Chapter 45: Buzzing Discussions
“Bang!”
Hoshi Minamimura slammed his fist on the table, and in those eyes that always burned with flames, there was now an unbelievable anger full of public humiliation.
“On what basis?! On what basis?!” Hoshi Minamimura’s voice trembled with rage.
“Black-box operation! This is absolutely a black-box operation!” Roji Hase was also shaking with anger: “Their ratings are clearly lower than ours, and now their daily ratings are dropping every day! On what basis do they get it?!”
The entire office was instantly enveloped in a wave of anger.
“Why?”
Hiroshi Nohara’s voice, amid this noisy anger, seemed unusually calm. He walked up to Kiyoto Suzuki, looked at his ashen face, and asked softly: “Section Chief Suzuki, since the Production Bureau has made this arrangement, what reason did they give?”
Everything has a reason.
Even if everyone knows the reason is definitely absurd.
“Reason? Ha…” Kiyoto Suzuki slowly raised his head, his turbid eyes full of fatigue and helplessness. He opened his mouth, as if using all his strength, to squeeze out those few words from his throat:
“Ratings… average.”
He pushed over another attached data sheet.
On it, the daily ratings numbers for the two animations during their broadcast period were clearly recorded.
《Oni-bō Samurai》’s curve was high from the start, though it fell back at the end, but its two-week average ratings still steadily stood above 5.5%.
While 《An Shizhi》’s curve was a tragic and heroic, steeply upward-climbing straight line from the valley bottom. Even though it created a myth at the end, the dismal start in the early days still dragged down its average.
Coming out to only around 4.88%.
“They say that judging ‘Ichiban’ looks not at momentary explosions, but at stable performance over the entire broadcast cycle.” Kiyoto Suzuki’s voice carried a powerless self-mockery: “They say, this is the rules.”
Rules.
What an icy cold, yet pompously righteous word.
The office fell into a deathly silence once more.
Everyone understood.
This was not a fair contest.
This was a complete scam, from the start, where they were played in the palm of the hand by the “rules” that others had set themselves!
That so-called victory, that so-called counterattack, in this moment, all seemed like a huge joke.
They won reputation, won hearts, won the final dignity, but only lost to this damn, icy cold, interpretable-by-anyone… rules.
Hiroshi Nohara looked at the data sheet, at those two distinctly separated curves, without anger or unwillingness.
His face didn’t even show the slightest expression.
Only in those eyes, always calm like an ancient well, something was quietly, bit by bit, turning icy cold.
It was the absolute icy cold unique to a chess player when he discovers the opponent not only shamelessly takes back moves, but even modifies the rules of the entire game right in front of him.
“Can’t play anymore?” Hiroshi Nohara’s gaze grew even icier.
But this iciness flashed and vanished.
Immediately returning to calm.
Anger is the behavior of the weak, the venting of the powerless.
For a chess player, when the opponent starts flipping the table, the only thing you need to do is calmly watch him, then switch to a sturdier chessboard, and in a way he can’t comprehend, nail him dead to the chair so he doesn’t even have the strength to stand up and flip the table.
He said nothing more, just slowly walked back to his seat, picked up his pen, and continued sketching on the manuscript a grander war belonging to another world.
The entire Suzuki’s Classroom seemed infected by his unusually calm demeanor.
That anger and unwillingness, enough to drive people mad, slowly settled, turning into a more resilient determination.
They still had the chance for 《An Shizhi》 season two.
They…
Craved to prove their success!
……
However, this disturbance triggered by the “average” was like a stone thrown into the deep waters of Tokyo Television Station, its ripples spreading far wider than Suzuki’s Classroom’s small pond.
The pantry in the Production Bureau Headquarters Building has always been the best breeding ground for gossip and office politics.
“Heard about it? April’s Ichiban went to Iwata’s 《Oni-bō Samurai》.” A third-class director wearing gold-rimmed glasses, looking quite refined, lowered his voice to his colleague of similar seniority.
“Heard, really… unbelievable.” The man opposite shook his head, his face carrying a sardonic look of one who had seen through the world: “Using average to calculate, they really came up with that. It’s like making a 100-meter sprint champion compete in average speed over the full distance with a marathon runner, then telling everyone the marathon runner won.”
“Exactly, I heard Deputy Director Takada at the meeting strongly pushed against opposition, saying this is the most ‘fair’ judging standard.” The gold-rimmed glasses man chuckled lightly, the laughter full of undisguised mockery: “But this eating looks too ugly.”
“Ugly? I think they’re desperate, people from Tokyo Television Station are just like that, exclusionary.”
The other man sipped his coffee, a shrewd glint in his eyes: “I watched that 《An Shizhi》 too. Honestly, it has something. Especially that episode called 《Paper》, after watching, I felt that concept where a completely empty scene suddenly has a ghost appear is really clever.”
His words drew a knowing burst of laughter.
“I think that 《Contradiction》 is the most interesting, pure logic terror, that’s the advanced play.” The gold-rimmed glasses man adjusted his frames, his tone carrying a professional’s appreciation: “That young person called Hiroshi Nohara is really something. And I heard he’s just a fresh graduate intern?”
“Intern? The version I heard is he’s also the author of that 《Yu Yu Hakusho》 on 《Weekly Shonen Jump》.”
“What?! Yu Yu Hakusho is his work?”
“This manga is really popular among young people.”
This news clearly had more impact than any ratings data, shocking the others.
“Deputy Director Asumi’s side is probably laughing their heads off this time.” The gold-rimmed glasses man’s gaze looked out the window thoughtfully: “Takada this time, to protect that waste Iwata, really rubbed his own face on the ground. But the more he does this, the more it shows he’s scared.”
“Yeah, scared.” The man sighed too: “Not scared of Suzuki that old stubborn, scared of that young person Hiroshi Nohara, and his out-of-the-box new style.”
“But so what? This Tokyo Television Station is still run by their own people, isn’t this example right now?” Someone nearby muttered lowly: “We outsiders, how can we compete with their own people?”
“Alright, stop.” The topic was cut off; after all, they had decent relations, and if these words got out, it wouldn’t be good for anyone.
“Shouldn’t we also learn some concepts from An Shizhi? I think it’s pretty interesting.”
“Indeed, that young person really has wild ideas.”
PS: Begging for some recommendation votes, greatly appreciated!
