Free Web NovelChapter 347: Just the Beginning
In late July, one week after the release, the teams from Illumination Production Company and Shirogane Animation gathered for a celebratory banquet.
Rei did not drink much. In situations like this his role was to enliven the atmosphere, deliver the important remarks, and then spend the remainder of the evening doing what the company’s employees actually wanted from him: autographs, photographs, and short recorded video messages for their family members’ birthdays or anniversaries.
The distribution of gifts and bonuses he left to his subordinates to manage. He was not particularly good at that part and they were.
Standing at the glass window looking out at the Tokyo night view, he attracted the attention of Misaki, who had drunk enough to be both unusually candid and exceptionally striking in her black gown.
"With an opening like this for Spirited Away, you do not seem particularly excited. Do you think the results are insufficient?"
"Not at all," Rei said, smiling. "I am very satisfied with Spirited Away’s results. But nowadays, the box office of the animated films is no longer the data I pay most attention to. You understand this: the bulk of the company’s operating income now comes from the IP operation revenue of the medium and long-form anime.
The film box office is considerable, but it is one-off income. It cannot be a steady stream."
"That is true," Misaki agreed.
In the anime industry, the anime itself was the least profitable component. The real revenue came from merchandise and copyright development.
The global theatrical success of Demon Slayer had been significant primarily because of the publicity effect it created: Demon Slayer merchandise had been selling consistently worldwide ever since.
To this day it remained the largest single contributor to Shirogane Animation’s annual revenue. Setting aside partner merchandise shares and IP operation costs, the net profit that one IP alone had delivered to Rei every year for the past several years had been in the ten-digit range.
In the year the first Infinity Castle film released, combining the tankōbon volume sales shares, merchandise across every category, and the film box office shares, Demon Slayer alone had produced an astronomical revenue figure for Shirogane Animation.
Other properties like One-Punch Man, Hunter x Hunter, and the currently airing Attack on Titan each generated nine-digit income annually.
Rei was genuinely no longer sensitive to discussions of income as a metric. The money he had earned was already sufficient for ten lifetimes at his consumption level. The number had passed the point where it carried practical meaning.
"Next year, the second Demon Slayer Infinity Castle film releases. Then there is the Bleach TV anime, and the Naruto anime that you recently brought to the company, wanting us to set aside another dedicated project team to produce at the highest specifications," Misaki said quietly, leaning against the glass beside him.
"If things continue developing like this, I genuinely do not know what kind of entity Shirogane Animation will be in ten years."
Rei thought about this.
He had initially wanted to evaluate it against something like Shueisha’s scale from his previous life. But the Japan anime market here was so many times larger than that reference point that the comparison did not hold.
Operating the same IPs in a substantially larger local market meant the value of those properties would not be equivalent to what they had been worth in his previous life.
"Are you feeling pressured?"
"Of course," Misaki said. "You have not prepared to take Shirogane Animation public either, otherwise I would not know how to calculate what this IP company would actually be worth.
If Shirogane Animation listed, your name would probably appear in the upper ranks of Japan’s wealth rankings."
"I am not short of money. There is no need for that," Rei said. "I do not understand finance well enough to find it interesting. Working on anime honestly is where my actual pleasure is."
Misaki nodded. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
She had been deliberately raising this subject tonight. She was aware of how many partners in the industry had been making inquiries, directly or indirectly, about exactly this question.
The capital market interest in Shirogane Animation’s potential listing was significant. Having confirmed Rei’s actual position on the matter, she felt considerably more settled.
"Anyway, as CEO you will have plenty to occupy you. Works like Naruto and Bleach," Rei paused, offering Misaki a small indication of what was ahead. "In the next ten years, you will probably be dealing with these two, and perhaps one or two more IPs that come later."
"Seeing you this confident, could it be that in your eyes, these works can all rival Hunter x Hunter and One-Punch Man?"
"You are underestimating them somewhat. In all probability, they are IP works that will not lose to, and may even surpass, Demon Slayer and Attack on Titan."
He thought for a moment.
"By then there might be two or three such works in the Japan market competing with each other. I am planning to use them to open a new era of anime."
Misaki looked at him, slightly lost in thought.
"You mean that having developed to this point, you feel your creative career has not yet reached its peak?"
"Peak?" Rei laughed. "It is just the beginning. This is nothing yet."
Misaki could not sleep after returning that night. She had stopped being able to locate the upper boundary of Rei’s creative capacity. She had simply, at some point, stopped looking for it and accepted that it was not visible from where she was standing.
July ended. ƒrēewebnovel.com
By the close of the month, Spirited Away, at the two-week mark of its theatrical run, had broken the 40 billion yen total domestic box office threshold. The global total box office had reached 64 billion yen.
But its reputation, among all the animated film works Rei had released in Japan, was ranked first without contest.
