Tokyo: The evil god doesn't want to be the top star

Chapter 189 Preparatory Meeting
"I am very grateful for Mr. Matsumoto's support."

"Please have mercy on me, Master Amabie, and purify the sins in Senior Matsumoto's body..."

Shibata nodded with satisfaction and looked at the woman behind him.

"I can only temporarily suppress the 'sin' in him."

"If you want to purify him completely, you need to take him to the "Healing House" and hold a purification ceremony in front of the statue..."

The woman squatted down, held Matsumoto's face and kissed him without any disgust.

"Purification ritual? That's true. I envy Senior Matsumoto."

Makoto Shibata on the side turned a blind eye and lowered his head to operate Matsumoto's mobile phone.

After filling out the registration form and sending it to the “connection” that Matsumoto had just contacted, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"I don't think I need to worry about lung cancer anymore, but I don't know if his kidneys can handle it..."

Looking at Matsumoto, whose coughing was gradually subsiding but still unable to move and with blurred consciousness, Shibata Makoto smiled weakly.

……

Late at night, the NHK TV headquarters building in Shibuya is still brightly lit.

In a conference room on a certain floor of the building, dozens of men and women with sparse hair and dark circles under their eyes sat together.

"Everyone, today I am honored to be the chief director and convene the first official preparatory meeting of the "Idol Birth Festival Production Committee."

At the head of the conference table, Akimoto Manjiro, with a face full of flesh, was giving a speech in a serious tone.

Due to the prevalence of two-dimensional online culture, entertainment industries such as virtual idols, e-sports, and mobile games have developed rapidly, squeezing the market space for idol girl groups. Even the advertising space in Akihabara has been eroded by a mobile game from Dragon Country.

Compared with the glory of the first generation of girl groups at their peak, the performance of the current third generation of girl groups can be said to be only one-tenth of what it was.

The new song of the limited girl group "Tetsudo AK" a few days ago was crushed by Yayoi Tsuki's new song, which made the industry begin to doubt the current value of the "idol girl group" business model.

This also led to J Company paying more attention to its original business, which is the "idol boy group".

After all, in the idol industry economy, women's participation and willingness to pay are far greater than men's, and the two-dimensional culture has a serious tendency to charm men, and its appeal to female users is relatively weak.

Therefore, as the creator of the first generation idol girl group, Manjiro Akimoto was immediately arranged by J Company to serve as the chief director of the "Idol Birth Festival" after the failure of "Tetsudo AK".

"Everyone here is familiar with the industry and has cooperated with us to some extent, so there is no need to introduce myself."

"The program will officially start recording next week. Time is very tight. Assistant Director Cao Tian, ​​let's get straight to the point..."

Manjiro Akimoto flipped through the documents in his hand and glanced at the assistant director sitting opposite him.

"Then, the first item on the agenda of this preparatory meeting is that I will represent the preparatory team to report the information of the audition trainees."

"The trainees participating in this program are divided into Group J for local trainees from Region 11, and Group I for international trainees."

"The first to report was Group J..."

Assistant Director Sota, who was tall and slender with a stubble on his face, turned on the projector and played a series of "Trainee Registration Forms" with high-resolution artistic photos.

He has worked with Manjiro Akimoto for many years, and the two have a good understanding of each other. He is also familiar with this large-scale talent show project.

"Hirano Yuta, 22 years old, height 183, has been training overseas for three years, was a member of the overseas limited group "Blast Anal Boys", but later left the group due to the failure of the project. He is expected to debut as a Center, and the sending company is J Company..." "Kishi Sho, 20 years old, height 176, has been training for four years, is good at singing, and once entered the finals of the talent show "Gary Gaiqi", and is expected to debut as a Vocal, and the sending company is S Company..."

"Takahashi Yu, 21 years old, 178cm tall, practiced for five years, good at dancing, former third place in the "High School Dance Club Championship", intended to debut as a dancer, sent to company J..."

As Assistant Director Souta announced, the information of each trainee appeared on the projection screen.

"Well, the market is not doing well, so S, J, and A have all released their best products..."

"The core training debut position should be this one... and this one... this one has good potential too..."

Manjiro Akimoto read the personal information with a keen eye, and quickly made marks on the paper documents in his hand.

In fact, before this preparatory meeting, he had already met with the top executives of J, A, and S...

The three companies have reached a tacit understanding on the "debut quota", each occupying three seats and selecting corresponding "seed players".

As the chief director, his job is to control the effect of the program recording and ensure that the nine people who finally debut are the ones decided at that meeting.

The staff in the conference room were also concentrating on reviewing the trainees' information and taking notes quickly.

Anyone who has worked on talent shows knows that from this moment on, these trainees will be labeled with various labels by the program team, holding arranged personalities and scripts, and embarking on a destined destiny.

The first factor that determines these "labels" is naturally the "sending company", followed by appearance, talent, personal characteristics, fan base, etc.

"Nagase Kaito, 20 years old, 185cm tall, has been training overseas for three years, is good at rap and dancing, intends to debut as a rapper, and is being selected by company A..."

"Shibata Makoto, 21 years old, 180cm tall, has been practicing for two and a half years, is good at guitar and singing, intends to debut in the center position, and is a temporary replacement for the original player selected by J Club..."

"The above is the information of the 51 J-Club trainees. If you have any questions about any of them, please ask now."

After reporting the information, Assistant Director Souta looked at everyone in the room.

"Sorry, I found out that this trainee seems to have a financial dispute with his former agency. Will his hard work in filming turn into mosaics during the broadcast?"

"Received, recorded, legal department will verify."

"And this guy, he seemed to have had a scandal with an older female star some time ago. Will this affect the reputation of the show?"

"It was because of this scandal that we asked him to come over to add more topics to the show."

"This guy has already failed to form a group three times. Is it really okay for him to still participate in the show?"

"No problem, this person has been jointly reviewed by the selection company."

The representatives in the conference room raised the doubts recorded in their notebooks one by one.

The current "qualification review", also known as "mine clearance", is to give companies the opportunity to "stab each other in the back" and eliminate "toxic trainees" to avoid trainees withdrawing from the show halfway through the show due to scandals, contracts, physical conditions and other issues.

But the atmosphere in the conference room also became tit-for-tat...

After all, all the program preparation group managers who are qualified to attend this meeting have "company positions".

So, from this moment on, the "elimination phase" has already started ahead of time.

(End of this chapter)