Starting from April, as the serialization of Kimi ni Todoke progressed, it sparked massive discussion across Japan, particularly among the female ACGN fan community.
During the serialization of Hunter x Hunter, Attack on Titan, and Demon Slayer, Rei's works actually had more female fans than male fans.
During the serialization of the Big Three, this phenomenon reversed. Naruto was still okay, with the number of female fans nearly equal to male fans, but the gender gap in the fanbases of Bleach and One Piece became obvious.
The birth of Kimi ni Todoke fiercely drew back the female fans Rei had lost due to the Big Three serialization.
The animation industry is like that. No single work can attract every group. If a creator can produce top-tier works in any genre, they will possess unrivaled popularity and fan numbers.
This is why, despite the Big Three having such a large core audience and high commercial value, Rei continues to release these short to medium-length series and anime.
Beyond the Big Three fanbases, there are also a large number of ACGN fans who don't like battle shonen. If Shirogane Animation wants to continue growing, it can't just stick to its core base.
In Rei's past life, Weekly Shonen Jump was incredibly strong, yet works like Detective Conan still thrived, with popularity not falling behind Jump's new pillars.
The market is diverse. It just means Rei has to maintain the workload of a model worker for a long time, which is a bit tiring.
Then, the issue Miyu mentioned began to surface. With the serialization of Kimi ni Todoke this quarter, the negative review rate for Bleach started to rise.
"The plot has been a bit sluggish since Ichigo defeated Ulquiorra."
"We still don't understand how Aizen can go head-to-head with Old Man Yamamoto. From the plot, Yamamoto is called the strongest Soul Reaper in the Soul Society. How can Aizen stand against him?"
"I have a feeling that Ulquiorra, with his Second Release, might be the strongest of the Espada. Even though he's ranked fourth, could he actually surpass the First Espada?"
"I feel like the top three Espada don't have much of a sense of pressure at all."
"I don't understand the power scaling in this anime at all now. First, Ichigo's Shikai state was roughly equal to Kenpachi. Then Kenpachi is considered strong among the Soul Society Captains. Based on that scaling, Ichigo's Bankai should be stronger than Kenpachi and stronger than an average Captain.
Then Ichigo's Masked state should have power far exceeding a normal Captain, but Ichigo had to use his Masked form plus Hollowfication to become Vasto Lorde Ichigo just to defeat the Fourth Espada, Ulquiorra.
Now you're telling me the top three Espada are fighting back and forth with ordinary Captains? I can't accept this."
"I can't accept it either. These Captains haven't really improved since the Soul Society arc. Yet they can trade blows with the top three Espada, showing a strength not inferior to Ichigo. Doesn't it make the protagonist Ichigo look like a fool for training so desperately to improve himself?"
"It's true that power scaling becomes blurred in the later stages of long-running battle shonen. Naruto is the same. Those few Genin in Konoha are clearly overpowered. One Piece is even more exaggerated. Luffy's crew defeated Crocodile of the Seven Warlords right after entering the Grand Line, then defeated Enel in the Skypiea arc.
Now in the latest plot, they encounter some Admiral and get soloed as a whole team, which made me laugh. Weren't the Seven Warlords one of the three great powers of the Grand Line? Based on Aokiji's performance, shouldn't he be able to solo the Seven Warlords by himself?"
"These are all minor flaws. As long as the main storyline is fine, it's okay. Otherwise, what do you expect from an anime with over two hundred episodes?"
"Exactly. It's a fact that Bleach's power scaling is a bit unclear now, but the flaws don't hide the merits. In my heart, it's still the strongest of the Big Three. The plot of the Captains fighting other Espada is boring, but as long as the plot of Ichigo fighting Aizen isn't boring, it's fine.
It should preferably be full of ups and downs, like Ichigo's fights against Grimmjow and Ulquiorra, lasting for ten or twenty episodes to give me a real thrill."
"Aizen? Let him get past Old Man Yamamoto first. From the previous plot introductions, I'm afraid Yamamoto might insta-kill Aizen the moment his Zanpakuto leaves its sheath."
The anime fans in Japan are like the protagonist Naruto. They speak their minds. Being a fan of Shirogane is one thing, but if there's a problem with the works, they won't hide it. They'll say it straight and even send private messages to inform Rei.
During the serialization, Rei would also integrate the experience of the later serialization of Bleach from his past life, making some changes to the pacing and priorities of the plot.
Most importantly, the Japan versions of the Big Three aren't bloated at all. Rei has so many anime works in his head that he struggles to produce them all. He makes the plot rhythm as engaging as possible and would never bloat it just to extend the work's lifespan to make more money.
This is why, since Bleach started broadcasting, the audience mostly just complains about some power scaling settings rather than criticizing the plot for being bloated or boring.
Spring passed by like that.
Summer arrived, and in July, the Death Note concluded, and another heavyweight work, Fullmetal Alchemist, debuted.
The Japan anime market had already grown accustomed to Shirogane Animation releasing several new seasonal anime every year. The premiere of Fullmetal Alchemist didn't cause too much of a stir in the market. It was a slow-burner with a somewhat depressing atmosphere in the beginning, so its initial popularity was even lower than Kimi ni Todoke.
Compared to other anime in the same period, its viewership data was still a total landslide.
In July, the focus of the Japan ACGN fan market was concentrated elsewhere.
The Big Three had been broadcasting for four or five years, and Rei's company's game department had been developing mobile games, online games, and derivative single-player games for just as long.
The three works could now be said to be famous across all countries in the Japan world, with a fan base so large it was staggering.
According to the previously established plan, the derivative mobile games for the three works were officially launched this summer vacation.
As for the sales data and revenue after their launch.
It left the Japan gaming circle dazed, plain and simple.
The domestic gaming market in Japan was similar to the Western regions in Rei's past life, dominated by single-player games, with no heavyweight works born in the online or mobile game sectors.
It wasn't that there was no market for ACG games. There were no games of sufficient quality on the market.
Rei had witnessed firsthand how ACG games rose in Japan in his past life. As one of the victims of various ACG game planners in his past life, he applied the operational methods and gameplay of those exploitative game companies, taking the essence and discarding the dregs, to the Big Three mobile games.
For the Big Three, the final result was that in the first month of the three major anime's mobile games going online, their game revenues were 42 billion, 87 billion, and 51 billion yen respectively.
This data left a group of people in the Japan gaming circle staring in disbelief.
A bunch of companies were working themselves to death making single-player games, pulling investments everywhere, and begging for sponsorships. A single-player game sold for two or three thousand yen, and if its final total sales reached a million copies, meaning 2 or 3 billion yen in total revenue, it was considered decent.
You, Shirogane, make some anime ACG mobile games and get a total revenue of 180 billion yen in the first month?
That's just the first month. It will rise further after breaking into the mainstream.
Are you even human?
At this moment, people from the Japan anime, film, and gaming circles finally understood the significance of Shirogane spending so much money and poaching people from all the major companies across Japan over the past few years.
Single-player games are a one-time deal, where the first month's sales account for more than half of the game's total income.
Mobile games and ACG games are different.
This was only the sales revenue from the Japan domestic market. Starting next month, other countries worldwide would gradually introduce and operate them.
If the Bleach, Naruto, and One Piece anime continued to be serialized, and based on this revenue data for a few years, these three games would maintain a certain level of popularity for several years after the works concluded.
Setting aside the other values of the three major anime IPs, just these three derivative ACG games were cash cows that could bring Shirogane Animation trillions or even tens of trillions of yen in operating revenue.
Rei's fans and a group of bystanders in the gaming circle were now in an uproar.
"This is insane."
"So anime IPs are actually worth this much?"
"The Demon Slayer mobile game didn't make this much money before."
"The market wasn't open back then. It takes time for Japan gamers to accept ACG games. Demon Slayer and Attack on Titan were the pioneers that expanded this market, and now the Big Three are reaping the rewards."
"I'm impressed by Shirogane-sensei. He's playing such a big game. How did he think of adapting anime IPs into games this way? The anime plot is perfectly integrated into the storyline."
"Perhaps, this is what a genius is."
"If Shirogane Animation continues to develop like this, will it become a game company? My god. The monthly game business revenue is over a hundred billion yen. Is this normal? It's likely to rise further."
"It shouldn't go that far. Shirogane-sensei's various copyright incomes from his past works, the tankobon income from the Big Three, and the adaptations into other anime, films, and novels are still stronger than the gaming sector. Not to mention the rent from the Shirogane Animation merchandise commercial street in the Tokyo area.
Otherwise, how do you think Shirogane-sensei could get a loan of a trillion or two trillion yen from the bank to transform the area around Shirogane Animation headquarters into a new holy land for anime in Tokyo? They wouldn't be afraid of Shirogane-sensei being unable to pay it back."
"Revenue is revenue, and profit is profit. Don't mix them up."
"With the total salaries of the two thousand employees from Shirogane Animation and Illumination Animation, how much could it be? If the average salary is 10 million yen a month, that's only 20 billion yen in monthly salary expenses. The headquarters building was bought long ago, so there's only some advertising costs for the games and anime. This industry is high-profit."
"The games are developed, operated, and promoted by themselves, with no middleman taking a cut. It's ridiculous. The big manufacturers in the Japan gaming circle must be crying with envy. They work hard for years on a single-player game, and it's not even as high as the monthly revenue of one of Shirogane-sensei's games."
"If they had the ability, they should go and create global IPs like the Big Three first, then they wouldn't have to be envious. Since they don't, only Shirogane-sensei can eat this piece of the cake right now."
"It's a bit exaggerated. Hasn't Shirogane-sensei already passed the era of earning tens of billions of yen a month? No wonder ten years ago, when Shirogane Animation had only been established for a year or two and there were rumors that capital wanted to buy half the equity of Shirogane Animation for over a trillion yen, Shirogane-sensei refused straight out.
At the time, I thought he was stupid, but now I see he's the one who truly knew the value of his works."
"Such a powerful person still makes public appearances at the anime conventions held near the Shirogane Animation headquarters every month. Last month, he even sang the Naruto theme song for me live. I'm crying."
"Haha, were you there too? If we're being strict, Shirogane-sensei's singing ability is okay, but there's a gap compared to the original singers."
"In two days, an anime convention will be held there again. It's said to be a theme convention for Shirogane-sensei's new anime, Fullmetal Alchemist. Maybe everyone can go and see Shirogane-sensei sing the Fullmetal Alchemist theme song again."
After the Big Three games went online, the IP operation chain of Shirogane Animation was complete.
With anime and manga as the main promotion channels, supplemented by novels and derivative films, copyright licensing, global sales of derivative merchandise, and derivative games as the final layer of the chain, IP development was carried out in all aspects.
In the Japan world, Rei had advantages in the IP development of the Big Three compared to his past life.
Japan was his home turf, and there was no issue of foreign games being squeezed out by local game manufacturers. It was already good enough that Rei didn't use his popularity and scale to bully other manufacturers in the market. Promotion channels and funding were also not a problem.
The influence of Japan in this world was far beyond what Japan in Rei's past life could compare to. It was one of the superpowers on this planet, plain and simple. The difficulty of promoting cultural products that could occupy the market in Japan to the rest of the world was much lower.
"Whew."
After sorting these things out in his head, Rei felt a lot more relaxed.
It was still too much to expect the adapted games of the Big Three to reach the scale of Honor of Kings from his past life. The game genres were different.
Rei's expectation for their final development was that they could be like Genshin Impact, becoming true cash cows for the company.
Everyone criticized Genshin Impact in his past life, but in the ACG field, its success and commercial value were beyond words.
Now, Rei was essentially replicating the gameplay and operational aspects of those games from his past life that were worth praising in Japan, while directly discarding the parts that were criticized.
It's good to have the experience of those predecessors from the past life helping him cross the river by feeling the stones.
"Now, it's considered a start." Rei said in a soft voice. "As for how far they can develop next, it can only be left to the market."