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Author's Official Statement:
I know the update pace has been slowing down, and honestly, I do feel a bit guilty about that...
Also, someone asked about 'Death Note'. I actually would love to do it. But honestly? I'm worried that the book will get flagged. I checked all over Qidian—doesn't matter if it's a fanfic, a multiverse crossover, or a chat group setup—no one dares include Kira. I suppose that those who tried got a 404 error.
So maybe I'll add a small tribute near the end of this book, just a few lines of reference. It's not that I'm too afraid of getting banned, but if I get the book taken down over something that reckless, it would be unfair to those of you who've been supporting and subscribing all along.
Anyway — thanks for sticking with me! Appreciate you all.
T/N: I just found out that 'Death Note' was banned in China, so anything related to the anime, like manga, Movie, or fanfiction, was removed.
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The story abruptly ends here — the fates of Mikako and Noboru Terao were left unresolved.
Although the novel version mentions that Mikako saved the human fleet, and though her unit drifted off into deep space after losing power, she was eventually rescued by her comrades. Noboru Terao became an officer of the United Army and was reunited with Mikako Nagamine on Blue Star.
The novel had a happy ending, but from Jing Yu's artistic perspective, there was no need to go into such detail.
The original anime ending of this work was already great, leaving a vast space for imagination. Over-explaining it just to satisfy the audience would, in a way, diminish the impact of the ending.
So after much deliberation, Jing Yu ultimately chose not to include the novel's ending in this short film.
And yet, based on the response, at this moment, viewers sitting in front of their televisions after watching 'Voices of a Distant Star' felt an undeniable sense of loss.
Even though Jing Yu didn't explicitly include the ending, the audience wasn't stupid.
A heroic pilot who just saved the entire fleet — would the surviving members really just leave her drifting in space? Of course not. It's almost certain she'd be rescued. But without clearly stating it, that uncertainty lingers in viewers' hearts.
But really, for this story, the ending isn't the most important part. What truly matters is the emotional bond that forms between the male and female leads over the course of the plot.
"'Voices of a Distant Star', voices from the heart — so that's what it means. Time and space can't stop people from drawing closer in spirit."
"But why didn't that bastard make '5 Centimeters per Second' like this, too? In '5 Centimeters per Second', they were only separated by a couple of thousand kilometers and already couldn't reach each other!"
"That's love for you — you have to view it from many angles! If you forever remain a youth, then your youthful love will never fade. Noboru and Mikako were in a harsh environment, yet even across infinite space, they were thinking of each other. Meanwhile, Takaki and Akari were on the same planet, but they... they truly grew up."
"After watching '5 Centimeters per Second', I felt that growing up is cruel. But after watching 'Voices of a Distant Star', I realized that staying true to your heart is just as cruel. Life is cruel, either way."
"I originally just wanted to kill time watching this short film, but why am I crying nonstop? How can something only twenty-something minutes long be this emotionally powerful?"
"That bastard director... seriously, he's both heartless and brilliant. Everything he makes is emotionally devastating, and even though I prepared myself, I still ended up red-eyed."
"That moment — when both of them, separated by infinite space, thought the same thing — when I heard that line, it really hit me."
"Such a vast distance, and yet their hearts aligned. Not like in '5 Centimeters per Second', where the line goes: 'Even if we exchange a thousand messages, the distance between our hearts won't close by even a centimeter.'"
"'Voices of a Distant Star' and '5 Centimeters per Second' feel opposite, but they explore the same core idea."
"A masterpiece! No explanation needed. This short film may be just twenty minutes long, but I'll sing its praises forever."
"Honestly, I think it's better than '5 Centimeters per Second'. At least for me, it hits harder."
"This is what that bastard director is best at — showing what it means to be short and powerful. Just twenty minutes of story, and it hits harder than some TV shows with a dozen episodes of buildup."
'Voices of a Distant Star', as a short film, wasn't taken that seriously by most audiences before it aired.
Some of Jing Yu's haters were even waiting to pounce the moment anything felt off — ready to claim that Jing Yu had wasted 50 million on a garbage short film.
But on the night it aired, the viewer rating for 'Voices of a Distant Star' broke 9.6, and Qinyun Video's pay-per-view subscriptions topped three million.
Nobody had anything to say after that.
It was kind of absurd, really.
As the creator behind the film, Jing Yu was in high spirits that night.
Some of his projects, like 'Gundam', he produced purely for the sake of company development and profitability.
But there were other works he created just out of love.
'Voices of a Distant Star' and 'The Garden of Words' were two of them.
He never expected them to be cash cows — just hoped they wouldn't lose money.
But judging from the current situation, the odds of Jing Yu losing money on anything were extremely low.
Even before 'Voices of a Distant Star' aired, ad revenue had already covered most of the production cost. Then came the licensing fees from Yunteng TV, and the revenue share from the streaming platform.
Jing Yu himself couldn't see any way it might lose money.
Late at night, he took out his phone and replied to a few fans in the comments on his social media account, which now had over twenty million real followers.
The next day marked the end of the first week of October.
Major websites released their Winter Season First Week Impact Index rankings — unsurprisingly, 'Voices of a Distant Star' took the top spot.
When Jing Yu arrived at the office, the entire company was glowing with pride. After all, when your boss can produce such an overwhelming hit with just a short film, it's only natural for the staff to get a little carried away.
Still, Jing Yu wasn't going to fixate on the success of 'Voices of a Distant Star'. Over the next month, the film would likely remain a central topic on streaming platforms, along with the upcoming 'The Garden of Words'.
But looking further ahead — three, five years down the line — these two would just be part of Jing Yu's long legacy of the Great Zhou's film and TV industry.
The kind of short-form works that fans would look back on and say, "Even his short films are brilliant," but not necessarily the ones you'd associate with his name as signature works.
"That's how it is sometimes — the works you love the most aren't always the most popular, and the most popular ones aren't necessarily your favorites." Jing Yu murmured to himself.
Just like in his heart, 'Hikaru no Go' and 'Initial D' meant more to him than the 'Fate' series. But commercially? Their value combined still fell far short of 'Fate'.
Before 8 a.m., Jing Yu was the third to arrive in the company's meeting room. Strictly speaking, the company had only four shareholders: Jing Yu, Cheng Lie, Yu Youqing, and Xia Yining. The other talents Jing Yu had brought in were only given dividend rights, not equity, and even those dividends were small.
Still, for those executives, the annual total earnings were easily in the millions.
But compared to people like Cheng Lie, who had been with Jing Yu from the very beginning, the difference was enormous.
Just the few percent stake Cheng Lie held in the company brought him tens of millions in dividends annually. And if 'Gundam', 'Ultraman', and 'Attack on Titan' aired next year, the company's revenue — in Jing Yu's plans — could easily double.
Today's meeting was focused on greenlighting three new projects from Jing Yu.
At this stage of the company's development, it wasn't realistic for Jing Yu to micromanage everything. Most of the frequent meetings now existed so that he could relay his vision, and his team could execute it.
After half a month away, today's senior staff meeting saw everyone quietly listening to Jing Yu's directives.
Details about the production quality expected for 'Ultraman Tiga', special effects standards for 'Attack on Titan' and 'Gundam', actor selection, investment budgets, and how funds would be allocated — Jing Yu laid it all out.
Even though he never formally studied business management, running a company for so long had taught him a lot. He wasn't the most shrewd CEO, but at the very least, he was well above average.