The anime "Datang" is the first work of Tokuma Bookstore to enter the animation industry, and it is also a rare masterpiece in the animation industry.

The average production cost per minute reached 3.5 million yuan, which is an amazing number even in the 21st century, let alone in the 80s.

In the production team of "Datang", there is not only Hayao Miyazaki, but also another later animation master, Takahata Xun.

Historically, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, both of whom are key members of Studio Ghibli, are known for making anime films.

Hayao Miyazaki has "Valley of the Wind", "My Neighbor Totoro", "Princess Mononoke", "Spirited Away", "Ponyo on the Cliff" and many other super best-selling anime movies.

And anime films such as "Grave of the Fireflies" and "Fairy Tale of Years" directed by Takahata Xun have also become the first-rate blockbusters in the box office market.

The "Datang" anime, with the cooperation of Hayao Miyazaki and Takahata Xun, has a delicate and atmospheric painting style, which is not inferior to the effect of Hollywood blockbusters. Moreover, due to the strong composition ability of the music industry at this time, Tokuma Shoten hired first-class composers at a high price, created hundreds of songs, selected dozens of songs, and added them to this anime, making the background music of this anime also a strong mess.

Everyone was already shaken just by watching the first episode.

Among these people, Zhang Shaojie was especially emotional.

In the 80s, Hayao Miyazaki was actually an excellent mess of anime directors, and the real strength of such a great man is to make anime movies.

Compared with the delicacy of the picture, the anime movie is several levels higher than the long-form anime series.

And "The Legend of Double Dragons of the Tang Dynasty" is expensive and Miyazaki's handwriting, and it has actually reached the quality of "Valley of the Wind" and "Spirited Away" in history.

In Zhang Shaojie's eyes, this is already the pinnacle of 2D animation.

The quality of the later so-called "Naruto" and "One Piece" is simply inferior to the current "Datang".

The problem is that the level of animation production in such an awesome realm was made by himself. At present, in the Chinese animation industry, there is no cartoon animation with similar strength.

Perhaps, Chinese ink animation still has a certain level at this time. However, Zhang Shaojie feels that it is still a realistic painting style, which can obtain the broadest market.

In the later 90 years, this comic hit the mainland market in the form of piracy. Domestic comic strips began to withdraw from the mass comic scene and became niche art collections. The large-scale introduction of Chinese TV media has also caused domestic ink animation to be violently impacted and lost most of the market.

In the 90s, a large number of domestic animation people began to learn this animation, hoping to create a strong domestic animation industry.

However, even at the beginning of the 21st century, China has not fulfilled its dream of becoming an animation power.

At that time, the mess of "Qin Shi Mingyue", which had a good reputation, made people disappointed after watching it, it was nothing more than a third-rate martial arts animation level, and the only advantage was just the brand "domestic".

In fact, at the beginning of the 21st century, the mainland government attached great importance to supporting the development of the animation industry. Like "Qin Shi Mingyue", an animation with a certain reputation, even if it can't make money in the market, but with the political axe subsidy, it will not lose money.

Many people think that with a political axe to subsidize the animation industry with billions of dollars every year, it should be able to revitalize the animation industry, right? In fact, on the contrary, many companies are keen to mix subsidies, but do not pay attention to the real needs of the market and the audience.

Because, the subsidy of the animation industry is subsidized according to the output of animation, rather than according to the quality that is difficult to measure, so that many animation companies, the eight immortals across the sea, show their powers, use various copycats, plagiarism, a large number of inferior animation, defraud the financial subsidies of the political axe.

"I didn't expect that the level of animation production in Yuben would reach such a level?" Ma Rongcheng said worriedly, "Compared with the picture quality of the live-action movie, it is not inferior at all." What's more, the anime version can use richer and more incredible expressions than film and television. If the animation industry enters Hong Kong in a big way, the world and Yulang will not be able to compete with it at all! ”

Zhang Shaojie smiled: "Peace of mind! The animation version of "Datang" basically represents the highest level of the animation industry. Even after a few decades, it can still be regarded as a first-rate level. This does not mean that all the anime can have this level of quality! ”

Huang Xizhao also sighed: "If all the animations in this book have such quality, they will not only be the enemy of the Hong Kong comic industry." Even, even the market for TV dramas will be impacted! The painting style of the anime "Datang" alone is delicate and real, which can completely make the audience of the TV series accept it without any obstacles! ”

Looking at Huang Xizhao and Ma Rongcheng's worries about this anime, Zhang Shaojie was more satisfied, at least the two of them were still prepared for danger in times of peace, and saw that this anime had a terrible invasion surname.

Don't be afraid of gaps, just be afraid of sitting in the well and watching the sky!

I can realize that the animation industry is strong. Even if the current Hong Kong animation industry is in a blank state, there is always something to achieve in this direction.

"Now that you see the threat of this anime, why don't you try to imitate it, follow up, and work in this direction? The animation industry has been imitating Chinese ink animation since the 50s, as well as European and American animation styles, and has gradually formed its own production style. Compared with the real estate and financial industries, the threshold for animation is not too high. Take the anime "The Legend of Double Dragons of the Tang Dynasty" as an example, the cost per minute is only 130,000 Hong Kong dollars, 4 million per episode, and 160 million Hong Kong dollars per episode. It is still divided into two years of investment, with an average of 20 episodes per year, that is, it costs 80 million Hong Kong dollars a year to produce the world's first-class animation! If the standard is lowered, 30,000 Hong Kong dollars a minute, it is already possible to produce an animation above the level, so that 40 episodes a year can be produced, costing 36 million Hong Kong dollars, which is the budget of three TV series! Zhang Shaojie said with a smile, "The competition in the TV drama market is relatively fierce, but the animation industry, in most countries around the world, has a very low production level. If we can produce a work of average quality in the anime industry and market it properly, the pressure to recoup the cost is not very great. What's more, some of the peripheral goods of the anime can create more than ten times more markets than the anime itself."

Huang Xizhao said with a wry smile: "An animation of 36 million Hong Kong dollars is not expensive? Last year, ATV turned losses into profits throughout the year, earning less than 30 million for the whole year. If you invest in an anime that costs 36 million, it is estimated that you will lose money again this year! What's more, ATV has no experience in anime production at all! Even if you boss Zhang doesn't care about the loss, but there are not enough people to make animation for us! ”

Zhang Shaojie looked at Ma Rongcheng and said, "World Publishing, can you do animation now?" ”

Ma Rongcheng thought for a while and said, "Although I don't have enough experience, I have the skills to make comics, and I can barely make some anime." However, it is still not possible to reach the level of the animation industry."

Zhang Shaojie said: "There is a certain foundation, it's fine!" As for the lack of experience in the Hong Kong animation industry, you can dig up talents! The animation industry is so developed, there are always a large number of unambitious talents, and some animation talents are recruited to come to Hong Kong with high salaries, and then some cartoonists from the World Publishing Company are mixed with them. After a long time, the ability mastered by the other party has also been learned by our people! ”

Ma Rongcheng smiled: "I like this doctrine!" ”

At this time, ATV's annual operating income reached 800 million Hong Kong dollars, and its main profit also reached 135 million Hong Kong dollars, but due to the scale of debt of more than 500 million, it had to repay more than 100 million Hong Kong dollars in interest every year. Therefore, in terms of net profit, it barely reached more than 29 million Hong Kong dollars, which is already the result of a very proper operation.

The operating income of Tianxia Publishing Company is only 230 million Hong Kong dollars, and the net profit is more than 50 million Hong Kong dollars because there is no debt dragging.

Therefore, in terms of cash flow, Commonwealth Publishing Company is far more abundant than ATV.

This time, at the suggestion of Zhang Shaojie, Asia Television and Tianxia Publishing decided to cooperate in the production of animation for the first time. Asia Television invested HK$30 million, and Commonwealth Publishing invested HK$20 million. A total of HK$50 million will be used to launch a plan to develop Hong Kong's animation industry from scratch.

The first animation work co-produced by the two was "Chinese Hero", which was the cash cow of the world's publishing at this time, and created a profit of more than 60 million Hong Kong dollars for the company in 3 years. It is expected that this comic will be serialized for more than 3 years, and by the time it ends, it will be able to give Tianxia Publishing Company at least another 100 million Hong Kong dollars in profits.

Popular comics like "Chinese Heroes" have already had 200,000 readers in Hong Kong who have ordered a single book. In fact, the number of readers who have read this manga is more than 1 million, to say the least.

Historically, "Chinese Heroes", the most profitable comic in Hong Kong history, has been mainly adapted in TV dramas, special effects films, and later developed in the direction of online games.

However, the shortcomings of Hong Kong's animation production capabilities have made this work never be adapted into animation, which has to be said to be a big pity.

Now, with the mediation of Zhang Shaojie and the cooperation of Commonwealth Publishing and Asia Television, the popular comic "Chinese Heroes" has been adapted into animation, which has undoubtedly opened a new chapter in Hong Kong's cultural industry.

(To be continued)