"Waaah..."
As Toshio Suzuki passed by Ghibli's back garden, he was given a start by Hayao Miyazaki.
Taking a closer look, he realized it was just Miyazaki, who was sobbing softly after finishing the new script for CL.
"What's wrong this time?" Suzuki asked.
"I'm suddenly starting to regret taking on this job."
Miyazaki took out a handkerchief, silently wiped the corners of his eyes, and then held up the script in his hand.
Suzuki glanced at it and saw "CLANNAD" written in big letters on the cover.
"Oh, this is the new work that President Aoki Haruhi entrusted to you."
"Yeah," Miyazaki nodded.
Even now, he still didn't quite understand how he had ended up on this sinking ship. He had originally agreed only to draw a couple of original artworks for Pokeni's LL game, and never expected to end up as the animation director for both CL and LL.
The problem was, he was actually a little bit happy about it.
"I still underestimated the scriptwriter at Pokeni. And I underestimated this guy, Aoki Haruhi," Miyazaki said, sounding indignant.
He had finally experienced the true charm of Kogahara Tsubakiaki.
"Blanket Man" killed off half the characters, yet players still had to be grateful. Now that Kogahara Tsubakiaki is the producer, he's simply leaving no way for anyone to survive.
Fortunately, seeing the 13 Orbs of Light collected at the end was somewhat comforting; otherwise, Miyazaki could have killed the bastard Aoki Haruhi on the spot.
After calming down, the old man Miyazaki thought for a long time and decided to stick to the script's setting.
"Doesn't this just go to show that the scripts for these two games are well-written?" Toshio Suzuki said, holding back a laugh as he quietly comforted him.
Miyazaki looked up and rolled his eyes.
Suzuki-san, you and Aoki Haruhi are two of a kind, aren't you?
Come to think of it, Toshio Suzuki is indeed a bit cunning, though in a complimentary sense; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to work with Miyazaki for so many years and still maintain a good relationship.
In his previous life, Toshio Suzuki had even tricked Miyazaki's eldest son, Goro Miyazaki, into joining Ghibli.
Originally, Goro Miyazaki had no intention of entering the animation industry, preferring to just settle down as a landscape architect. However, Toshio Suzuki entrusted the construction of the Ghibli Museum to Goro Miyazaki, and hoped he would serve as its director.
Since it didn't involve animation production, but rather just designing and building the museum, he felt he could manage that. At the time, Goro was too young and hadn't realized that Toshio Suzuki was an old fox, so he agreed.
Unexpectedly, after some time had passed, Toshio Suzuki asked Goro Miyazaki to direct a new animated film, citing a lack of new projects at Ghibli.
He also told him that if he succeeded, it would set a great example for the young people at Ghibli, encouraging newcomers to take on and attempt animation production.
Consequently, Goro Miyazaki accepted the role of director under these circumstances and produced Tales from Earthsea.
He had originally thought that after finishing this animation, he could return to his position as the museum's director, but he then discovered that a new appointment had already been made for that position during his time as an animation director.
In other words, there was no going back; he could only continue down the path of directing.
Later, Goro Miyazaki recalled that he always felt he had been "tricked" into this step by step by Toshio Suzuki.
In short, although Toshio Suzuki was the president of Ghibli, he always did the work of a caretaker, yet it often yielded many unexpected results—all thanks to his wisdom.
Hayao Miyazaki felt a similar craftiness in Aoki Haruhi as he did in Toshio Suzuki.
It can only be said that this young president had an incredibly strong ability to learn and had grown so rapidly.
***
After Hayao Miyazaki was appointed as the animation director, it saved Aoki Haruhi a great deal of effort and time.
For a master like Miyazaki, he holds extremely high standards for the work itself. You don't need to worry about him at all; he drives and pushes himself to do things to 100% capacity.
Even if the final result isn't perfect, at the very least, throughout the process, Miyazaki demands perfection from himself, and he demands the same from the entire art team.
However, while Aoki Haruhi was relaxed, Pokeni's art team was wailing in despair.
In reality, the art team wasn't large; they had a total of four artists assigned for CL and LL.
Because Miyazaki was there, Sakata Taiji, the art director, didn't get involved in the project at all, leaving the art team entirely to Miyazaki.
This was when everyone finally understood what it meant to call someone an "animation tyrant."
"Shida! Do you even know how to draw robots? If you don't, please leave!"
"Horimura, your characters have no soul! Can you take a look at my original drawings?"
"Koyama, if you can't draw the background, don't draw it at all. You might as well just leave with Shida!"
***
Every time he got worked up during work, Miyazaki couldn't help but scold the juniors. It was usually at these moments that Toshio Suzuki would push the door open and drag Miyazaki out for a heart-to-heart talk.
"Miyazaki-san, could you please tone it down a little? This is Pokeni, not Ghibli," Suzuki said. "Actually, even if it were Ghibli, shouldn't you be less hot-tempered when dealing with newcomers, with these kids?"
"Hmm..." Miyazaki Hamster clasped his hands in front of his chest, obedient as a child, and honestly admitted his mistake. "Sorry. It's just that whenever I see substandard work, I get this urge to yell."
"Give yourself and others some space and time. Just think about it—when you were at Mushi Production back in the day, didn't you have similar experiences?"
Miyazaki was slightly taken aback. Why did this guy always have to bring up his dark history?
The path Miyazaki had taken wasn't easy. He didn't start to truly make a name for himself until he was 38, and for a long time, he was quite insecure, believing he had no talent for drawing and could never surpass Osamu Tezuka.
Fortunately, through his constant efforts and the support and encouragement of his own great seniors, Miyazaki was able to forge his own path.
Everyone, even a genius, isn't made overnight.
"Yeah, I know," Miyazaki said.
Suzuki just felt incredibly exhausted; this guy Miyazaki really was too much trouble.
***
The artists on the CL and LL teams were almost reduced to tears from being scolded, and many of them complained to Aoki Haruhi.
"For the first time, I feel like I'm really not cut out to be an artist. I've been drawing for nearly ten years and have worked in the game industry for over two years, but right now, I feel like a complete novice." Shida said with a mournful expression, "President, please transfer me to another project. I want to start over from the beginning."
"I've forgotten how to draw." Horimura was in a complete daze, as if someone had sucked the soul right out of him.
He looked down at his hands, which could not stop trembling.
"What does drawing even mean to me? No talent, no soul—I'm a complete mistake on this path. How on earth did I even end up on this path?"
"I feel like I'm worthless. For this whole time, I haven't understood what I'm doing at all. Is there anything I'm actually good at? Things I thought I could do before, I suddenly can't do anymore. Miyazaki-senpai is right; I'm worthless. I should just leave here." Koyama was in an extremely depressed state, his head lolling to the side, looking just like a zombie.
Utterly bereft of hope.
That was the first phrase that came to Aoki Haruhi's mind.
He looked at these guys and felt exhausted himself. After this experience, he figured he would never hire Hayao Miyazaki again in the future.
No wonder Hideaki Anno fell out with Hayao Miyazaki and didn't speak to him for many years. No wonder Goro Miyazaki engaged in a cold war with Hayao Miyazaki, not speaking to him for quite a long time. With that foul temper of his, who could possibly work with him for long?
Thinking about it carefully, Aoki Haruhi felt deeply for how difficult it must have been for Toshio Suzuki.
However, as president, and since he was the one who had invited Hayao Miyazaki, Aoki felt obligated to provide some motivation for these guys.
"You have to look at it this way: Hayao Miyazaki's standards are sky-high," Aoki said. "Back when Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind was being made, didn't Hideaki Anno get scolded by Miyazaki just the same? He yelled, 'Do you know how to draw a Giant God Warrior? If you don't know how, get out!' You guys are actually doing pretty well."
"Huh?" Everyone looked up, staring at the president with dead, lifeless eyes.
President, if you don't know how to comfort people, you don't have to.
"But, looking at the results, Nausicaä was quite excellent, wasn't it? The Giant God Warrior's entrance had such a powerful impact," Aoki added.
At the same time, Aoki couldn't help but think—maybe it was because he drew so many Giant God Warriors that that twisted guy, Hideaki Anno, later went on to make something like EVA?
"But... I'm afraid that if this keeps up, my mental defenses will have collapsed long before I ever see that 'beautiful result'," Koyama said.
"Don't be afraid, I'll go have a good chat with Miyazaki-senpai," Aoki Haruhi said.
"Really?" A glimmer of hope suddenly appeared in everyone's eyes.
"Just consider this a very valuable experience in your lives," Aoki Haruhi smiled. "All the hardships in life help you grow. As long as you can overcome them, when you look back on them years later, they'll just be fodder for casual conversation.
I don't think it's a big deal.
Just think about it, how many artists in this world have ever been personally mentored—and even scolded—by Hayao Miyazaki?
If you can withstand his tests, I believe you will all make significant progress after this period of tempering."
Of course, if they couldn't hold on...
That would be another story.
Aoki Haruhi lowered his head in thought for two seconds, deciding it would be safer to have a backup plan and prepare for the worst. If anyone's state of mind seemed to be on the verge of collapse, he would quickly reassign them to other projects.
However, just as he said, Aoki Haruhi was actually looking forward to their growth.
Those who could stand out from this "hell mode" and even earn Hayao Miyazaki's approval would likely become the lead artists for future projects.
***
While CL and LL were in production, Pokeni's other projects also began to bear fruit, one after another, right on schedule.
In January 1994, the English version of The Witcher hit the West and immediately caused a sensation.
With its captivating Japanese-style Western fantasy aesthetic, the game deeply attracted players from both the East and the West. It could be considered a work that, following Final Fantasy, successfully pushed JRPGs to new heights.
To be precise, The Witcher is a sub-genre of JRPG; in reality, it should be called a JARPG—a Japanese Action RPG.
Setting aside its story, the combat system of The Witcher, with its exceptionally fluid action and the thrill of its combo system, conquered Western players. Countless people remarked on how incredibly cool the game felt to play.
"It's so cool! This is the best action RPG I've played since Diablo. The designs of the several characters are also quite unique and incredibly charming, and the combos are super cool—once you start slashing, you just can't stop."
"Wow, the vampires are designed beyond imagination. And I really like the character Mia; she's exactly the kind of girl I've always imagined—not only does she have a tough personality, but she's also very wise. Plus, her movements are super beautiful; she's flexible to use and can even transform. She's just so cool!"
***
After its release in January, "The Witcher" was instantly inundated with rave reviews, and sales soared, climbing higher and higher. In just one month, it sold over a million copies.
At this rate, it might even break the two-million mark.
Seeing these numbers, Sega was shocked. Although they were mentally prepared for the game to be a big hit, they never expected it to be this popular.
After all, "The Witcher" was somewhat controversial in terms of its script.
However, after a careful analysis, they discovered that Westerners seemed to really enjoy this style. Not only did it feature flashy action that sent adrenaline levels soaring, but the gore and destruction effects were particularly well-received by them.
Furthermore, the game's multiple endings also fascinated Western players; some even made dedicated strategy guides, and fans of games and novels wrote fan fiction for it.
This was mainly because there was a lot of content to explore in "The Witcher's" world-building and background settings, which gave fan fiction room to flourish.
Once Westernized, those derived stories about humans and the Blood Tribe held an extraordinary charm.
***
"The Witcher" fired the first shot after the 1994 New Year, closely followed by Pokémon. Now, not only is the Pokémon anime airing in Japan, but it has also been introduced to the West.
The corresponding games are also selling extremely well, quickly breaking the million-unit mark.
Pokémon is an annual franchise; according to Pokeni's plan, a new installment is released every year. With the corresponding anime also airing, its popularity remains constant, and gradually, the Pokémon IP has even shown signs of becoming a top-tier brand.
This is something that countless industry insiders did not expect.
***
In short, 1994 was a breakout year for Pokeni, achieving enormous success during the Spring Festival alone.
The Witcher and Pokémon had gotten off to a flying start, and people were increasingly looking forward to Pokeni's upcoming game releases.
Especially CL and LL, which Master Hayao Miyazaki is participating in.
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