The Creator of the Second Dimension

The morning of January 7.

New Frontline Media Building.

"Monthly Youth Frontline" editorial department.

The office is a bit messy. Apart from the computer, there are a lot of comics and folders containing copies of original manuscripts on everyone’s desk. White-collar workers are different. The editorial office of "Monthly Youth Frontline" is still empty after nine o'clock.

No, to be precise, there are still a few people.

In a corner of the editorial office, where the space is obviously larger, a man with thinning hair and a beard was sleeping soundly on a recliner, when the ringing of his mobile phone woke him up.

"Hey, what's the matter?"

He wanted to press the button directly, but after looking at the call information, he immediately connected the call.

"Old Yang, do you still have the booklet of "Soul Eater" in stock?"

This is the call from He Yingjie, the manager of the sales department of New Frontline Media and the editor-in-chief of "Monthly Youth Frontline", Yang Guyan, whom Yang Guyan has known since joining the company.

""Soul Eater"?"

Yang Guyan was slightly puzzled. He got up, picked up the black-rimmed glasses on the table, and quickly recalled the comic that was serialized in his magazine.

"There should be more than a hundred spare copies in the warehouse."

The printing volume of manga booklets is determined by the sales department based on the popularity and performance of the works. Most of the printed booklets will be sent to the warehouses of various bookstores and online shopping websites, and only a small part will be left in the warehouses of the editorial department. As an emergency reserve, it is used on occasions such as author signings and industry exchanges.

"More than a hundred copies? This is not enough. How should I explain to Taotao.com?"

On the other end of the phone, He Yingjie's voice was a little disappointed.

"Why, I don't remember that this comic is very popular. Hey, Lao He, I remember that you proposed to reduce the print volume of this comic, right?"

Yang Guyan is still in confusion. He has known He Yingjie for many years and knows that his tone is not a joke. The comic book of "Soul Eater" seems to be really out of stock.

"Then your editorial department didn't tell us that its animation production is so explosive?"

He Yingjie confronted Yang Guyan's Mai Tai.

"What?"

Yang Guyan doesn't quite understand that the animation production of "Soul Eater" just went through the company's process with him, and the specific affairs are handed over to the people on the copyright authorization side, but only Li Ruoxuan, the editor in charge of "Soul Eater", often mentions it. , Yang Guyan subconsciously felt that this animation was of an ordinary level, so he didn't pay much attention to it.

"You haven't watched it yet? The first episode aired on Chengkong last night was completely blown up. Now it's a hot search on Weibo. Taotao.com sold out its stock in the middle of the night last night. Call me sometime and ask for the goods."

"real or fake?"

Yang Guyan unlocked the computer screen, and clicked on Chengkong Video Network.

"Let me take a look first, you can find someone to come over to move my inventory later, and then see if the printing factory can temporarily print it, oh yes, I remember last time the person on the PR side asked for two hundred A lot of books went to the book fair, and they should not be disposed of, so you can ask."

After he finished explaining, he hung up the phone, just in time to see that "Soul Eater: Zero" has climbed to the top of Chengkong Video Network's all-site hits list!

The first episode of "Soul Eater: Zero", which was broadcast at eleven o'clock last night, had more than 500,000 hits, while the second place on the list even had less than 80,000 hits.

Even Yang Guyan roughly estimated that the combined data from second to tenth on this list is not enough for the episode "Soul Eater: Zero".

The volume of Chengkong Video Network is not large, and most of the videos in it are animations adapted from comics under its own banner. It is not easy to achieve this click data in such a short period of time.

Yang Guyan didn't read the comments below, just clicked the play button, and spent more than 20 minutes watching this episode.

His expression at first was full of anticipation.

Then it became dull.

Then a little confused again.

In the end, when Huangfu Xun appeared on the stage and killed the "protagonists" neatly, Yang Guyan opened his mouth wide and froze in place.

"Fuck, can you still play like this?"

Yang Guyan was full of anticipation at the beginning because of such an explosive broadcast data, the production must have been amazing.

But after reading the first half, it can be regarded as well-made, but the plot always feels a little familiar. For editors who have browsed countless comics, it is naturally boring.

Yang Guyan himself has seen the original work of "Soul Eater". Although it is an unremarkable work, it is still somewhat impressive. Therefore, when he saw the "protagonist" and his party fighting, Yang Guyan started to fight. Confused, he didn't seem to have seen a similar scene in comics.

It wasn't until the end of the film that all the characters on stage were killed by Huangfu Xun like chopping melons and vegetables, and Yang Guyan suddenly realized.

"So this is a prequel?"

Huangfu Xun in "Soul Eater" appeared as an evil spirit and was wiped out by the protagonists Bai Jianshi and Li Leshen, but now she is in a human state no matter how you look at it.

"This is before the manga starts?"

The intuition of the editor Yang Guyan allowed him to guess the intention of the animation production team. Indeed, the performance of the original work of "Soul Eater" is average. It is better to abandon the story, keep only the setting, and describe the prequel in a similar way to the fan.

Thinking about it this way, the title of "Soul Eater: Zero", which I thought was a bit weird, is very appropriate.

"However, the gimmick at the beginning is well done."

Yang Guyan looked at the comments of the first episode, and most of them were in a state of bewilderment. These days, there is not a single animation that dares to kill the "protagonist" in the first episode.

What's more, Yang Guyan glanced at the animation's official website again, and the information on it belonged to the group of people who received the bento in the first episode. If they hadn't read the comics and were very familiar with the construction of the plot, how could they guess? It turned out that this group of people were just cannon fodder, to support Huangfu Xun's cannon fodder!

"It's no wonder that the sales of comics are soaring. These people probably want to read the original comics because they are confused after watching the animation."

Yang Guyan pondered.

Although I don't know if those who came to see the original work will be disappointed in the end, but the effect of promoting the sales of comics has been achieved.

Compared with some works that just make the characters move, the publicity effect of "Soul Eater: Zero" is so high!

Thinking of this, Yang Guyan immediately made a decision.

He opened the internal work group and sent a short message in the group.

[Yang Guyan]: The cover of the January issue of "Monthly Teenage Frontline" uses "Soul Eater", plus the front page color page, the responsible editor will notify the author and let him submit the manuscript as soon as possible.

Now that animation is on fire, the editorial department will naturally follow suit!