Takano Koichi looked at Nanaya who saluted him, lowered his head and said nothing.
Although his eyes were on the young man in front of him, his thoughts went back to decades ago.
At that time, he was still a young man just entering the workplace. He followed his teacher to shoot the fantasy special drama "Ultraman, the Space Hero" which was popular in Japan and even spread all over the world.
At that time, he was working as a stunt supervisor in the crew, and was mainly responsible for the battle between Ultraman and monsters.
I remember that there was no one in the crew who was capable of directing a killing scene (close combat), so I, the one with the least experience, took on the task myself.
The conditions were extremely difficult at that time, but everyone relied on their tenacity to complete that groundbreaking work.
The highest viewership rating of 42.8% remains the pinnacle of special effects dramas.
But times soon changed, and with the commercial failure of "Seven", Tsuburaya suffered its first setback.
Then came the death of his teacher Eiji Tsuburaya, which cast a shadow over Tsuburaya's uncertain future.
Although everyone picked themselves up again under the encouragement of the teacher's eldest son, Tsuburaya Ichi, and filmed "Guiman" and achieved success.
But the era of Tsuburaya's previous dominance will never come back.
Moreover, Tsuburaya's development path after "Guiman" was not smooth. The next president after Tsuburaya Ichi was Tsuburaya Gao, who ruled Tsuburaya for 22 years.
This guy and his father, Eiji Tsuburaya, who is also Koichi Takano's master, are two extremes.
If his teacher is an idealist, then Tsuburaya Gao is a thorough businessman.
Apart from anything else, the copyright of the "Ultraman" series has become a mess, and Tsuburaya Gao is the first to bear the brunt of the blame.
At that time, Tsuburaya had basically no funds left, and all it could do was to make use of the limited resources to do some minor things.
"Ultraman Gridiron" was the only work of Tsuburaya that could be considered remarkable since "Ultraman Eddie" at that stage.
It was not until 1995 that the great devil Tsuburaya Gao was finally killed.
His successor, Kazuo Tsuburaya, is the new leader who brought new color to Tsuburaya, which had already turned gray.
Relying on the funds lobbied from Bandai, everyone used it to open a new era of the Heisei Ultraman series.
However, it was too late at this time. Because there was no future under Tsuburaya Gao's rule and the collapse of Japan's bubble economy, a large number of Tsuburaya's technical personnel left the company, and in the end only a few of the old people who were still working hard in Tsuburaya survived.
As the only remaining veteran figure in Tsuburaya at the time, Koichi Takano had the honor of serving as the supervisor of "Ultraman Tiga".
This position can be said to be in charge of the entire crew. Both in terms of position and power, apart from the president Kazuo Tsuburaya, Koichi Takano is the number one person in the theater.
Although due to his age, Koichi Takano did not directly shoot many dramas at that time.
But as the most senior person in the crew, his presence itself is a pillar that stabilizes the morale of the troops.
It was under his leadership that the Ultraman series successfully completed the transition from Showa to Heisei.
But now, the Heisei era has not yet ended, and the new millennium has not even entered five years, and Tsuburaya is once again on the verge of death.
Although when I asked the company a few days ago, Tsuburaya Hideaki assured me that this was only a short-term pain.
Once the audience understands the plot of "Nexus", the ratings will definitely increase dramatically.
Haha, you're kidding.
Koichi Takano has seen all kinds of situations. How could he not know whether the market feedback for his work is good or bad?
Do you think he is a fool who knows nothing?!
When I was following my teacher Eiji Tsuburaya to direct the suit fight on the set, your sperm and egg hadn't even met!
This phone call made Koichi Takano completely disappointed with the Tsuburaya family.
This group of people are just a bunch of hopeless people. Except for Tsuburaya Ichi who still has a bit of the shadow of a teacher, the others are really worse than the previous generation!
Sometimes, Koichi Takano really envies the Kamen Rider crew next door.
Although Toei's spending is not generous, at least the company will not face bankruptcy due to poor market response of one of its works.
Perhaps...
Tsuburaya does need a backer, a backer who can help it survive risks.
In fact, before Nanaya and his disciples came to find him, Koichi Takano had already made the decision.
But this decision was not what he wanted to see.
Standing against the Tsuburaya family is tantamount to betrayal of one's own teacher.
But Koichi Takano was even more afraid. He was afraid that Tsuburaya would go bankrupt because of this group of people.
In the end, even the word "圓谷" in Tsuburaya's name could not be kept.
This is definitely not the result that the company founded by my teacher deserves.
Teacher Eiji Tsuburaya, the Japanese god of special effects, the man who created "Godzilla" and "Ultraman" and was called "God" by the people on the set.
It absolutely should not be the case that you leave no trace in this world and end up being forgotten by everyone.
[I'm sorry. Teacher, please forgive me. At least let me keep the name [Tsuburaya].]
"Director Kiryu."
After a fierce psychological struggle, Takano Koichi spoke.
"Tell me, what do you want me to do?"
"Mr. Takano, do you agree?"
Nanaya was overjoyed. He had prepared a lot of arguments, but he didn't expect the other party to agree directly.
Koichi Takano didn't say anything, but just nodded slowly.
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On December 16, 2004, just when the Japanese entertainment industry thought that there would be no big news in the year and it would end just like that.
Suddenly, Washimine Group announced that it had acquired most of the shares of Tsuburaya Productions.
At the same time, it stated that it would assume all of its debts and have absolute controlling rights over it.
The outside world was shocked by this sudden news.
How come without any noise, the situation at Tsuburaya Productions just changed like this?
Although the failure of "Nexus" is known to everyone, has Tsuburaya always been dancing on the edge of a knife?
Everyone has become accustomed to it and thinks that Tsuburaya will be silent for a few years at most and will pop up again.
But at this moment, everyone realized that things were not as simple as they thought.
Because the Tsuburaya family stated that Washimine's behavior was a malicious takeover, and at the same time did not recognize that he had control over Tsuburaya Company.
Unfortunately, however, the Tsuburaya family had already sold a lot of shares in order to maintain the operation of the company.
Many investors bought these shares because of the reputation of Tsuburaya and Ultraman, but only after they actually got the shares did they realize what a mess Tsuburaya was.
It's a pity that they hold too small a proportion of shares and cannot shake the power of the Tsuburaya family in the company.
In addition, the Tsuburaya family itself is aware of the bad things they have done and has never disclosed its shareholding structure, which makes it impossible for these small shareholders to collude.
So when Washimine found them and proposed to buy their shares in Tsuburaya, these people immediately agreed.
Even Lin Bao's Kiritsugu chose to sell off his shares in Tsuburaya.
The reason why Lin Bao holds on to Tsuburaya's shares is, on the one hand, because of the affection for Eiji Tsuburaya, and on the other hand, it is also out of consideration for the copyright of Tsuburaya's special effects series.
But in fact, Tsuburaya sold all of his copyrights without Lin Bao's knowledge as early as the Tsuburaya Gao period. Apart from the copyrights in Japan, the overseas copyrights are a mess.
Kiritsugu had long been dissatisfied with the situation in Tsuburaya, but he was too busy with Lin Bao to deal with it.
This time, the hot potato has finally been passed on.
Since the price offered by Washimine is right, why not sell it?
In this way, by the time Tsuburaya Company discovered it, Washimine had already bought 60% of Tsuburaya Company's shares.
The Tsuburaya family will certainly not sit idly by when faced with the aggressive Washimine.
They planned to resist with all their might and let Washimine know that Tsuburaya Company can only be Tsuburaya of the Tsuburaya family.
Unfortunately, this time their reaction was too slow.
It was on the 17th, the day after Washimine announced the purchase of Tsuburaya.
Washimine directly brought the Tsuburaya family to court on charges of misusing company funds and embezzling company assets.
Although the Tsuburaya family has repeatedly stated that Washimine's accusations are completely false.
However, Washimine immediately produced a lot of clear evidence, showing that the Tsuburaya family had been misappropriating company assets since the time of Tsuburaya Gao, and filed a claim against them.
All these materials were provided by Mr. Koichi Takano. Since we want to get rid of these pests, we have to clean them up all at once.
In recent years, the Tsuburaya family has been acting unscrupulously in the company. Perhaps it is because they themselves did not expect that the Tsuburaya family would one day suffer misfortune.
Many things were not handled cleanly, and under the old man's guidance, the people of Washimine quickly got solid evidence.
So the Tsuburaya family was taken away before they could even react.
Then Washimine began to clean up the entire Tsuburaya Company, and all the leaders who stood on the side of the Tsuburaya family packed up and left.
With the help of two guides, Koichi Takano and Wenshu Li, Washimine cleaned up Tsuburaya Company on December 24.
The speed is jaw-dropping, considering that Christmas is just tomorrow.
Isn't your Washimine's hand speed too fast?
Later, on Christmas Day, Washimine announced that Tsuburaya's old employee Koichi Takano would serve as the seventh president of Tsuburaya Company, as a Christmas gift to the new Tsuburaya.
However, those who know the inside story know very well that Mr. Takano's position as president is just a transition.
When Li Wenshu finishes filming Fate and has sufficient experience, he will successfully succeed his teacher and become the new generation of Tsuburaya leader.
If the Tsuburaya family still doesn't realize they've been tricked at this point, they would be idiots.
They were so angry that they jumped to their feet, but they had no way to deal with it. The most they could do was to yell, "Takano Koichi, you plotted against me!"