An Overview of the Ghost Talent

Mihara Chisa quickly brought over some animation paper and pencils.

After Gu Xue took them, she considered for a moment, then lowered her head and began to draw.

If she just spoke to Misawa Hiroshi, Gu Xue felt she wouldn't be able to explain it clearly. Although magical girls could barely be considered witches, the witch-themed anime Gu Xue was proposing—Little Witch Academia, one of the representative works of Trigger on Earth—was completely different from a magical girl show.

The character designs for Little Witch Academia leaned more toward an American comic style, and the aesthetic was very American as well. At first glance, it felt like a children's cartoon from the West, yet it possessed a very strong Japanese animation flavor. The two styles were blended together; before one got used to it, it felt quite awkward.

This was also why Trigger's works were known as "moe-otaku filters."

Misawa Hiroshi felt that awkwardness. Watching the characters rapidly taking shape under Gu Xue's pen, he whispered, "This style... it feels too American, doesn't it? These are witches, right?"

Gu Xue was drawing the protagonist of Little Witch Academia, Akko, along with her two roommates, Lotte and Sucy.

The three of them wore tall conical hats and academy-style robe-like outfits, standing together with their brooms. Because the lines for the characters' faces and hair looked relatively simple, it did indeed look very much like an American comic style at first glance, so it was natural to not be used to it at the start.

Gu Xue, who was sketching the outline of the academy on the paper, looked up at him. "You can call them witches if you want. The character prototypes are those old hags with hooked noses from Western fairy tales anyway; I just drew them a bit cuter..."

"Eh..." Misawa Hiroshi wore an expression that said, "Is it really okay to do this?"

In his mind, shouldn't a witch be a girl with an innocent personality who shouts "transformation" and whose appearance becomes gorgeous and fancy? What kind of nonsense was basing it on a witch?

Gu Xue understood Misawa Hiroshi's concerns and chuckled. "Actually, in essence, it's no different from a magical girl show. They are both stories about girls who can use magic. It's just that the setting of this story is different from the magical girl anime on the market. It's similar to Harry..."

Gu Xue had originally intended to say that Little Witch Academia was a magical fantasy theme similar to Harry Potter, but at the critical moment, she remembered: where would Harry Potter exist in this world?

Gu Xue paused for a long while, unable to think of any similar anime or TV dramas on the market, so she simply said, "...You can just understand it as me wanting to tell a story with a Western fantasy theme."

"...Then what is it specifically about?" Misawa Hiroshi asked.

Gu Xue was silent for a moment, then pointed to the Gothic-style architecture on the paper and said, "You know about school-themed anime, right?"

"Yeah."

"You know about magic, right?"

"Yeah."

"You understand dragons, too, right?"

"Yeah."

"What about dungeons in RPG games?"

"...Yeah."

"This story is about a group of little witches living happily at a prestigious school that trains witches. But one day, during a project exploring a dungeon, a problem arises. A student accidentally releases an ancient dragon, the academy falls into a huge crisis, and then the underdog protagonist defeats the dragon and saves the academy."

Gu Xue finished in one breath, then proudly struck a pose that said, "Simple, right?"

What a... genius at summarizing.

"...The story is way too simple! And yet there are so many elements!" Misawa Hiroshi couldn't help but retort.

After hearing Gu Xue's explanation, Mihara Chisa didn't speak. If it were Misawa Hiroshi, she would have said that if he wanted to do a witch theme, it would be better to just do the magical girls commonly found on the market, as they would be easier for the audience to accept, and that he should think it over carefully. But since the person proposing this idea was Gu Xue, she subconsciously felt it was quite reliable...

It was a good thing Misawa Hiroshi didn't know what she was thinking, or he would be feeling sour again...

"I know what you want to do." Seeing Misawa Hiroshi's conflicted expression, Gu Xue laughed. "Is it that kind of deep, pretentious, and preferably metaphorical type of anime?"

Misawa Hiroshi had been hit right in the heart, and he smiled with a sense of awkwardness.

It felt as if his chuunibyou tendencies had been discovered by someone else.

"Although I don't oppose you making that type of anime, you have to realize one thing: the runtime is only twenty-something minutes. How are you going to express the story in your mind within that limited time? It's a simple principle. Just like that space mecha film you want to make—you have to introduce the background, right? After all, who knows what the space in your story is like? You also have to introduce the mechs, right? Since ordinary audiences generally don't have a concrete concept of mechs. And then there are the characters and so on. If you throw all these settings that the audience isn't familiar with at them one by one, they might not even want to watch it."

"When making anime, creating something that makes people happy and is pure is also a remarkable thing. Blindly pursuing artistic merit is putting the cart before the horse. Well, maybe not putting the cart before the horse... It's just that I believe, at least for now, you don't have the ability to make the anime you envision. Although what I'm saying is a bit harsh, you should know very well that you really don't have much experience."

"At this time, isn't it better to choose elements that the audience is familiar with—like dragons, magic, and schools—things that people have a rough concept of as soon as they are mentioned? Wouldn't it be better to make a work that most of the audience can accept, can quickly get into, and after finishing it, will simply think, 'Wow, that was a great anime'?"

Gu Xue said a lot in one breath.

She had seen many people like Misawa Hiroshi before. These types of people think too much but lack the corresponding ability. If they have self-awareness, they will choose to take a step back and compromise a little. If they don't, they will hit a brick wall, get hurt a little, and only then will they wake up.

Misawa Hiroshi was silent for a long time, then gave a wry smile. "...I'm convinced by you, but I still want to think about it. It's not that I'm rejecting your suggestion, but could you make the witch-themed story a bit more detailed? For example, write a rough original draft or draw more concept art? With just the few words you said, I don't have a concrete concept."

"...Fine." Gu Xue nodded.

After all, he was the director, so he still had to agree on what they were actually making.

Gu Xue lowered her head to continue drawing, but she hadn't drawn much before she thought of something quite important. She looked up and asked suspiciously, "By the way, why am I doing this work?"

Misawa Hiroshi: "..."

Mihara Chisa: "..."

"I came here to discuss whether or not to join this project, right? Why did it suddenly turn into discussing the theme and me writing the original draft?" The more Gu Xue thought about it, the more wrong it felt. "And I haven't even agreed to join this project yet, have I?"

Thanks to Yongyuan Xianhong for the 1000 reward, Akatsukiryuu for the 500 reward, Zhanyu for the 100 reward, Bingjing Zhilian for the 100 reward, Fanchen Luanshi Xueqingjie for the 100 reward, FIOF for the 100 reward, and ZASL for the 100 reward. Thank you all.

(Also, I'm sorry... there is only one chapter today.)