Chapter 113: Do I Need To Teach You How To Date? Straight To 275 Variety Show Frenzy!
At this moment, Tokyo Television Production Bureau Headquarters Building.
Nohara Classroom.
At this moment, the office inside was full of merriment, with everyone whispering with smiles on their faces, occasionally bursting into loud laughter.
Everyone’s emotions were lighthearted and excited.
The atmosphere was even better!
At this moment, everyone present had already seen Super Change Change Change, which Hiroshi Nohara handed over to Kei Tanaka for production, through the television in the office.
They were all amused into hearty laughter by the entertainment feast inside, which, though performed, was perfectly presented to the audience after being designed with music and patterned scripting, followed by editing.
Even though the first episode of Super Change Change Change had already finished broadcasting, everyone present was still savoring those hilarious segments from earlier.
Unable to forget them for a long time.
Because Hiroshi Nohara, through the plagiarist from his previous life in the Neon television industry, brought Super Change Change Change to this parallel world where Neon had not yet invented this variety show, it was truly a dimensional reduction strike.
And as they chatted, everyone started looking toward the young man in the back office, who was also sitting on the sofa smiling.
So they all cheered one after another—
“Long live Section Chief Nohara!”
“Long live Section Chief Nohara!”
“Long live Section Chief Nohara!”
All the members of the three small production teams in the Nohara Classroom at this moment were cheering “Long live” to Hiroshi Nohara three times.
Their gazes were even more fanatical!
“Okay, okay.” Hiroshi Nohara smiled and raised his hand to signal everyone to calm down: “If we go back fifty years, you cheering for me like this would be enough for me to be charged with lèse-majesté and thrown directly into prison!”
This remark immediately elicited even more hearty laughter from everyone.
The current Neon imperial family has already been weakened.
It only has fame.
It has no real power or authority.
Moreover, after decades of postwar education, although everyone respects the imperial family, they also take it very lightly, and it’s no big deal to joke about it occasionally.
‘Beep beep beep—’
However, just as Hiroshi Nohara wanted to crack a few more jokes, the brand-new Panasonic P100 untimely buzzed with vibration.
He picked up the mobile phone, his expression slightly stunned: “Elder Brother?”
Hiroshi Nohara knew that his elder brother Hiroshi Nohara would absolutely not call him if there was no important matter, after all, given his elder brother’s personality and the high cost of mobile phone calls now.
Would he just casually make calls?
“Hello, Elder Brother.” Hiroshi Nohara answered the call.
“Hi… Hiroshi?” From the other end of the phone came his elder brother Hiroshi Nohara’s voice, filled with hesitation, even somewhat stammering, like a clumsy bear that had blundered into a porcelain shop: “Um… you… are you free to talk now?”
“Not yet, what’s up?” Hiroshi Nohara asked, sensing something off in his elder brother’s voice.
There was a moment of silence on the other end, as if organizing words, or like mustering the greatest courage of his life.
After a long time, came Hiroshi Nohara’s voice full of distress, almost pleading for help: “Um… Hiroshi, I… I want to ask you something. That is… in Tokyo, you city folks, how do… how do you chase girls?”
“…What do you mean ‘you city folks’!?” A few clearly visible black lines appeared on Hiroshi Nohara’s forehead instantly.
Good grief, had he himself been expelled from his hometown by his own elder brother?
But he didn’t say this out loud.
He just felt helpless that his elder brother… actually had to ask him for advice even on dating.
He could almost imagine his honest and straightforward elder brother at home, scratching his head and ears, his dark face flushed red with embarrassment.
“What? You have a crush on someone?” Hiroshi Nohara said helplessly.
“No… not really…” Hiroshi Nohara’s voice grew smaller and smaller, like he was doing something guilty: “It was just a few days ago, when I went to the city agricultural cooperative for business, I met a girl named Ikuna in the coffee shop. She… she’s really nice, and she looks good when she smiles. I… I just…”
“Just what?” Hiroshi Nohara pressed.
But in his heart, he was thoughtful: “Ikuna? This plot has finally come… In the plot, Hiroshi Nohara falls for this girl named Ikuna! But now, Ikuna probably hasn’t married yet, hasn’t gone through the first mistaken marriage, and hasn’t had a child.”
“I just saw that some young guy driving a sedan keeps sending her flowers every day!”
Hiroshi Nohara’s voice suddenly rose sharply, filled with irrepressible indignation and unwillingness: “I… I’m just a farmer, how can I compare with him? He has a car, a decent job, I… I have nothing but this strength and the smell of soil on me.”
These words were full of the inferiority of a honest countryman.
“Just this?” But Hiroshi Nohara laughed.
“Brother, did you forget what I told you?” His voice was calm, yet carried a power that could steady the heart.
“What words?” Hiroshi Nohara asked blankly.
“You are not just a farmer.” Hiroshi Nohara said word by word: “You are the future president of ‘Nohara Agricultural Corporation’. An entrepreneur who will soon own dozens of hectares of land and manage dozens of employees.”
The other end of the phone fell silent again, but this time, that silence contained a faint spark that had been ignited.
“I’ll buy you a car. And an outfit that will let you stand tall in any occasion, I’ve already prepared for you.” Hiroshi Nohara continued, his tone like a general who plans strategies behind the scenes, distributing powerful weapons to his subordinates sufficient to conquer cities and seize territories.
“The only thing you need to do now is to puff out your chest and, with your most genuine and purest self, tell that girl that you, Hiroshi Nohara, are a reliable man who can give her a stable future.”
“As for that guy driving the sedan…” The corner of Hiroshi Nohara’s mouth curved into an icy arc, “Believe me, it won’t be long before he won’t even have the qualification to carry your shoes.”
These resolute, full-of-confidence words left Hiroshi Nohara stunned on the spot.
“Little brother now… is this strong?”
……
And Hiroshi Nohara was so confident for a real reason.
Before five o’clock off work.
The ratings report for the first episode of Super Change Change Change had already come out.
And as it flew into the offices of various departments of Tokyo Television Station like snowflakes, everyone was completely stunned by the glaring number on it, enough to stop hearts.
27.5%!
“Fake, right?! Am I fucking not awake yet?!”
In the daily affairs management office of Tokyo Television Production Bureau, the office director looked at the report in his hand, feeling his blood pressure skyrocketing at a speed defying medical common sense.
He was Toshihide Takada’s confidant.
So he understood what this number meant, and thus he rushed out of the office almost tumbling, heading straight for that executive deputy director’s office which had long become a forbidden zone for the entire station.
“Deputy Director Takada! Deputy Director Takada! Big trouble!”
“Speak properly! What big trouble!?” Toshihide Takada’s secretary had just delivered the ratings report to him, not yet looked at.
At this moment, seeing this advertising department head tumbling over, he couldn’t help but frown.
He couldn’t help but reprimand: “Mind your image! You have to know…” But as he spoke, Toshihide Takada also looked down at the content on the document, and when he saw the 27.5% rating, his eyes bulged!
“Baka yarou!” Toshihide Takada directly let slip a national curse: “How could this be!?”
At the same moment, in Director of Production Bureau Nobuhiko Sakata’s office, the atmosphere was one of merriment.
“27.5%! For an afternoon slot, a brand-new variety show debut, the ratings actually… actually higher than our station’s ace prime time drama?! Mr. Asumi! You… this time, you’ve truly rendered an immortal service to our Production Bureau!”
Nobuhiko Sakata was so excited his face was flushed red, he heavily patted Mr. Asumi’s shoulder, his face full of undisguised ecstasy and excitement.
Mr. Asumi just smiled calmly, and finally breathed a sigh of relief deep in his eyes.
“Director, this is all thanks to your wise leadership, and Nohara-kun’s willingness to fight bravely for Tokyo TV under your leadership.” He said humbly.
“Hahahahaha!” Nobuhiko Sakata immediately laughed even more happily.
He didn’t care about any faction struggles.
Although he occasionally took sides.
But now, he Nobuhiko Sakata was long bound to Tokyo TV Production Bureau; the better the various planned programs produced.
The higher his status as Nobuhiko Sakata!
“I’ll reward you! Mr. Asumi!” And Nobuhiko Sakata wasn’t one to just issue empty checks, but looked at Mr. Asumi seriously: “Work hard this period, you’ll definitely participate in the Film and Television Association awards at year-end, and the bonus will be more!”
“Yes! Thank you for your favor, Director Sakata!” Mr. Asumi immediately stood straight, then bowed at ninety degrees.
On his lowered face, the corners of his mouth also curved up.
This was what he wanted!
……
And in that executive deputy director’s office filled with despair and dead silence.
Toshihide Takada stared blankly at that report, all color draining from his always somewhat gloomy face in an instant.
Takashi Yasui and Ito Chōan, those two Tokyo faction variety show aces, were also sitting blankly on the sofa at this moment, their faces full of incredulous shock.
Their brains, those two professional brains full of variety show “iron rules” and “experience”, at this moment, were thoroughly crushed to powder by that terrifying 27.5% number!
They lost.
Lost utterly and completely.
Lost… without even underwear left.
Because the ratings of the variety shows they two directed were actually only around 25%.
Now the first episode of Hiroshi Nohara’s Super Change Change Change came in at 27.5%.
Directly exceeding theirs by about 2.5%.
How to fight this!?
And thinking back to watching Super Change Change Change, that brilliant performance, the super-fast pace that left no time to think.
Now they truly felt that this grand execution they personally directed, named “praise killing”, ultimately turned into the most splendid coronation ceremony offering a crown to that young man.
And they became the most pathetic and ridiculous background boards at this coronation ceremony.
……
This rules storm of pure happiness stirred up by Super Change Change Change spread at a speed far faster than anyone imagined.
While Tokyo Television Station internally was still shaken by this astonishing data, this shockwave had already crossed regional boundaries, slamming hard into the faces of those onlooking competitors.
Osaka, Kansai Television Station.
“27.5%?! In the afternoon slot?!”
Production Bureau Deputy Director Ichiro Iwaya looked at the ratings report faxed from Tokyo, his face ashen.
He felt his heart gripped tightly by an invisible hand, even breathing becoming difficult.
He recalled his earlier “anti-Hiroshi Nohara alliance” full of black humor, recalled his confident “encirclement” declaration, that absolute confidence belonging to an ace.
At this moment…
Thoroughly crushed to powder by that terrifying 27.5% number!
“Monster… that guy… he’s not human at all…” He muttered to himself, his voice filled with the powerlessness and awe from the depths of his bones after being overwhelmed by absolute strength.
……
And in this massive storm sweeping the entire Neon, those film critics who had once doubted Hiroshi Nohara now, like believers struck by divine revelation, all laid down their pens already prepared with harshness and sarcasm.
Senior film critic “Spicy Tang Lion”, in the next day’s Shukan Bunshun column, with a brushstroke nearly like confession, wrote that new headline enough to shake the entire Neon television industry.
God has descended.
“…I must apologize most sincerely to Teacher Hiroshi Nohara for my previous superficiality and ignorance. I once thought he was just a genius at telling stories. But I was wrong, terribly wrong.”
“He is not making a program at all. He is setting rules. A brand-new set of entertainment rules named ‘Hiroshi Nohara’, belonging only to him!”
“With the simplest, purest creativity, he injected the strongest heart stimulant named ‘happiness’ into our era already eroded by boredom and numbness! He let us know that happiness can be so simple, so pure.”
“From this night on, please allow me to retract all my previous disrespectful words. And as the most devout believer, offer my highest respect to this true deity who has long stood at the peak of the era.”
Once this article came out, the entire Neon boiled over.
Because this was not exaggerated description.
But reality!
Because in everyone’s impression, as long as they watched Super Change Change Change, that was the mindset!
When everyone liked a certain person, recognized his work, but the audience who watched with the mentality of hoping for the best while bracing for disappointment, having already lowered expectations, just hoping it was passable.
Suddenly, in their hearts, food that was just natto mixed with rice, at most with some soy sauce poured on.
But when opening the lunchbox, it turned into a French gourmet meal.
Turned into kaiseki cuisine.
Turned into a wagyu beef set meal!
How could this not be worshipped with fanaticism like a deity!?
Now.
Hiroshi Nohara.
Was conquering everyone in this way of first suppressing then raising!
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