Tokyo: Oreimo

Hideo Nomura gave a wry smile, unable to bring himself to say those words.

He knew his colleague well; he was more proud than anyone else and would never bow down to anyone. Even if he said such things, the other party wouldn't listen.

"It's almost time."

Ritsu Saito suddenly stopped what he was doing and looked at the clock in the corridor. The hands had already reached 12:30.

Hideo Nomura: "Are we going to meet with the author?"

"Well, the method of cooperation for the animation adaptation still needs to be discussed. Although the company is offering a fairly high 'settlement fee' now, from what I understand, the author might choose to retain the copyright."

Upon hearing this, Hideo Nomura showed a curious expression.

The so-called "settlement fee" is actually a one-time buyout fee for the copyright. Once the author accepts the conditions offered by the company, it means that the subsequent revenue from animation, film and television adaptations, and the development of related derivative products will have nothing to do with the author.

There is no fixed standard for this fee; it depends on the popularity of the comic and the outcome of negotiations. As the bridge between the editor and the author, the editor naturally knows the price range, or at least has a clear understanding of the range.

"By the way, what were the conditions set by the copyright department?"

With the recent popularity of "Cardcaptor Sakura," Hideo Nomura speculates that this settlement fee must be quite tempting for the author, and certainly not too low, at least in the tens of millions of yen range.

But when he heard Saito Ritsu utter numbers, he was still somewhat incredulous.

"How much? 1 million!?"

Chapter 68 Authorization

"How many?"

"1 million."

In the conference room, Takashiro Ryouko hadn't paid much attention to this income at first, but the amount was much larger than she had imagined.

Even though Ryosuke had warned her beforehand, she was still somewhat shocked, as it was more than ten times worse than her previous work.

Ritsu Saito sat opposite the two men, observing their expressions.

Ryosuke's reaction was as he expected, but Ryosuke's face did not show the expression he had imagined.

This boy is quite calm.

Kadokawa's copyright department doesn't act without reason; it possesses considerable professional expertise within the industry. The high settlement fee it offered was the result of multiple rounds of negotiations and rigorous review, demonstrating its determination to secure the complete copyright.

"Once you sign this document, the animation project will begin, and Kadokawa's film studio will start animation production. It should be able to be released before the end of summer."

Before entering the conference room, Ritsu Saito brought two documents with him. He took one out and handed it to the two men.

—Copyright transfer agreement.

Ryosuke took it in his hand and flipped through it; the contents were written quite clearly.

The buyout fee includes the adaptation rights to animation, games, and films, and even the copyright for developing subsequent derivative products.

Copyright transfer, simply put, is a contract of servitude for a work. Apart from the royalties from the comic book volumes, the original author has no further involvement and cannot interfere with the transfer.

Takashiro Ryouno peeked over from the side, but the complicated terms made her give up on the research immediately.

But in her opinion, with such a high buyout fee, signing the contract was a worthwhile deal no matter how you looked at it.

"Sign it? Aren't you short of money for game development right now?"

To be honest, they currently only have two million yen in savings left. Once the royalties and fees arrive in early August, they should be able to earn another two million yen.

It's barely enough to burn 2000 game discs.

This doesn't even include the website promotion fees we'll be discussing this afternoon.

If we had this money, wouldn't all the problems be solved?

Ryosuke merely glanced at it, showing no intention of even picking up the pen, and placed it back on the table, pushing it towards Saito Ritsu.

"I'm sorry, Editor Saito, I have no plans to transfer the copyright at the moment."

"is it?"

Ritsu Saito originally thought that Ryosuke would at least hesitate for a while, but he didn't expect him to be so decisive. After all, it was such a large sum of money in front of him, even he would have hesitated.

He pushed another document in front of Ryosuke.

"This is a licensing agreement, which covers a similar scope to a buyout agreement and is for a period of 3 years."

"The licensing fee for the anime adaptation is 150,000 yen per episode, with a tentative total of 70 episodes, for a total of 10.5 million yen. It will be paid in a lump sum before the end of August."

"For game and merchandise development, the royalty rate is between 2-5% of sales revenue, which will be adjusted based on market feedback. The royalty rate for film and television adaptation licenses is capped at 10 million yen."

"If the overseas distribution is successful, the royalties will still be shared proportionally."

Ritsu Saito explained the contract to Ryosuke, who carefully reviewed it and, after confirming there were no problems, signed his name and handed it to his sister.

Takashiro Ryouno was counting numbers on her fingers on the side.

"Even if the anime adaptation makes 10 million yen, and doubles that in other countries, including merchandise, it still won't be 50 million yen..."

"What was this guy thinking?"

The girl didn't understand, but she didn't interrupt. She knew nothing about this and obediently signed her name.

Afterwards, the two sides discussed the matter of publishing the single volume.

"I will try my best to release the collected volumes before the anime. The initial batch is set at 50000 copies, and the royalties will be paid to you together."

"Thank you for your hard work, editor Saito."

Ryosuke nodded in thanks.

Based on this calculation, he will receive a substantial income by the end of August, likely around 15 million.

"Then I won't disturb you any longer. Please make yourselves at home, teachers."

After Saito Ritsu took his leave, Takashiro Ryōno followed Ryōsuke and left the Kadokawa Building.

......

Back at his workstation, Ritsu Saito continued to immerse himself in his work.

Hideo Nomura looked at him with some surprise.

"It's over so quickly?"

"Ah."

Saito's communication with the author was much faster than he had imagined, taking only a little over an hour.

If he had an author like that under his command, he'd probably have to keep asking him all sorts of questions, and it wouldn't be possible to finalize anything in less than an afternoon.

"Well, you should say he accepted the settlement fee offered by the company, right? Considering the target audience of this work, this price is already the maximum he could get."

Hideo Nomura guessed.

"That makes sense. After all, it's a shoujo manga. Long-running shonen manga like Dragon Ball or Yu Yu Hakusho have a much narrower audience."

Before Saito could answer, he naturally assumed that Ryosuke would accept the price offered by the copyright department.

“1 million yen is quite a lot. If we adopt a licensing approach, the copyright might become worthless when the validity period expires.”

Upon hearing his words, Ritsu Saito paused for a moment while typing.

"You're wrong, Nomura."

"Huh?"

Hideo Nomura paused for a moment, a strange expression appearing on his face.

"The author didn't agree?"

"I told you, he might choose to retain the copyright."

“That’s 1 million yen. We might not earn that much even after ten years of hard work. Most authors don’t get that kind of treatment. You should try to persuade him.”

Ritsu Saito shook his head.

“That person doesn’t seem like someone who would listen to my advice. Besides, it’s also a sign of confidence in one’s own work.”

"Isn't that overconfidence?"

Hideo Nomura found it hard to understand.

It's just a shoujo manga. Even if it's adapted into an anime and has good commercial value, how many years would it take to get a share of the profits equal to the buyout fee offered by the copyright department?

"Well, he might have his own reasons. We have to respect the author's wishes in this matter."

Ritsu Saito, however, felt that Ryosuke had his own ideas.

Hearing him say that, Hideo Nomura shook his head and didn't say anything more about the topic.

"Now that we have the author's authorization, the TV station can start to schedule the broadcast, right? There aren't many options at the moment, and the most suitable slot on Fuji TV is definitely already full."

"It's a pity. If the plan had been approved earlier, it might have been able to air during the 9-10 pm time slot, which would have been quite good."

Fuji Television currently has the highest percentage of female viewers.

A well-known example in the industry is Toei's "Chibi Maruko-chan," which aired on the channel at 6 PM on Sundays and achieved excellent results.

"So what are you planning to choose? TBS or Asahi? Neither of them has particularly flexible schedules, but they are definitely better than Fuji TV."

"Didn't I tell you beforehand?"

Saito rubbed his temples.

"For this animation adaptation, the company will adopt the emerging production committee model, with the TV station as one of the investors. This was decided from the beginning."

"Huh? You mean the business model of film production?"

Hideo Nomura had heard of this model, which supposedly reduces risk to a great extent. It involves publishers, animation companies, advertising companies, television stations, and merchandise manufacturers joining forces, each contributing capital and sharing the profits equally.

"That's right. After all, there are precedents in the industry. Last year, TV Tokyo's anime was a great success."

"Are you talking about the work 'Human Rescue'? I've read it."

"Well, the company originally considered producing it entirely on its own if it could buy out the copyright, but since the author is unwilling to transfer the rights, we decided to try this new model."

Hideo Nomura saw that Ritsu Saito had saved the edited report email and clicked send.

"So which TV station is it?"

"NHK will launch it on its satellite education channel."