A few days later.
He Dajun suddenly received an official notice from Tribe Comics: "Due to limited funds, the company has temporarily decided to cut down a portion of the animation production cost for 'Basketball Heart', from the original investment reduced by half..."
"Why!"
He Dajun was furious and eager to confront Ling Kong in person, because Ling Kong had previously promised him to use the highest standard in the industry to create the animation of 'Basketball Heart'. Now they're suddenly cutting the budget in half?
That has a massive impact!
The most direct effect is that the quality of 'Basketball Heart' will be far inferior to the first few episodes. Many fans must have had a similar feeling, where the characters in the animation suddenly deteriorated in the middle of the series - it's all due to budget.
Even if poorly received animations generally don't end up being cut short, the lacklustre production in the later stages is inevitable.
One thing is apparent:
The higher the investment, the better the quality of the animation. 'Basketball Heart' couldn't even compare to Shadow's work, let alone if the budget cuts resulted in lower visual quality than the first few episodes. There would be no way to compete with their rivals!
...
Ling Kong ignored He Dajun.
He Dajun had lost his usefulness.
This time, Tribe Comics once again suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Shadow.
If only He Dajun's temper were the same as Shadow's, he would now be considering terminating his contract with Tribe Comics. But a harsh reality is that even if He Dajun ends his contract with the Tribe, he has nowhere else to go.
The two websites, Alliance and Tribe, are the only ones in the entire industry that can afford to sign a manga artist of his level!
All other websites are simply minor players in the industry and are not worth mentioning.
So should he go to Alliance?
They wouldn't want him!
He Dajun is gradually grasping the reason behind the cuts in the investment budget. 'Basketball Heart' was originally doing great, and this animated series should have been a major hit, without Shadow's existence.
But comparisons are the root of all trouble!
All who've seen 'Dunk Master' have raised their standards since then and would feel somewhat disappointed when they view his work. Adding onto He Dajun's conflict with Shadow, the significant gap between the two works is all too clear.
"It's over..."
He Dajun lost heart so suddenly that he didn't even feel like continuing to draw.
This kind of blow is hard to bear.
If he could go back in time, he would definitely not believe Ling Kong's false promises and compete with Shadow for the title of the best sports manga artist.
Now, he is thoroughly nailed to the pillar of shame.
The only impression he left to everyone was reduced to a joke:
"Nobody understands basketball better than I do."
The popularity of this joke is even catching up to the iconic line from 'Dunk Master', "Coach, I want to play basketball."
The difference is:
The former is mocked while the latter is hailed as a classic by countless people.
He lost both the battle and the war.
The career of He Dajun is doomed to plummet.
Unless in the future he can significantly improve and create works that can match or even surpass 'Dunk Master.'
But He Dajun knows that he does not have a chance.
That was a work that made He Dajun despondent after reading it.
After reading the latest updates of 'Dunk Master,' He Dajun had started to doubt his life, and even considered giving up drawing.
He Dajun was devastated.
Meanwhile, on the other side.
Contrasted with He Dajun's despair, the popularity of 'Dunk Master' kept soaring.
The popularity of this animation even impacted reality!
...
At a basketball court.
A group of young people gathered to play basketball, only to find the entire court already fully packed.
They all looked at each other in bewilderment.
They had to look elsewhere for a court, but after going through several courts, they faced the same outcome.
All major basketball courts were full!
Either basketball enthusiasts itching to play after watching 'Dunk Master.'
Or newbies who developed interest in basketball after watching the animation.
"Damn!"
"There's no space at all!"
"Shadow's 'Dunk Master' is so popular that we must reserve the court in advance if we want to play in the next few days!"
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"Basketball courts used to be so empty!"
"The number of basketball fans seems to be catching up with football fans!"
"Can't compare to football fans, but after the release of 'Dunk Master,' the number of basketball fans has indeed increased a lot."
"I can't believe this animation has impacted reality."
"Well, let's reschedule."
"I'm going back to read manga. 'Slam Dunk' updated a bit last night."
...
At a certain store.
The sales of basketball-related clothing and shoes suddenly skyrocketed.
"I want number 10!"
"I also want number 10!"
"Number 10 is Sakuragi Hanamichi's number, I prefer number 11!"
"Number 11? You think you're Rukawa Kaede?"
"As a center, I choose the gorilla's number 4 jersey!"
"I want number 14."
"Why number 14?"
"Mitsui wears number 14, he's my favorite!"
"Ah, Mitsui, then I'll also go with number 14!"
...
At a certain basketball training class.
The staff in charge of recruiting students were stunned. It felt like suddenly there were a lot more people interested in basketball!
"I want to sign up!"
"Me too."
"I want to learn basketball!"
"You guys play so cool, newbie wants to join!"
"Can I learn to dunk?"
"So if I learn basketball, can I dunk?"
"I also want to learn. I'm not afraid of hardship. Xiaomei likes 'Slam Dunk', I must show her my heroism on the basketball court!"
...
And it's not just basketball interest classes.
The number of people watching the basketball team training at various schools has also increased significantly.
Most of them are boys.
But what excites these school basketball players the most is that the number of girls watching has also increased!
When they make a shot, the surroundings are filled with cheers!
There are even people shouting "Rukawa Kaede" and the like.
This made the efficiency of basketball team training improve countless times. Everyone is full of enthusiasm!
Basketball suddenly became popular!
All because of the influence of 'Slam Dunk'!
...
When the influence of 'Slam Dunk' seeped into reality, Lin Yuan also felt this change. He could hear the company staff making plans to play basketball together after work.
Not to mention the numerous online discussions.
"It's about time."
Lin Yuan called Sun ZhiXiang over: "You draw the next content, I will provide the storyline and storyboarding."
Sun ZhiXiang was thrilled!
Even though he had already guessed the result, he still leapt with joy!
With this.
Everyone in Shadow Studio now has their own corresponding manga to be responsible for, while Lin Yuan has resumed being his own hands-off boss.
By the way.
The recruitment of everyone's assistants is almost done. Most of them were found by Luo Wei and they're all very skilled.
Jin Mu rented separate studios for everyone around them.
In the future, Lin Yuan just needs to liaise with the main artists, without having to meet those assistants, so as to prevent his identity as Shadow from being revealed.
Of course.
Lin Yuan is not completely a hands-off boss. He pays attention to the updated content of these main artists every day, makes adjustments when necessary, and if anyone is falling behind, he would pull them aside for intensive training. The efficiency of Master's Halo's training is extremely high.
He's working on five comics at once!
Lin Yuan felt that it is almost at its limit now.
From now on, even if there are new comics, he needs to wait until later to be worked on. He's running out of manga artist resources and he doesn't want to shock the world any more than necessary. Shadow has already proven to be much more of a prodigy than anyone expected!
Shadow should take a break for now.
Lately, Shadow and Xian Yu have been in the limelight, Lin Yuan feels that Chu Kuang is eager to give it a try.
What should he write next?
———————
ps: Transitional chapter. I'm not sure what I should write next. In this chapter, I discussed the fans funding big shots, shall we do a poll?