Chapter 259 - 257: The Slam Dunk Plan

Chapter 259: Chapter 257: The Slam Dunk Plan

"Slam Dunk?"

Li Weiya glanced at Lin Yanwan, slightly surprised. Jiang Xia had only mentioned a vague idea, so how did she come up with the name?

However, considering the two of them might already have a deeply intimate relationship, it was normal for Lin Yanwan to know more than her.

"That’s right."

Jiang Xia nodded. In his mind, the only things that could compete with Slam Dunk were the "Big Three" shonen manga. Of course, there was also Dragon Ball, but that kind of hot-blooded action series had far too many fight scenes. Drawing all the flashy special effects by hand would be a killer.

After thinking it over, he decided to put purely action-focused series on the back burner for now.

Besides, it was 2009, and the NBA from America next door was incredibly popular in the country. He could ride that wave of popularity. Producing a basketball anime would surely yield great returns.

Of course, for a series from Japan that felt so distinctly Japanese, he would have to make some local adaptations to the details, starting with sinicizing the names.

For example, Rukawa Kaede would become Liu Chuanfeng. It just sounded much better.

However, these details would need to be ironed out slowly. He could use the next two months to work on the animation script for Slam Dunk in advance, trying his best to restore the classic sports anime from his previous life without making major changes.

Once the studio was completely stable, he could hire more people. By then, he would have surely accumulated a considerable number of storyboards. As long as he had enough staff, he could start producing the Slam Dunk animation.

As for Cat and Mouse, he planned to hand the project over after the fifth season ended, which would be around May or June of next year.

The best candidate was naturally Wang Ming. He had been with Jiang Xia the longest, had shown the most improvement, and best understood the core expression of Cat and Mouse. Most importantly, Jiang Xia could feel that Wang Ming had a genuine, heartfelt love for Cat and Mouse.

If he didn’t know how to draw storyboards, Jiang Xia would teach him slowly, starting with the animation script, and sticking as close to the original work as possible, bit by bit.

By then, he would likely only serve as the animation director for the Cat and Mouse project team, providing the basic ideas and managing the overall style, leaving the rest for Wang Ming to handle.

He really wanted Old Wang to grow, not just remain a key animator.

"Then what about Cat and Mouse?" Li Weiya asked with a frown.

From her perspective, with Cat and Mouse being so popular right now, rashly starting another animation was not a wise move.

It would be better to strike while the iron is hot, increase production capacity, and maximize their profits.

"Godmother, I can’t just keep pouring all my time into a children’s animation like Cat and Mouse forever," Jiang Xia said, sounding troubled.

"That may be so, but I think this is still a bit too aggressive."

She pressed her lips together. The current situation was that the studio wasn’t even officially up and running yet. To put it in human terms, it was trying to do a triple jump before it had even learned to walk.

Ultimately, a 24-minute long-form animation would be extremely resource-intensive. It was completely different from a seven-minute episodic show like Cat and Mouse. That show didn’t need a continuous plot; a single small idea could be expanded to form the core of an episode.

But a traditional animation requires a complete plot, established character relationships, and a set of excellent character designs. This truly tests the professional skill of an animation scriptwriter.

It wasn’t that she thought Jiang Xia lacked the ability. Scoring over 600 on the liberal arts college entrance exam to get into Tsinghua proved his writing skills were outstanding. But a plot wasn’t a school essay. Dialogue needed to fit the scene, climaxes required foreshadowing, and character relationships were complex. Ultimately, writing a brilliant story required a wealth of life experience.

But how old was he? ’He’s barely more than a boy.’

"Godmother, I know what you’re worried about. I’ll write the script and show it to you. If you think it’s suitable, then we can consider hiring more people and expanding the company," Jiang Xia said with a smile.

"And if it isn’t suitable?" Li Weiya retorted.

He sighed in resignation. "If it isn’t suitable, I’ll focus solely on Cat and Mouse. I’ll aim to produce a hundred episodes a year and get the Cat and Mouse movie on the big screen as soon as possible."

Listening to their debate, Lin Yanwan covered her mouth and chuckled softly without interrupting. As a reincarnator, she naturally knew what the name Slam Dunk represented—it was the youth of an entire generation, the pinnacle of sports manga!

Across the entire world, you could count on one hand the number of anime that surpassed Slam Dunk.

She also didn’t doubt for a second that Jiang Xia could recreate the series. If he dared to say it, he could definitely do it.

"You said it yourself!"

Li Weiya had already made up her mind. As soon as he showed her the script, if she found even the slightest thing to be unsatisfactory, she would reject it flat out and get him to rein in his ambitions.

Even if he had ideas for other types of animation, they would have to wait until the company had accumulated more experience and had more substantial capital.

Otherwise, it would be a completely thankless effort. Worse, it could even ruin the company’s chance to grow.

That was something she would absolutely not allow to happen.

"Alright, alright, I said it," he agreed with a helpless nod.

"Speaking of which, you have an idea for the Cat and Mouse movie?" Li Weiya glanced at him.

Compared to Jiang Xia’s idea of running two projects, she was clearly more interested in the movie.

He nodded lightly. "Since Cat and Mouse is positioned as a children’s animation, the timing is more or less set. It would either be for Children’s Day on June 1st, or as a New Year’s film."

"However, Cat and Mouse’s popularity is still on the rise. Our current development priority should be to increase the production of the main series to grow our audience. If we were to take our already limited staff and put them on a feature film, it would be putting the cart before the horse."

"Therefore, even if we were to do it, we probably couldn’t make it for Children’s Day next year. We could, however, prepare for a release during the Lunar New Year the year after."

Li Weiya nodded slightly. This analysis was consistent with her own thoughts.

At the current rate of development, the company was bound to expand further by next summer vacation, and they would have more than enough staff to make a Cat and Mouse movie.

"Time is secondary. The main thing is, what about the content?"

Jiang Xia’s breathing hitched for a moment. ’It seems I can’t just copy a movie for this one. Come to think of it, was there even a Cat and Mouse movie in my past life?’

"Ahem, I haven’t thought of the specific content yet."

However, he wasn’t worried. It wouldn’t be difficult to write a ninety-minute story outline in the style of Cat and Mouse.

He just needed to find an interesting point of conflict, then build the story around it, deepening the conflict between Tom and Jerry layer by layer, and depicting every round of their clashes in detail. That should do the trick.

Besides, he had plenty of time right now. He could take his time thinking about it.