After the meeting ended, the atmosphere throughout the company changed entirely.
With Jing Yu's personality, once he made a decision, he wouldn't flip-flop like other company heads. An investment of around one billion wasn't nearly enough to make him hesitant or indecisive.
The approval for all three projects was now absolutely confirmed, and pre-production work for each production team began immediately.
Before casting actors, the first step was to select directors and assemble the key departments within each crew.
In Jing Yu's estimation, the chances of any of these three projects flopping were extremely low.
Long-term contracts for the actors involved went without saying. If the project became a hit, the actors' endorsements and hidden income streams would explode. Jing Yu didn't want a situation where someone became a breakout star from his production only to walk away immediately after.
Next came the selection of special effects partners. Jing Yu had reached out to every top-five special effects company in Great Zhou — the workload was too massive for just one or two companies to handle.
From within and beyond Bluestar Media & Film Company, a massive amount of information began to leak out.
Though the company's official website hadn't released any statements, Jing Yu's local fans in Modo could already sense something big was in motion — just like ducks sensing the warmth of spring water.
That man, Jing Yu, was preparing a major move.
In the entertainment industry, it was like a storm was brewing. A few famous actors had already received offers from the Big Six TV stations but were hesitating — holding off, waiting for Jing Yu's casting announcement.
Why join the Big Six when you might land a role in a Jing Yu production? You'd have to be crazy.
After weeks of silence from Jing Yu's company, with no official statements…
Instead, 'The Garden of Words' aired again as a short drama.
Thanks to the groundwork laid by 'Voices of a Distant Star', audience anticipation for this one was sky-high. Even before it premiered, ratings projections had it pushing close to 9%.
And when it did air, it lived up to expectations with a solid 9.5 rating.
But even back in his previous life, before 'Your Name', one of the most common critiques fans had of Shinkai Makoto was this: his works were all emotion and visuals, but lacked strong plotlines.
To put it bluntly, beautiful animation, beautiful music, poetic lines, a master of emotional expression — but when it came to core story structure, the gap was obvious.
That's why 'Voices of a Distant Star', '5 Centimeters per Second', and 'The Garden of Words' were so well-received. Because they were short films, the thin plots didn't matter much. Like an 800-word essay — you can fluff it a bit, and the reviewer won't care much. As long as the emotion lands, the art did its job.
But try fluffing an 8,000-word essay? No matter how emotional it is, readers will get tired.
That's also why in his past life, few Shinkai fans ever brought up 'Children Who Chase Lost Voices' — the story was just too scattered. Even amazing visuals and music couldn't carry two hours of that plot.
'The Garden of Words' was similar. At its core, it was just a simple teacher-student romance. Stretching that to a full-length film would only make the leads feel overly melodramatic. But as a 40-minute short film? Perfect. Shinkai's delicate approach to emotional storytelling worked beautifully within a one-hour runtime.
Audiences were left wanting more.
That very night, fans flooded the Bluestar company forums, begging Jing Yu for a sequel to both 'Voices of a Distant Star' and 'The Garden of Words'.
Fans were simple like that — they'd love something today and want a sequel immediately, only to change their minds the next day after seeing something new.
And with that, Jing Yu's two winter short films had both aired. It was only mid-November, and while major networks across Great Zhou were locked in a fierce battle of fall, none of that really concerned Jing Yu.
His company's next focus would be the two upcoming theatrical releases — 'Your Name', which would premiere in under two months, and 'Castle in the Sky', set to debut within three.
Time continued to pass.
By late November, of the three new projects Jing Yu's company was preparing, the first to begin open casting was 'Ultraman Tiga'.
Actually, for a show like Ultraman, casting wasn't overly complicated. Though Daigu was technically the lead, the real star was Ultraman Tiga himself.
Whether or not the actor was famous didn't matter that much. The target audience was mostly middle schoolers and younger — they weren't chasing idols yet. In fact, appearance and on-screen presence mattered more than celebrity status.
Besides, Jing Yu always upheld the philosophy of spending money on production quality, not on expensive actors.
As a result, the preliminary cast for 'Tiga' mostly consisted of second- and third-tier actors — ones with solid acting skills and good looks, even if their names weren't well-known.
Next came the casting for 'Attack on Titan'.
For this project, Jing Yu wasn't looking at the actors' popularity in the film industry either. What he cared about was:
Their appearance,
Their aura,
And especially — physical agility.
Attack on Titan was full of fast-moving Survey Corps soldiers zipping through the sky like flying grasshoppers.
Sure, the final footage would be enhanced with green screens and CGI, but the actors still had to do wirework in real-life fight scenes. Some might have expressive facial acting but lacked the body control needed.
If the action scenes didn't meet expectations, the entire viewing experience would take a serious hit.
That's the challenge of making live-action adaptations of manga. TV budgets are lower than film budgets, but audiences still expect movie-quality effects. Thankfully, Jing Yu wasn't strapped for cash. Otherwise, investing billions into a single 12-episode season of Attack on Titan? Hardly any other company in Great Zhou would dare try.
As for 'Gundam', that casting process hadn't even started yet. Just handling the first two productions had already exhausted Jing Yu. He didn't have the energy to oversee a third project at the same time.
Still, Bluestar's massive audition campaign was impossible to keep under wraps. Even if the company hadn't issued an official statement, some of the auditioning actors were bound to let something slip.
Before long, news began spreading among Jing Yu's fanbase.
A warrior of light who can become giant, fighting massive monsters invading Blue Star?
Humans sealed within enormous walls, with man-eating giants roaming outside?
What kind of wild setting is that?!
But also...
"You mad genius! How do you come up with this stuff?"
Just these leaked tidbits had already sparked massive hype among fans.
Some still didn't believe it — assuming it was all fan gossip and hype building up around Jing Yu's next project.
Until November 30th, the final day of the month.
Jing Yu finally took to his personal social media account and revealed some official details about the three upcoming productions:
'Attack on Titan'
'Ultraman Tiga'
'Mobile Suit Gundam'
Once the news broke, his entire fanbase was stunned into silence.
So it wasn't just two new projects?
Three at once?!
Jing Yu had really outdone himself this time.