Chapter 116: A New Magazine
Chapter 116: A New Magazine
The bakery company might find it a bit sudden too, but this was already a world where everyone understood that advertising and promotions were important. As long as Georg did not completely ruin the negotiations, there should be no problem.
Because of that, Ras left that side to Georg and prepared another plan.
In truth, Ras had encountered the Pokémon games quite late on Earth. His original entry point into Pokémon had been the TV anime.
In other words, its promotional and advertising effect was powerful enough to make even people who knew little about the game try playing it.
Because of that, if he followed his feelings, he wanted to make a Spirit Stone animation. Of course, it was not impossible. Ras had enough money to establish an animation company outright.
But time was the problem.
Creating a company from scratch would take ages, so that was out of the question. Even if he chose to commission an existing production studio, the problem remained the same.
Ras had asked Ella to look into animation production periods. She made calls, went around to various places, and gathered information. Ella was now properly fulfilling her role as a secretary.
“From what I found out, even a fairly large production company takes about a month to make one thirty-minute time slot.”
“Then for twenty-six episodes…”
“That’s two years and two months. But that only works if everything is made continuously without any problems. Usually, they estimate around three years.”
This world still did not use computers for video work.
That meant every frame had to be drawn one by one as animation cels when making animation.
Each episode apparently used roughly ten thousand animation drawings, and even that was when the quality was lowered considerably.
Of course it took a long time.
Still, if it came out as a satisfying work, it might be worth trying for the sake of IP power and future sequels…
The problem was that quality could not be guaranteed.
The animators would certainly do their best in their own way. However, when Ras occasionally watched animation on TV, something felt different.
Ras was familiar with Japanese animation, while this world’s animation felt closer to American animation, and even then, something from its very earliest period.
Of course, since he would be paying them, he could state his requirements and try to guide things in the direction he wanted somehow. But if he asked whether an animation like the Pokémon anime he remembered could be made, he was skeptical.
Because of that, Ras decided to put animation on hold for now and first attempt a manga, where all the foundations were already prepared.
Gamers already had many manga artists, and many of them had art styles influenced by Ras, unlike the original styles of this world. Moreover, Ras’s influence was extremely strong there, so he would easily be able to steer things in the direction he wanted.
And even if Ras did not force them, they had come to a game company, so they would not be opposed to drawing manga based on games.
No, since most of the manga already published in Gamers were game-related, there was no need to even say it.
Ras immediately began drafting the proposal.
It was a simple plan.
He wanted them to draw a manga based on Spirit Stone.
“No. While we’re at it, let’s publish an actual manga magazine.”
“Finally?”
Telomi reacted as though he had been waiting for this.
Well, they had already gathered plenty of manga artists.
The manga serialization section in Gamers was so popular that there were five works currently being serialized, and there were also several aspiring artists, artists temporarily taking breaks, and artists who had been pushed out because their popularity had declined. They had more than enough human resources.
“Yes. We could simply serialize it in Gamers, but Gamers inevitably has a narrow target audience.”
It had become a popular magazine in its own right, but in the end, only people interested in games read it.
If that continued, the plan to draw people into the game through manga would inevitably lose half its effect.
“Understood. Then I’ll prepare for publication.”
For now, it would begin as a magazine under Gamers.
After all, the only person in Ras’s companies who truly knew magazines was Telomi of Gamers.
“Advertise it as much as you want. The start is always the most important part.”
“Yes. That’s reassuring.”
Telomi grinned and nodded.
Gamers already had a national distribution network, so as long as they had enough money, they could advertise it very loudly.
Since it was something they had prepared for a long time, preparations for publication proceeded smoothly.
Among the reporters at Gamers, several who had focused on manga moved over and became managers, while new personnel were recruited to fill out the basic structure.
As for the important manga artists, as mentioned earlier, they had already prepared enough, so there was no need to recruit in a rush.
Of course, even so, filling the magazine with the highest-quality manga possible was best, so they placed advertisements recruiting manga artists.
Chosen Village in the central Republic of Smite.
There was a young man named Verna, who was nearing graduation and worrying about whether he should somehow go to college or simply move to the city and get a job.
As he walked along the quiet street, he thought.
Maybe it really would be better to just get a job.
He did want to learn more about drawing.
However, his farming family was not wealthy enough to pay expensive college tuition.
If he could enter a good job after graduating from college and earn a lot of money, his family might reduce other expenses and invest in him.
But art college was not the kind of school that made it easy to enter high-paying jobs.
And I’m not even sure I could learn what I want even if I went to art college…
Verna was an aspiring manga artist.
In fact, he had already submitted his work several times.
Though he was rejected, he had been told that his art alone was more than good enough.
As he thought about various things, he arrived before he knew it at his destination, the bookstore.
He immediately headed to the magazine section.
Since he liked manga, he had come to buy newly published manga magazines.
After picking up those manga magazines, he also picked up Gamers last.
Originally, he had not been very interested in games, but after seeing the manga published in a copy of Gamers a school friend brought with him, he had started reading it.
He still rarely played games, but he continued to follow the magazine.
Not only the manga section at the back, but the game articles were also quite interesting.
In fact, there were quite a few people like this who did not play games themselves but still read Gamers.
Perhaps they were similar to people who did not play games but still watched game broadcasts.
Huh?
But as he pulled out the magazine, the words “Recruiting manga artists” entered his eyes.
Since he wanted to become a manga artist, he knew all the contest periods for manga magazines.
However, those periods had all passed recently, so he had let his guard down. When this unexpected opportunity appeared, his interest was immediately drawn to it.
It also happened just as he was worrying about whether he should get a job.
Instead of heading straight to the counter as usual, he opened the magazine there and looked for the exact details.
Gamers had dedicated quite a few pages to explaining this recruitment.
They’re launching a new manga magazine?
It was an interesting story.
Then again, Gamers already serialized so many manga that it was almost half a manga magazine anyway.
It seemed to have more than enough capacity to create a separate manga magazine.
In any case, the important part was that they were recruiting manga artists.
Since they were making an actual manga magazine rather than a game magazine, the first thing that caught his eye was that submissions did not necessarily have to use game-related material, unlike before.
It seemed like a good opportunity.
If there were no restrictions on subject matter, it was no different from other manga magazines. And since this was a newly launched magazine, it seemed easier to secure a spot than in existing magazines where all the slots were already filled.
So he examined it more carefully, and there was another notice that caught his interest.
Spirit Stone.>
It was a kind of contest.
If participants drew and submitted a short manga based on Spirit Stone, several people would be selected from among them and would immediately begin serialization.
Having to draw a manga based on a given topic might feel somewhat restrictive.
However, Verna had been criticized for having weaknesses in subject matter and storytelling, and since it was not currently contest season, he had nothing prepared. To him, it sounded like a good opportunity.
For now, he did not have a computer and had never played Spirit Stone, but he had seen it in the magazine, so he roughly knew what kind of content it had and what characters appeared.
And in fact, there were several passionate fans in his class, so he felt that just listening to them chatter would be enough to make a story.
When he returned home, he immediately began practicing drawing the spirits from Spirit Stone.
“I don’t think I’ve heard of a material like that.”
Before the IP Management Team could even negotiate with the bakery company, they hit an obstacle at the stage of making spirit seals.
It was a company that manufactured stickers, and its president, a gnome who looked to be around forty, shook his head at the IP Management Team employee’s words.
What he had requested was the waterproof material Ras remembered, something that might have been rubber or vinyl.
It did not tear easily and had a unique texture, giving it a point of differentiation from ordinary stickers.
Perhaps that was why it made people want to collect it even more.
However, in this world, where plastic materials were not yet widely popularized, materials in that field were not very diverse.
There were not many places that handled them either.
In truth, Ras had simply described what he remembered without thinking too deeply.
But from the employees’ perspective, this was an order from the chairman himself, so they had no choice but to do their best.
They could not simply give up because it did not exist.
They had to continue searching, and even if it truly did not exist, they could not just report that and be done with it. At the very least, they had to find something differentiated from ordinary stickers.
Ah… what is there?
Bronya, one of the IP Management Team employees, was worrying about that very thing.
After going around to sticker shops, she had become exhausted and was resting in a nearby park, sitting on a bench and clutching her head while squeezing out ideas.
The important thing is that it has to make people want to collect it.
She was not unintelligent, so she understood the core of the issue.
If she did not, she would have gotten stuck on the specific traits Ras mentioned and failed to produce any result.
Then, before long, she thought of something plausible.
It came from the keyword “collection.”
The fact that it was thin and small like paper also helped.
It was a postage stamp.
Perhaps she thought of it more easily because one of her uncles collected stamps.
If we don’t just use the material, but make the shape itself like a stamp, it might make people want to collect them…
From her own perspective, it did not seem like a bad idea.
After organizing her thoughts a little more, she jumped to her feet to write the proposal.
“Stamps?”
Ras tilted his head after reading the proposal sent by the IP Planning Team.
First, it was unexpected that they had been unable to find the material to create the Pokémon seals he remembered.
But since this was a different world, he could easily understand that.
However, using stamps as the alternative did not quite click for him.
By the time he lived on Earth, stamps had already long been pushed aside as relics of an older era, and even as a child, he had never been interested in stamps.
“What’s this about stamps?”
Ella’s sharp ears seemed to have caught Ras’s mutter.
Ras turned to look at her and thought this was actually perfect.
It seemed better to hear her opinion rather than rely on himself, since he had no real sense for stamps.