My Years as a Copyist in Taiwan

Hayao Miyazaki really wanted to get the detailed settings for "Howl's Moving Castle" right now, but he was very mindful of boundaries and would only ask about it subtly every day.

Zhao Wen: "Mr. Miyazaki, don't worry, after we finish Spirited Away, I will definitely continue to work with you on Howl's Moving Castle."

Miyazaki's eyes lit up, like a 41-year-old child who had just received candy: "Hey! It's a deal then!"

He was already looking forward to it—what would the full story be like if Mr. Snail said it was "more suitable for animation"?

Zhao Wen, the producer of "Spirited Away," mentally calculated the production schedule—

Storyboarding and early art direction are the skeleton of the entire film; if they are done wrong, everything will have to be redone later.

Now that the first thirty storyboards have been sorted out, there are still nearly two hundred scenes to go, the three vocal tracks need to be finalized, and the core art designs for the bathhouse and the hidden world need to be finalized. He will have to stay in Tokyo for about forty or fifty days to complete these crucial preliminary tasks. Once everything is finalized, the animation will be pretty much done.

Once we enter the mid-stage of concept art development, we won't need to be there every day. We'll come back every month and a half, stay for three to five days, and review the key concept art samples and make adjustments as needed. In the later stages, we'll come back again for about ten days to oversee the final cut.

This was calculated by Zhao Wen based on the production schedule of "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" during the same period. Of the nine-month production period of the entire film, the early storyboarding and world-building took up two and a half to three months.

As the producer, he doesn't need to spend every day in the studio working on the art like Miyazaki Hayao, but he still needs to keep a close eye on the core structure.

This is precisely where his greatest value lies: infusing the cinematic language and narrative rhythm that have been validated by the market twenty years later, helping Miyazaki Hayao, who was still somewhat confused at this stage, avoid taking a few detours.

Hayao Miyazaki was delighted to hear Zhao Wen's plan. With this genius overseeing things, they could finalize not only the entire storyboard but also the core art direction in just six weeks, making the overall progress at least twice as fast.

Zhao Wen's long stay in Tokyo wasn't just for sentimental reasons. He invested 5000 million yen in "Spirited Away," which is equivalent to 1100 million New Taiwan Dollars!

According to the industry practice of Japanese animation in this era, the original author can only receive a fixed copyright fee, and the nominal producer can only receive a fixed salary, and has no right to participate in box office revenue sharing.

However, Zhao Wen is the sole original copyright holder of "Spirited Away". He created the entire world view, characters and core plot of the animation, which is the foundation of this IP. Moreover, he is not just a nominal producer, but is deeply involved in key decisions such as storyboard adjustment and character development, and is a core member of the creative team.

Therefore, Tokuma Shoten and Miyazaki Hayao's "agent" Toshio Suzuki agreed that Mr. Snail, who actually invested 5000 million yen, would share the risk of loss with Tokuma Shoten and Miyazaki Hayao's team, and would have 8% of the investors' dividends.

This is much more cost-effective than copying a book, because Zhao Wen can't just copy a book and publish it immediately, or he'd become a monster.

In the previous film, Spirited Away grossed 304 billion yen, with theaters taking half, resulting in a total production and distribution revenue of 152 billion yen.

Zhao Wen will receive 12.16 billion yen according to his share, which is equivalent to 2.675 million New Taiwan Dollars. After taxes, he will still receive more than 200 million!

There are also very considerable long-term benefits over the next few decades—reprints of the novel, publication of translations in multiple countries, IP derivatives such as figurines, merchandise, and theme park collaborations, overseas theatrical releases, videotapes, overseas broadcasting rights, and so on...

What's even more exciting is that Japan's economy is currently at the very beginning of its bubble bursting, so the box office might even be higher than in the previous life.

Of course, Zhao Wen wasn't just sitting in Tokyo waiting for Miyazaki to draw; he was also making money.

When Mr. Rattan heard that Mr. Snail was planning to work as a producer while also writing books in his spare time, he immediately signed a contract. No matter what type of book it was, no matter how many words it had, as long as it was written by Mr. Snail, he would take it.

Zhao Wen then submitted a book title, "The Devotion of Suspect X," estimated to be around 14 words. Mr. Fujiki then set the price for the book—a hardcover edition, priced at 1500 yen per copy, with an initial print run of 20 copies. Kodansha will never repeat the embarrassment of having an initial print run of only 3 copies!

On the day the contract was signed, Kodansha's full prepayment of 4500 million yen arrived as agreed.

This will certainly be big news.

The Yomiuri Shimbun evening edition ran the headline directly on the front page of its entertainment section:

Based solely on its title, Kodansha spent a staggering 45 million yen on Mr. Snail, setting a precedent in Japanese publishing history.

—This amount of money is enough to buy a detached house in Tokyo's Minato Ward outright, equivalent to the entire salary of a mid-level employee in a company for twelve years without eating or drinking!

The Asahi Shimbun's literary review was quite restrained: "In the decades since the war, there has never been a precedent in the Japanese literary world for a full prepayment based solely on a book title without submitting a single word of the manuscript. What is being discussed is not just a book, but the golden brand of the four characters 'Mr. Snail'."

The long-established literary magazine "Literary Spring and Autumn" subtly satirized the idea that "capital is hijacking literature."

Some writers are indignant, saying that times have changed and writers without fame will never get ahead!

Bookstore owners are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new book, ready to set up Mr. Snail's special display stand.

Mr. Snail was too lazy to watch the collective frenzy of the Japanese media. He had a full-time translator and a Nakamori Akina by his side, both of whom were watching him openly and secretly.

The translator was eagerly waiting for him to finish writing a long paragraph, and then he would happily take it aside and carefully translate it into Japanese.

Akina Nakamori kept drinking water, because the water dispenser passed by Mr. Snail's room, and she only filled a small half cup each time.

She was never timid or humble, but when faced with the handsome and magical Mr. Snail, she couldn't help but have some romanticized notions, such as...

These past few days, she's been quite surprised to have chatted with Zhao Wen several times, though it's mostly things like, "You should get some water too, Akina," or "Yeah! Mr. Snail, you should conserve water too."

Sure enough, she had just finished getting the warm water when she turned around and bumped into Zhao Wen, who was coming out of the office.

Zhao Wen was on his way to check some minor details with the translator when he saw her and greeted her, "Akina, how did the recording go today?"

"Everything went smoothly, thank you for your concern."

Zhao Wen glanced at Cai Cai, who was becoming increasingly confident, and then changed the subject: "I heard from President Tokuma that your schedule is very packed next year. Besides the new album, do you have any other plans?"

"The agency has arranged a youth idol drama, which will start filming next spring, and I've been cast as the female lead." Nakamori Akina was clearly a little excited when she said this.

This is a golden opportunity that newcomers crave—spreading their influence across singing, film, and television is the fastest way to gain popularity and a sign that they are about to take off.

Zhao Wen blinked. "Girl, why are you so happy? Don't you know you're celebrating too soon..."