Death Note: Part Two ends its run with 6.7 billion at the box office, more than double the current domestic champion, The Mermaid.
What a shame! A film made by one of our own directors, yet officially counted as a Hollywood production.
Veteran superstar openly says he hopes to work with Alex again someday.
According to American media, after last night's celebration party, Alex and Johnson were spotted…
Fans across every major platform are shouting the same thing: Alex is king! He should immediately shoot a true homegrown film!
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...
With Alex's return and the end of Death Note: Part Two's theatrical run, the media finally snapped back into motion.
Generally speaking, when it came to celebrities, the stories that drew the most attention were still romantic scandals. There was no helping it. People loved that kind of thing. If a superstar singer announced the release date of a new album on the same day he was photographed on a date with a famous ex-girlfriend, everyone knew which story would dominate the headlines.
And yet, strangely enough, the matter between Alex and Scarlett barely drew any serious coverage.
That was what made it so bizarre.
In response, Alex's fans and the wider internet gave a very simple answer, one filled with helpless resignation.
"They're used to it."
After all, before this, he had already been tangled in rumors with Megan, Taylor Swift, and other Hollywood actresses in relationships so ambiguous that nobody could tell where friendship ended and flirting began. Now another Johnson had appeared? The public had long since gone numb.
At this point, even if Alex were photographed tomorrow dating the daughter of some former president, most people probably would not find it especially shocking.
The media noticed this as well, and gradually lost interest in digging deeper. Unless one day Alex ended up like the protagonist of some bloody romantic tragedy, stabbed by an ex-girlfriend driven mad by jealousy, the story simply did not have enough impact anymore.
So attention naturally returned to the films.
This left many other entertainers in the industry unsure whether to laugh or cry.
So this was the advantage of being openly, shamelessly promiscuous?
Quite a few young idols who were strictly forbidden from dating began to develop dangerous little thoughts of their own. Should they also create a "bad man" persona? If they did it properly, would they one day be able to live as freely as Alex, chasing women without fear or restraint?
Because, as irritating as it was to admit, that bastard really was living the life many men secretly dreamed of.
Unfortunately, those young idols clearly did not have enough intelligence to understand the key point. They only saw the surface.
The public's tolerance for a womanizer depended almost entirely on the womanizer's actual ability.
It was like the difference between a legendary conqueror being fond of married women and a despised traitor doing the same thing. In the first case, people called it romantic arrogance, a heroic flaw, even a symbol of masculine charm. In the second, it was proof of moral rot, the kind of thing that made people want to drag him through the streets.
The difference lay in what each person had contributed.
When your strengths were powerful enough to cover your flaws, the public's tolerance for those flaws could rise to a height even you yourself could not imagine.
Because Alex was talented enough, people felt that his fondness for women was only natural. Some even had the strange thought, "If I were him, I'd probably be with even more women."
But if another pretty-faced idol with no real work, no real weight, and no real achievements dared to behave like that…
Forget losing fans. The people who already disliked him would immediately tear through his entire family tree for eight generations.
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...
At the moment, what the internet regretted most was still the fact that Death Note could not be counted as a "domestic film."
There was nothing anyone could do about it. The investment, distribution, production background, and official language were all tied to the English-speaking market. On top of that, it had never officially screened in the mainland market. How could it possibly be classified as domestic?
Even if its box office had surpassed the current domestic champion, The Mermaid, by more than double, it still did not count.
But that was precisely what made people so unwilling to accept it.
After all, the screenwriter, director, and lead actor, the three core souls of the project, were all from their own country. And yet, once the film was completed, it could not be called one of theirs.
It was painful.
For a while, social media once again filled with passionate calls for Alex to shoot a true domestic film.
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...
Unfortunately, at least for now, that wish was not going to come true.
Because…
One Punch Man had arrived.
The moment the news broke, the heat it generated at home instantly overtook even the afterglow of Death Note.
After all, this was the major project meant to succeed Bleach.
Alex had already proven himself in film. Even after reaching a box office achievement in the tens of billions, even after creating a miracle, one movie alone was still not enough to completely establish his supreme position across the entire entertainment industry.
Television was his true battlefield.
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...
"Is he here yet?"
On the filming set, Emily took out the small makeup mirror she carried with her and carefully examined her face, making sure there was not a single flaw in her makeup. She wanted to make her entrance in the most perfect state possible, radiant enough to silence everyone the moment she appeared.
"Not yet. But Violet Grant is here."
Her agent looked out the window. Outside, an absurdly adorable little girl was wandering around the set, glancing everywhere as if searching for someone.
Emily saw it too, and silently clenched her teeth.
Counting carefully, this was already the second time she had been forced to serve as a backdrop for a younger girl. The last one had at least been born after 2000. This time was even more excessive. Alex had gone straight for someone born after 2010.
Emily genuinely felt that Alex was becoming more and more abnormal.
At this rate, in another two years, was he going to cast someone born after 2020?
"Let's go. Get out."
Emily said sharply.
"Huh?"
Her agent froze.
After all, Emily's original plan had been to wait inside the car until Alex arrived, then have him come over personally to look for her. That would have suited her status perfectly.
But Emily felt her assistant was still too inexperienced.
If Emily had been the only woman there, that trick would have worked. But now that Violet Grant had arrived first, looking sweet, dependent, and obedient, Emily staying in the car and waiting for Alex to come invite her out would create an immediate contrast.
Alex might think she was not as sensible as that little girl.
And that was something Emily absolutely could not tolerate.
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...
So, an actress born in the eighties and a child born after 2010 stood together on the set, waiting.
The image was strange in an almost surreal way.
Still, both of them were beautiful enough that anyone who did not know better might have mistaken them for mother and daughter.
"Auntie Emily, when is Brother Alex getting here?"
Violet suddenly asked.
Auntie?
The moment Emily heard that form of address, she almost coughed up blood.
You call Alex, who is older than me, "Brother," but you call me "Auntie"? What exactly is that supposed to mean?
To be honest, if the girl in front of her had been born in the nineties, or even if she had been one of those post-2000 actresses already in high school, Emily would have immediately begun displaying every verbal combat technique she had learned from years of chaotic film sets.
But looking at this little girl who was not even five feet tall…
Emily felt that if she dared to do anything, whether she won or lost, she would be the one who suffered in the end.
Damn it.
She, Emily, who had torn through half the entertainment industry without meeting a real opponent, had actually been defeated by a little brat who still smelled faintly of milk.
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Click! Click! Click!
The rapid sound of camera shutters exploded one after another.
In an instant, everyone knew.
The main character had arrived.
But when the person inside the car stepped out, that shining bald head, so smooth it seemed to reflect the camera flashes back at the reporters, left everyone on set completely stunned.
Emily and Violet, who had been waiting for more than half an hour, were also dumbfounded.
Good lord.
What kind of trauma had Alex suffered?
The reporters outside the set froze for nearly half a minute before slamming their shutters even more frantically.
Holy crap.
Alex had shaved his head.
This was absolutely headline material.
"What are you doing?"
Alex slapped Emily's hand away the moment she reached toward his scalp.
"I just wanted to touch it. It looks so smooth."
Emily's face was full of anticipation.
"Get lost."
Alex replied irritably.
He did not have the kind of idol burden that made certain actors film action scenes while keeping bangs thicker than a steel helmet. But shaving everything off in one go was still… difficult to get used to.
"Brother Alex, I want to ride a horse."
Little Violet opened her arms, asking to be picked up.
"Oh…"
Alex did not think too much about it. He simply lifted the little girl and placed her on his shoulders.
In the very next second, however, he regretted it.
Because almost immediately, he felt a small hand roaming back and forth across his freshly shaved head.
Emily could not help laughing. Then, with complete confidence, she reached her hand over as well.
What?
The little girl could touch it, but she could not?
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"Director Alex, may I ask whether the reason you shaved… uh, changed your image, is related to the new series?"
The press conference officially began, and the very first question made Alex's expression darken.
What the hell do you think?
If it were not for the series, do you think I would be sick enough in the head to shave myself bald for no reason?
Alex could not even be bothered to answer such a stupid question. He simply told the next reporter to speak.
He was not worried in the slightest that these people would accuse him of acting like an arrogant superstar.
The previous reporter sat down awkwardly. Just as Alex had expected, the man truly did not dare write nonsense about him.
Did he think two negative lines about Alex would actually hurt him? Did he think that would affect Alex's new series?
On the contrary.
Alex could simply ban that reporter's entire outlet from all future press events. And when the reporter's boss found out what had happened, would he really stand with an ordinary employee against Alex? Or would he fire the man immediately, then go apologize to Alex?
That was the almost surreal reality of the world.
When your strength was great enough, you no longer needed to obey the rules.
The rules served you instead.
Just like that famous line from Sosuke Aizen.
Rules exist only for those who cannot survive without following them.
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Although Saitama possessed a unique kind of presence among hot-blooded battle protagonists of the internet era, One Punch Man was never merely a one-man show.
If anything, the story used Saitama's perspective to tell the stories of the supporting cast.
That was where ONE's brilliance truly lay. Even when the narrative focus shifted onto others, Saitama still remained, from beginning to end, the absolute ceiling of the entire work.
In Alex's view, for a story to maintain such quality while placing its protagonist at the very top of the power scale was extremely rare. In that regard, One Punch Man stood in a class of its own.
Because once the protagonist becomes the ceiling of combat power, the story usually starts approaching its end.
After all, there are no opponents left.
And for a battle series, having no opponents is terrifying.
Take Naruto, for example. Once the two former underdogs became invincible within the ninja world, having them fight each other and ending the story immediately afterward was undoubtedly the cleanest possible choice.
As for Boruto, that pile of garbage could be ignored for the time being.
Dragon Ball, on the other hand, handled the problem in an even more direct and brutal way. If you were invincible on Earth, then enemies would simply come from space.
Every time Goku became the strongest on the planet, the story introduced the Saiyans, a warrior race from beyond the stars. Once he defeated the Saiyan prince, along came Frieza, the emperor of the universe. After Frieza was defeated, Cell appeared, absorbing Frieza's cells while also combining elements from nearly every major boss before him.
That kind of escalation tested an author's skill to the extreme. Fortunately, the old master had enough ability to hold it together.
The opposite example was One Piece.
Once the Nika fruit awakened, Luffy directly crushed Kaido. Later, when he met Lucci again, someone he had already defeated two years earlier back when he did not even possess haki, the audience naturally assumed that second gear or, at most, third gear would be enough to smash him apart.
But no.
He went straight into fifth gear, full Nika mode, and still failed to finish the guy off.
Holy hell.
The power scaling had collapsed so badly that even its own mother would not recognize it anymore.
So what, were all eighteen times Kaido got captured by the Navy actually because Lucci caught him?
But One Punch Man pulled it off.
Its protagonist was invincible from the very first chapter, and to this day, the work still had not collapsed.
To the point that whenever Saitama made a move, readers were never worried about him.
They were worried about the boss.
Otherwise, where do you think that meme came from?
"Hang in there, big brother flying the spaceship!"
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