So in the end, Su Yan still took on the role of the male lead, Nagao Kanji. As for the cheerful, independent-minded Akana Rika—her character bore a certain resemblance to Kaori Miyazono from 'Your Lie in April', so naturally, Shen Liqian was a perfect fit to play her.
And although 'Tokyo Love Story' had always faced criticism over its character portrayals, the equally screen-heavy Sekiguchi Satomi would be played by Gu Qingyuan.
Gu Qingyuan was already well-suited to portray the quieter and gentler types. Her acting skills were beyond question.
It's just... the role itself wasn't particularly likable.
Once the three leads were locked in, the most crucial casting decision left was Mikami Kenichi.
There were really only two requirements for this character: he had to be good-looking—at the very least, not be outshone by Su Yan—and he needed to have a mature, charming "bad boy" kind of look. Absolutely no boy-band pretty boys. That would completely ruin the character.
Tomorrow, around seven or eight second-tier male stars from Xia Nation who fit that type would come to the Dimensional Pictures production company for auditions.
As for why no top-tier stars were auditioning—it wasn't because Su Yan couldn't afford them. It was because top-tier actors rarely took supporting roles. It was beneath them. No one would agree.
Same logic applied to 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica'.
Su Yan was definitely going to do a cameo for Buzz.
The few male characters in 'Madoka' included Kyousuke Kamijou, the childhood friend whom Sayaka liked.
Although that character had a pretty bad reputation, Su Yan didn't really care.
Similarly, in the 'Five-Color Magical Girl Sentai', the role most suitable for Gu Qingyuan was Homura Akemi—long black hair, cold, composed, and cool.
While in the original, Homura was a rather flat-chested girl, Gu Qingyuan was actually... well-endowed.
But since Xia Nation didn't have access to the original 'Madoka' anime, Su Yan figured a few minor details like this wouldn't really matter.
As for the main character, Madoka Kaname—
After the airing of 'Life is Strange', there were already quite a number of CP fans for Shen Liqian and Gu Qingyuan.
So in 'Madoka', Su Yan figured he'd give those fans something to work with again.
Although Madoka was a naïve, sweet, almost saint-like character—one that Shen Liqian had never played before—after several in-depth discussions with Su Yan, she confidently said she could handle it. She even auditioned several times. With her acting ability, her performance turned out to be quite compelling.
In Su Yan's past life, in the 'Madoka' fandom, Madoka and Homura were often jokingly referred to by fans as "wifey" and "hubby."
What gave Su Yan the biggest headache were the roles of Mami Tomoe, Kyoko Sakura, and Sayaka Miki.
First of all, all three had to be strong actresses. As for visuals, they could be a notch below Shen Liqian and Gu Qingyuan, but still had to be in the same league.
Otherwise, when the full magical girl team appeared on screen, the imbalance would be glaring.
Overall, Su Yan's current casting strategy factored in fame, star power, and how well the actress's image matched the role.
Noticing Su Yan's troubled expression, Shinozaki Ikumi chuckled and said:
"Don't worry. With your current status and reputation in the Xia Nation, you can get pretty much any actor you want. The only difference is how much time you're willing to spend on auditions."
"I know. I understand that. But even so, I still worry we might not find the right fit during auditions," Su Yan replied with a light laugh.
After all, these were adaptations of anime.
As someone who had been a hardcore anime fan in his past life, Su Yan naturally held adaptations to high standards. He was afraid that none of the auditioning actors would meet his vision.
But stressing about that now wasn't helpful. Su Yan quickly pushed those distracting thoughts out of his mind.
"By the way, I'm still in talks with Zhongxia TV about the broadcast slot for 'Madoka'. They're not quite sure what a magical girl drama even is, but when they found out we were willing to produce it on an S-tier level, the interest jumped significantly. I don't think finalizing the deal will take much longer."
"As for 'Tokyo Love Story', I've already spoken with the head of production over there. If things go smoothly, we'll air it in October—same prime time slot as 'Cyberpunk: Edgerunners', Sunday nights at 8." Shinozaki Ikumi looked over at Su Yan.
"October, huh?" Su Yan thought for a moment.
It was currently July. Three months was more than enough for a show like 'Tokyo Love Story'.
"Then we need to speed things up. We can't afford to linger in Hudu too long," Su Yan said.
Sure, three months was enough time—but that's only if you kept everything on schedule.
The more time you leave yourself, the more you can polish each part and get everything perfect.
Su Yan took 'Tokyo Love Story' very seriously. Now that the leads were confirmed, he didn't want to waste too much time on casting supporting roles.
"I know. So the next few days, you're going to have to put in the work too. I estimate—" Shinozaki Ikumi paused, then said, "—for both shows, we'll need to audition more than 200 people."
"That's no small task!"
The next day, Su Yan, Shinozaki Ikumi, and Shen Liqian—the core creative trio—formally kicked off auditions for both 'Madoka' and 'Tokyo Love Story'.
Filming would take place on location in Tokyo.
'Madoka' was an S-tier production. While 'Tokyo Love Story' wasn't quite on that level, its 60 million yuan budget pushed it above a typical A-tier series. It could be considered a quasi-S-tier drama.
Even though Su Yan, along with his two main collaborators, Gu Qingyuan and Shen Liqian, had already locked in the lead roles...
With Su Yan's current reputation, even the supporting roles in two such high-investment dramas had better chances of launching an actor's career than the lead roles in most A-tier shows.
Because of this, aspiring actors—both unknowns and established second- and third-tier stars—flocked to audition. People in the industry pulled strings, made connections, and sent their headshots and resumes through every channel available: assistant producers, associate directors, anyone connected to Su Yan's production team.
Once auditions officially started—
News of Su Yan working on two new shows spread like wildfire across Xia Nation's drama industry and online forums. It was impossible to keep it under wraps.
Fans who had been following the upcoming release of 'The Garden of Words' had no idea Su Yan was also casting for two new series during this critical period.
And not just casting—he was planning big-budget on-location shoots in Tokyo?
Fans were stunned.
["Where does Su Yan get all this energy from?! TWO new shows?!"]
["Rumor has it the two projects are called 'Tokyo Love Story' and 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica'. The first is a quasi-S-tier romance drama with a 60 million budget, the second is an 80 million S-tier fantasy show."]
["Welp, now all the shows airing this summer seem boring in comparison. Time needs to move faster so Su Yan's shows can air already."]
["This is insane. Other big-name screenwriters take two years to release one show. Su Yan wrote two in a month?!"]
["What's fueling this man's creative drive?!"]
["Obviously, money. 'Cyberpunk: Edgerunners' is projected to bring over 200 million yuan in revenue for his company. If you were him, you'd probably want to crank out 10 scripts a day too."]
["But still—these titles? 'Tokyo Love Story' and 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica'? What even...?"]
["Why Tokyo? Isn't Hudu good enough?"]
["Let Su Yan cook, alright? Tokyo is still one of the top five cities in the Xia Nation. It's not worse than Hudu—just behind the Imperial Capital."]
["'Madoka'? Sounds like a kiddie magical girl show. Is this going to be like those costumed hero shows that air on Sakura TV at 6 PM?"]
["No way. It's already confirmed that 'Tokyo Love Story' will star Su Yan, Gu Qingyuan, and Shen Liqian in a love triangle. And 'Madoka' will feature Shen Liqian and Gu Qingyuan again—probably as a CP, like in 'Life is Strange'."]
["?"]
["??"]
["Su Yan, Shen Liqian, and Gu Qingyuan in a love triangle? I'm in. 100%."]
["Another CP drama for Shen Liqian and Gu Qingyuan? LET'S GO!"]
["Can time please move faster? I NEED to see 'Tokyo Love Story' and 'Madoka' NOW!"]
["Weird titles, but I'm absolutely watching both."]
["Only you could pull this off, Su Yan! Our drama drought savior! The one true god of Xia Nation television!"]
Su Yan didn't bother stopping the rumors—after all, it was free publicity.
While fans were thrilled, over at Sakura TV, the reaction was very different. When Akasaka Yoshitoki heard the news, it hit a very different nerve.
He had already sworn to the higher-ups that he would do whatever it took to crush Su Yan—the so-called traitor of Sakura TV.
The catastrophic failure of 'The Black Gate' and the mockery from the press had brought disgrace to the network.
And now Su Yan had two new shows?
"'Tokyo Love Story'? 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica'?" Akasaka Yoshitoki took a deep breath, a cold glint in his eyes.
The arrow had already been drawn—the bowstring pulled tight. Whether he liked it or not, there was no turning back.
While air dates hadn't been finalized, Akasaka had a rough sense of their scale: one quasi-S, one full S-tier.
Time to go all in.
He had to destroy these two shows and bring Su Yan down—completely. If Su Yan didn't fall, then Akasaka himself would.
While all this tension boiled in the drama industry, the movie world remained relatively unaffected.
Time marched on.
Overall, Su Yan was quite satisfied with the casting results.
Even if it wasn't perfect, most of the major roles in both series had gone to actors who were spot-on in terms of looks and temperament.
Su Yan finally let out a sigh of relief.
Meanwhile, in early July, the nearly 200-million-yuan film 'Gun Grave' was released.
First-day box office: 82 million.
Second day: 87 million.
Third day: 91 million.
Total for the first three days: over 200 million. A solid performance.
Unlike his past life, the film market in Xia Nation wasn't as inflated. Their currency had higher purchasing power, and the economy experienced little inflation. Movie ticket prices were lower—none of those 70-to-100 yuan tickets that were common in Su Yan's previous world.
Most tickets were only 20 to 30 yuan. So while Xia Nation's total box office might look smaller, the number of actual viewers was just as high.
Top-grossing films typically saw over 100 million viewers.
What also set Xia Nation's market apart was the audience itself—extremely rational.
If a film had great word of mouth, it would do well long-term. Many films with average opening numbers made big comebacks mid-to-late release.
By contrast, pure "fan service" films rarely had staying power. They might perform well for a day or two, then collapse.
Xia Nation fans did chase stars—but they cared about talent, not just looks.
So for a movie like 'Gun Grave', while the opening numbers were solid, its 7.3 rating from critics and audiences caused its Monday box office to plummet to just 20 million.
Sure, Monday was a workday—but that drop was steep.
Later in mid-July, another high-budget film was released. It made 170 million in its first three days, but with a stellar 8.6 rating, it still pulled in over 50 million on Monday.
Meanwhile, smaller films with modest budgets started trickling into theaters. Xia Nation's summer movie season had officially begun.
Promotions for 'The Garden of Words' also ramped up.
After doing the press tour and roadshows with the film's distributors, Su Yan flew to Tokyo in late July.
Along with him were many Dimensional Pictures staff members and the newly signed actors for the two shows.
Since the shoot schedule had already been set, and Su Yan had already promoted the film in Hudu, the Imperial Capital, and other coastal economic zones...
Tokyo—another economically vibrant region in the Xia Nation—was his final stop.
Su Yan's trip this time was both for filming and for promoting 'The Garden of Words'.