Chapter 307: Decent Negotiations
At past seven in the evening, Meng Fan left Kodansha with the first draft of a contract in his backpack. The contract naturally consisted of the collaboration contract Meng Fan had requested with Kodansha.
Of course, the collective contract wasn’t completely catered to Meng Fan’s requests, as he had to back down on some of his requests just like Kodansha did with theirs. These requests had been used by Meng Fan originally with the intention of leaving room to bargain as well, so he was satisfied in the end as long as they pa.s.sed his bottom line.
Of course, Kodansha had some requirements of their own as well, but it was all within the limits of the contract, so Meng Fan happily accepted them.
This included some very unfair clauses, like Kodansha having the power to terminate the manga and its serialization at any time.
In addition, aside from the animation copyrights going to Kodansha, all copyrights for “The Legend of the Mountains and Seas” within the region of j.a.pan also belonged to Kodansha.
If “The Legend of the Mountains and Seas” were to film a j.a.panese movie or TV series, Kodansha would be in charge.
Meng Fan wanted the manga to be serialized in j.a.pan. Aside from wholeheartedly wanting to penetrate the j.a.panese manga market with a Chinese manga — this was like how actors yearned for Hollywood, basketball players for the NBA, ping pong players gunning to get into Huaxia, and soccer players for the European Cup — but he also wanted to create a stepping stone by signing a contract.
For a manga to become popular, it required a serialization platform. Regardless if it was a manga publis.h.i.+ng house or an online platform, it had to continue producing volumes. Otherwise, n.o.body would know of it, and it will not gain popularity.
Most of the mangas in j.a.pan all went through these three publis.h.i.+ng houses for serialization, publications, and art book publications. If Meng Fan wanted his manga to penetrate the j.a.panese industry, he couldn’t avoid these three firms.
Even if this contract was not successful, Meng Fan could still await his manga to gain popularity in the mainland before selling it independently in j.a.pan. But he still had to go through one of these publis.h.i.+ng houses.
This was different in Huaxia, where he could randomly find any platform and serialize his manga, publish it at a private publis.h.i.+ng house, and gain popularity by selling copies by himself.
Of course, even if it was in the mainland, if Meng Fan didn’t have the skills as a base, the publis.h.i.+ng house would devour Meng Fan like they do with other exclusive manga artists, regardless which platform and publisher he chose.
Because he had the skills to back it up, he was able to negotiate with Kodansha without any reluctance toward their policy.
If he authorized part of the copyright to his manga through the cooperation agreement he signed with Kodansha, making websites and publis.h.i.+ng houses unwilling to sign with him, then Meng Fan would deal with the consequences himself.
Otherwise, Meng Fan still had to consider the market back home in Huaxia as he negotiated with Kodansha.
This time, they had reached an agreement and drafted up a contract, but it hadn’t been stamped yet. One, Meng Fan needed time to find a professional to look through the draft, and two, he wanted to visit Penguin Animations for some final negotiations.
Regardless if Penguin Animation agreed or not, Goro Takahas.h.i.+ will still fly out to Huaxia afterward to find Meng Fan and sign the contract.
If Penguin Animation Networks agreed to negotiate, and it went well, then they would have requests of their own too, which would require more negotiation and discussion. Ideally, all three parties would come out of this as winners if the situation allowed.
Meng Fan politely rejected Goro Takahas.h.i.+’s dinner invitation with several other colleagues, saying he already had plans. He had plans indeed. His second sister, Meng Cailian, had scheduled a Michelin-grade dinner for him, and Meng Caiwei, his third sister, had been excited to join them and also invited her friend s.h.i.+yua.
But Meng Fan didn’t reject Goro Takahas.h.i.+’s offer to drop him off. After he said his goodbyes, Meng Fan gave the driver an address and gave Yixin a call.
“Legend of the Mountains and Seas” had to be serialized in the mainland, and he was set on choosing Penguin Animation Network as his serialization platform. First, Penguin Animation Network was the largest manga hosting platform in the country, and second, he was used to working with them and too lazy to switch.
Yesterday, Meng Fan very shamelessly awarded himself with 100 million Penguin points, followed closely by 100 sponsors.h.i.+ps by an equally shameless Ironfan. Not only did they manage to list “Legend of the Mountains and Seas,” which didn’t even have a description yet, into the best-selling list, it also created the highest sales record since Penguin Animation’s creation.
The entire industry was boiling, much more so the web platform.
“Legend of the Mountains and Seas” could be said to have blown up before it was even aired. n.o.body even knew what the content would be, yet its popularity could rival some very popular manga artists’ lifetime of work.
The directing board from Penguin Animation Network had constantly been asking Yixin for updates on the situation, which made Yixin want to cry. What the h.e.l.l do I know, I want to know too!
After seeing his phone ring with a call from Meng Fan, Yixin immediately picked up the receiver and listened to the voice coming from the other end. Immediately, his expression changed. Then, his scream of excitement could be heard throughout the entire office.
“What? You signed with Kodansha?”
“And it’s a collaborative contract, too?”
“You’re really in j.a.pan!”
“And you somehow managed to give the copyrights for ‘Legend of the Mountains and Seas’ in j.a.pan to Kodansha?”
“While you still have the other copyrights?”
“You want to sign it with Penguin Animation Network?”
“So, it’s a Sino-j.a.panese collaborative effort to update?”
“Ha, ha! How did the negotiations go? You promise this is true!”
“Holy cow, how did you do it!”
“Sh*t, I’ll go right away!”
“Meng boss, please, please keep your phone line clear!”
After hanging up, Yixin hurriedly burst toward the editor-in-chief’s office, leaving the rest of the employees on this floor confused and stunned.
What was going on?
If they weren’t mistaken, it sounds like “Legend of the Mountains and Seas” managed to obtain a serialization opportunity at Kodansha, and it was a collaborative contract, too! And Meng Fan still had most of the copyright to his name and was planning to sign with Penguin Animation Networks right now!
What was Kodansha? What was a collaborative contract? What was a copyright? The editors knew all too well and knew what this would mean.
However, they couldn’t figure out how Meng Fan managed to pull this off!
This kind of operation was a hundred times more shameless than giving yourself 100,000 Penguin coins!
Meng Fan hung up the phone and chuckled. This Yixin senior was not a calm one.
To be fair, though, neither was Meng Fan.
Regardless, Meng Fan was very excited to have the opportunity to debut his manga on a national platform alongside the j.a.panese market.
He tossed his phone back and forth between his hands before suddenly remembering to message Wu Tong. Wu Tong knew of Meng Fan’s purpose in j.a.pan, so he had to let her know the good news.
“So, you ran out by yourself, didn’t you?” Wu Tong responded very quickly.
“…”
Meng Fan knocked on his brain. He’d forgotten about this.
Wu Tong quickly followed up. “(Smiley) Although I’m a little upset, still, congratulations. Come back soon. Before you come to me, go hang out with my Seventh Bro.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
They chatted a few more before the car pulled into Ginza through the Chuo district and into the Tsukamoto Main building. Meng Fan departed the car and entered the bas.e.m.e.nt floor. As he walked, the small narrow sus.h.i.+ shop appeared in his view at the end of the hallway. This was a famous sus.h.i.+ restaurant called “Sukiyabas.h.i.+ Jiro.” It was the restaurant that Meng Fan’s sisters had spent so much effort trying to reserve, and the place Meng Fan and Satomi Is.h.i.+hara would be having their meal.
At the door, Meng Fan paused and truthfully told Wu Tong. “Uhm, I planned this trip to Singapore and j.a.pan a long time ago. My sister wants me to bring something for Satomi Is.h.i.+hara, so we’re going to grab dinner along the way. I’m outside the restaurant right now.”
He was honest but not dumb. He had to find an excuse… As for the blame, he could only put it on Meng Caiwei.
“Oh, Satomi Is.h.i.+hara? Go ahead. I’m not at the point of being jealous of someone thousands of kilometers away.”
Meng Fan saw this and immediately responded: “I promise, once I’m done, I’ll immediately go to Seventh Bro!”
Without mentioning if he was a fan meeting an idol, Wu Tong had only clarified she wasn’t going to be jealous. Meng Fan could tell something was wrong.
Before, she couldn’t care less about him since they weren’t dating, but it’s definitely different now. With Meng Fan’s charming aura, G.o.d knows who was the idol and who was the fan? Wu Tong wasn’t blind after all.
It didn’t mean she didn’t trust him or that she lacked confidence. It could only be described with the idiom, ‘A small step to prevent an erroneous idea at the outset.’
You can give a man his s.p.a.ce, but they still had to be molded.
When it came to this, Wu Tong wasn’t just going to sit back and be some all encompa.s.sing buddha.
After talking, Meng Fan entered the seemingly small sus.h.i.+ restaurant, which was actually very small indeed. The entire restaurant only had ten seats.
But despite its small size, it was actually a three-star Michelin restaurant. The main chef, Jiro Ono, was known as the “G.o.d of Sus.h.i.+.”
This shop required reservation at least one month in advance. Each session lasted 15 minutes, and the average consumption was 30,000 yen per customer. And, most average customers did not get to eat sus.h.i.+ crafted by the ‘G.o.d’ himself.
As Meng Fan was brought to his seat, he was looking for Satomi Is.h.i.+hara to arrive. However, a chef in uniform appeared in front of Meng Fan, taking him by surprise.
“M-san!”