Chapter 447: Anime Planning

Chapter 447: Animation Plans

After the Olympics, there were many organizers inviting champion athletes and well-known sports figures to various public events, including variety shows, interviews, galas, and other television programs, as well as many commercial performances, and even fashion-related ones.

As the most popular and accomplished champion of these Olympics, Meng Fan was naturally a hot candidate, but Hu Yijing, following Meng Fan's wishes, had temporarily turned down all invitations.

However, those who came this time were mostly people who could bypass Hu Yijing and approach Meng Fan directly, such as Teacher He, who had met Meng Fan a few times and maintained a WeChat friendship, often chatting a bit. He represented Mango TV's Happy Camp to invite Meng Fan and his national team teammates to appear on the show.

After the Olympics, from CCTV to various satellite TV stations, they all began inviting Olympic champions to appear on programs. Even many flagship shows had Olympic specials. Mango TV was no exception. Apart from the two year-round weekly flagship variety shows Happy Camp and Day Day Up, as well as popular seasonal shows, Olympic champions were everywhere.

Before Teacher He's invitation, Happy Camp had already recorded two episodes featuring Olympic champions. This invitation was for recording an Olympic-themed program—"Champion Glory." Coincidentally, this year's sponsor of Happy Camp was Huaxia Glory.

As for Happy Camp, well, basically every Chinese person has watched it, but as they grow older and gain more experience, a large portion gradually stop watching. As an online saying goes: "We grew up, but Happy Camp didn't."

That's not to say the show is bad, nor that it's wrong to stop watching when you grow up. It's still related to the show's positioning; its audience is relatively fixed. To give a not-so-accurate analogy, its main target audience is from elementary school to college graduation. When you grow up and stop watching, new viewers naturally enter this group, then they grow up and leave. Thus, the show always has a huge viewership, never affected by you growing up and stopping watching.

The so-called "newbie" and "veteran" readers in web novels are similar. Newbies become veterans, and new newbies enter. Hmm—another not necessarily accurate analogy: most web novel readers have read Tang San's novels, and gradually a large proportion stop reading, but he remains the King of Web Novels. It's not that he can't write stories suitable for veterans; it's that his reader positioning is set there.

That said, occasionally turning on the TV to watch an episode of Happy Camp, without a critical eye, just to relax and have fun, is still okay. It shows that the show's production is still refined; it's just not your cup of tea, or you've had too much of it before and don't want it now.

Anyway, Happy Camp's ratings and audience are there, and its influence remains. So many celebrities are happy to appear on it to promote movies, etc. Basically, no matter how big a star, they'll make a stop. Sports stars are no exception; it's useful for increasing self-exposure and promoting sports.

Meng Fan wasn't opposed to appearing on variety shows; what he opposed was too many invitations he couldn't handle. This time, he was going with national team teammates, so he had no reason to refuse, especially given the friendship from when Teacher He treated him to a meal at Mango TV during the recording of "Voice Masters."

Additionally, Meng Fan had agreed to several interviews with national print media that had approached him through the Weightlifting, Wrestling, and Judo Center.

Endorsement invitations were also discussed in advance. The four companies that had previously failed to secure a deal came again. In the end, Meng Fan negotiated with three. The endorsement fees were certainly lower than what Huaxia Glory offered, but the gap wasn't huge. The main thing was seeing the influence, attention, and buzz brought by Meng Fan's endorsement of Huaxia Glory, which ultimately translated into "sales-driving" power. Clearly, after Meng Fan endorsed Huaxia Glory, the data in this regard showed gratifying and even touching growth.

The final signing and commercial filming were scheduled after a one-month period.

As for commercial performances and the like, all were rejected.

However, Meng Fan accepted four voice-acting invitations with relatively low compensation. One was for a dubbed version of a foreign animated film, and the other three were domestic animations—two TV series and one film. Among them was the animated adaptation of Brother Kun's work "Spirits Underground."

Since the rights to "Spirits Underground" were basically held by Brother Kun, the animation was funded and produced by him—having a family with mines really allows for willfulness. Meng Fan provided his voice for free as a friendly gesture. Of course, there was a condition: Meng Fan became an investor. Not only did he invest in this animation, but after getting to know the team, he also invested further, pulling Brother Kun and the team together to form an animation studio, preparing for the future animation of "Strange People of Mountains and Seas."

The animation rights for "Strange People of Mountains and Seas" were to be handed over to Kodansha when signing the contract, but with a condition: Meng Fan could send his own team to participate in the entire animation process. The strength of Japanese animation industry needs no elaboration. Meng Fan raised this condition early on to prepare for "learning by stealing," also contributing to Chinese animation.

Rather than searching for people everywhere later, it's better to form a studio now.

Meng Fan had already seen the finished product of "Spirits Underground" and recognized the team's strength. When the team heard that Meng Fan was investing, they agreed without hesitation.

Brother Kun was even more excited, patting his chest, saying he would handle the funding, and if necessary, he could mortgage a few mines for loans.

The voice acting for "Spirits Underground," through Meng Fan's introduction, was entirely entrusted to Chocolate Studio.

Animation inevitably requires a voice-acting team. Meng Fan had the idea of pulling Chocolate Studio into the group. Chocolate Studio's size was just right—not too big, not too small—and their strength was decent. If they were to be absorbed, it would be manageable and beneficial.

He hadn't mentioned it to Director Zha yet, planning to wait until after this voice-acting task when the two sides had contact. Perhaps, given Director Zha's brains and personality, he might probe on his own.

"Iron God."

"Teacher Shi."

Meng Fan and Zhang Zhouwei flew from Hangzhou to Changsha—Zhang Zhouwei had nothing to do these days, and coincidentally Wang Yanan had taken leave to go home for a few days, so he was like a bird out of a cage. Knowing Meng Fan was coming to record a show, he tagged along for fun—just as they entered the hotel to wait for the national team teammates to gather, they ran into Shi Shiwu.

"Are you here to record a show? Happy Camp, or Day Day Up? Not Fantasy Music City, is it?"

Staying at this hotel, most people were here for Mango TV, so Shi Shiwu directly asked what show they were recording.

"Fantasy Music City" was the first domestic music creative performance show launched by Mango TV in 2018, currently recording its third season. Shi Shiwu was here to record this show.

And he mentioned it, of course, because Meng Fan was very good at singing.

(End of chapter)