Animation Producer in a Fantasy World

Mecha anime, or giant robot anime.

To briefly explain this, it’s a genre where giant robots appear in the anime and play some kind of active role.

To be honest, I had been extremely worried about whether I should really produce the first TV anime series in this world as a mecha anime.

Because even in 21st century Earth, the mecha genre was an extremely taste-dependent genre, let alone people in a fantasy world unfamiliar with the culture of animation might feel even more aversion to it.

If you just want to make a moderate and safe animation, you could make a slice-of-life anime or a battle anime with superpowers, which would be like a documentary to the inhabitants of this fantasy world.

Yet the reason I decided to make a mecha anime was very simple.

‘Giant robots are just so damn cool.’

Honestly, any man born would have fantasized about boarding a giant robot, or getting on a giant battleship and firing laser cannons in space wars.

Now that I have the authority to make any kind of animation I want, would I really make a genre other than mecha?

Do you think that’s what a real man would do?

Also, people might think of only awesome battles between giant robots when they hear the mecha genre.

Surprisingly, most mecha anime often contain numerous social messages within them.

For example, the ‘Gundam’ series, which is also extremely famous in Korea, contains messages of anti-war and human goodness in almost all of its works.

The ‘Macross series’ is very famous as an anime that contains a message of peace, saying that wars in this world can be resolved through songs.

Then, well, even if I just hastily make an animation and run away, couldn’t I later blurt out an excuse like ‘That ending was meant to capture such and such problems in the current imperial society’?

Anyway, with such schemes in mind, I started to embark on the animation production in earnest.

First was the character design of the main character and the main pilot characters.

It goes without saying now, but the design of the main characters and key figures in animation was extremely important.

No matter how interesting the animation is and how exciting the story is, would people be interested in that anime if the design of the main characters isn’t attractive?

If nothing else, I did my best for the designs of the four main pilots including the protagonist.

In other words, I implemented a recycling campaign by taking little bits of the good parts from characters I thought were attractive in my previous life.

And so it was completed.

The designs of ‘Kai’, who could be called the protagonist of the anime I’m making, and the other three female pilots.

When I showed the character design sheets to the staff with such a proud attitude, people exclaimed in admiration as they looked at them.

“Oh, so this is the appearance of the protagonist of this anime that the director designed.”

“He’s very sophisticated and handsome. Regardless of anything else, anyone, young or old, male or female, would feel affection looking at Kai’s appearance.”

“But the protagonist’s appearance seems somewhat weaker than I expected. Wasn’t Kai supposed to be a soldier who controls a machine god according to the setting? But looking at the character design, he seems like an ordinary boy who hasn’t received training?”

To such a question, I spoke with a very proud attitude.

“That’s correct. Because according to the setting, Kai is not a soldier but an ordinary high school student… no, an ordinary boy.”

“…Pardon?”

“While the other pilots are all set as soldiers belonging to the military, I plan to use a setting where only the protagonist, Kai, was an ordinary boy who one day joined the military.”

“…I don’t understand. What’s the reason for putting in such a setting?”

Why did I use this setting, you ask?

It’s because it’s a kind of unwritten rule that the protagonist of a mecha anime first encounters the machine he will pilot in episode 1.

How should I put it, it’s similar to the social agreement that you shouldn’t cross the crosswalk when the red light is on.

“And all the pilots controlling the machine gods are young girls except for the protagonist, Kai.”

“Yes, well.”

“Is there a separate reason why you set the gender ratio of the pilots like this?”

Reason? Actually, there isn’t any such thing.

If I had to give a reason, it’s just because I thought the protagonist should have about three heroines.

“…What’s the reason for the absence of other male pilots?”

That’s because I’m a person who has seizures over the NTR genre, if nothing else.

I don’t mind if supporting characters develop feelings for each other and form couples, but I could never tolerate a heroine having feelings for a man other than the protagonist, even if my eyes were filled with dirt.

But there’s no way these ignorant people in the fantasy world could understand my deep intentions.

The people of this world knew nothing about the abyss of darkness like NTR or BSS, so it was even more so.

As I kept my mouth shut and said nothing.

Kaya, who was carefully looking at the character setting sheets next to me, opened her eyes wide as if she had realized something.

“…Ah, I see. So that’s how it was, Director!”

“Kaya-nim, what’s the matter?”

“I think I roughly know why the director made such settings.”

Saying this, Kaya looks at me with a very admiring gaze.

“Today, our society is discriminating against people with so many things. Status, nationality, race, experience, ideology… things like these.”

“That’s… true.”

“But it seems the director wanted to break down such societal prejudices. Moreover, it seems you wanted to sound an alarm to our society.”

“…?”

What do I want to do?

What kind of alarm am I trying to sound?

But regardless of my bewilderment, Kaya’s words didn’t stop.

“I’ll show you the evidence. Everyone, please look at the character designs of the female pilots.”

At Kaya’s words, the gazes of all the staff turned to the character setting sheets.

“Looking at the setting sheets, the girls’ hair colors are very diverse. One has red hair, one is blonde, and another has black hair. Why did the director design the characters like this?”

…Well, it’s because it’s an unwritten rule in anime for heroines to have rainbow-colored hair like red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.

“The director intentionally set the characters’ hair colors to be very diverse. And characters with various hair colors are in charge of the important task of being machine god pilots.”

“In other words, it’s clear that the director wanted to convey the message that just as a person’s hair color is of no use in performing any task, it’s not right to discriminate against others based on a person’s experience, status, ideology, etc.”

“…..”

“Isn’t that right, Director?”

Looking at Kaya smiling brightly at me, I nodded silently.

“…Yes, well.”

Avoiding her gaze and not being able to look directly into Kaya’s eyes was the last bit of conscience left in me.

Next, there was no need to worry about the design of the machine gods that the main characters would board.

I had already come up with a truly perfect design for the machine gods by combining numerous mecha anime I had seen in my previous life.

“Oh, the design of the machine gods is really sophisticated. The machine gods used in the military look really crude, but these machine gods you created, Director, are truly sleek and glamorous.”

“Gasp, a beam saber! How did you come up with such an imagination, Director? It’s such a perfect setting that can show viewers how tremendously human science has advanced while also highlighting the brilliance of action!”

“Beam rifle, laser cannon, anti-gravity weapons… I pride myself on being an excellent magician, but I never imagined that advanced magical theories could be applied in this way. Indeed, the evaluation that the director is a once-in-a-century magical genius was true.”

“No one in human history has ever imagined such things, but you, Director, created a perfect world view in just a few days. It’s really amazing!”

“Well, I believed that with the director’s genius, this much would be easy. Right, Director?”

By the way, the last ones were comments from Serika and Kaya.

“…Yes, thank you for the praise.”

Hearing such comments from them, I felt like I should kneel down right here and apologize to Master Tomino, Master George Lucas, and numerous other writers and animation producers who pioneered the SF genre.

‘Hmm, but come to think of it, I guess I don’t need to apologize after all?’

Because copyright laws don’t exist in this other world, so all of my actions were not legally plagiarism.

Then weren’t these actions of mine not plagiarism, but a kind of missionary work transmitting Earth’s culture to another world?

In that sense, I was doing volunteer work spreading Earth’s culture to another world for free without receiving any money.

‘How could this be? Was I actually doing a good deed?’

In 21st century Earth, people are putting on all sorts of shows to make their works known to others.

Aren’t I promoting their works in this world without receiving a single penny?

Looking at it from this logic, I should rather receive thanks from those people on Earth.

But since I was a smart young man who knew manners, I decided to just call it even between us.

From now on, I should repeat plagiarism and copying even more diligently.

That was the final conclusion I reached.