Animation Producer in a Fantasy World

The King of the Rihard Kingdom thought of himself as a person with a very broad and progressive mindset.

In fact, he did not discriminate against people because of their race or background, and.

If they had sufficient ability, he was willing to have even a lowly person who had been rolling around at the bottom of society by his side.

Probably, as long as someone like Hikardo didn’t do foolish things like establishing a Soviet or causing a red revolution, he was tolerant enough to allow citizens to do whatever they wanted with a generous heart.

But.

“We’ll make the Knight King a woman.”

“…What did you say?”

“I asked how about making one of our kingdom’s heroes, the Knight King, into a woman.”

“…..”

For a moment, the King doubted his own ears.

Certainly, for someone who lived in the medieval era where a caste society was very natural, he had an extremely open mind.

But no matter how progressive his values were, Kaisel’s words were something that far transcended the King’s common sense.

‘Could he have gone mad?’

The King knew that Kaisel was recently deeply immersed in animations that came from the Empire, that is, “Machine God Chronicles” and “Book of Life and Death”.

Well, thinking it was a hundred times better than doing drugs or hanging out with strange women like the good-for-nothings of noble families, he hadn’t interfered at all, but.

Now that he thought about it, the King’s thoughts seemed to have been wrong.

Because of that damn animation, Kaisel seemed to have finally lost his mind.

“Your Majesty, I am making this proposal solely to further prosper our kingdom.”

“…What did you say?”

Fortunately, it seemed Kaisel had uttered those words in his right mind.

…No, come to think of it, the fact that he said such things in his right mind might be even more terrifying.

“Your Majesty, you must be well aware that recently, the Empire’s animations including ‘Machine God Chronicles’ have become very popular within our kingdom.”

“Of course I know that.”

How could the King not know that fact?

After all, the shocking incident where a 50-meter Machine God massacred the monsters of the great forest is still vividly remembered.

“And do you know what phenomenon is currently occurring as a result of the Empire’s animations becoming popular in our kingdom?”

“…Well, I’m not sure.”

He knew very well that his only son had become so immersed in animation that he was busily drawing something called doujinshi or whatever, but.

Other than that, even the King wasn’t well aware of what influence animation had on the kingdom.

“In the past, our kingdom’s citizens didn’t have very good feelings towards the Empire. Isn’t that right?”

“Isn’t that only natural? With wars between the two countries continuing over a long period of time, it would be stranger if they got along well.”

It wasn’t just fighting for a few years, the two countries had been continuously fighting for over hundreds of years.

Unless they had collectively suffered from amnesia, there was no way the citizens of the two countries could have good feelings towards each other.

“But in the past year, that atmosphere has changed considerably. Currently, the majority of citizens don’t dislike the Empire that much. No, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that they’ve become quite favorable.”

“…What did you say?”

At Kaisel’s words, the King made an expression of utter disbelief, but.

That was only for a moment, as he soon realized why this situation had occurred.

“The Empire’s animations… So it’s a phenomenon caused by ‘Machine God Chronicles’ and ‘Book of Life and Death’.”

“That’s correct.”

Kaisel nodded his head at the King’s words.

“As Your Majesty would know well from watching ‘Machine God Chronicles’ and ‘Book of Life and Death’, the background of both works is entirely the Empire. The protagonists leading the works and those on the side of justice are also citizens of the Empire.”

In fact, that wasn’t the intention of Ragna, who made the animations.

Ragna had simply set the background of the works as the Empire without much thought.

But, from the perspective of citizens of other countries watching Ragna’s animations, it wasn’t so.

“In ‘Machine God Chronicles’, the Empire is portrayed as a country that tries to protect its citizens to the end without losing hope even in the midst of enemies called Outer Gods invading. Also, in ‘Book of Life and Death’, it appears as a righteous country that doesn’t yield to the criminal called Zodiac and tries to arrest him to the end.”

Therefore, viewers unknowingly change their way of thinking and values while watching the animations.

The Empire is not a bad place at all.

It’s a country that’s more righteous than any other in this world, hates evil, and tries to protect its citizens no matter what happens.

If that weren’t the case, why would righteous characters like Kaina, the protagonist of “Machine God Chronicles”, and Alpha from “Book of Life and Death” try so hard to protect the Empire?

Right?

“The hostility towards each other that had built up over more than hundreds of years has largely crumbled in just one year. Of course, there are still quite a lot of citizens who have not-so-good feelings towards the Empire, but this too is just a matter of time.”

That is the power of culture.

Domination that subdues the other party only with swords and spears can never last forever, but.

Domination by culture naturally subdues the other party even if a thousand years pass.

And if Ragna’s animations spread throughout the Empire and people all over the world enjoy his animations, then that is-

“…..”

The King was looking at Kaisel with a different expression than just a moment ago.

Could it be that his son, whom he thought was just drawing strange pictures with girls swarming and squealing, had been thinking such serious thoughts inside?

“…Then, what do you think about us making animations?”

The King spoke with a quite serious expression.

“Our kingdom has had a very developed comic industry since ancient times. Then, wouldn’t it be fully possible to make animations based on those comics?”

To be honest, no one knows exactly how Ragna makes animations.

But in this world, there exists magic that can make drawings come to life.

Probably, after going through several trials and errors, it might be fully possible to make works of similar quality to Ragna’s animations.

However.

“No, that’s impossible. At least not yet.”

Kaisel flatly asserted that it was impossible.

“Certainly, as Your Majesty said, reproducing the animation itself is not that difficult. But… what’s the use of reproducing it like that? When the content can’t keep up at all.”

Kaisel said with a bitter smile on his lips.

“Ragna Tersion. The level of completion of the animations that friend makes is on a completely different dimension from that of the comics published in our kingdom. From the story to the setting, direction, and composition, it’s incomparable to our kingdom’s outdated comics.”

In fact, haven’t the kingdom’s comics also greatly improved in quality while watching Ragna’s animations?

It’s utterly unbelievable, but the animations Ragna makes have reached a level that far surpasses those of the current era.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it’s a level that humanity could reach after developing comics and animations for several decades to a hundred years.

“So making animations at the current level is almost suicidal. Unless we reach a level similar to Ragna’s animations, we’ll only invite people’s ridicule.”

At Kaisel’s words, the King unknowingly let out a sigh.

“…So that’s why you blurted out those crazy words earlier.”

“Yes. I know too well how powerful the animations Ragna makes are, so there’s no reason to refuse. But since it’s impossible for us to make animations like Ragna’s at this point-”

“You mean we should rather get a piece of the pie in the animations Ragna Tersion makes.”

Kaisel nodded his head at the King’s words.

“According to the news I’ve heard, Ragna’s new work following ‘Book of Life and Death’ is about various heroes from all eras and countries being resurrected in modern times and fighting. Then, if we could just insert a hero from our kingdom into that animation-”

“…Naturally, not only would our kingdom’s image rise, but the value we could gain from it would also be enormous.”

Certainly, Kaisel’s words were not wrong.

If things flow according to Kaisel’s intentions, there couldn’t be anything better than that.

However, if there’s one problem.

“But do we really… have to make our ancestor into a woman? No matter what, turning someone who was a man into a woman is a bit…”

As the King muttered with a disgruntled voice, Kaisel shook his head vigorously.

“No. This is only beneficial to the country, it can never be a loss. I believe our ancestor would fully understand for such an important matter. Also, wouldn’t our ancestor secretly be pleased to be able to change from a rugged man into a beautiful girl?”

“…..”

I doubt it.

I think it wouldn’t be strange if our ancestor rose from the grave right now and split your head open.

And so the King eventually gave in to Kaisel’s persistent persuasion, and.

Contacted the Empire side, saying they would accept any conditions if they would include a hero from the kingdom side in their next work.

But there was one fatal flaw in Kaisel’s thinking.

That was.

“We’ve come from the Bersila City Alliance! If you include our great hero, the Berserker who slew the nine-headed dragon, in the animation, we’ll pay any price-”

“Berserker? Why on earth should we include a hero from such a small country in Ragna-nim’s animation? Wouldn’t it be better to feature the hero of our Silgea Federation, the Master of Twin Spears?”

“Huh? Wasn’t that guy the married woman hunter who ran away with someone else’s wife?”

“What did you say? Take that back right now!”

That is, other countries had sent envoys to the Empire with exactly the same thoughts as Kaisel.

Of course, since each country’s interests were at stake, the envoys had no intention of making concessions at this place, and.

Eventually, to resolve this situation amicably, Ragna opened his mouth and said.

“We will hold an auction.”

“…An auction, you say?”

“Yes. Since it seems none of you are willing to back down here, isn’t that the only way to resolve the problem peacefully?”

Actually, I wanted to do it in a gacha format to draw heroes like ‘that game’, but.

If I did that, there was a risk of countries that suffered from bomb pulls starting a war, so I had no choice but to take this approach.

“Or… are you perhaps scared? Because you might lose to other countries in the auction?”

“…!”

At Ragna’s words, the envoys firmly denied it with sparks flying from their eyes.

“No, that’s impossible! How could our federation be lacking compared to those beggars!”

“Those lowly merchant bastards with only their mouths. Daring to… without knowing their place, things without history and tradition!”

“…..”

Seeing them already fighting before the auction even started, Ragna deliberately turned his gaze away.

Anyway.

At this place, the Henesys Free Market.
Impromptu opening.