Su Yan's behavior pattern had changed. Shinozaki Ikumi, who basically worked with Su Yan every day, was the first to notice something unusual.
Normally, after finishing filming, Su Yan would drive around Tokyo looking for good food. But these past few days, once he wrapped up his scenes on set, he would lock himself in his office.
This kind of behavior pattern was something Shinozaki Ikumi knew all too well.
Counting it up, the filming of 'Fate/Zero' was basically nearing its end.
Although there were still three months before it would start airing—and another three months of broadcast afterward—technically, the footage Su Yan was filming now still had about six months of post-production time.
But 'Fate/Zero' required a huge amount of special effects in post-production. Su Yan didn't want to leave things until the last minute. So even though he had been busy promoting the releases of two movies, once he returned to Tokyo, he immediately started working overtime to catch up on filming. As a result, the shooting schedule for both projects had actually moved ahead of plan.
At times like this, Su Yan, as the company's boss, had to think about more than just the immediate release of current productions. He also had to consider the company's work direction for the next six months to a year.
After noticing something off about Su Yan for two days straight, Shinozaki Ikumi finally couldn't hold back on the third day.
"Did you come up with a new script idea?"
"Mm." Su Yan nodded with a smile.
"It's that obvious? You figured it out?"
"No. Your life is just too monotonous. Every day it's eating, filming, and going home. If you don't go eat right after filming, that means you're working overtime writing a script. I've known you for almost five years—your behavior patterns are way too easy to guess." Shinozaki Ikumi nodded.
Then a trace of curiosity appeared in her clear, bright eyes.
"So what's the project? From what angle are you planning to emotionally destroy the audience this time? Let me think… Your previous works had parallel timelines, time travel, illness and death, long-distance relationships, and in the main ending of 'Tokyo Love Story', the male lead cheated… And in 'Fate/Zero', the female lead Artoria being betrayed by her own Master at the end was also pretty brutal. Your ways of depressing people are endlessly creative… I honestly can't imagine what direction you'll take next!"
"No one stays the same forever. Besides, even you—the person in the film industry who understands me best—think I'm about to write another depressing script. If that's the case, why would I follow the path everyone expects?" Su Yan chuckled.
"The two scripts I'm about to produce next are both complete happy-ending, dumpling-wrapping stories."
"I see. So two extremely depressing works. What genre? Romance or special-effects fantasy?" Shinozaki Ikumi automatically ignored the parts about "happy endings" and "dumpling-wrapping."
A happy ending from Su Yan? Not even a dog would believe that.
"I'm serious this time," Su Yan emphasized.
"I know, I understand. So when will these two scripts be finished?" Shinozaki Ikumi asked.
"No, that expression—you clearly don't believe me, right?" Su Yan said.
"I believe that you wrote what you think is a happy ending script. But you're not a normal person. Your understanding of things is different from the public's… Anyway, we shouldn't get hung up on that." Shinozaki Ikumi waved it off quickly.
"Right now, both 'Rurouni Kenshin: Movie' and 'Fate/Zero' have entered the later stages of filming. In about half a month to a month, shooting will finish, and they'll enter post-production. Your new scripts are perfectly timed—otherwise the hundreds of employees in the company would have nothing to do."
Su Yan's expression turned strange.
'Kimi ni Todoke' clearly had a fully open, happy-ending. And as for 'Your Name.', that went without saying—pure love throughout. Sure, the process might make viewers anxious at times, but the ending was absolutely sweet.
Seeing Shinozaki Ikumi's reaction made Su Yan let out a long sigh.
But then he thought about it—if, before he transmigrated, Urobuchi Gen suddenly announced he was going to write a pure romance story, Su Yan himself would probably burst out laughing too.
He didn't dwell on the topic and instead shared some information about the two scripts with Shinozaki Ikumi.
"A campus romance drama—'Kimi ni Todoke(From Me to You!)'."
"And then a campus daily-life romance film—' Your Name.'"
Shinozaki Ikumi thought for a moment before asking:
"Are you planning to act in these two works?"
Recently, Su Yan had been intentionally reducing his presence as an actor in his projects.
After all, besides writing scripts and reviewing filmed footage, he also had to compose the classic musical pieces from the originals. When all those tasks piled up, the workload became enormous, and he couldn't sustain it long term.
But the problem was that Su Yan's fans wanted to see him.
Even a cameo appearance had great significance. From Shinozaki Ikumi's perspective, she wished Su Yan could star in every production.
"Me?" Su Yan thought for a moment.
"I'm almost twenty-five. Playing student roles doesn't really suit me anymore. Let's give some younger people from the Xia Nation a chance."
"But right now, you're the number one traffic actor in our company. Shen Liqian and Gu Qingyuan are still far behind you. If we don't make use of your popularity, it would be a waste." Shinozaki Ikumi looked at him.
"At least pick one of the two works to star in!"
Su Yan was about to say something.
"This matter is settled. I'm inviting you to participate as the producer, based on what's best for the project's performance. Once the scripts are finished, I'll decide which one suits you better." Shinozaki Ikumi didn't give him the chance to refuse.
'5 Centimeters per Second' didn't surpass 1.5 billion at the box office.
And 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' failed to beat 'Windmill'.
These were the two biggest knots in her heart recently.
More than once in the past half month, she had thought—if she had been more forceful when those films were first approved…
If she had insisted on giving the male lead of 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' to Su Yan…
Or let Su Yan play the adult male lead in '5 Centimeters per Second'…
Would both films have achieved even better results?
But there were no "ifs" and no regret medicine.
You learn from every mistake.
"Let's talk about it later." Su Yan sighed.
"I'll probably finish the scripts for both works within a week. We'll discuss the details then."
By mid-October, the market discussion sparked by '5 Centimeters per Second' and 'We Made a Beautiful Bouquet' had mostly died down.
Both the television and film markets had plenty of new works becoming the focus of discussion among drama fans.
Su Yan, Shen Liqian, Gu Qingyuan, and others were gradually losing some of their popularity since no new works of theirs had been released.
However, Su Yan's true hardcore fans were still checking SakuraNet, the official websites of Sakura TV, and Dimensional Pictures almost every day for new promotional material about 'Fate/Zero' and 'Rurouni Kenshin: Movie'.
In the Xia Nation, 'Fate/Zero' used Su Yan's previous life's Western historical myths as the basis for its alternate-world setting. Therefore, when the series officially aired, each episode would briefly insert informational text introducing elements of those historical epics.
Of course, these text pages would only appear for a few seconds, so the amount of information was limited.
Because of that, before the drama even aired, Su Yan had already written articles about the major historical figures in 'Fate/Zero' and posted them on the official website.
The legend of Gilgamesh.
The deeds of the King of Knights.
The story of the King of Conquerors.
Once the drama aired, viewers who wanted to learn more could simply visit the website.
At the same time, as the partner VFX companies began delivering finished effects shots, the design and production of merchandise for 'Fate/Zero' also began.
Even though Su Yan hadn't produced an animation in Xia Nation, that didn't mean live-action series couldn't have merchandise.
Live-action tokusatsu series like 'Ultraman' and 'Kamen Rider' in his previous life sold merchandise extremely well as long as they were popular.
Su Yan hoped 'Fate/Zero' could achieve the same.
Some works simply earned money from broadcast licensing.
But for others, the real profits came from merchandise.
If 'Fate/Zero' exploded in popularity after its release in Xia Nation, Su Yan was very interested in expanding the Fate franchise into sequels, merchandise, and even games.
After all, the company had so much money sitting idle in its accounts—it would be a waste not to use it.
Under these circumstances, in Tokyo—
Shinozaki Ikumi finally saw the scripts Su Yan had produced for the two projects.
The script for 'Kimi ni Todoke' was relatively long, so Su Yan had only written the early and middle portions.
Meanwhile, the film script for 'Your Name.' was only a few tens of thousands of words.
After spending an entire afternoon reading through them in the office, Shinozaki Ikumi looked shocked, as if she had encountered something unbelievable.
"Su Yan… are you sick lately?"
"Huh? Why are you suddenly cursing me? I'm perfectly healthy." Su Yan's expression darkened.
"Then are you in love?" Shinozaki Ikumi asked.
"No, nothing like that. If you allowed me to only handle writing scripts for my works and minimized everything else I have to deal with, maybe I'd have time to date. But right now, I'm still single."
"Then forget it—you're better off staying single your whole life! Otherwise, with a ship as big as Dimensional Pictures, if I had to steer it alone, I'd definitely crash it." Shinozaki Ikumi carefully looked again at the two scripts in her hands.
'Your Name.' aside—the ending alone…
Wasn't that basically making up for the regrets of '5 Centimeters per Second'?
The same crossing trains.
The male and female leads are searching for each other.
And in the end, even after losing their memories, they still find one another.
Was this really a script Su Yan could write?
If it were the old Su Yan, the story would have ended the moment the meteor destroyed Itomori Town.
And as for 'Kimi ni Todoke'—
Even though she hadn't seen the ending yet, just judging from the early story…
The style.
The details.
The depiction of the female lead, Kurokuma Sawako's inner world.
Could a man really write something like this?
And from the first scene up to where Su Yan's script stopped, the story was constantly delivering sweetness. There might be some misunderstandings or complications in the middle, but overall, it was pure romance.
Based on Shinozaki Ikumi's many years of experience watching television dramas, she couldn't think of a single show that was more youthful or more purely romantic than this.
Even though the series hadn't been produced or aired yet, she could already predict that once it premiered, it would absolutely be crowned the ceiling of pure romance dramas.
But how could a script like this come from Su Yan?
"Su Yan, this is fraud, you know that? When 'Kimi ni Todoke' airs, do you know how many of your fans will have their beliefs shattered?" Shinozaki Ikumi couldn't help laughing.
"Imagine it—fans coming in expecting depressing dramas, only for you to stuff them with sweet pure-love romance every week. Just thinking about it is hilarious."
"I already told you these two works are pure romance! You're the one who didn't believe me," Su Yan said.
"How could anyone believe it?!"
"What do you mean by that? Even if you didn't notice, I'm actually a pure-love fan," Su Yan said calmly.
"You've all misunderstood me for too long."
"…." Shinozaki Ikumi.