Inside a izakaya, Akiyuki Shinbo looked embarrassed as he said to Lin Zhiyan, "I'm sorry to bother you, Mr. Hayashi, when you're so busy."
"No problem," Lin Zhiyan replied with a nonchalant expression. "I've said before, feel free to join me for a drink when you have time, and you're always welcome to visit L.S Production."
Shinbo took a sip of his sake and sighed. "When I heard you only spent eight months on the pre-production for your new animation, I thought you might not have been taking it seriously. I even thought our quarterly series Soul Hunter, which we spent over a year preparing, would definitely be much better than your half-year series. Now it seems... I was the clown all along."
"Well..." Lin Zhiyan didn't know how to console him.
Looking at it from Shinbo's perspective, it did feel a bit like "the clown was me all along."
What could he do? Soul Hunter had bombed so spectacularly.
If one had to name the most disastrous animation of 2001, Soul Hunter would likely be among the top contenders.
Of course, calling the series complete garbage would be an exaggeration. After all, it was produced by Tatsunoko, with production assistance from Kyoto Animation and SHAFT. Even at its worst, it had a certain baseline quality.
The core issue lay in the animation's excessive stream of consciousness and self-indulgence, which rendered the plot obscure and incomprehensible. After watching it, many viewers exclaimed, "What the hell was that? I didn't understand a thing!"
Common criticisms included: "The viewing experience was terrible—it damaged my brain and eyes simultaneously," "I couldn't even finish one episode; it was pure torture," and "Lots of ideas, but utterly boring."
In short, the reviews were overwhelmingly negative, and its commercial performance naturally suffered.
Following this animation, Akiyuki Shinbo found himself in the same predicament as many other animation directors, including Mamoru Oshii: his phone remained silent, his inbox stayed empty, and no production companies were willing to offer him projects. He was completely out of work.
After months of this, he was on the verge of complete social withdrawal. Then, while browsing an animation magazine, he noticed that Lin Zhiyan's new animation after Death Note had become a hit. Everywhere, people were praising Lin Zhiyan as a genius who truly understood his audience and the commercial animation industry. Emboldened, Shinbo sent him an email, hoping to at least chat with him.
He had only sent it as a long shot, expecting Lin Zhiyan to either ignore it or politely decline due to a busy schedule. To his surprise, that didn't happen.
Lin Zhiyan readily agreed, and the two met that day at the izakaya.
Akiyuki Shinbo was surprised but couldn't help but feel: Mr. Hayashi is such a kind person.
If he were in Lin Zhiyan's position, he probably wouldn't have been willing to meet someone so down on their luck.
In fact, if it had been anyone else, Lin Zhiyan might not have agreed to the meeting at all. He was genuinely busy, but the person before him was Akiyuki Shinbo. Failure was only temporary; success was sure to come, and he had to give him some face.
After a moment's thought, he said, "I've seen your animations, Mr. Shinbo. Your style is quite unique, but if you could consider the audience's perspective more, I'm sure they'd be much more successful."
"Exactly, exactly!"
Akiyuki Shinbo nodded vigorously. "The reason I asked to see you, Mr. Hayashi, was mainly to hear your opinion. When you make animations, how do you perfectly balance self-expression with audience demand? This might be a rude question, but if you could, please teach me."
"My animations don't involve self-expression," Lin Zhiyan corrected him.
"Uh..." Akiyuki Shinbo was slightly taken aback.
"I do whatever the audience wants to see. If you want to talk about self-expression, I suppose it's in how I choose which audience needs to fulfill." Lin Zhiyan explained.
"But wouldn't that mean the audience only understands the animation and not the director?" Akiyuki Shinbo frowned.
"Pretty much."
Lin Zhiyan continued, "That's why when I was working on [ Death Note ], I took on multiple roles and handled most of the crucial tasks myself. For this new animation, I'm going for a similar approach."
He paused, then added, "If I can make the audience fans of me personally before they become fans of the animation, then there's no need to worry about them only understanding the animation and not the director."
Akiyuki Shinbo: "..."
That method was a bit too absurd.
I could never pull that off.
Only someone like Lin Zhiyan could manage something like that. Anyone else would probably fail miserably.
He sighed. "So, are you saying there's no way to perfectly fuse self-expression with audience needs?"
"Of course there is."
Lin Zhiyan smiled. "The method definitely exists. But I think for you, Mr. Shinbo, the priority should be understanding the audience's needs first. If you don't even understand what they want, then there's no question of perfect fusion."
"So, first we need to understand what the audience wants?" Akiyuki Shinbo mused thoughtfully.
"For example, Mr. Shinbo, when you watch animation, what kind of content do you want to see most?" Lin Zhiyan prompted, using Shinbo himself as an example.
After a two-second pause, Shinbo replied, "Of course, the kind of content all men want to see—like H-rated scenes."
Lin Zhiyan: ( ̄ェ ̄;)
That's technically correct, but something feels off.
He was trying to steer the conversation back on track when Shinbo suddenly exclaimed, "I get it, Mr. Hayashi! I understand what you mean!"
"What do you mean?" Lin Zhiyan asked quickly.
Shinbo didn't answer immediately. He lowered his head in thought for two or three seconds, then clapped his hands. "After I get back, I'll spend some time making adult animation. That'll help me understand the audience while also easing my financial woes. It's a win-win!"
Lin Zhiyan: "???"
No! I didn't mean that! Don't twist my words!
You were the one who wanted to make adult animation in the first place—how did it become my idea?
Stop slandering innocent people!
I've personally seen the R-rated animation you made in another timeline.
That has nothing to do with me.
I, Lin Zhiyan, have always been an implacable enemy of gambling and drugs!
"Ah!"
After figuring it out, Akiyuki Shinbo instantly felt relieved. He took a swig of alcohol and said happily to Lin Zhiyan, "Thank you, Mr. Hayashi, for your guidance. I won't forget this favor. If there's ever anything I can do to help, please don't hesitate to ask."
"You're too kind, Mr. Shinbo," Lin Zhiyan said, waving his hand.
Shinbo took another drink and muttered to himself, "If I'm going to make an R-rated animation, I'll need a new pen name... Got it! Minamisawa Juhachi it is."
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