My Animation Era

Chapter 1076 Gundam

As the old saying goes, you can't eat hot tofu if you are in a hurry.

Although he is very curious about the finished product of the remake of Journey to the West and Havoc in Heaven, Gu Miao knows very well that this kind of thing cannot be rushed.

Since you promised to give Ma Kui time, let’s wait quietly for his good news. Two years sounds extremely long, but it’s actually not that long.

 Just be patient and it will be over!

 After seeing off Mr. Bear, Gu Miao went to Wanbao Games to learn about the development of the mobile game of the same name "Pretty Cure".

 That's right, Guangmei has launched a mobile game...

Wanbao Games drew inspiration from animation and felt that a melee fighting magic girl like Guangmei, who is "punch-to-flesh", would be good at making a side-scrolling game.

Hence, the side-scrolling fighting mobile game of the same name "Pretty Cure" was officially launched for public beta on October 3 this year!

 Gu Miao had briefly played the game before its public beta. At that time, he felt that it was a "two-dimensional style" Dungeon and Warriors game with all the kryptonite elements.

 To be honest, this kind of game is really not that interesting.

 It has the skin of a two-dimensional character, but the core is still a traditional RPG krypton gold mobile game, with a set of gameplay methods such as numerical development and social PK.

The promotion is that the combat feeling is as refreshing as that of arcade fighting, and it actually does have a feeling of impact. However, if you don’t charge money for this kind of game, no matter how smooth you are with your moves, you will not be able to defeat a Kryptonian guy.

 So the feeling of impact is useless?

　　　Krypton guy can fire 648 at will and stand still, even if I hit you, you won’t be able to hit him. When the oleophobic layer on your screen has been wiped off and you are out of breath from exhaustion, the krypton guy will take you away with a mediocre basic attack...

Although it is very boring and not very technical, one thing that must be admitted is that this kind of mobile game often makes the most money on the market.

This fact is cruel.

  The three games "Pokémon", "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Frontline" and "Droid King" created with great efforts by Wanbao Games are not profitable. Although they are very popular among many players, their profits are really disappointing.

 On the contrary, there are those obscure, low-sounding card-drawing mobile games with krypton gold, and their monthly turnover is ridiculously high!

 “It makes money, it’s not shabby…”

 President Kobayashi is very open-minded. After all, it is mobile games that make a living, and the console side and PC side are trying to win reputation and win the upper limit. No one stipulates that one must choose one or the other.

The current development strategy of Wanbao Games is to release a word-of-mouth game, and then supplement the revenue with a krypton gold game with explosive cash flow.

 Guangmei Mobile Games is a game that will supplement revenue in the second half of this year. In addition, they have another word-of-mouth game that will be released before the end of the year.

 “Oh, new game?”

After listening to his story, Gu Miao suddenly became interested and asked, "What subject is it? Is it adapted from animation or comics?"

 “Science fiction genre!”

“It’s not an adaptation, but it can’t be said to be 100% original. We combined a lot of inspiration from past robots, especially mecha-type games and anime, to redesign a game.”

Kobayashi explained enthusiastically: "We regard robots as a kind of war weapon. This is a brand new experience, just like people in the Stone Age used stone axes as weapons, and people in modern society use firearms as weapons..."

 “Is it a realistic weapon route? It sounds pretty good!”

Just listening to the description, Gu Miao was not sure whether this kind of game would be popular, but he supported Xiao Lin in bravely trying it. Wanbao could not afford to lose anyway.

What's more, robot-themed games will surely spawn many robot prototypes. Even if the game's response is average, the robots made into peripheral model toys should be able to regain some blood.

 Gu Miao didn't realize what was wrong.

　　It wasn’t until Kobayashi took out a line drawing, pointed at the angular humanoid robot on it and told him that this was the robot they expected and named it “Gundam”, that his expression froze.

“Wait a minute, what did you just say? What is this thing?”

“Tactical general-purpose humanoid mobile weapon!”

Kobayashi said without hesitation: "This is the official name. To simplify it, we can call it Mobile Suit Gundam!"

"Gundam?"

"Gundam? Yes, this name can be used. Gundam happens to be an acronym. We haven't figured out how to translate it yet." Kobayashi said thoughtfully.

Gu Miao: “…”

He couldn't help but pinch his thigh, wondering if he was dreaming.

 Aren’t you making a robot-themed game? Why did he suddenly become a Gundam? Oh, I almost forgot, Gundam is also a robot!

 But this is amazing!

 Gu Miao, who had never thought about it in this direction at all, was extremely surprised when she suddenly learned that Xiaolin was working on a Gundam game.

That's Gundam...

Is there anyone who can remain absolutely calm when hearing the word "Gundam"?

It goes without saying what Gundam represents. Anyone who knows Bandai model toy product line knows what Gundam means to a toy manufacturer.

　　It’s a bit underestimated to say that Gundam is a huge source of money. Even if it were to be reborn and go back to the past to speculate in stocks and coins, the income would probably not be as high as the production of the "Mobile Suit Gundam" series.

Bandai's famous money printing machine supports the main product line of Bandai's character anime series. Are you kidding me?

 It is well known.

Pai guys are a group of people who are very rich and are willing to mess around. It is with the support of Pai guys that "Yu-Gi-Oh!" has become an evergreen tree in the animation industry.

 But in front of the larger number of "jiao lao", pai lao pales in comparison.

 The so-called Jiao Lao, in a broad sense, refers to those who like to play with models. Because most of the model toys are made of plastic, they are called Jiao Lao.

  But this is Jiao Lao in a broad sense.

  In a narrow sense, "Jiao Lao" refers to people who play with Gunpla models, because most of the time when playing models, you can't escape Gundam, so there is nothing wrong with saying so.

 Actually, seriously...

Although there are a lot of Jiao Lao people, compared to the billions of people in the world, it is still a niche hobby circle, and it cannot be said to be very broad.

In terms of the influence of Gundam's works alone, it is not said to be "eternally dominant". It is just that the sales of model toys are unexpectedly hot.

 But one thing that everyone may not have thought of is that although the number of Jiaoguo is small, the number of gold coins per capita is quite large, and their consumption potential is really terrifying.

Have you ever seen any plastic guy who only collects one Gunpla?

 It can be said that as long as you fall into the trap of Gundam, you can basically bury it. Just buy one and stop it? Stop dreaming! If you don’t have some financial strength, you can’t be a glue guy!

 “No wonder it sounds so familiar…”

Gu Miao murmured to himself: "Realistic weapons route? Isn't this just Gundam!"

This is definitely the best news that Gu Miao has heard this year, especially the birth of Gundam. He had almost no intervention, but was an idea generated by Wanbao Games itself.

 “Isn’t it too wasteful to only make this Gundam a game?”

Gu Miao raised her eyebrows and said: "I admire the design of this robot very much, and I also agree with your concept of realistic weapons, so why not try to make it into animation and comics?"

  "Ah this?!"    Kobayashi hesitated: "I have no objection to making animations and comics, but we may not have so much time and energy..."

"Don't worry!"

“Isn’t it still me? As long as you don’t object, I will immediately recruit people from Wanbao Animation to come up with animation and comic plans.”

The more he thought about it, the more excited Gu Miao became. Even after Xiao Lin nodded, he quickly called Lao Zhang, who stayed behind at Wanbao Animation.

Soon, Lao Zhang sent five senior animation screenwriters working for Wanbao Animation to discuss the plot and theme with President Xiaolin.

 He was stunned by this efficiency.

He thought Mr. Gu was joking, but he didn't expect Mr. Gu to be serious. He called so many people immediately, which didn't seem like a joke at all.

“Mr. Gu, are you serious?”

"Nonsense! I called everyone here. I'm not serious. Am I still teasing you?" Gu Miao rolled her eyes.

 Who are these people?

 Is he so untrustworthy? Or is it because he usually likes to joke, so everyone is skeptical of his statements?

 …

 Gu Miao is usually very laid-back.

Especially after the production of the "Go Boy" project was completed, he became very lazy. Even Lao Zhang had a hard time finding where others were during working hours.

But when faced with an epoch-making work like "Mobile Suit Gundam", he always maintained great enthusiasm and took it very seriously.

 This also made Lao Zhang very confused.

It’s not that he doesn’t believe in Mr. Gu’s vision. After so many years, Mr. Gu has long proven that his vision is extremely vicious.

 He just felt it was strange. Didn't Mr. Gu say that after finishing "Go Boy", he would take a good rest and stop interfering with all the company's affairs? Why are you so busy now?

 “The past was before, the present is now!”

Gu Miao said righteously: "I wanted to take a break before because the company's existing projects could not arouse my interest."

“But "Mobile Suit Gundam" is different. This project made me feel unprecedented momentum and passion, so I came back..."

“I should have told you that Wanbao Jiangchuan Headquarters lacks a blockbuster work that has far-reaching influence around the world!”

Gu Miao explained: "The Neon branch has Dragon Ball, and the North American branch has Tom and Jerry. But at our Jiangchuan headquarters, except for Bugs Bunny, other animations seem to be unable to support the dignity of the headquarters."

 Actually, Bugs Bunny is also qualified.

 But the problem is that the reason why Jiangchuan headquarters is a headquarters is that it has a higher status than other branches.

To reflect the headquarters' transcendent status, it is obviously not enough to rely on Bugs Bunny alone, at least it cannot suppress Dragon Ball.

In order to further enhance the presence of Jiangchuan headquarters and suppress "different surname" feudal kings like Seto Dave with evil intentions, it is necessary to produce more influential anime works.

 What a coincidence!

In Gu Miao's view, "Mobile Suit Gundam" is such a great work that has far-reaching influence around the world and can support the face of Jiangchuan Headquarters.

What?

  You say that Mobile Suit Gundam is not that good at all, and that the anime’s performance alone is not worthy of being a shoe-in for Dragon Ball?

 What you said makes sense.

But when evaluating the value of an animation IP, who says that just watching the animation is enough? Have you ever considered peripheral derivatives?

　In terms of the performance of anime works alone, it is indeed not as good as Dragon Ball, or even far inferior...

 But if peripheral derivatives are included, then Gundam is not without the capital to compete with Dragon Ball. After all, no matter how influential Dragon Ball is, peripheral derivatives may not be as popular as Gundam.

 “Is it comparable to Dragon Ball?”

“Yes, if you include peripheral derivatives and IP influence, you can really give it a try.”

Gu Miao explained: "However, the influence of the animation works itself may be slightly inferior."

 But it’s not a big problem.

Early when Gu Miao decided to cut down the vassal, he had thought about an animation, a great animation that was not inferior to Dragon Ball in the true sense, or even had a wider audience than Dragon Ball, and had unprecedented influence.

  Doraemon!

Once Jiangchuan headquarters launches this animation, I believe that even Dragon Ball will have a hard time overpowering this fat blue cat.

 After all, the audience of blue-skinned Doraemon is much higher than that of Dragon Ball.

 In modern society, there may be people who have never seen Dragon Ball and don’t know what the proper terms “Saiyan” and “Turtle Style Qigong” are.

But if you want to say that no one knows Doraemon or Tinker Bell, that would be a bit nonsense...

Doraemon is one of the most famous "anime cat" characters in the world. You can even remove one of them, and this is the most famous "cat" in the world!

Garfield and Tom Cat are also slightly inferior to it.

In terms of popularity alone, even though the neon animation industry has developed for so many years, there are countless classic animation characters exported to the outside world, but there are really few animation characters that can surpass "Doraemon".

 Astro Boy used to count, but due to the unstable output of sequels and the lapse of many years, it is normal for the new generation of children to have never heard of it.

 There is a misunderstanding here.

 When it comes to neon-related animations and comics, many people will subconsciously think of migrant cartoons such as "Sea of ​​Fire" and believe that these are the most influential.

 But influence mainly depends on the audience. The wider the audience and the more famous the work, the greater its influence will be.

Sea of ​​Fire is very cool, but in terms of influence, animations like Astro Boy, Doraemon, Chibi Maruko-chan, and Crayon Shin-chan are more powerful...

 "Doraemon" is Gu Miao's plan to cut down the feudal clan, prevent Seto from expanding, and let him know that the headquarters will always be the headquarters, and your father will always be your father's alternative.

If there were no Gundam, Jiangchuan headquarters would have used a blue-skinned Doraemon.

 But after inspecting Wanbao Game and accidentally learning about the appearance of Gundam, Gu Miao suddenly changed his mind.

 Doraemon doesn’t have to worry!

 Daily comedy like this can be done at any time. Anyway, the subject matter will be popular at any time.

 It can be as high as different...

 The emergence of Gundam needs to cater to the tastes of the audience. Only by choosing the right opportunity to launch it can the revenue be maximized.

Trivia!

　　When the original Gundam was first released, its performance was not as good as expected. If it were not for the strong support of sponsor Bandai and the popularity of peripheral models, this series might have died long ago.

 (End of this chapter)