Author Note: Prologue of Volume 3, this chapter is a summary of the situation in the world. The story on this chapter is a bit slow, sorry.
—- Arakawa Kouki Point of View —-
Three days after returning from the other world… I was leisurely watching a doc.u.mentary film in my room when Kon who was silently sleeping raise her head.
“What’s the matter?”
I called out to Kon who was staring at the door of the room. Later on, I heard Shingo’s voice via the interphone.
“Kouki, are you there?”
“I am here, go ahead and come in”
When I answered, Shingo was doing something outside the door while making rustling sounds, soon he opened the door using his feet and came into the room. Shingo’s hands are full with bags containing a lot of snacks which he probably bought at PX.
“What’s with the snacks? or rather, aren’t you suppose to be with Aikawa-san today?”
“Emi-chan went with Alice-chan to s.p.a.ce Research Laboratory. She is saying something about her thesis”
Shingo explains why he is not with Aikawa-san while sitting, he pa.s.s a bag of chocolate to Kon who immediately came close to ask him for her desired sweets. I see, so Shingo came to see me because he got nothing to do.
“In other words, because Shingo was left behind by your lovable Aikawa-san, you’ve came to see me rather, if you have so much time, why not got to the other world?”
“Fuhi! Th-That’s not true. Also, you are the same. You lock yourself in your room because Alice-chan is not around. I do not want to go to the other world. I will not be able to connect with the internet and will surely cause me to die”
Do not die for such a nonsense reason Shingo… I sigh while looking at my best friend who is vigorously eating sweets. Still, we really have a lot of time in our hands considering our current situation.
I remember before my reincarnation, there are plenty of things to do or use to pa.s.s time like gaming consoles, anime, manga, movies and many more. I cannot remember anything specific about myself but I probably used this things to pa.s.s time with my friends.
“”But those does not exist in this world”
“Fuhi? You said something?”
“No, nothing”
Shingo responds to my monologue but I was able to brush off his question… If I tell my best friend “Shingo, I died once and I got reincarnated”, he will surely think that I am crazy. In the first place, the so called “otaku”, “subculture” or “media culture” are not so well known in this world, rather it’s like it does not exist.
The reason that I know it is because I noticed that there are no animation other than educational programs running on television when I was still small. During that time, television broadcasting had already been switched to satellite network broadcasting. It was a system that will allow each house hold to pick up any program that they wanted to see.
I thought that we don’t have any anime on our channel due to my mom’s educational policy when I was still growing up but they left the remote on a table one day so I tried to check how many channels we have access. The result was surprising, our television is registered to “all” other than 10 adult programs out of nearly 600 network broadcasted channels.
I almost doubt such a huge number of channels registered but there was something more interesting than that. Although there are nearly 600 network channels, the programs registered in the category of music, movies and drama were extremely small and even though there are only few of them, they will stop broadcasting from 2AM to 7AM instead of broadcasting for 24 hours. When I learned of this fact, I became aware of this world’s anomaly and tried to ascertain to mom the famous people who are composers, musicians, film directors and mangaka that I know of. (TN: Mangaka = A person who creates/write manga)
My mom seemed to be surprised when I was desperately asked her about these people─ and she replied with a troubled face.
“Sorry. I do not know them, are they famous people?”
My mom told me she do not know those people, even the ones that you can see in textbooks. Mom is someone with a memory which is one hundred times more powerful than that of an ordinary man. However, why she doesn’t know them… I can only think of one explanation about it.
There are three important factors. First of all, the world war II that began in 1935 in this world… It is a great war that ended after a year and a half unlike the original history where no real victor is known.
In original history, the culture of movies and musicals develop at a rapid speed after the war. However, the people in those days in this world fortunately avoided the horrors of war after a short period of time and saw hope for their future. Without depending on entertainment to forget what had happen, the “movie and musical culture did not develop”.
The second is the European Tragedy, it is an illness that killed roughly half of the world’s population. Many people die including those who are supposed to become famous and that includes their descendants. I was able to confirm one famous person who is supposed to be one of the bestselling author around the world, he died before that happens as a result of the European Tragedy. The third, and I think this is the biggest reason…
The speed of development of Science and the technology along with it was abnormally fast. Taking photography technology as an example, even if new innovative methods or equipments are just introduced, it will only take less than a year or so for a new one to appear and replace the previous one. With such technology being replace at furious speed only enthusiast people keeps on working on it, making media culture almost irrelevant.
However, if it is “now”, would it be possible to develop media culture? I think it is possible. There are two reasons─ the first one is the existence of my mother, “Arakawa Miki”. The genius sudden appearance, which is somewhat similar to a meteor, in 2091 cause a technological revolution. Thanks to mom, earth’s technology leap ahead by 100 years. Even mom, at this point, cannot stop the advancement of technology in the future… probably…
With this reason, using the current technology we can make new video games, movie or anime and people will be able to enjoy the quality of them for a certain period of time. The second reason that I conclude that it is possible right now is because of my existence.
j.a.pan before my reincarnation had created a subculture which is known all around the world! Me who reincarnated from that world worked with Shingo who knows a lot of technical things and with my mom who is a genius, dominating the subculture world will be easy.
“Na, Shingo… have you ever seen an opera?”
“Nn, Ah~ I did but it wasn’t interesting”
“Ja sa, if the music is more bright and not cla.s.sical while the language is in j.a.panese, would you like to see it?”
“Etto, that’s not a theatre performance anymore, but if it is the same as what I am thinking then I will probably see it”
I see, so he is interested and something musical. Hmm… Rather than a comedic opera, would be an all girl opera better? Ma~ I guess I should ask other people on how people will react on my idea.
“The other day, I told you about Joachim-san’s story. If you can experience that story for yourself using a video or images on your terminal, would you like to try it?”
“Fuhi! I want to do it!”
Ho ho, looks like he is interested in RPG or a full role playing experience using VR technology. Rather, at the current level of technology, it will be more efficient to make the VR equipment smaller. That way people will be able to enjoy fantasy or action games anytime. You can even make people experience “psychological horror game”.
I think we can drastically shorten production time by having a dedicated department at Noah Island with group of technical people led by mom. Adjustment on the safety and effect on mental state of user is will be handled by macho. He has a heart of steel that doesn’t even make him jump on some external stimulus.
“Yoshi! Final question, are you going to watch an ‘anime’ with cute girls using magic to fight evil organizations or an amateur soldier playing a big role in preventing the attack of terrorists?”
“Yeah! I think I will absolutely watch that. It would be good if there is something like that, such wonderful dream”
That’s right Shingo, it is a wonderful dream. A subculture is something that fulfil dreams, it will allow you to become a ‘hero’ of your own, be something that you imagine or do something that you cannot do. This world is a happy place right now with no big wars or incurable diseases, so that is why I want to see dreams which is more than what we have in our daily lives. We have the technology and talented people to achieve it… the only problem is the funds. If we are doing something new in this world, I’d like to use our own money to fund our first step so that there are no sponsors who will complain.
The current money that I can freely use is $400 million. That is what left from the $500 million reward from developing a remedy for European Tragedy. We use it when I dug a hot spring with Shingo. If I subtract the amount needed to pay for Alice’s birthday gift from here, I will be left will a little over $150 million. It will be enough as initial fund but I want a little more if you allow me to be a little more greedy.
I need to gather allies who will walk together with me on this one, so I asked Shingo who is eating his fourth bag of chocolate candy in a serious tone.
“Shingo, how much money are left from your reward?”
“I think I just have about $300 million… I did not waste it! I had to get a new equipment using my own expense to my new research room which I got on the building of Kouki. There were only three of that in this world so it was expensive”
“I see, I have $400 million left but since I will be buying Alice’s Birthday Gift. I can only use $150 million from that”
“Fu-Fuhi!? W-wait a minute! What kind of gift costs nearly 24.6 Billion yen?”
“That is a secret, but you have $300 million huh?”
That means, if we combine my money in his 100 million, that is about 25 billion yen. That will be enough to hire Noah technicians and other expenses. Now we only need to put everything into practice! Surely, Shingo is the key to realize my crazy dream. While thinking so, I asked Shingo.
“Shingo, together, do you want to create a new era─ a new culture?”
“Eh… What, What is Kouki trying to say?”
In my words, Shingo was left with his mouth hanging open. While I was grinning to the behaviour that I perfectly antic.i.p.ated, I opened a bottle of soda that is on the table and began a long explanation to Shingo──
August 12, 2102, Arakawa Kouki, known as the ‘world’s best genius’, ‘demon child’, ‘knowledge monster’ by the governments, scientists and soldiers around the world. He make his own work public for the first time.
No one expected that he will later on be known as “Father of New Age”, “Media Prodigy”, “Maestro of Anime World”. He became the founder of “Special Media Entertainment Department” that will bring 40% of the overall sales made by the gigantic complex, Noah.
It is a short story for now. Next is the start of the creation of sub-culture. People will play a big role and will make it a big success, be sure to expect it.
We updated the activity report on 12 / 16th, please have a look, if you want.
※ Currently, the area where the author lives has been issued a storm snow alarm and there is a possibility of power outage! So, even if the correction of typos etc. is delayed, please don’t be upset. “Ah~ it’s the power outage” (‘; ω; `)