My Name is Hiroshi Nohara, Star of Neon Film and Television!

Chapter 113: Do I Need to Teach You How to Fall in Love? I Directly Brought a 27.5% Variety Show Frenzy!

At this time, inside the Production Bureau Headquarters Building of TV Tokyo.

The Nohara Section.

Currently, the office was filled with a joyful atmosphere. Everyone was whispering with smiles on their faces, occasionally bursting into roars of laughter.

Everyone's mood was light and excited.

The atmosphere was absolutely wonderful!

By now, everyone present had already watched the Kasou Taishou produced by Tanaka Kei under Nohara Hiroshi's direction through the television in the office.

They were all made to laugh heartily by that entertainment feast—performances that, despite being acted out, had been designed with musical scores and formalized scripts, then perfectly presented to the audience through editing.

Even though the first episode of Kasou Taishou had finished broadcasting, everyone present was still relishing those comedic segments.

Unable to forget them for a long time.

Because by acting as a Copycat and bringing the Kasou Taishou from his previous world's Japan into this parallel world—a Japan that had not yet invented this variety show—Nohara Hiroshi had truly delivered what could be called a Dimensional Strike.And as they chatted, everyone began to look toward the back office at the young man who was also sitting on the sofa, smiling.

Thus, they all began to cheer one after another—

"Long live Section Chief Nohara!"

"Long live Section Chief Nohara!"

"Long live Section Chief Nohara!"

Everyone from the three small production teams in the Nohara Section cheered "Long live!" three times toward Nohara Hiroshi.

Their gazes were indescribably fanatical!

"Alright, alright." Nohara Hiroshi smiled and raised a hand, signaling for everyone to calm down. "If we went back fifty years, you cheering for me like this would be enough for a charge of treason and throwing me straight into prison!"

Instantly, these words drew even heartier laughter from everyone.

The current Japanese royal family had been weakened.

They only had prestige.

They no longer had real power or authority.

Also, following decades of post-war education, although the public still respected the royal family, they treated it very lightly. Making occasional jokes about it didn't matter.

Beep beep beep—

However, just as Nohara Hiroshi wanted to make a few more jokes, that brand-new Panasonic P100 intrusively emitted a buzzing vibration.

He picked up the phone, his expression slightly stunned. "Big Brother?"

Nohara Hiroshi knew that his older brother, Nohara Semashi, would absolutely never call him unless it was an urgent matter. After all, given his older brother's personality, and how expensive mobile phone calls were nowadays...

Would he call casually?

"Hello, Big Brother," Nohara Hiroshi answered the call.

"Hi... Hiroshi?" On the other end of the phone came the hesitant, and thus somewhat stuttering, voice of his older brother Nohara Semashi, sounding like a clumsy bear that had stumbled into a china shop. "Um... are... are you free to talk right now?"

"Not quite, what's up?" Nohara Hiroshi asked;

he could hear that something was wrong with his brother's voice.

The other end fell silent for a moment, as if organizing his words, or perhaps as if mustering the greatest courage of his life.

After a long time, Nohara Semashi's distressed voice—bordering on a plea for help—finally came through. "Um... Hiroshi, I... I wanted to ask you something. It's... it's about in Tokyo, how do you city folks... how do you pursue girls?"

"...What do you mean, 'you city folks'!?" Several clearly visible black lines instantly popped up on Nohara Hiroshi's temple.

Good grief, had his own older brother kicked him out of their hometown registry?

However, he didn't say these words out loud.

He only felt helpless that his older brother... actually needed to ask him for advice on falling in love.

He could almost picture his honest, naive older brother scratching his head right now, his tanned face flushing a bright, embarrassed red.

"What's wrong? Whose eye caught yours?" Nohara Hiroshi asked helplessly.

"It's... it's not exactly that..." Nohara Semashi's voice grew quieter and quieter, as if he were doing something guilty. "It's just that a few days ago, when I went to the agricultural cooperative in the city to run some errands, I met a girl named Ikuna at the coffee shop. She... she is very nice, and looks pretty when she smiles. I... I just..."

"Just what?" Nohara Hiroshi pressed on.

However, he was also lost in thought. "Ikuna? Sure enough, this plotline has arrived... In the story, Nohara Semashi falls in love with this girl named Ikuna! But right now, Ikuna shouldn't be married yet. She hasn't experienced her first failed marriage, nor has she had a child."

"I just saw a young guy driving a car giving her flowers every day!"

Nohara Semashi's voice suddenly rose, filled with uncontrollable resentment and unwillingness. "I... I'm just a farmer, what do I have to compare with him? He has a car and a decent job, and me... apart from all this physical strength and the smell of dirt on me, I have nothing."

These words were overflowing with the inferiority complex belonging to an honest countryman.

"That's it?" But Nohara Hiroshi laughed.

"Aniki, have you forgotten what I told you?" His voice was calm, yet carried a power capable of soothing people's hearts.

"What words?" Nohara Semashi asked blankly.

"You are not just a farmer," Nohara Hiroshi enunciated every word clearly. "You are the future President of Nohara Agricultural Corporation. An entrepreneur who is about to own dozens of hectares of land and manage dozens of employees."

The other end fell silent once more, but this time, that silence contained a newly ignited, faint spark.

"I will buy you a car. I have also already prepared an outfit for you—one that is enough for you to stand tall with your back straight in any occasion," Nohara Hiroshi continued. His tone was like a general devising strategies, handing out weapons to his subordinates capable of conquering cities and strongholds.

"The only thing you need to do right now is to puff out your chest and use your most genuine, most rustic appearance to tell that girl that you, Nohara Semashi, are a reliable man capable of giving her a stable future."

"As for that guy driving the car..." The corners of Nohara Hiroshi's mouth curled into a cold arc. "Trust me, it won't be long before he won't even have the qualifications to carry your shoes."

These resolute words, words brimming with absolute confidence, left Nohara Semashi dumbfounded on the spot.

"Is Otouto really... this strong right now?"

...

And there was indeed a reason for Nohara Hiroshi being this confident.

It wasn't even five o'clock—quitting time—yet.

The Viewership Ratings report for the first episode of Kasou Taishou had already come out.

And when it flew into the offices of all the major departments at TV Tokyo like snowflakes, everyone was thoroughly stunned by the glaring number on it—a number enough to make their hearts stop beating.

27.5%!

"This is fake, right?! Am I fucking still asleep?!"

The office manager of the General Affairs Office of the Production Bureau at TV Tokyo looked at the report in his hands, feeling his blood pressure skyrocketing at a speed that defied all medical logic.

He was Takada Toshihide's trusted aide.

So he understood exactly what this number represented. Because of this, he practically scrambled—Rolling and Crawling—out of his office and charged toward the Executive Deputy Director's office, a place that had long become a forbidden zone for the entire station.

"Deputy Director Takada! Deputy Director Takada! A huge incident has occurred!"

"Speak properly! What huge incident!?" Takada Toshihide's secretary had just brought the Viewership Ratings report over to him, and he hadn't yet looked at it.

At this moment, seeing this PR department's Department Manager scrambling over, he also couldn't help but frown.

He couldn't help but reprimand him, "Watch your image! You should know..." However, as he was speaking, Takada Toshihide also looked down at the contents of the document. When he saw that 27.5% Viewership Rating, his eyes bulged wide open!

"Bakayaro!" Takada Toshihide directly blurted out the national curse. "How could this be!?"

At the exact same time, the atmosphere inside Bureau Chief of Production Sakata Nobuhiko's office was one of jubilation.

"27.5%! The premiere of a brand-new variety show in the afternoon slot... its Viewership Ratings are actually higher than our station's most ace Prime Time TV drama?! Asumi! You... you have truly performed a peerless meritorious deed for our Production Bureau this time!"

Sakata Nobuhiko was so excited his entire face was completely red. He heavily patted Asumi's shoulder, his face expressing undisguised ecstasy and excitement.

Asumi simply smiled calmly, and deep within his eyes, he also finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Bureau Chief, this is all due to your excellent leadership, and Nohara-kun's willingness to bravely fight for TV Tokyo under your guidance," he said humbly.

"Hahahahaha!" Sakata Nobuhiko immediately began to laugh even more happily.

He didn't care about factional disputes.

Although he occasionally showed biased favoritism.

But right now, Sakata Nobuhiko had long since been deeply bound to TV Tokyo's Production Bureau. As long as the various proposed programs they produced were better...

Then that meant Sakata Nobuhiko's status became higher!

"I will give you rewards! Asumi-kun!" And Sakata Nobuhiko wasn't one to just give out empty Checks. Instead, he looked at Asumi and said seriously, "Do a good job during this period. At the end of the year, all of you will definitely participate in the Film and Television Association's awards, and the Bonus... will be even greater!"

"Hai! Thank you for your profound benevolence, Bureau Chief Sakata!" Asumi immediately stood perfectly straight and then bowed at a ninety-degree angle.

On his lowered face, the corners of his mouth also curled upward.

This was exactly what he wanted!

...

Meanwhile, inside that Executive Deputy Director's office filled with despair and deathly stillness.

Takada Toshihide blankly stared at that report sheet. All the color from his normally somewhat gloomy face had drained completely clean in an instant.

Yasui Takashi and Ito Choan, those two variety show aces of the Tokyo Faction, were also sitting blankly on the sofa at this moment. Their faces were written full of unbelievable shock.

Their brains—those two professional brains filled with the "iron rules" and "experience" of variety shows—were in this moment thoroughly crushed into powder by that terrifying 27.5% number!

They lost.

Lost completely and utterly.

Lost... without even a pair of underwear left to their name.

Because the Viewership Ratings of the variety shows directed by these two men were actually only about 25%.

Now that the first episode of Nohara Hiroshi's Kasou Taishou had come out, it was 27.5% straight away.

It directly exceeded them by about 2.5%.

How could they fight this!?

Thinking back to when they had watched Kasou Taishou, those brilliant performances and that lightning-fast pacing that made it impossible for people to even think.

Now, they truly felt that this grand public execution named "manufactured hype," which they had personally directed, had ultimately transformed into the most magnificent coronation ceremony, offering a crown to that young man.

And they had become the most pathetic, and also the most ridiculous, background boards at this coronation.

...

The speed at which this storm of rules filled with pure joy whipped up by Kasou Taishou spread was far faster than anyone had imagined.

As TV Tokyo internals were still shaking from this astonishing data, this shockwave had already crossed regional boundaries, viciously slamming into the faces of those competitors who were Watching Fire from Across River.

Osaka, Kansai TV.

"27.5%?! In the afternoon slot?!"

Bureau Chief of Production Waya Ichiro looked at the Viewership Ratings report faxed over from Tokyo, an ashen look coming over his face.

He felt as if his heart had been tightly gripped by an invisible hand, making even breathing difficult.

He recalled his "Anti-Nohara Hiroshi Alliance" that had once been brimming with black humor, remembered his confident declaration of "encirclement," and recalled that absolute confidence belonging to an ace.

At this very moment...

It was thoroughly crushed into powder by that terrifying 27.5% number!

"Monster... that guy... he simply isn't human..." he muttered to himself. His voice was filled with a powerlessness and awe stemming directly from the marrow—feelings generated after being completely steamrolled by absolute power.

...

And amidst this massive storm sweeping across all of Japan, those Film Critics who had previously harbored doubts about Nohara Hiroshi were now like a group of believers struck by a divine oracle, putting down their prepared pens full of harshness and sarcasm one after another.

The veteran Film Critic Spicy Kara-Jishi, using a tone bordering on repentance in his column the next day in Shukan Bunshun, wrote down an all-new title capable of shaking the entire Japanese television industry.

[God Has Descended.]

"...I must extend my most sincere apologies to Sensei Nohara Hiroshi for my previous shallowness and ignorance. I had thought he was only a storytelling genius. But I was wrong, utterly wrong."

"He isn't producing a program at all. He is making rules. An all-new set of entertainment rules belonging only to him, named 'Nohara Hiroshi'!"

"He has used the simplest, purest creativity to inject the strongest, most potent shot of 'happiness' into our era that has long been corroded by boredom and numbness! He let us know that, as it turns out, happiness can be this simple, this pure."

"Starting from tonight, please allow me to withdraw all of my previous disrespectful words, and in the capacity of the most devout believer, offer my highest respects to this true deity who has long been standing at the summit of this era."

The moment this article came out, all of Japan completely boiled over.

Because this wasn't an exaggerated description.

Rather, it was reality!

Because in everyone's impression, as long as they had finished watching Kasou Taishou, this was exactly the mindset they had!

When everyone likes a certain person and also acknowledges their work, yet the audience who comes to watch holding feelings of Expect Better had already lowered their psychological expectations, hoping only that it would be merely passable.

What was suddenly just Natto mixed with rice in their minds, food topped with at most a little soy sauce...

Once they opened the lunchbox, they found it had turned into a grand French feast.

Turned into Kaiseki Cuisine.

Turned into a Wagyu set meal!

How could this not result in fanatical worship, treating him like a god?!

Currently.

Nohara Hiroshi.

Was using precisely this method of suppressing first before lifting up to conquer everybody!