New Century Anime Warrior

"Mr. Si, this is your seat."

Si Hua followed the government representatives arranged by the island nation's cultural affairs department to the so-called industry representatives' seat.

As she led me from the main hall to the banquet hall, the petite woman surnamed Lin introduced me to the other people at the table.

Aside from government officials, only one industry representative from South Korea accompanied the delegation, Park Jin-young, the president of JYP Entertainment, who is well-known among K-pop fans. The rest of the attendees were idol artists, who were already seated at the table with the youth representatives.

The Japanese side sent quite a few well-known figures.

For example, Matsutani Takayuki is said to be the chairman of Tezuka Productions and the chairman of the Japan Image Industry Promotion Organization, making him practically a "resident representative" for Sino-Japanese animation exchanges.

There's also Shunji Iwai, the director of "Love Letter," whom Si Hua knows. He absolutely loves the snow scene at the beginning of "Love Letter."

Tetsuya Komuro, the godfather of J-pop, according to Kobayashi, also participated in cultural strategy talks at the Prime Minister's Office.

A gathering of wise men and women.

"Teacher, I'm here."

As soon as Si Hua arrived at the table, he saw Zheng Yansheng chatting with Matsutani Takasei and Park Jin-young.

As the director of the Animation Art Committee of the National Fine Arts Association, Zheng Yansheng was qualified to sit at the main table.

However, he said that since the delegation included the chairman of the National Writers Association, he didn't need to join in and volunteered to go to the industry representatives' seat.

Not only can he chat with old friends from the anime industry, but he can also protect his disciple. After all, Si Hua is too young, and it's really worrying to leave him alone in this kind of situation.

"Oh, you've arrived. Please say hello to these two seniors."

When Old Zheng saw his disciples approaching, he introduced Si Hua to the two of them in English.

Old Park's English is very good, but his Japanese is still at the level of simple greetings.

Lao Song has a heavy English accent; he can understand what others say, but others can't understand him.

Fortunately, Lao Zheng's Japanese and English are both good, so the three Chinese and Lao Deng were able to communicate directly without a translator.

"Hello, seniors." Si Hua greeted them politely in Japanese and Korean, then switched back to Chinese.

Unfortunately, Si Hua's foreign language talent was extremely average, his spoken English was terrible, not to mention the little bit of Japanese and Korean he had learned from watching anime and dramas.

Fortunately, Kobayashi was not only a civil servant at the Cultural Affairs Bureau, but also a semi-translator who was specially arranged to be proficient in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. With her help, everyone's communication went relatively smoothly.

"Tsukasa-kun, I watched your '5 Centimeters Per Second,' and it was breathtaking. Not to mention foreigners, even in our own country, it's rare to find a director who understands the concept of mono no aware (the pathos of things) as well as you."

The old man, Matsutani, was deeply moved. He never expected that the work that best embodied the essence of island nation culture in recent years would be created by a genius boy from a neighboring country.

My feelings were very complicated, much like those of some Chinese people after watching "Kung Fu Panda".

Kung Fu is ours, pandas are ours, but Kung Fu Panda belongs to America.

Should I be proud or sad?

"Mr. Matsutani, you flatter me. I have always believed that what is national is also international."

However, once something becomes part of the world, ownership is no longer something that small, weak civilizations have the right to discuss.

Si Hua knew exactly what was going on.

The island nation has been using this tactic very well in recent years, but things are different now... No matter how loudly the "Winning Theory" is proclaimed, it will not change the material foundation.

Kobayashi relayed these words to Park, and South Korean director Chung-den immediately agreed. In earlier years, South Korean works were able to export their own national culture, such as Korean dramas like Dae Jang Geum.

But after K-pop achieved greater success globally, the entire South Korean entertainment industry completely embraced internationalization, and its exported works began to self-emasculate their national characteristics in order to be better accepted by the world.

UMG's Asia-Pacific region is also using South Korea's achievements to induce the Chinese music scene to try to de-Sinicize, hoping that they can create more non-Chinese works without Chinese elements.

More abstractly, the Indian-origin president of the Asia-Pacific region also tried to implement this approach in his own country, except that the Indian people are more abstract than their elites, and successfully distorted the issue of de-Indianization.

At a glance, the world is a war of cultures.

"Well said, as expected of a genius from the mainland. This kind of vision can only be cultivated in a vast country." Old Song showered him with compliments, and unsurprisingly, he had something on his mind.

"Since your work so deeply captures the essence of our island nation's culture, and you're also Mr. Zheng's student, would you be interested in bringing '5 Centimeters Per Second' to full-day theaters?"

They're here, they've been waiting here.

I had heard before that because of its huge success in art-house cinemas and on television, especially since the world lacked the "Makoto Shinkai" style, "5 Centimeters Per Second" was once labeled as "a must-see on the big screen in one's lifetime" on mainstream forums.

Many struggling feature film theaters have come to inquire about plans to expand their screens.

Matsutani Takayuki is probably here as a lobbyist, given his position as chairman of the Island Nation Image Industry Promotion Organization.

"We would be thrilled to have the opportunity to release a feature film in theaters. If Mr. Song Gu is interested, he can arrange for someone to contact our production committee through CWF to discuss the details."

Si Hua even took the initiative to make a promise: "If needed, we can further improve the picture quality and frame rate to meet the screen requirements of large cinemas."

"Si Jun is decisive and resolute in his actions, so I, the old man, agree in advance."

After saying that, he picked up his wine glass and lightly clinked it with Si Hua's, wishing him a pleasant collaboration in advance.

Park Jin-young needed to listen to Kobayashi's translation, and belatedly raised his glass and said, "Si-hua-xi could also consider our South Korean cinemas. You have many fans in our country too."

"Absolutely, President Park can also discuss this in detail with our production committee."

If you can make money, you're a bastard.

Watching his disciple clink glasses with the two old men, Zheng Yansheng was quite satisfied.

Wasn't he as incompetent as I thought? He even knew to let the committee take the blame in business negotiations and didn't make any rash promises himself.

"What is national is also international? Why does it sound a little strange coming from him?" Old Zheng murmured in a whisper that was barely audible to others.

As if remembering something, old man Matsutani suddenly asked with a smile, "I heard that Tsukasa-kun's next anime OVA is also set in our island nation? Why don't we discuss it together?"

Hey, what a coincidence!

Si Hua was secretly pleased; he had initially been wondering how to bring up this matter.

This second OVA produced after the studio was established contains too much sensitive content. It would be rated R15 in Japan and would basically be impossible to release normally in China. It's just aimed at winning awards... and making a little money on the side.

Mr. Songgu is truly a good friend of ours!

Just as Si Hua was feeling relieved that this old man's scheme had come to an end, he unexpectedly threw out a bigger one.

"Of course, for the sake of a win-win cooperation, I can take the initiative to invite you to lead two or three new long-form anime series or animated films. The content is negotiable."

"Oh? What's the subject matter?"

Si Hua's voice trembled slightly as he suppressed a secret delight that was almost bursting out laughing. He was about to get something for free again.

"How about science fiction?"

Matsutani Takayuki was unaware that his plan was exactly what Si Hua wanted.

"East Asia has always lacked outstanding science fiction animation. Si Jun started out making excellent science fiction short films like 'Voices of a Distant Star.' He didn't have to worry about funding, personnel, or distribution channels. It was a perfect combination of timing, location, and people."

I declare that the greatest good person tonight is Mr. Matsutani.