Kapitel 23: Traitor
Redakteur: Henyee Translations
The shooting of Balala the Fairy was making smooth progress.
Mid-December, there came a brief adjusting period of the shooting.
Initially, when they couldn't find an actor for Prince Fun, Wang Kui suggested that Meng Lang play the role himself.
Meng Lang took the advice.
Hence, he moved all his scenes to mid-December, devoting the period from December to early January to shoot his own scenes.
The shooting gave Meng Lang a first-hand experience of how hard an actor's work was.
Remembering the lines was the simplest task among all things. He also had to figure out his position and his acting style for each scene…
Other actors and actresses had him, the director, to give them instruction, but he had no one to turn to except for himself.
And that wasn't the hardest part.
The hardest part was to speak in the genuine "Fairy Castle accent"!
Prince Fun wasn't that attractive a character in the original version. The actor was also a mediocre one who didn't stand out in any way.
However, his unique accent gave soul to the role and "Fairy Castle accent" had also become the most attractive aspect of the role.
During the shooting, the crew only found their director's accent odd, but didn't find it exceptionally funny.
From a bystander's point of view, Meng Lang also couldn't understand why "it's none o' y'all business" suddenly became a meme.
Although he couldn't understand it, this didn't stop Meng Lang from recreating it. After all, he also wanted to know if "it's none o' y'all business" could become a hit phrase online again.
…
Something big happened before Christmas that year!
After some pre-broadcasting promotion, TBS aired the dubbed and repackaged Blazing Teens to the Japanese audience.
Once the TBS broadcasted it, Meng Lang found some time to check his email for the good news Mr Ishikawa sent him.
Blazing Teens's viewing rates skyrocketed on the first day and even defeated the popular show of NHK, "Amnesiac Mother".
Compared to this country, Japan had much fewer TV channels, which meant that the audience had much less choice.
If one of the limited TV channels had a popular show, group psychology would lead to viewing rates that were high enough to shock any TV professionals here.
Blazing Teens had achieved a viewing rate of 34.5%!
"This is great! Meng San, the president of my company, is very interested in the cooperation mode you mentioned and he would like to further discuss it with you."
Meng Lang was finally relieved after he read Ishikawa's email.
An exceptional viewing rate was great news. That way, it was possible to work with the channel again. If the show turned out to be a failure, it would be very difficult to attract TBS' attention again.
After logging out of his email box, out of curiosity, Meng Lang went to the largest online movie and television review forum, to see how the Japanese online community felt about Blazing Teens.
[Webpage being translated…]
"とてもクールです."
[It's so cool!]
"監督は天才です.霓虹の監督は彼に習うべきです."
[The director is a genius! Our directors should learn from him.]
[Only registered users can use the "like" function…]
"李飛は神です."
[Li Fei is a god!]
"ミリーは私の妻です."
[Mi Li is my wife.]
"A Chinese student studying in Japan sends his support!"
[Translation failed…]
"보기가지루하다."
[So boring.]
Most of them were positive reviews!
There were as many as over 100 posts on Blazing Teens on this forum, which proved how unbelievably popular the show was.
The show had only been broadcasted today and over 100 posts was already a scary number.
After all, the forum only had a little over 50,000 users…
After checking the forum, Meng Lang went over to the official webpage of several media outlets to see their news report.
Most of the Japanese media reported on the incredible viewing rates of Blazing Teens, but most of them were mocking TBS.
According to them, TBS had degenerated. The channel had turned to a TV show from this country to save its viewing rates.
Why wouldn't the channel consider Japanese or American shows, which were more finely made?
TBS was such a traitor!
The media review on Blazing Teens had been mostly negative, criticizing Blazing Teens through colored spectacles.
A senator even said during an interview that the government would adopt more rigorous censoring mechanisms, banning certain inappropriate foreign movies and TV works.
What the hell?
As if calling TBS a traitor wasn't ridiculous enough, some senator of the opposition party actually tried to ban the show. Who on earth did he think he was?
The media reviews aside, from the audience's perspective, Blazing Teens was a great success.
TBS should have seen that as well, which was why they had agreed to Meng Lang's request for future cooperation.
As for being called a traitor, TBS couldn't care less.
Money spoke louder. As long as there was profit, there was business.
The media was all empty words. Even if things got physical, TBS was still sure to be the winner.
The popularity the show gained in Japan gave Meng Lang a confidence boost.
The feature shows in this world had chosen the wrong path. They were supposed to be live-action shows targeting children and featuring toys, but had ended up becoming sci-fi horror cult TV series…
The audience had never seen a novel feature show like Blazing Teens that had been so "finely made".
This was what a feature show supposed to look like!
Happy, enthusiastic, and all-age shows should have been what feature shows aimed for, not some creepy horror shows, which didn't even have any toys at all. The directors were puffed up with pride after some idiotic comments online called their shows "divine".
They had actually tried to attract the grownups with such shows.
Forget about it. There were more Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters out there than they could choose from. Why would they want to watch a childish TV series with inferior special effects?
The feature show directors of this world had gotten it completely wrong.
It was with such a background that Blazing Teens' success became so plausible.
It was all thanks to the comparison.
Blazing Teens might have been crappy, but compared to its peers, it was a miracle!
After the show gained popularity in the Japanese market, more European and American TV channels contacted Meng Lang.
Their reasoning was the same as TBS.
We need yo-yos!
Meng Lang accepted all offers, regardless of the prices.
Afterward, the newly set up official Weibo account of Pengda Pictures created a post, which had gone viral and soon took over the frontpage of Weibo.
Even the haughty national owned media retweeted the post, calling it "the most incredible cultural export" of the literary and art circles.
Blazing Teens had gone viral overseas!
The movie and TV industry was baffled by the news.
Recalling all the works that had been ignored at Cannes, Berlin, and Venice, a lot of directors didn't know what to say.
Was this feeling called envy?
Why did so many people like this children's TV show?
The audience nowadays was incorrigible!
Kapitel 24: Sprout
Redakteur: Henyee Translations
As a website that specialized in movie and television review, Sprout had quite a long history. Apart from its original function, which was to review movies and TV works, the website developed the rating system in 2004.
It was the first domestic website that had incorporated a rating system from its users. After 10 years, Sprout's ratings had gained recognition of the industry.
The website had left the impression on most people as a reliable rating website.
Because of that impression, more and more movie and television viewers had started to choose what they wanted to watch based on the ratings on Sprout.
Pan Qiliang was one of them.
As a customer service specialist for a high-end robot manufacturer, Pan Qiliang had a rather tedious job description.
The so-called "specialist" was no more than a customer service clerk who picked up phone calls and answered emails.
Unlike customer service of other companies, as a manufacturer specialized in high-end industrial robots, Pan Qiliang's company had a customer base that mainly consisted of major tycoon manufacturers.
When such companies wanted to make a purchase, a petty customer service guy like Pan Qiliang wouldn't be important enough to handle the deal. Instead, his colleagues of the marketing department would take care of it.
Then, there came the question. Exactly what kind of customers would Pan Qiliang serve?
Idiotic customers who had found the company through internet, of course!
Every single day, a lot of phone calls would be made to the company from individual users.
Most of the time, they were just some idle people over the internet who had no intention of purchasing anything, who only wanted to ask around…
"The robots of your company look so smart. Can they finish my homework for me?"
"I'm sorry, but they can't!"
"Why don't I see your official online store on Taobao? You don't even give out vouchers. How are you going to sell anything?"
Pan Qiliang didn't know what to say.
That was his daily job.
The company probably knew that these people wouldn't buy their high-end industrial robots that were sold at a minimum price of 550,000, but they couldn't just ignore all the inquiries, which was why Pan Qiliang's post was created.
Luckily, only so many people had nothing better to do and so far, he hadn't received more than 8 prank calls per day.
Most of the time, Pan Qiliang spent his working hours watching TV series on his computer to pass the time.
Wouldn't his wages get deducted for slacking off during working hours?
That would never happen!
Organizational wise, Pan Qiliang belonged to the marketing department. As the name suggested, almost everyone from this department was out there, going about soliciting business deals. The clerical workers were the only ones left behind in the office.
And they were watching TV series as well, so his secret was safe with them.
His first thought was to open Sprout.
Normally, once he opened the front page of Sprout, he would click "new releases", then "sort by ratings from the highest to the lowest". Most of the time, he would be able to find something he liked.
But today, all he saw were costume dramas.
Pan Qiliang was disappointed. It wasn't that he had anything against costume dramas — he enjoyed annual hit historical TV series like the Qin Empire — but all those shows about how women competed for the emperor's favor in his harem really weren't his cup of tea.
It had nothing to do with the historical time the series was set in; he just couldn't stand those women.
What was wrong with modern life? Why would someone want to transmigrate to the feudal time and compete with the official wife as a concubine until she became the wife herself? He just couldn't understand it!
Scrolling down the page, Pan Qiliang decided to look past the first few series that had high ratings but not to his liking. He wanted to see if he could find some good modern dramas with slightly lower ratings.
Well…
His right hand froze when he was still scrolling down. Pan Qiliang stared at Blazing Teens, whose rating had reached 8.6, and couldn't remember what he was doing a moment ago.
What had happened?
He saw the rating of this show yesterday and it had only risen from 4.1 to 4.5!
Even the positive media coverage and the popularity couldn't explain the sudden rise in the rating.
Pan Qiliang had heard about this show because of his son.
His son, Pan Da, was a fifth grade student of a public primary school in Zhonghai.
Starting a while back, his son became infatuated with this toy called "yo-yo", which he wouldn't part with. After asking his son, Pan Qiliang was told that it was the toy from Blazing Teens.
That was how he knew about the show.
At first, he thought about watching it, so that he could find out what was so amazing about this show that had smittened his son. However, he gave up on that idea when he learned that it was only rated 4.1 on Sprout.
What a rubbish show!
Most of the time, anything rated below 5 on Sprout could be considered rubbish.
The users had come to that conclusion after many viewers learned it the hard way.
Pan Qiliang had no plan of watching the show after seeing the 4.1 rating. Naturally, the sudden rise in the rate intrigued him.
Bewildered, he clicked open the comment section of Blazing Teens on Sprout.
He then saw that almost all the newest posts had given the show 10 points.
"Full marks for Li Fay! [10]!"
"It's Lee Fei, not Li Fay! You've spelled it wrong. [10]"
"It's Li Fei! Don't you guys read the subtitles? [10]"
"I love it! But the yo-yos are so expensive~ [10]"
"I'm the king of yo-yo of No. 1 Zhonghai Primary School. Challenge me, I dare you! [10]"
"Tch! Wang Jiaming, shut up already! You don't even know how to do 'fire and wind spin'! [10]"
What…
Pan Qiliang was baffled. Why did these comments sound so weird?
He was rendered speechless when he clicked open the information page of a user who had just given the show 10 points.
ID: *tears de youth √
Age: 108
Address: Mars
Signature: Yo-yo is more than a sport, it's a lifestyle!
I give up, thought Pan Qiliang.
He wasn't the only one who had figured out who these users were.
After the unexpected rise in Blazing Teens' ratings, more than one person had noticed the sudden increase in the rating users.
Only over a million people had rated the show at first, but in a matter of days, that number had increased to over 3 million.
As a result, the average rating rose to 8.6 almost overnight!
The users of Sprout realized in astonishment that a website that they deemed as "niche" and "professional" actually had a lot of adolescent users.
One of those accounts had been registered for over 5 years!
As astonished as they were, the "professional" users also felt as if their "shrine" had been violated.
This was supposed to be an objective and professional rating website. These kids had no place here.
Many took actions spontaneously, giving Blazing Teens 1 point, even if they had never watched the show.
And they had their own manifestations.
"Make Sprout clean again! [1]"
"We refuse to be infantilized! Primary school students aren't qualified to rate a show! [1]"
"Here's my 1 point. Go back to primary school. [1]"
"What a crappy show. I couldn't even make it to the second episode. [1]"
They even wondered why 1 was the lowest rating, but not 0.
They took it very hard.
Geschenke
-- Geschenk
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