The new venture electronics group invested in a Japanese animation production company like Sasakisha, and it was not just optimistic about the level of animation production in Japan.

More importantly, we are interested in Japan's two-dimensional consumer market. In the next 30 years, Japan will continue to be the country with the highest level of two-dimensional consumption.

However, the Japanese market is relatively exclusive, and the import of various products, even agricultural products, is a bunch of obstacles for overseas products. As a result, the standard of agricultural products exported to Japan from overseas is much higher than that of domestic products, but they can only be sold as cheap products in supermarkets. However, agricultural products in Japan are sold at a high price because they are labeled for low food safety.

The same is true for the animation industry, where major Japanese TV stations offer local animation production companies around 8 million yen per episode. However, TV anime, which was invested by Neoventure Electronics, was initially exported only for a few hundred thousand yen per episode, and even now, it is only a little over 1 million yen per episode.

There is no way to counter this new venture electronics group, after all, the worst thing in Japan is animation. Major TV stations purchase animations from New Venture Electronics just for backup. In some garbage time, in order to save money, it is generally used to replay old works to make up the numbers. However, the quality of this kind of new animation is still watchable, and it must be more attractive to rebroadcast old works.

It is precisely because of the price discrimination of Japanese television media that New Venture Electronics simply uses the Japanese branch to directly invest in a localized animation production company in Japan. In this way, the animation produced can also obtain a relatively fair copyright price in accordance with the rules of the Japanese market.

At the same time, works produced by local companies such as Sasakisha are even more receptive to feedback from the audience. Even if TV anime can't recoup its costs, it has a huge amount of money by selling VCD discs to some die-hard fans. Before the spread of the Internet, optical discs became an important source of revenue for animation products. Many animation production companies, the future of their company and animation, often depend on the sales of optical discs.

In later generations, the price of a BD disc was often as high as 7000~8000 yen. This sky-high price makes it enough for animation companies to sell 1,000 discs to recoup their costs. If you can sell tens of thousands of discs, the profit is already quite amazing.

Of course, at present, new start-up electronics companies do not take this luxury route, and at present, it is VCD discs. The 720P high-definition VCD disc costs only 300 yen for one episode of animation. 13 episodes in a season plus bonuses, extras and the like are giveaways, and the price of the whole set is generally 3900 yen.

It is precisely for this reason that the market size of the current era is a little more prosperous than in history. At least, in terms of new sales, the original best-selling standard was to sell a few thousand sets. However, now the sales of super VCD discs are less than 50,000 units, which is considered a hit. After all, the retail price has been reduced, and the only way to do so is to make small profits but sell quickly. Originally, the profit made from selling one disc now had to sell at least twenty or thirty discs to earn the same profit.

More than 80% of the production of VCD discs and discs is monopolized by Xinfei Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Xinchuang Electronics. Not to mention the share of sales channels, just selling more blank discs and disc burning equipment is enough to make the new venture electronics group profitable.

……

Sasakisha is not the only animation company in Japan that the new startup department has invested in, and even the degree of attention is average.

One of the animation companies that Japan New Startup Co., Ltd. attaches the most importance to is GAINAX.

This is so important, and it is also Lin Qi's phone call, who suddenly told the head of the Japanese part, Uejima Yako, that GAINAX must be acquired, and the company's team must be kept intact.

The reason why we want to acquire GAINAX is not that this company is very good now, but because the founders of this company are not very good now. But in a few years it will be different!

Because, the founders of this company are Okada Doujio, Hideaki Anno, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Takami Akai and Shinji Higuchi. That's right, the team that came into the EVA anime!

The idea of "EVA" did not come out of nowhere, but was the long-term accumulation of this team. In particular, it is Hideaki Anno who is the most important.

Hideaki Anno, the future father of "EVA", and the idea of his "EVA" has actually been traced in his previous works. For example, while working at Studio Ghibli, he completed the design of the giant god in "Valley of the Wind". Later, some accumulation of works such as "Leaping to the Peak" also laid the foundation for the later "EVA". Historically, before the production of "EVA", GAINAX had been half-dead, and although the work had a certain reputation and popularity, it could only barely make ends meet, and it was difficult to develop. It wasn't until "EVA" that GAINAX could finally eat its old book for the rest of its life.

"Ladies and gentlemen," said the chief of the conference room, "...... we are investing in GAINAX, mainly because we value some of your company's originality and passion for the animation industry. As you know, our new venture electronics is a very huge company, with more than $10 billion in the Japanese market alone. And investing in animation companies is not because of the profit of animation, but also because of the same $1, the output of the game industry will be several times that of the animation industry......"

"So, why would you invest in such a small company as ours?" Okada was puzzled.

At this stage, Okada Dousifu is also the president of GAINAX, and in the early stage, this company was also dominated by the animated film "Wang Li Space Army" led by Okada Dousifu.

It wasn't until later, after "EVA" came out, that Hideaki Anno came to the top and became the soul of the company.

"Because, when a popular animated masterpiece is adapted into a game, it will be better rewarded. "An animated film of the level of 'Court of Avalon' has grossed more than $500 million worldwide. It proves that its characters, plot and setting have a huge charm. A large number of fans have not been able to get satisfaction through the movie itself, because there is a need for games and more peripheral works to satisfy the curiosity and enthusiasm of fans. And although your company's "Wang Li Space Army" is not as high as "The Court of Avalon", it is still a very thoughtful and sincere work. In addition, we investigated and learned that Hideaki Anno had previously participated in the "Valley of the Wind" animated movie, and the Titan Soldier was written by you. As it happens, we may invest in some ideas that extend from the Titan in the future. ”

All of a sudden, several partners of GAINAX looked at Hideaki Anno with surprise. Of course, they also realized that the new venture electronics may only take a fancy to Hideaki Anno, and the cost of acquiring a company is of course more expensive than digging up a person.

"$100 million in capital!" said Ueshima, "and we'll take 90 percent of the shares, and the other 10 percent will be distributed among you in proportion." In the actual business process, we have very little interference and will not stop your creation. As long as the company has financial money, you can decide for yourself what type of animation to make. At the same time, the animation that the parent company wants to produce is to give an additional budget and outsource the production to you!"

"In other words, after the $100 million injection, it's up to us to decide how we want to spend it?" asked Okada.

"Yes!" said Ueshima, "the company is operating normally, and you can invest in animation." You can even give yourself a salary increase, for example, you are the founders, and it is no problem to raise the annual salary to 50 million yen. Of course, we will send financial overseers, and there must always be a reasonable reason for the expenditure, and there is no reason to dismiss it!"

Just the founder can give himself an annual salary of 50 million yen, which has made several founders of GAINAX decide to sell themselves without hesitation!

Actually, their requirements are not too high, they can have time to do animation, and in addition, it is great to have money to enjoy and eat and wait for death.

Essentially, they're some otaku who love to make animation, and before EVA caught fire, these people couldn't be said to be living, only surviving. Basically, they rely on compressing daily consumption and living a "low-carbon life". And because he is too poor, there are local tyrants who spend money to co-opt and do not interfere with their pursuit of dreams, which is simply a pie falling from the sky, of course I agree.

The sky-high capital injection of 100 million US dollars, which absorbed GAINAX, was completed in just a few days.

After that, the planning of "EVA" was not sent to GAINAX as soon as possible, but supported GAINAX to continue the production of "Leap to the Peak". After the work is completed, the team will be asked to work on EVA in advance!