Fang Zheng's words left Duan Shuiqing even more confused. Wasn't "not suitable" just another way of saying she had been eliminated?
Seeing that Duan Shuiqing still didn't understand, Fang Zheng sighed and said, "Esdeath is only one of the roles being auditioned for today, not the only one. Your voice isn't suitable for Esdeath, but it matches another role perfectly."
As he spoke, Fang Zheng picked up another script from the side and said, "Take a look at this one."
After hearing Fang Zheng's words, delight flashed across Duan Shuiqing's face. She hurried forward and took the script he held out.
Mine, an assassin of Night Raid, was a tsundere, but extremely straightforward at heart. She had a very cute voice. Though she appeared indifferent to her comrades, she actually valued them greatly, and she possessed the air of a noble young lady.
This was Mine's character setting. After reading it, Duan Shuiqing felt as though a voice in her mind were telling her that this role had been prepared for her from birth.
Meanwhile, to help Duan Shuiqing understand Mine's character even better, Fang Zheng took out the original drawing of Mine that he had created and handed it to her.
Her long pink hair was tied into twin tails, and she had pink eyes and a pink dress. It was obvious that this petite and adorable girl really liked the color pink.
Pink matched a girl's pure, innocent heart perfectly, and Mine was the same. That was Duan Shuiqing's most immediate impression after looking at the drawing.
"How is it? Do you feel anything now?" Fang Zheng watched Duan Shuiqing with a hearty smile. The moment she had opened her mouth during the audition, he had felt that her voice had practically been made for Mine. The compatibility between them was nearly perfect.
"Director Fang, please let me try!"
Duan Shuiqing was so excited that she could barely contain herself. From the first moment she saw Mine, she had fallen in love with the character. Although she wasn't as die-hard as Yang Li, she wasn't far behind.
"Director Fang, what does 'tsundere' mean?"
Duan Shuiqing took the script and walked back and forth twice, carefully immersing herself in that feeling and trying her best to grasp the spark of inspiration in her mind.
But she always felt that something was missing. In the end, her gaze settled on the two words "tsundere" in Mine's character setting.
Her terrifying woman's intuition told her that the problem lay there.
The word "tsundere" had spread widely, and the anime community could be said to deserve much of the credit. However, anime had only just begun to emerge in this world, so people had no concept of tsundere at all.
Duan Shuiqing was no exception. She understood the two words separately, but when they were put together, she found the feeling difficult to grasp.
"Good question!"
Fang Zheng smiled and nodded. He had known Duan Shuiqing would ask this. Asking meant that she was truly studying Mine's feelings carefully and working hard to place herself in the character's shoes.
Fang Zheng pondered for a moment, then looked at Duan Shuiqing and said, "In my view, tsundere is a character trait in anime. For example, you might really like someone and enjoy spending time with them."
Duan Shuiqing and everyone else nearby listened with great seriousness. After all, they wanted to hear what "tsundere" truly meant as well.
"But to conceal your shyness and bashfulness, you often speak to the person you like in an extremely arrogant, forceful, or even cutting tone. That kind of personality, where the inside and outside don't match, is what tsundere means."
After hearing Fang Zheng's explanation, Duan Shuiqing closed her eyes and carefully considered his definition of "tsundere." She thought about what tone she should use to express that feeling.
Seeing her like this, no one urged her. Everyone knew that Duan Shuiqing was thinking.
After a long while, Duan Shuiqing opened her eyes, greeted Fang Zheng, and hurried into the recording booth.
Fang Zheng immediately turned on the recording equipment as well. His eyes were filled with anticipation as he watched Duan Shuiqing inside the booth.
Perhaps success and failure came down to a split-second spark of inspiration. Duan Shuiqing's urgent expression just now had clearly shown that she had grasped that instant of inspiration and wanted to express it.
"You're still the same as ever, so hopeless~"
"Whether it's the wrong path or whatever else, I'll only follow my own road!"
"Only I can save myself!"
"..."
In the first part of the script, Duan Shuiqing perfectly recreated Fang Zheng's impression of Mine's tsundere personality. Her performance was flawless.
"Clap! Clap! Clap!"
Fang Zheng began applauding unconsciously. Looking at Duan Shuiqing as she walked out of the recording booth, he nodded with great satisfaction and said, "Mine's voice-acting role is yours. If you're willing, we can sign the contract now."
"Really, Director Fang?!"
"I passed?!"
Duan Shuiqing was so excited that she nearly jumped. She stared at Fang Zheng incredulously, her mind in complete disarray. She didn't even know what she was saying anymore; she only knew that she was incredibly happy.
"Shuiqing, congratulations~" As the head of the voice-acting department, Yang Li was the first to step forward and congratulate Duan Shuiqing. The others also applauded enthusiastically to celebrate her success.
"Thank you, thank you, everyone~"
"Thank you, Director Fang, for giving me this opportunity!"
Duan Shuiqing was overwhelmed with excitement. Just moments ago, she had thought she had been eliminated and had even wondered whether she was destined to be unsuitable for this line of work.
But the next moment, the situation had taken a dramatic turn, and Fang Zheng had given her an enormous surprise.
"All right, all right. Celebrate later. For now, go ahead and sign the contract."
Zhang Siyu walked over from the side with a freshly printed contract in her hand. It detailed both parties' responsibilities and obligations, as well as the compensation and benefits.
Duan Shuiqing took the contract, skimmed through it, and then signed her name.
Her previous job hadn't been anything special anyway. Now that she could sign with ACG Culture Company, it was practically a meteoric rise.
Moreover, she would be a voice actress under Fang Zheng, whose fame had spread across the entire internet, and would be providing the voices for the eagerly anticipated Akame ga Kill! This job was simply too good.
"Welcome aboard~"
Fang Zheng briefly shook hands with Duan Shuiqing. From that moment on, she officially joined his company.
Seeing this, the others couldn't hide their envy. They were all extremely eager for a job like this.
"Here's Mine's upcoming script. Familiarize yourself with the plot marked on it and get a feel for it."
Fang Zheng handed Mine's upcoming script to Duan Shuiqing and had her study the plot on the side. Mine's later ending was rather tragic, so the emotions in her voice acting would naturally need to change as well.
That was precisely why Fang Zheng had specifically added plot explanations to the script.
Duan Shuiqing took the script and read it for a while. Then she cast an odd glance at Fang Zheng, who was busy auditioning other characters, and her face went somewhat blank.
"Does it feel absurd?"
Yang Li walked over to Duan Shuiqing. She knew all too well why Duan Shuiqing had made that expression.
When she had first learned that Shiru's ending was death, she had looked exactly the same.
"Sis Yang, if I remember correctly, this anime is the super-heated battle anime Director Fang promoted, right?"
Duan Shuiqing stared at the plot description in the script, her mind a complete mess.
Where was the excitement? Where was the passion?
Why had she only seen heartbreak and depression? Was there something wrong with her perspective?
Duan Shuiqing felt as if her worldview had collapsed, and collapsed thoroughly at that.
"You'll get used to it. Someone's getting farther and farther down the road of courting death."
Yang Li turned her head toward Fang Zheng, who was sitting beside the recording equipment, a mysterious smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
Before Akame ga Kill! aired, you were strutting around so arrogantly here. Once Akame ga Kill! airs, let's see how you turn into a rat crossing the street.
Those viewers weren't Fang Zheng's employees. They wouldn't hold back because of this or that. Once they understood what Akame ga Kill! truly represented, the scene would probably be no different from the apocalypse.
"Gulp." Duan Shuiqing watched Fang Zheng bustling about, then turned her head and looked suspiciously at Yang Li. "Sis Yang, should we remind Director Fang to buy personal accident insurance in advance?"
Although she found Mine's ending difficult to accept, kind-hearted Duan Shuiqing still couldn't bear to watch Fang Zheng go all the way down this road.
If Fang Zheng really got bombarded by furious fans, wouldn't the job she had just obtained go up in smoke? Wouldn't she be unemployed again?
At the thought, Duan Shuiqing stared at Fang Zheng's back and clenched her fists.
"I absolutely have to remind Director Fang to buy insurance. Preferably, he should put my name down as the beneficiary!"
Duan Shuiqing could already imagine how those fans who adored Akame ga Kill! would react once it aired. They would probably be shouting, "What the hell?!" so loudly that a riot might even break out~
In that situation, an insurance policy would be able to demonstrate its greatest value!
Achoo~!
Meanwhile, Fang Zheng rubbed his nose. He looked around suspiciously, and after seeing that no one was casting him any ill-intentioned looks, his expression grew puzzled.
"Did I catch a cold?"
The audition process wasn't very long. Generally, a person only needed to say a few lines, because Fang Zheng knew every character extremely well. The moment the other person spoke, he knew whether their voice was suitable.
He had to admit that Yang Li's classmates had amazed him. They truly deserved to be professionals; their control over their voices far exceeded that of ordinary people.
Some could even change their voices like he could. Though they weren't as versatile as him, it was still astonishing.
However, by the end of the auditions, they still hadn't found a suitable voice actress for Esdeath. Yang Li's classmates had all tried, but none of them matched the Esdeath Fang Zheng had in mind.
"Queen... Queen..."
Fang Zheng sat in the recording studio with Esdeath's script in his hand, muttering the word over and over.
Seeing him in this state, everyone tactfully refrained from disturbing him.
"Director Fang, how is the promotional poster I asked you to draw earlier coming along?"
At that moment, Zhang Siyu, who had left with the signed contract, walked in again. Seeing Fang Zheng sitting on the sofa, she approached him and asked.
"Poster? What poster?"
Fang Zheng froze. He raised his head to look at Zhang Siyu and blinked, not understanding what she was talking about.
"Director Fang, the promotional plan I sent you the day before yesterday—did you not read a single word of it?"
At Fang Zheng's words, Zhang Siyu's bright and pretty face instantly changed, as though the skies had gone from clear to cloudy.
Watching her face slowly darken, Fang Zheng thought carefully for a moment. He suddenly remembered that Zhang Siyu had called him that night and said she had prepared a promotional plan for him to review. If he had no objections, they would promote the anime according to the plan.
After all, because Fang Zheng had stayed silent for so long, the online buzz surrounding the anime had declined somewhat. Zhang Siyu wanted to heat the topic up again and use it as a pre-release promotion for Akame ga Kill!
But judging by the current situation, Fang Zheng seemed to have completely forgotten about it.
Zhang Siyu clenched her silver teeth. If she could, she really wanted to pry open Fang Zheng's head and see what was inside. Was it all paste??!
Before you continue