ALL NOVEL Chapter 31: Chapter 31: Magus Frustration
Although they said they would engage in a verbal battle with film critics, Shinji had never intended to directly confront them head-on.
Not to mention directly engaging in a verbal battle with someone's female relatives, which would be impolite, Shinji also didn't want to be seen as an arrogant and overbearing junior in the industry at such a young age.
Moreover, Shinji was well aware of the weak points of those high and mighty film critics. They weren't afraid of verbal conflicts, but what they feared most was being ignored.
The best way to deal with these film critics was not to point out what they said was wrong but to ignore their comments and praise the movies they disliked.
Therefore, on the evening the article was published, Asahi TV broadcasted a carefully arranged interview. The TV station used a live connection to the theaters and intentionally filmed a large number of ordinary fans pouring out of the cinema. They also interviewed these fans.
In front of the camera, these excited young viewers did not hide their love for FSN.
"FSN is amazing! Saber's story made me cry!"
"I've never seen such fantastic action scenes before. The production team is really amazing!"
"This movie is more exciting than all the movies I've seen in my life combined!"
...
Seeing the television station coming for interviews, these young viewers rushed to the camera and shouted excitedly into the lens to share their viewing experiences.
"Well, it seems the program is very effective."
Watching the news, Shinji nodded in satisfaction.
"Master, did you hire a group of actors?" Cu Chulainn asked quietly.
Because they had been following Shinji closely recently to help with the promotion, the heroic spirits also learned a lot about promotional tactics.
"Master, deceiving people is not right," Arturia reminded him with integrity.
"Hmph."
Medusa didn't say anything but just pushed up her glasses, looking at Shinji with disdain in her eyes.
"It's not deception; it's just a promotional technique!" Feeling the slightly prickly gaze of his heroic spirits, Shinji defended himself, "Besides, how could we pre-arrange interviews and such? That's impossible."
Using suggestion magecraft to make people speak according to his wishes or something like that, Shinji would never say such a thing.
Leaning against the wall and sipping tea, Yan Qing spoke reasonably, "As the saying goes, all is fair in war. After all, this time, it was that film critic organization that provoked the conflict first. Our counterattack is entirely justified."
"Exactly, exactly! Master, I think the best counterattack is to make a movie that shuts their mouths up! Let me be the lead in the next movie, and I, the one who is best at acting among these heroic spirits, will make them shut up!"
Cu Chulainn confidently pointed to himself and flashed a bright smile.
"You? Nah, forget it."
"Lancer, did you also read that manga?"
"At most, you can play a comedic role."
"Mongrel, I really admire your courage."
"Lancer, have you been eating dog food and talking nonsense?"
Everyone present expressed their disdain for Cu Chulainn's self-promotion.
"Huh? Why?!"
The reactions of the others hurt Cu Chulainn deeply.
"So, your talent hasn't fully bloomed yet," Shinji quipped, verbally teasing the hero of Ulster, but in his heart, he was calculating the next steps.
"Those film critics should be able to understand my challenge, right? They should take some action."
As expected, on the second day after the news was broadcast, the film critic who wrote the bad comment for FSN published another critical article about FSN in the newspaper.
On the other hand, Aniplex refused to back down. They also purchased newspaper space to promote FSN with various advertisements. These articles often included interviews with ordinary viewers praising FSN, and they even provided daily reports on the steadily increasing box office numbers for FSN.
Moreover, under Shinji's devious guidance, these contents were placed in the same section as the critical articles about FSN, creating a stark contrast.
As expected, those film critics were infuriated upon seeing this, they would probably said something along these line:
"We film critics have already said this movie is trash, so why are so many people still going to see it? These viewers are useless! We must correct this immediately!"
As a result, various newspapers' entertainment sections quickly filled with critical articles about FSN, almost all of them describing how terrible the movie was.
"This movie FSN is simply a terrible disaster, and the director named Shinji Matou is nothing but a sadist!"
This was the first sentence Sakura read when she opened the newspaper.
A film critic named Ippei Kawauchi had intentionally written a scathing article about FSN in his own review column.
"Several weeks ago, I watched FSN. Forgive me for being blunt, but this movie's excessive noise and chaotic plot are torture-level, far exceeding the human tolerance limit!"
"Just as I said in the title, this movie is like a mixed hotpot! Leaving aside the fact that King Arthur cannot be a girl, just cramming characters from vastly different historical periods into one movie is enough to cause confusion and disgust!"
"No logic, countless plot holes, and playing mind games. I despise this movie very, very, very, very much!"
In his lengthy review, Ippei Kawauchi not only slammed FSN to the extreme but also gave it a dismal score of 1.
Then Sakura picked up several other newspapers that Shinji had placed separately, and without exception, they were all negative reviews of FSN.
"This inept movie can destroy all the good impressions of cinema. It's a soulless and unemotional film, and after watching it, you'll only feel like you've wasted over two hours of your time."
Another film critic published in the "Chizai Newspaper" also ridiculed FSN to the extreme and gave it a pitiful score of 2.
As for "Yomiuri Shimbun," it was slightly better, but with a score of 3.5 in an environment where the highest score was 10, it was still considered a failure.
"Adaptation is not just random adaptation! This movie is not only boring but also full of malicious fun. The entire production team should apologize to the entire British population!"
Sakura looked at other newspapers and found that they were all critical articles about FSN by film critics. Words like "Noisy," "Unreal," "Chaotic," and so on almost dominated the newspaper pages.
"It's clear that those guys really dislike your movie, Onii-sama."
Sakura looked at her older brother, but she found him smiling.
"Onii-sama, you're not really a sadist, are you? Would you be happy when people scold you like this?"
"Of course not. I'm just laughing at these film critics for being brainless."
Shinji waved his finger, looking like a cunning military strategist.
"If they really dislike this movie, they should remain silent instead of randomly shouting."
Sakura tilted her head in confusion. "But in the past, most movies that were criticized like this basically flopped."
Shinji chuckled twice in response.
"That's because those movies were so-called art films, completely different from commercial movies. Without the praise of film critics, viewers wouldn't even bother watching those obscure films."
Although FSN was facing a difficult situation in terms of professional reviews, Shinji was not worried at all. Movies like FSN, with extremely low professional reviews but high box office earnings, were not uncommon in his previous life. The most classic example was "Star Wars," a movie that was not well-received before its release and left film critics with swollen faces. However, after 2010, in the era of extreme internet development, film critics had to speak well of the commercial movies they didn't like just to make a living.
Otherwise, just internet trolls could drown them.
In this timeline, the internet isn't particularly advanced yet, and the influence of film critics is much greater than it was in Shinji's pre-transmigration life.
But Shinji, who knew these guys were just paper tigers, didn't care at all.
"Sakura, you should know that criticism from film critics might not necessarily be a bad thing; in fact, it's an area we can exploit for publicity. Controversy is always better than being ignored."
Shinji patted Sakura's hair and imparted his wisdom to his younger sister.
"The main audience for FSN is teenagers, and this age group is very rebellious. They don't believe in any authority and even question the opinions of authorities—Ouch!"
Shinji pulled back his hand after being bitten.
Sakura smiled affectionately. "Onii-sama, are you saying I'm rebellious?"
'Isn't that what you call rebellious? You left bite marks.'
Even the daring Shinji didn't want to provoke Sakura's anger, just like when he tried to take her food away while dining with Arturia. That was equally dangerous.
So Shinji promptly explained, "Ahem, when I said 'authority,' I meant those damn film critics."
"These people probably don't realize that the more harshly they criticize, the more interested our audience becomes in the movie, especially when the box office keeps soaring."
As he spoke, Shinji glanced at the newspapers on the table, and those articles invariably expressed dissatisfaction with the viewers who praised FSN, although there was no direct insult. The subtext hinted that these people had poor taste.
"Yeah, those old guys have no clue about what appeals to young people."
A faint smile appeared at the corner of Shinji's mouth.
Young people detest nothing more than older folks who have generation gaps with them meddling in their taste.
If it were their elders at home, they might be able to tolerate it to some extent, but why should these outsiders, who have nothing to do with them, interfere in their lives?
Thanks to the Japanese media's heavy reliance on print, these articles would be seen by many young people.
Shinji could even imagine some young viewers going to watch the movie out of spite against the authorities (film critics).
"Notify Aniplex to increase the movie's promotion, and don't stop."
Just thinking about FSN's continuously soaring box office made Shinji feel elated.
"Think about it, these people are jumping in anger, but they still can't stop FSN's box office from rising. They must be so frustrated... Tut, tut."
"Shinji Matou, You're really despicable."
EMIYA, who was watching the show from the sidelines, sarcastically remarked.
"Thank you for the compliment."
Shinji replied with a hearty smile.
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In fact, compared to the group of film critics, there was another group of people who were even more anxious when they saw FSN's skyrocketing box office.
That group was Japan's community of magus.
As a film featuring magus, and with various high-level mystical explanations, the magus community had never stopped paying attention to FSN.
But as time went on, aside from a small group of stubborn individuals overly focused on mysticism, more and more magus started paying attention to FSN's box office.
There was no way around it; Shinji had made sure that Aniplex included the movie's box office data in all promotional materials. The magus community couldn't help but notice.
At first, everyone didn't pay much attention and thought it was a good thing that their people could make money by making a movie. But the more they thought about it, the more something seemed off.
In fact, when FSN topped the box office with 630 million yen in its second week, some magus had already started having such thoughts. And by the third week, when the film's box office reached 1.37 billion yen, totaling over 2 billion yen, magus were no longer composed.
"Damn it! Is this a robbery? No, even robbers don't make money this fast!"
"So much money? Can you actually make this much money from making a movie?"
...
In summary, this group of magus was feeling bitter.
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