I'm Not A Master, I'm A Director (Type-Moon Fanfiction)

Chapter 17: Kariya: Always Feels Like Someone Is Manipulating Me

Bandai Visual was the film distribution department of Bandai Corporation, a name that anyone interested in Japanese animation and tokusatsu would surely know.

As the largest toy manufacturer in Japan and even in the East Asian region, the name Bandai was practically synonymous with fame and recognition.

For Bandai's customers, they both loved and hated the giant conglomerate. The nickname "Financial Group B" truly encapsulated fans' attitudes towards the company.

Shinji himself didn't hold much resentment towards Bandai, being an otaku who had been a tokusatsu enthusiast for two generations.

Though he disliked Bandai's strategy of fishing for profits without concern for sustainability when it came to selling toys, he couldn't deny the substantial support the group gave to tokusatsu works.

Without Bandai's consistent interest in tokusatsu, the genre might have faded away after the 1990s. Even if Bandai's ultimate goal was profit, their support for tokusatsu was undeniable. After all, during that time, no other company was willing to invest in the tokusatsu industry.

In fact, the financially-focused Bandai might actually make Shinji's FSN promotion plan smoother.

The only dilemma Shinji felt was Bandai Visual's distribution capability. This subsidiary of Bandai, while known within the Japanese film industry, mainly dealt with animated films. Their experience with tokusatsu films was sporadic at best, with occasional releases like Ultraman movie adaptations.

Nevertheless, Bandai's sincerity was greater than Toho's. The distribution manager, Keigo, hadn't contacted Shinji after the preview screening. On the other hand, a representative from Bandai called that same night, expressing interest in watching the movie.

So, early the next morning, Shinji and Kariya welcomed representatives from Bandai at Tsuburaya Productions. This screening was much humbler compared to the preview screening. They found a meeting room in Tsuburaya's offices and turned it into a makeshift screening room.

Inside the room, all the windows were tightly covered with black curtains, leaving no space for light to filter in. At the front of the room, a small screen hung on the broad wall. Shinji sat behind the projector, personally controlling the screening of FSN. In front of him, Kariya and the Bandai employees were seated, watching the film attentively and exchanging comments in hushed voices, enthusiastically hyping up their relatives.

A special effects film like FSN couldn't truly shine with such basic equipment. Shinji would have preferred to take them to a movie theater to experience the grandeur of a large screen. However, theaters had their schedules, and arranging an additional screening like yesterday's preview would have required advanced booking. The cinema owner wouldn't agree to a last-minute request from Shinji. Furthermore, other cinemas were too far from Tsuburaya Productions, making the situation quite inconvenient.

In response, Shinji couldn't help but complain about Japan's scarcity of cinemas. The whole country had barely 400 cinemas, which was fewer than the cinemas in just one province of a developed region in China.

Similar to the preview screening, Shinji observed the Bandai employees' expressions throughout the movie. To his surprise, the leader of the Bandai delegation was an elegant-looking businesswoman.

It wasn't Shinji's playboy tendencies that made him recognize her—she was someone he was familiar with, Nao Udagawa, the future president of BANDAI SPIRITS CO.

'But wasn't this girl working in the game department before becoming the president? How did she end up in the film distribution department?'

Despite his confusion, Shinji continued the screening as planned. As the screening neared its end and Bedivere bid farewell to Arturia, Shinji didn't show the end credits. Instead, he turned off the projector and turned on the lights.