My Animation Era

  Chapter 945 The Zodiac Story

   As the saying goes, animation does not divide families.

  The animation and comics industries are usually mentioned together due to their extremely high complementarity and relevance, and they even sit in the same row at meetings.

  But with the passage of time, the current domestic comics industry has become more and more backward, gradually unable to keep up with the great leap forward development of the animation industry.

  A weekly manga magazine that was very popular in the past few years and had a huge circulation. Not long ago, it was announced that it would cease publication due to a record low circulation and few contributors.

   This is already the Nth domestic comic magazine that announced its suspension of publication.

  In recent years, the comics industry, especially the field of paper publishing, has been greatly impacted. Many magazines that mainly focus on comics have been forced to suspend publication, and the industry is extremely depressed.

  Wanbao Manga is slightly better.

  After all, most of the peers are publishing comics on paper, while Wanbao Comics is mainly engaged in serial comics on the Internet. With the backing of the Internet, they can live on.

  However, even Wanbao comics, which are serialized on the Internet, have recently experienced a large loss of readers and an embarrassing situation of fewer and fewer contributors.

   "Everyone is not willing to draw manga anymore!"

  Nantong said helplessly: "Those who are a little bit capable have switched to games and animation. Those who are not very capable have found that comics can't make a lot of money, and their desire to create has dropped significantly."

  So recently, the comic genre of "screenshots and scans without authors" has emerged in the industry.

   "The downturn in the industry is like this. Compared with comics, domestic fans seem to prefer entertainment such as online novels, short videos, and games."

  Gu Miao pondered: "I heard that the manga version of "Dragon Ball Z" only sold less than 5 million copies in China?"

   "To be precise, 4.57 million copies!"

   "This is already at the top of the best-selling list. Even the famous Dragon Ball series is like this. Other works can be imagined."

   Nan Tong is very pessimistic.

  Under the impact of industries such as short videos, mobile games, and online novels, he doesn't think there is any future for the comics industry.

  If it wasn’t for investing too much money in the early stage, he would have suggested to Mr. Gu to shut down the webcomic serialization platform on Wanbao Online, and devote all his energy to the beep reading business.

   "Shutdown will not be enough to..."

   Gu Miao said with a smile: "No matter how bad the industry is, at least our Wanbao family is big enough to support a comic company."

   "Besides, the domestic market is sluggish, so let's go overseas to expand business abroad! The comics industry in Europe and the United States is not bad."

  Especially Meiman!

   Few people have noticed that there are not many Hollywood giants entering the American manga, which has great film and television adaptation value, and it is a good time for Wanbao to make a move.

  Thanks to "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", "The Adventures of Uncle Dragon" and "The Lion King", Wanbao is still relatively well-known in Europe and the United States. In terms of comics, relying on the "Dragon Ball" series, the overseas development is not too bad.

  With this foundation, Wanbao Comic has great potential in the overseas market. Even if it doesn't make a lot of money, it will be no problem to make a living.

   Taking a ten thousand step back, even if you can’t get along overseas, Wanbao Comics still has a way out, and that is Xueyoushang, which engages in screenshots and scanning stream comics without authors.

   However, this is the worst option.

  …

  The National Day holiday is here.

  As one of the rare seven-day long holidays in a year, many popular TV series and movies are all broadcast together, and the excitement is not inferior to that of the Spring Festival.

   Animation is no exception!

   During the National Day holiday this year, a total of more than seven popular masterpieces have been launched one after another, including "Bear In The World" produced by Wanbao Animation and "Swallowed Universe" produced by Penguin Animation.

  The former is broadcast on dual platforms of the TV network, focusing on a group of children, while the latter is broadcast exclusively on the Internet, mainly targeting fans of the original book and adults who love science fiction.

  Competition does not exist, and the two animations cannot compete at all, and the audience is not the same group, so where is the competition?

  But Devouring the Universe is not a threat to Bears 2, which doesn't mean Bears 2 is invincible in this National Day file.

   Quite the opposite.

   During this National Day, there is an animation that poses a great threat to "Bears 2", and it is a 3D animation that Gu Miao is very familiar with.

   "Legend of the Zodiac: The Story of the Zodiac"!

  To be honest, when Gu Miao first saw the title of this animation, Gu Miao didn't remember which animation it was. It wasn't until he glanced at the promotional trailer that he remembered it.

   oh yo...

   It turned out to be the animation in which the hero finds the holy beasts of the zodiac to learn peerless martial arts, and then defeats the Nian beast!

   This is a good 3D animation. He likes the sacred beasts of the twelve zodiac signs, such as Thunderbolt Tiger, Kisaragi, Long Zhentian, Zhuyeqing, and Dadu Rong.

   What a coincidence!

   If he remembers correctly, the original "Zodiac Story" and "Bear Infested" are both animated series produced by the same company.

   belongs to the same teacher.

  Although he hasn't seen the feature film yet, Gu Miao can confirm from the trailer that this is the "Zodiac Story" in his memory.

  Don't ask why.

  Gu Miao has seen familiar faces, the pig who kneads the dough with Tai Chi technique, the rooster who likes Danqing ink brush, the old goat who is a doctor outside the world, the rabbit who catches the rabbit and the tiger who is crazy...

  This kind of character setting is rare in the entire Chinese manga circle. Apart from the Zodiac series, it may be difficult to find a second animation that meets the requirements.

   "This animation is okay!"

   Even as a competitor, Huang Kun still expressed his appreciation: "Just watching the trailer is very interesting, and the feature film is probably not bad. It seems to be a masterpiece."

"really."

   "The animals of the twelve zodiac signs are endowed with various identities and personalities, and the story becomes interesting immediately." Gu Miao also praised it.

  The standard of an animation can be known at a glance.

   Judging from the level shown in the trailer, the animation "Story of the Zodiac" is definitely a boutique, with exquisite and smart modeling, clean and neat movements, and high animation fluency.

  The only place where there is suspense is probably the plot level of this animation.

   If it plays well, it will definitely threaten the "Bears In The World" broadcast at the same time. If it performs better, it can even kill The Bears 2.

   "This company does a good job in 3D animation, I like it very much!"

  Compared to Huang Kun's worries, Gu Miao, as the person involved, took it very lightly. In his words, if you lose, you lose. It's no big deal.

   What's more, can Story of the Zodiac really threaten the ratings and share of The Bears 2?

not that simple!

  Haunted Bear is the only children's animation that proves to be an emperor after Xihui Dadi. It was defeated so easily. How much do you look down on Haunted Bear?

  The Chinese Zodiac?

  Let’s not talk about a general mobilization, even if you count all the works such as "Zodiac Adventures in the Rivers and Lakes" and "Twelve Zodiac Happy Street", Dingtian is still at the level of "Quasi-Emperor Four or Five Heavens".

   I still have a "Little Carp Adventures" comic in my hand, the kind that has no author's signature and is full of animated static screenshots...

  (end of this chapter)