I’m Really a Superstar

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

The next day.

In the morning.

At Zhang Ye's Studio.

Little Wang had sorted out a stack of documents related to the Chinese cartoon industry and placed them on Zhang Ye's desk. It was a very thick stack, and Zhang Ye was flipping through it page by page. Since he had decided to enter this industry, he had to understand it beforehand by reading up on the relevant materials. Zhang Ye would never fight any battles without preparing for them.

Industry situation.

Business model.

The past years' works.

He had all the information he needed.

Little Wang said in a bind, "Director Zhang, do think about it again."

Zhang Ye chuckled and said, "Hasn't it already been decided?"

Little Wang said, "But we didn't know how shockingly complicated it was until we did our research. We all knew that the domestic cartoon industry was a struggle to navigate, but we didn't expect it to be so difficult. Look at the information. Our hearts turned cold when we were organizing what we gathered earlier. Sister Ha and Brother Zuo even walked off demoralized while covering their faces. The domestic cartoon industry is in a much worse situation than we expected. Do you know what the domestic animation companies are doing to ensure their survivability? They're all relying on animation targeted at young children to keep their companies afloat. There hasn't been any progress at all in the past few years, and it has been such a tragic situation."

Zhang Ye smiled and said, "That's why it's time for us to take action now."

Beside them, Little Zhou let out a sigh. "No one is as bold as you. The more dangerous and difficult something is, the more you want to go for it."

Zhang Ye said, "Of course. I wouldn't care if it weren't something challenging. Hur hur, that's enough, stop talking with me. Have you dealt with the proper business yet?"

Little Wang replied, "We've already made an appointment with them."

Little Zhou looked at her watch. "I think they should be here soon?"

Zhang Ye said, "Go and pick them up then."

"Alright." Little Zhou went downstairs to wait for their arrival.

Zhang Ye continued looking through the information.

…

Downstairs.

Sun Xiaobei and the others were already here.

Li Zhi took a deep breath. "How should we put it when we get there?"

Chen Xiang was also feeling extremely nervous. "Yeah, why are my legs shaking?"

"Mine as well." Zhao Chengfei wiped off his sweat and said, "Why don't…why don't I stay downstairs instead of going up. You guys can go ahead. This is Zhang Ye we're talking about, the biggest hooligan in the Asian entertainment industry!"

Sun Xiaobei said in a speechless manner, "How can you speak like that? What do you mean by hooligan? He just enjoys scolding and fighting people sometimes, that's all."

Zhao Chengfei rebuked, "Isn't that what you call a hooligan?"

Sun Xiaobei was silenced.

Chen Xiang said, "Do you guys think that Teacher Zhang will really work with us?"

Hu Kebang said, "I also feel that it's a little unreal."

Sun Xiaobei said, "We'll know how it is when we meet with Teacher Zhang."

Chen Xiang clenched his teeth. "Alright, let's go."

…

A few minutes later.

They arrived.

The several of them finally met with Zhang Ye himself.

Zhang Ye smiled and shook their hands. "I'm sorry that I had to let you guys make the trip over. By rights, I should have brought my team to go over to look for you. But I've been attracting quite a bit of hate recently, so I'm afraid people will attack me with bricks if I go out. As such, I'm choosing not to appear in public too often. That's why I had to invite you all over instead."

How are you just attracting a bit of hate!

You're basically the target of everyone out there!

They laughed. A eunuch had no human rights.

But with these opening few words by Zhang Ye, it brought some relief to Sun Xiaobei and the others. They discovered that Zhang Ye wasn't that difficult to get along with.

Zhang Ye asked, "Who is the person-in-charge?"

Sun Xiaobei stood forward and said in a neither humble nor pushy manner, "We are all shareholders of the company and also university classmates. If there's any problems, we discuss it together. Thanks to everyone's trust, I'm usually in charge of the external communications for our company." Although she appeared very calm on the surface, Sun Xiaobei's heart was pounding in extreme anxiety.

Zhang Ye smiled and said, "Were you also the one who wrote the proposal and faxed it over?"

Sun Xiaobei nodded. "Yes, that was me."

Zhang Ye smiled. "I've already had someone find out more about your company, and I can say that it's pretty good. Be it the company size or your skill sets, you're one of the better animation teams in the domestic cartoon industry. You were saying that you wished to seek my help in our cooperation, but I dare not accept that praise. I'm actually just a novice when it comes to the cartoon industry. I've only entered the industry for a few months so far."

Sun Xiaobei smiled and said, "But in these few months, you've already traveled to far more places than we've been able to in so many years. By coming here, we're actually looking to learn from you. You are the only Chinese person to have reached the top of the comics and animation field. We couldn't afford to invite anyone, so we could only come to look for you. We're hoping that you can show us a way to move the domestic cartoon industry forward and help our Chinese cartoons fight back and kill our way out of a market dominated by Japanese cartoons."

Zhang Ye joked, "Alright, I may not be good at other things, but I'm really an expert when it comes fighting and killing."

Ha Qiqi said nervously, "They didn't mean it in the same way as you did."

Zhang Ye laughed dryly. "It's all the same, it's all the same."

Everyone was tickled.

Zhang Zuo invited, "Please, take a seat."

Zhang Ye said, "Right, right, let's sit down and talk."

There was tea.

There was alcohol.

And there were even snacks served.

Sun Xiaobei sipped tea absentmindedly and got straight to the point. "Teacher Zhang, I've read all seven of your comics, and we've really learned a lot from them. All of them are outstanding works. But the more it's like that, the more hopeless we feel. Forgive me for saying this, but I feel that none of those seven comic series carry our domestic style of comics. They're all the typical Japanese style of comics."

Zhang Ye smiled. "That's of course."

Sun Xiaobei asked, "Do you think that this is the way out for our domestic cartoons?"

Zhang Ye said, "Do you mean to imitate them?"

Sun Xiaobei: "Yes."

Zhang Ye shook his head. "I don't think it's exactly that."

Chen Xiang followed up with a question. "When you say that you want to work with us, do you mean that you want to make another series like One Piece or Naruto?"

"Of course not." Zhang Ye laughed as he said, "A domestic comic will naturally need to have the flavor of our own local cartoons."

Sun Xiaobei heaved a sigh of relief. "Then I'm relieved. Before I came here, I was worried that you might be looking to make a sequel to One Piece and just change it to a Chinese name. If that were the case, it wouldn't be a cartoon that we would want to do either."

Zhang Ye laughed and said, "Japanese cartoons have a style of their own, and this style is very successful in Japan. In fact, it can even propagate to the whole of Asia and still be very successful. But if this style were directly adapted for use in China, it might not necessarily work. For example in Naruto, how many people do you think will want to watch a domestic cartoon with the term 'ninja' in it? And if we changed the name, it would end up becoming neither fish nor fowl. As a further example, One Piece uses a pirate as its main character. Do you think the SARFT would approve of that? Would they pass it to be shown on TV? Even if my wife is the SARFT's leader, even if I am the son-in-law of the SARFT, there wouldn't be a chance of that happening."

Sun Xiaobei giggled, "Pfft."

The others laughed as well.

Zhang Ye continued, "And it's not just a question of the subject matter. It's also the method of delivery. Will China be able to accept weekly releases? I don't think it will be easy in the short term, right? The Chinese market does not have a business model that is as mature as Japan's. Therefore, the national conditions are different and the industry's way of operation is different. A lot of things cannot just be brought over as is. We have to have something that we can call our own so that we can differentiate ourselves from the Japanese comics. That is the only way that we can create a path of our own."

Sun Xiaobei sighed. "But a lot of people in the comics industry in our country have already tried and failed. We're really not sure of where our own path lies."

Zhang Ye laughed and then asked, "Have you all tried 3D animation yet?"

Ah?

3D animation?

Sun Xiaobei and the others were stunned for a moment.

Ha Qiqi, Zhang Zuo, and the rest were also slightly taken aback.

Li Zhi and the others were the professionals here. When they heard this, they got so scared they quickly said, "That won't do. Japan has already tried out 3D animation a few times, and all of them have failed. There were a few comics with a good theme that got adapted into 3D animation, but their results were very poor. The fans only found it refreshing for a few days before starting to lose interest in them. The technicalities required for a 3D animation are not difficult, but Japan has proven that this model is not feasible."

Chen Xiang kept waving his hand. "This won't work."

Hu Kebang also said, "Japan is the most developed country when it comes to the comics and animation industry. Since they have already proven that 3D animation does not have a future, then it will be even more so for—"

Zhang Ye laughed and said, "They are them, and we are us. What they can't do does not mean that it won't work for us."

If it didn't work for others, why would it work for us?

How could that be possible!

Sun Xiaobei fell silent.

Zhang Ye looked at her. "Do you want to give it a shot?"

Sun Xiaobei said, "For a 3D animation, the production budget, capital, and personnel technical skill set required exceed that of a 2D animation production by many times over. Furthermore, no one has ever tried that in the domestic market before. If it were to fail, the losses would be astronomical. Aren't the stakes a little too high here, Teacher Zhang?"

Zhang Ye smiled and said, "I'm not interested in a low stakes game."

Chen Xiang said, terrified, "Xiaobei, this—"

Hu Kebang kicked Sun Xiaobei's legs a few times under the table.

Everyone knew that a Chinese animation production was essentially a pitfall!

Everyone knew that doing a 3D animation was also a pitfall!

But as it stood?

Zhang Ye was actually thinking of a Chinese 3D animation production?

This was a fucking pit in a pit!

This was the deepest of the deep pits!

We mustn't touch this!

Otherwise, we might have to pay for it with our lives!

Hu Kebang, Chen Xiang, and the others all thought that there wasn't going to be a more rotten idea than what Zhang Ye had suggested!

But what surprised them the most was, after staying silent for about 30 seconds or so, Sun Xiaobei raised her head and looked Zhang Ye in the eye. After staring for a long time, she finally said, "If it were anyone else saying this to me, I would think that it was just a fantasy of that person's and something that the most amateur of laymen would say. I would turn around to leave without even thinking about it. However, it's different for you. I believe in your judgment! This is a pit that we're willing to jump into!"

"Xiaobei!"

"Uh!"

"This—"

Chen Xiang and the others were nearly crying!

Sun Xiaobei said, "We can come up with half of the funding."

Zhang Ye said, "I'll settle the rest of it."

Sun Xiaobei asked, "As for the director?"

Zhang Ye said, "I'll take it personally. How about the technical staff and support?"

"We'll take care of that."

Zhang Ye reached out his hand. "It's a pleasure working with you."

Sun Xiaobei took his hand and held it with a lot of strength and determination. With this shake of hands, it was as though she had placed all of her hope into the deal. "A pleasure."

She had said that the five people with her were all fellow shareholders of the company and that they would discuss any matters together as a team. But in the end, it was still Sun Xiaobei who made the final decision. After all, she was the director who held the largest share of the company. Sometimes, the resolution of a woman was much more stronger than that of a man's! Sun Xiaobei was also unsure whether her decision was the correct one, but she really wanted to take a gamble on it!

She wanted to take a gamble for their Miracle Animation Studios!

And also a gamble for the Chinese cartoon industry!