Chapter 347: Japanese Comics in the Golden Age

Chapter 347: Japanese Comics in the Golden Age

Chapter 347: Japanese Comics in the Golden Age

The first day of the Lunar New Year in 2012 was supposed to be a day for rest and family reunion.

However, Wang Hao and the main creative crew of "Inception" are still busy working for the film's release performance.

However, this hard work was not in vain. When their flight arrived at Tokyo International Airport in Japan, they received the warmest welcome during their global promotional tour.

At the airport waiting area, there were at least hundreds of people gathered there, holding various signs and banners with the names of Wang Hao, Leonardo and others written on them. It was obvious that they were their fans.

When Wang Hao and his group appeared, these people immediately burst into warm cheers and gathered around.

If the airport had not cordoned off an area in advance, there would have been chaos at the scene.

Sony Pictures naturally arranged people to pick up the guests at the airport in advance, and there were also people maintaining order at the scene.

Faced with these fanatical movie fans and star chasers, Wang Hao and others did not dare to stay any longer.

It's not that they are putting on airs or being high-handed, but there are really too many people at the scene, and they are all very excited. If they are not careful, there is a high possibility of a stampede, which would be troublesome.

After getting on the vehicle specially arranged by Sony Pictures, the "Inception" crew went to the hotel that had been booked in advance. Next, Leo and his crew had a publicity mission.

As for Wang Hao, there is no need for him to show up for the roadshow promotions in Japan.

After all, how much box office potential does a small-scale film market like Japan have? The revenue has already been reaped during the time when previous films were released.

Wang Hao came to Japan in person this time, mainly to deepen the cooperation with Sony Pictures, and on the other hand, to make money here.

Yes, it’s about panning for gold!
In Wang Hao's opinion, if there are cultural treasures in this world, Japanese comics can definitely be considered one of them.

Especially from the 70s to the 90s, which can be said to be the "golden age" of Japanese comics.

For example, in 1984, the circulation of books and periodicals in Japan reached a staggering 50 billion copies.

You should know that the population of Japan in 1984 was only 1.2 million, which means that in 1984, the average Japanese person read more than 40 books and periodicals per year.

In such a prosperous Japanese publishing market, 10 billion books and periodicals are contributed by comics, which account for almost 4% of the total Japanese publishing volume.

It is no exaggeration to say that the amount of paper used for printing comics in Japan has exceeded that of toilet paper, which is enough to prove how popular Japanese comics were at that time.

In addition to the large number, Japanese comics in the 80s were extremely outstanding and amazing in terms of technique, style, content, character design, depth of thought, and vision.

This was mainly due to the Showa period in Japan in the 80s, when its economy reached its peak and its GDP accounted for 7% of that of the United States. As an island country, it completely entered the ranks of developed countries.

At that time, Japan was known as an "economic miracle". Its gross national product was second only to the United States, and it became the second largest economy in the capitalist world.

In 1985, Japan's GDP reached 1.3 trillion US dollars, while the US data was 3 trillion US dollars. The GDP of Britain, France and other countries combined was barely close to that of Japan.

At the same time, many Japanese companies have already occupied nearly half of the world's top 500 companies.

Companies such as Mitsubishi, Toyota, Panasonic, Hitachi, Sony, Honda, Nissan, and Toshiba are becoming increasingly well-known internationally.

The Japanese at that time were also optimistic, confident and full of hope for the future.

Against this backdrop of overall upbeat economic conditions and exceptionally abundant economy, batches of excellent works reflecting the face and spirit of the times naturally emerged.

Such as Galaxy Express 999, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell, Gundam series, Doraemon, Dragon Ball, Arale, City Hunter, Crayon Shin-chan, Saint Seiya, Sky Wars, Fist of the North Star, Touch, Slam Dunk and Hayao Miyazaki.

These works are filled with amazing imagination and a fearless romantic spirit, just like the poetry of the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, with a main theme as bright as the sun.

The sincere love, the passionate story, the persistent belief, and the golden music melody are all moving.

It was not until the Heisei era that the Japanese bubble burst and the economy entered a long period of stagnation and decline. The Japanese people's faith began to waver, and their anime works began to go downhill. Most of them gradually became filled with a sentimental, pessimistic and world-weary mood.

Since then, works such as Detective Conan, Naruto, Death Note, Steins;Gate, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, etc. have tended to be dark and depressing in style, and the pattern and focus of Japanese animation have begun to become increasingly narrow.

What Wang Hao is interested in are the comics produced during the golden age of Japan.

To be precise, it should be a science fiction anime work from the golden age of Japanese anime.

Speaking of science fiction comics in Japanese anime, this theme can almost be said to run through the entire golden age of Japanese anime.

Like Japanese comics, it also benefited from Japan's developed economic strength at the time, as well as the positive and hopeful social atmosphere.

Japanese anime of that period can be said to have pushed imagination to the extreme.

"Doraemon" released in 1973 is a childhood memory for many people. The chubby blue man can be said to be a symbol of dream-making. All kinds of strange gadgets he takes out of his pocket: the magic door, the time machine, the bamboo dragonfly, the memory bread, etc. are all the dreams of human science.

Then came the broadcast of Space Battleship Yamato in 1974.

This milestone science fiction anime, which symbolizes the Japanese people's worship of huge mechanical creations and giant weapons, allows the old Japanese Navy's super battleship "Yamato" to set sail again as a space battleship, single-handedly kill into the base camp of the interstellar invaders, and complete the grand mission of saving the earth.

The main gun of the Yamato completely struck the hearts of the Japanese audience in the "Showa Era" and achieved huge success.

After "Space Battleship Yamato", in 1979, another science fiction film "Mobile Suit Gundam 0079" reflecting the "independence war" between the space colony satellite and the earth's mainland was released on the screen.

This time, the gigantic anthropomorphic machine became a physical extension of the driver's will, and the robot named "Gundam" has since become an enduring industrial brand. To this day, it continues to launch new works that adapt to the new era.

The development of this type of giant robot anime reached its peak after the 90s, when "Neon Genesis Evangelion" was born as the Japanese economic bubble collapsed and society fell into an unprecedented depression.

The boys and girls in the film drive biological robots derived from humans and start a desperate battle with the "Apostles" who intend to destroy humanity. The film uses a lot of psychologically suggestive and impactful lens language, successfully synchronizing the complex inner world of the boys with the devastated external world, presenting the audience with a feast of cruel aesthetics.

It is hard to say that the movie "Pacific Rim" shot in Wang Hao's previous life in Hollywood was not inspired by "Neon Genesis Evangelion".

After all, it is humans who hold on to one place during a crisis, and it is humans who drive huge mechas to fight against monsters.

Of course, Japanese science fiction anime is more than just giant robots and space opera.

While looking up at the starry sky, Japanese cartoonists also focus their attention on humans and technology themselves.

There are many excellent works in this regard. Especially with the revolution in electronic technology, the interpretation of technologies such as artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction has become an emerging theme in Japanese animation.

Osamu Tezuka, the founder of Japanese animation, is most famous for his work "Astro Boy", which tells the story of an intelligent robot finding itself.

However, when it comes to the core ideas of these technical issues, the style of Japanese animation becomes increasingly grim.

One of the representative works is the classic anime "Ghost in the Shell", which was serialized in Kodansha's youth comic magazine "Weekly Young Magazine" in May 1989. It tells the story of the mechanized cyborg Motoko Kusanagi leading the "Public Security Section 5" to fight high-tech crimes.

The other is the manga classic "Battle Angel Alita", which was serialized in "Business Jump" in 1991 and describes a cyborg girl's search for self-identity in battle.

It can be said that these two comics have had a profound impact on similar themes in later generations. Their shadows can be seen in many science fiction film and television works with related themes. Even in the future, Hollywood will bring them to the big screen, which is enough to show the excellence of these two works.

And these are just the representative works of science fiction comics in the golden age of Japanese comics. Other works such as "Akira", "Cowboy Bebop", "Galaxy Express 999", "Royal Space Force" and so on fully demonstrate the imagination of the Japanese people of that era about technology, the future and humanities.

The main purpose of Wang Hao's visit to Japan this time is to see these science fiction works from the golden age of Japanese anime.

Of course, Wang Hao definitely cannot get hold of well-known comics like "Gundam" and "Doraemon".

Therefore, he mainly focuses on science fiction comics with good story content, which are more suitable for integration into the "Galaxy Cinematic Universe" and are not so famous yet.

"Mr. Miyamoto!"

"Wang Sang!"

After resting in the hotel for a day, Wang Hao finally met their vice president Keita Miyamoto at a cocktail party held by Sony Pictures on the afternoon of the next day.

This is not because Keita Miyamoto is putting on airs, but mainly because he had just finished his work at Sony Pictures in the United States and then flew back to Japan from Hollywood.

The two old acquaintances greeted each other warmly as soon as they met, and congratulated each other on the achievements of "Inception".

Keita Miyamoto is still very proud of the fact that he chose to cooperate with Wang Hao.

Even now, he often wakes up laughing in the middle of the night, secretly sighing that he had a keen eye and made the right decision against all odds.

Who could have thought that such a monstrous commercial director would emerge in China, a place that is not very favored by Hollywood.

He's not even 30 years old yet he's already the director of a billion dollar box office movie.

This result is extremely astonishing even in Hollywood, a country that considers itself the global cultural center and siphons film talents from all over the world.

You should know that Steven Spielberg was 29 years old when he made "Jaws", James Cameron was 30 years old when he wrote and directed the science fiction film "Terminator", and George Lucas was 33 years old when he directed "Star Wars".

Now that Wang Hao has made "Inception", his talent is no less than that of these three great directors when they were young.

The key is this "Inception", which also brought a lot of benefits to Sony.

According to their estimates, the box office alone will bring Sony Pictures around $200 million in revenue.

And later on there will be videotapes, peripheral products, etc., which Sony Pictures will also be able to review.

After all, Galaxy Group has not established a complete channel overseas. If they want to make money in this area, they still have to cooperate with Sony Pictures.

With this "Inception" and "Spider-Man 2" produced by Wang Hao and released in the second half of this year, Sony Pictures' financial report this year will be much better, and Keita Miyamoto has completely secured his position as the company's general manager in the United States.

And "Inception" is just a part of the [Galaxy Cinematic Universe]. With the popularity of this movie, the future cooperation between Sony Pictures and Galaxy Group will definitely have a bright future.

Keita Miyamoto has even received news that several other major Hollywood film and television companies are said to have finally taken this science fiction movie universe project from China seriously and have begun to frequently mention the names of Wang Hao and the "Galaxy Cinematic Universe" in internal meetings.

In fact, in the beginning, those Hollywood film and television companies were somewhat dismissive of the "Galaxy Cinematic Universe" project. After all, white ghosts themselves are arrogant.

They even think that the "Galaxy Cinematic Universe" is just copying the "Marvel Cinematic Universe". Even though Wang Hao's first work was filmed earlier than Marvel's Iron Man, they are unwilling to admit that the movie universe is Wang Hao's original creation.

Moreover, in their view, Marvel has a vast amount of comics as its basic support, Hollywood's talents and film industrialization system to protect it, and big companies like Disney to back it up. Only then does the [Marvel Cinematic Universe] have the foundation for success.

Something like the Galaxy Cinematic Universe, without the original novels or comics as a basis, is completely a castle in the air.

In addition, the main creative team is all Chinese, so the prospects of this project are very worrying.

Even if Disney and Marvel pay more attention to the "Galaxy Cinematic Universe", it is only because Wang Hao's title as the father of the Cinematic Universe and Sony's currently developing "Spider-Man Cinematic Universe" make them feel uncomfortable.

They promoted Wang Hao in front of Sony Pictures, which was essentially a means of commercial competition with the intention of sowing discord.

It's like a domineering president wants to hook up with a married subordinate, so he tells the married woman that she deserves a better life, deliberately raising her value, causing her self-confidence to explode, and she goes home to have conflicts with her husband and argues about divorce.

Do you really think that a divorced and wealthy CEO will marry you? At most, he will just keep her as his mistress.

(End of this chapter)