Chapter 462: The Last School Sports Meet

Chapter 462 The Final Campus Sports Meet

Station 8 had purchased the exclusive online broadcasting rights for "Spirits Underground" as a full-season package, alongside a share of the advertising revenues.

When video streaming platforms bought animation broadcasting rights, they mostly did so in the form of individual anime series, particularly for foreign imports, which were predominantly acquired this way, and rarely on a per-episode basis.

Purchased broadcasting rights included general broadcasting rights and exclusive broadcasting rights, with the latter naturally being much more expensive than the former. Station 8 had acquired the exclusive rights for "Spirits Underground," yet it was not entirely exclusive; after uploading the series at a rate of one episode per week (with members enjoying priority access to N episodes), it would be opened to other platforms after a certain period, such as Penguin Video, which maintained a deep cooperation with Station 8.

Consequently, it did not fetch a particularly high price; in terms of the purchase amount alone, it could even be said that not even one-tenth of the production costs could be recovered.

Of course, whether in Japan or China, producers never relied solely on selling the animation itself to make a profit; for an animated cartoon to recoup its costs and turn a profit, the main avenues remained books, audio-visual products, subsequent spin-off films, and derivative merchandise, among other things.

Thus, the production companies investing in animation basically held other copyrights related to the IP, or they would participate in the revenue sharing of other copyrights through separate agreements. There was no need to mention Old Man Kun's work; if Meng Fan's "The Anomalous People of Shan Hai" were to be animated in the future, it would naturally come with a supplementary agreement.

By comparison, these matters were already highly formulaic over in Japan, whereas in China... the more popular approach was still the complete buyout of the IP.

Following the purchase, Station 8 quickly announced the premiere date for "Spirits Underground" as November 1st, updating with one episode every Friday and Saturday evening at 8 o'clock, with members able to watch two episodes ahead; the first season consisted of twelve episodes in total, completely airing over six weeks. Furthermore, the broadcasting rights would be opened to other platforms two weeks later, which meant the other platforms were essentially buying the second-run broadcasting rights.

With the matters related to "Spirits Underground" and the commercial advertisement shoot concluded, Meng Fan entered a routine of regular classes and daily training over the next few days; after all these days, Meng Fan's plan for the years following his graduation as a senior had also taken shape—manga and sports definitely had to continue, and additionally, he would remain at the school.

On October 18th, Meng Fan officially submitted his application to remain at the school to the department, and it was approved almost instantly. Meng Fan's professional capabilities went without saying, and with such high popularity, the academy welcomed him with open arms. Upon graduation, Meng Fan could become a teaching assistant at the Animation Academy of the China Academy of Art, and once his teaching scope was determined, he would certainly skip the time requirements of a teaching assistant to leap straight to lecturer.

As for this teaching scope, Meng Fan was pondering it, and the department was considering it as well.

The academy had originally intended to secure him admission to graduate school while he remained at the school, allowing him to "work while studying," but Meng Fan politely declined without much thought. It was mainly because he wouldn't have much time to study after entering graduate school and wouldn't really learn much, and furthermore, Meng Fan had no particular pursuit of academic degrees, nor did he need a degree to prove anything.

After an afternoon class ended, Wang Yanan walked up to the podium, waving the items in her hand as she spoke, "The sports meet registration forms are here with me. Today marks the final year at school for the vast majority of you sitting here, and it is also the last sports meet. This time, I took quite a few registration forms, thinking that many students who haven't participated in the sports meet before wouldn't want to miss this final opportunity. We aren't seeking rankings; it's the participation that counts. I'll distribute the registration forms to everyone; whoever wants to participate can just fill it out and hand it to me, by the end of tomorrow's afternoon class at the latest."

Wang Yanan shook the registration forms in her hand, and Zhang Zhouwei went up to receive them and distribute them downward, keeping one for himself; last year he had sprained his ankle and couldn't participate, so this year he planned to take part—well, it was mainly because he felt quite good about himself after training at the Fengji Budo Hall these past few months and wanted to show off his muscles.

"Are you still participating?"

Zhang Zhouwei kept a few extra forms and brought them over to his own seat, giving one each to Chen Daqiang and Xing Tage, and with one remaining, he asked Meng Fan; knowing that Meng Fan had nothing much going on recently, he started to stir things up, "Everyone wants to compete on the same stage with the five-time Olympic gold medalist... what was that called again, oh right, to compete together! Just hearing about it sounds so thrilling, don't you all agree!"

The boy who had cosplayed as Hanamichi Sakuragi last year grinned, "Coach! Give us a chance, so I can brag about it to people after graduation!"

"You've even called him Coach, what kind of bragging rights couldn't you blow out of proportion! Hahaha, Fatty, whatever you participate in, I'll participate in, give me some face, don't beat me by too much, I'll be relying on this to get by in the future!"

"Step aside, all of you! I want to settle scores with Fatty Meng on the wrestling mat... oh, it seems there is no such event, farewell!"

A crowd of people in the class were making quite a racket, thoroughly lively; as for whether Meng Fan would participate, they were just talking big, though it would be best if he actually could participate.

"I originally really wanted to participate, but hearing you all say this makes me rather embarrassed, maybe I shouldn't participate after all."

Meng Fan laughed heartily, but naturally he still signed up; last year he had registered for three events, and this year he dropped one, signing up for the shot put and the javelin, which wouldn't take up much time.

Hearing that Meng Fan wanted to participate in these two events, the people in the class stirred things up again, and those who planned to register also added these two events, each clamoring to compete on the same stage with the five-time Olympic gold medalist, leaving Meng Fan to laughingly curse them all for being toxic.

Qin Jiu, who had already been standing at the door, heard that Meng Fan was going to participate and said with a smile, "I was just about to ask if you were participating; if you are, the academy intends to have you take the stage to deliver a speech as the athlete representative."

"Oh."

For this kind of matter, Meng Fan certainly wouldn't turn it down.

With the matter of registration settled, next came the distribution of this year's entrance COS costumes; it was originally intended to have a "graduation season" theme, but everyone felt that this sorrow came a bit too early, so they chose a joyful theme, independently selecting anime characters with "comedic" attributes, a scope of choice that was naturally very large.

As for Meng Fan, he hadn't been present when they previously discussed the characters to COS, so he was naturally "nominated" by everyone; the character he was ultimately assigned was Saitama from One Punch Man, the reason being that there was no enemy Meng Fan couldn't quickly resolve, and additionally, he had trained himself up relying on sheer willpower, especially his previous routine of at least ten kilometers a day which resembled it considerably—at least that was what everyone thought—though he hadn't gone bald, he had truly become stronger.

Truth be told, apart from the bald cap, the outfit was quite handsome, particularly the cape which looked like a work of absolute sincerity at first glance.

As for the image, the look of the master when he got serious possessed a few shades of Meng Fan's own handsomeness.

Zhang Zhouwei had previously gone to Mango TV with Meng Fan, so he likewise had no opportunity to choose his own character, and the character he was assigned—a scream from him resounded through the classroom alongside the booming laughter of his classmates.

"Why am I a basketball hoop again!"

"Isn't a basketball hoop pretty good? This is already a classic in the COS history of our academy!"

"Yeah, I also think it's pretty good, it suits you very well!"

"Splendid!"

(End of Chapter)