll discuss it together. Thanks to everyone's trust, I'm usually in charge of liaising with the outside world." She looked very calm on the surface, but Sun Xiaobei's heart was pounding. She was extremely nervous.
Zhang Ye smiled and said, "You were the one who wrote the fax of the collaboration invitation?"
Sun Xiaobei nodded. "Yes, I did."
Zhang Ye smiled and said, "I just got someone to understand your company. It's pretty good. Be it the scale or the technology, it's a pretty good animation team in the country. You asked me to help you guys out during the collaboration, but I don't dare to accept that. I'm actually a newbie in the animation industry and only entered the industry a few months ago."
Sun Xiaobei smiled and said, "But in the past few months, you've gone places that we haven't been able to in so many years. We came here this time with the attitude of learning from you. You're the only Chinese person who has reached the top of the animation industry, so since we couldn't invite anyone else, we could only look for you. We hope that you can point out a path for our local animation industry and help China's animation industry carve a bloody path out of the Japanese comics industry."
Zhang Ye joked, "Sure, I might not be good at other things, but I'm good at fighting and killing."
Ha Qiqi said nervously, "The fighting and killing that they're talking about isn't the fighting and killing that you're talking about, right?"
Zhang Ye gave a dry laugh. "It's all the same, it's all the same."
Everyone was tickled by this.
Zhang Zuo called out, "Come, have a seat."
Zhang Ye said, "Yes, yes, let's sit down and talk."
There was tea.
There was wine.
And there were snacks.
Sun Xiaobei absent-mindedly took a sip of tea and went straight to the point. "Teacher Zhang, I've read all seven of your comics and they've really helped us learn a lot. Each of them is an extremely outstanding work of animation, but the more it's like that, the more despair we feel. Forgive me for being presumptuous, but I feel that none of these seven comics are in the style of our local comics. All of them have the typical style of Japanese comics."
Zhang Ye smiled. "That's for sure."
Sun Xiaobei asked, "Do you think that this is the way forward for our local comics industry?"
Zhang Ye said, "Are you talking about imitation?"
Sun Xiaobei: "Yes."
Zhang Ye shook his head. "I don't think so."
Chen Xiang asked, "When you said that you wanted to work with us, did you mean that you wanted to make a second One Piece or Naruto?"
"Of course not." Zhang Ye smiled and said, "It's a local comic, so it naturally has to have a bit of a local flavor."
Sun Xiaobei heaved a sigh of relief. "Then I'm relieved. Before I came here, I was still worried that you would make a second One Piece with a Chinese and Chinese name. If that were the case, we really wouldn't be able to do it. That wouldn't be the kind of animation that we want to make either."
Zhang Ye smiled and said, "Japanese comics have their own style of doing things. This style has been very successful in Japan and has even spread to all of Asia. But if we bring this style of doing things directly to China, it might not necessarily work. Take Naruto for example. How many people do you think will read a local comic with the name 'ninja'? Even if we change the name, it might not sound right. Or take One Piece for example. Do you think the SARFT will approve it if it uses a pirate as the main character? Will it be aired on television? Even if my wife is a leader of the SARFT, even if I'm the son-in-law of the SARFT, there's still no chance of that happening. "
Sun Xiaobei laughed, "Pfft."
The others laughed as well.
Zhang Ye continued, "And it's not just a problem with the theme. The style is the same as well. Will China be able to accept weekly updates? It'll be very difficult for the time being, right? China doesn't have a mature animation industry system like Japan's, so the situation is different and the industry model is different. A lot of things can't be copied mechanically. We have to have something of our own, something that's different from Japanese comics. We have to carve out our own path. "
Sun Xiaobei sighed and said, "But a lot of our domestic animation industry's people have tried it before and failed as well. We really don't know where this path of ours lies."
Zhang Ye laughed and suddenly asked, "Have you guys tried 3D animation before?"
Ah?
3D animation?
Sun Xiaobei and the others were taken aback.
Ha Qiqi, Zhang Zuo, and the others were also slightly taken aback.
Li Zhi and the others were professionals in this field. When they heard this, they were shocked. They hurriedly said, "That won't do. Japan has tried 3D animation before. They tried a few times, but they all failed. A few comics with good themes were adapted into 3D animation, but the results were very poor. It only made the comics fans feel fresh for a few days before they lost interest. The production technology for 3D animation isn't difficult, but Japan has already proven that this model doesn't work."
Chen Xiang waved it off. "That won't do."
Hu Kebang also said, "Japan is the most developed country in the animation industry. Even they've proven that 3D animation has no future, so it's even more so for us —"
Zhang Ye laughed and said, "They are them, and we are us. If they can't do it, that doesn't mean that we can't."
If they can't do it, how can we?
How is that possible!
Sun Xiaobei fell silent.
Zhang Ye looked at her. "Do you want to give it a try?"
Sun Xiaobei said, "3D animation, in terms of production budget, investment, and manpower, all of these are many times more expensive than a normal 2D animation. Moreover, no one in our country has ever tried it before. If it fails, the losses will be astronomical. Isn't this a little too much, Teacher Zhang?"
Zhang Ye laughed and said, "I've never played with 3D animation before either."
Chen Xiang said in horror, "Xiaobei, this —"
Hu Kebang also kicked Sun Xiaobei a few times under the table.
Everyone knew that the domestic animation industry was a scam!
Everyone knew that 3D animation was also a scam!
But in the end?
Zhang Ye actually wanted to make a domestic 3D animation?
This was a fucking scam on top of a scam!
This was a fucking scam among scams!
This couldn't be done!
Lives would be lost if this were to happen!
Hu Kebang, Chen Xiang, and the others all thought that there was no worse idea than Zhang Ye's!
But to their utter surprise, after about 30 seconds of silence, Sun Xiaobei raised her head and looked into Zhang Ye's eyes. After looking at him for a long time, she suddenly said, "If it were anyone else who said this to us, I would only think that it was a fantasy story and that it was the most amateurish of amateurs. I wouldn't even think about it and would just get up and leave. But you're different. I believe in your judgment! We're jumping into this scam! "
"Xiaobei!"
"Uh!"
"This —"
Chen Xiang and the others were nearly in tears!
Sun Xiaobei said, "We can fork out half of the funding."
Zhang Ye said, "I'll fork out the rest."
Sun Xiaobei asked, "Who's going to be the director?"
Zhang Ye said, "I'll do it myself. What about the personnel and technical skills?"
Sun Xiaobei said, "We'll do it."
Zhang Ye put out his hand. "It's a pleasure working with you."
Sun Xiaobei also held his hand tightly and firmly. It was as though she was betting all of her hopes on it. "I hope we can work well together."
She had said that they were all shareholders and that everything would be decided after discussion. But in the end, it was still Sun Xiaobei who made the final decision. After all, she was the chairman with the most shares in the company. Sometimes, a woman's boldness was even greater than a man's. Sun Xiaobei did not know if she had made the right decision, but she really wanted to take a gamble!
She wanted to take a gamble for Miracle Animation Studios!
And also for the domestic animation industry!
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