novelraw Chapter 119: The Nationwide Auditions for Kasou Taishou Begin! The Era-Subverting Show Has Arrived!
Chapter 119: The Nationwide Auditions for Kasou Taishou Begin! The Era-Subverting Show Has Arrived!
In early September, the summer heat of Tokyo hadn't entirely dissipated. Like a lingering ferocious beast, it continued to steam the asphalt roads with an irritating, hot wave.
However, inside the office of the [Nohara Hiroshi Independent Production Department], where the air conditioning was blasted as cold as Siberia, the atmosphere was a fervent scene of high-spirited passion.
To be exact, it was the [Yamishibai Animation Production Section].
"Is everyone here?"
Nohara Hiroshi's arrival instantly caused the somewhat noisy discussions inside the Animation Section to come to an abrupt halt.
His gaze calmly swept across this team that had just begun to take shape.
Hashishita Ichiro, the man he had personally dragged back from the brink of hell, currently stood at the very front as straight as a javelin.
His former decadence was long gone. His brand-new suit was ironed without a single wrinkle. In those eyes that were once occupied by remorse and despair, there was now only a pure fanaticism.
Behind him were Minamura Hoshi, Haseji Kakeru, and Kitagawa Yao, a trio whose mental outlook had also been completely renewed.
The old veterans.As well as four young assistants holding a bit of restraint and curiosity on their faces, who had just been "poached" from other departments.
"Hai! Department Manager!" Hashishita Ichiro bowed heavily, his voice full of resounding vitality.
"Sit." Nohara Hiroshi pointed at the conference table, while he unhurriedly walked over to the whiteboard.
He didn't speak too much nonsense, because his coming over this time to give a routine explanation on the core essence of Yamishibai also doubled as business training for this section.
Nohara Hiroshi picked up a marker and wrote two large words on that pristine white surface—"Soul".
"Let me ask you, what do you all think is the soul of Yamishibai?"
This question stunned everyone present.
"Is it... is it the art style?" A newly arrived assistant tentatively answered: "That rough, unique style full of the pulling-and-sliding sensation of a 'Kamishibai'?"
"It's the stories!" Minamura Hoshi instantly retorted, posturing like a fanatical fan defending their idol: "It's those Urban Legends that originate from daily life, yet become terrifying the more you think about them!"
"I believe it's the atmosphere." Hashishita Ichiro pondered for a moment and gave an even more professional answer: "It's that unspeakable, spine-chilling eeriness that lies hidden beneath the tranquility of daily life."
Nohara Hiroshi quietly listened, then, shook his head.
"Everything you all said is correct, but none of them are the core."
"The soul of Yamishibai isn't ghost stories;
what it tells is... the ghosts within human hearts."
He turned around, an earnest light in his eyes.
"What it tells is the fear we have of the darkness behind us when walking alone late at night;
the unspeakable guard we raise when facing an overly enthusiastic stranger;
the deep-seated, marrow-penetrating insecurity we have in this cold metropolis."
"It isn't trying to scare you;
it is... amplifying your fears and insecurities."
These words rang loud and clear.
Instantly illuminating the thinking of everyone present, which had long been confined by the tropes of traditional horror films.
"Amplifying insecurities...?" Hashishita Ichiro muttered to himself, an unprecedented light of sudden realization exploding in his eyes.
He had come into contact with the core of Yamishibai before.
But back then, he had merely treated Yamishibai, or rather "Urban Legends" themselves, as the focal point of horror.
However, he hadn't expected that the true core was amplifying insecurities!
Amplifying original fears!
And then intimidating the psychology!
"So, what I need you to do is not simple imitation."
Nohara Hiroshi's gaze swept over everyone. That look was like a highly experienced general pointing out the direction of advance for his soldiers: "I want you to observe, to think, to dig up those moments from your own lives that can make even your own backs turn cold. And then, turn it into a Yamishibai that belongs to you."
He knew that the Yamishibai from his previous world had gradually declined into mediocrity starting from its sixth season due to an exhaustion of creative ideas.
What he needed to do was use this world—this fresh blood brimming with infinite possibilities—to inject an entirely new vitality into this IP, enough to sustain it for decades.
"These are the complete Manuscripts for the fourth season of Yamishibai."
He placed a thick folder onto the table: "This is your textbook, and also your... graduation exam. Finish reading it, and then, everyone, hand me an original story belonging to the fifth season."
"...Hai!" The section members looked at each other, but also nodded seriously, taking this task to heart.
However, Nohara Hiroshi didn't actually care about the stories they provided.
In reality, the stories provided now were reserves prepared for the future.
After all, the current Yamishibai could last until the tenth season;
at one season a month, it could last until next year.
The key was that starting from the tenth season of Yamishibai, the production quality truly began a straight-line drop, becoming worse and worse.
To the point where Nohara Hiroshi would feel too embarrassed to act as a Copycat and reproduce it.
Thinking about it now.
Nohara Hiroshi still decided to give his subordinates in this world a chance, granting them the qualifications to produce the short animations for Yamishibai.
This not only trained his personnel.
But perhaps, it might also bring unexpected surprises!
...
September flowed by rapidly, like cinematic film with the fast-forward button pressed, under Nohara Hiroshi's terrifying work efficiency as he advanced on three fronts simultaneously.
Following that Earth-Shaking decisive battle, the Dark Tournament arc of YuYu Hakusho officially drew to a close. Tankobon sales smashed through the twenty-million-copy threshold in one fell swoop, officially crowning it as the new generation Shonen manga king of Weekly Shonen Jump.
On the other side, that Doraemon brimming with childlike wonder and warmth acted like a refreshing monsoon breeze. Quietly, it blew into tens of millions of households across Japan, planting a brilliant seed named "dreams" and "friendship" within the hearts of those children still in elementary school.
Of course, the true king of this era remained that godly program that had long transcended the scope of a variety show and evolved into a societal phenomenon—
Kasou Taishou.
When the fourth episode of the first season finished airing on the final Saturday of September, that freshly baked Viewership Ratings report acted like a detonated hydrogen bomb, setting off an unprecedentedly violent shockwave throughout the entire Japanese television industry.
30.1%!
This number acted like an insurmountable chasm lying horizontally before all variety shows.
Not only did it refresh the record for the highest Viewership Rating in the history of Japanese variety shows, but it also declared to the entire industry with an almost tyrannical posture—
An entirely new entertainment rule, belonging solely to Nohara Hiroshi, had officially descended.
...
TV Tokyo, Production Bureau Headquarters Building, inside Asumi's office—which had long since become the center of power for the entire television station.
"Hiroshi-kun, you... you are truly an out-and-out monster!"
Looking at the Viewership Ratings report in his hands that was enough to drive any television station crazy, Asumi's face was written full of undisguised ecstasy and excitement.
Beside him, Tanaka Kei—the man who had nearly sunk into obscurity due to a single failure—currently stood as straight as a javelin. In those eyes that had long shed all decadence, burned two raging infernos capable of starting a prairie fire.
"Deputy Director Asumi, you heap too much praise upon me." Nohara Hiroshi merely smiled calmly and pushed an entirely new Proposal, with an even more astonishing thickness, to the center of the table.
"The success of the first season is merely an appetizer. The true feast is only just beginning now."
Asumi and Tanaka Kei exchanged a glance, both seeing an irrepressible scorching light in each other's eyes!
Right now, they both firmly believed in one thing.
A product of Nohara Hiroshi...
Must be a premium product!
They Could Not Wait to flip open that magnificent blueprint titled "Kasou Taishou Season Two: National Domination Arc."
"Nationwide Auditions! Regional Confrontations! Telephone Support! SMS Voting!"
When these keywords, brimming with a tyrannical aura, entered his line of sight, Asumi felt his breathing completely come to a halt.
"Hiroshi-kun... you... you are trying to... trying to make all of Japan go crazy over this program of ours!" His voice carried an irrepressible tremble.
"Correct." Nohara Hiroshi nodded, a look of absolute confidence flashing in his clear eyes.
"What I want is not a simple variety show. What I want is a nationwide carnival capable of firmly tying the entire populace of Japan together."
He looked at the two men, who were already shocked beyond compare by his words, and slowly dropped the ultimate Trump card capable of completely unhinging this carnival.
"Furthermore, I suggest we also edit and produce videos of the nationwide auditions, and broadcast them... on Kanto TV."
"Ah?!"
Asumi and Tanaka Kei almost bounced out of their seats simultaneously!
They were slightly puzzled.
They didn't understand exactly why this was.
That was an ace program they had created. "Kasou Taishou - Nationwide Preliminary Auditions" was originally just for selecting seeded contestants;
why did they need to broadcast it on Kanto TV?
Wouldn't this cause Kasou Taishou, this ace variety program they had acknowledged, to lose its sense of mystery?
"What... what do you mean by this? Nohara-kun!" Asumi felt he needed to ask if he didn't understand.
"It means exactly that." Nohara Hiroshi gave a brilliant smile: "I want to tell everyone that the performances of the losers are also very interesting. We can edit very interesting segments ourselves to give as a bonus welfare to everyone!"
"And it can also build up hype beforehand!"
"It will give those guys who were eliminated a bit of fame too, and let the local residents know why they were eliminated! And who went to represent their region in the competition!"
"This is also to increase audience stickiness!"
Nohara Hiroshi spoke with absolute certainty.
Because this strategy itself was a method to attract audiences that had been played to death in Japan and China in his previous world!
Asumi blankly stared at the young man before him, who seemed born to subvert the rules. His heart, which had long been worn somewhat weather-beaten by reality, uncontrollably began to beat violently anew.
He felt this was an unprecedented massive storm, capable of dragging the entire Japanese television industry into it!
An already unavoidable super thunderstorm!
And that young man standing in the center of the storm, he... would be the sole king within this storm!
"Good! If this variety show plan truly succeeds, then we will have overturned the entire Tokyo Faction's variety show circle, and even directly overturned the variety show circles of other regional television stations!"
"To thoroughly and viciously thrust our TV Tokyo's variety programs into the territories firmly protected by those other regions!"
Asumi slammed the table hard. On his normally refined and steady face was currently written the determination of Breaking the Cauldrons and Sinking the Boats: "We'll do as you say! If the budget isn't enough, I'll go ask Bureau Chief Sakata for more! If we don't have enough personnel, I will move the entire Production Bureau over to you! I only have one requirement, Hiroshi-kun!"
He looked at Nohara Hiroshi, a trust capable of entrusting life and death burning in his eyes.
"This battle, we must win!" Asumi's tone shook slightly.
"We will."
Nohara Hiroshi simply and calmly spat out these two words.
The voice was very light, yet as heavy as Mount Tai.
Because he knew that he still held one ultimate ace card in his hand, capable of making all opponents feel despair.
The name of that ace card was—
The future.
Because Nohara Hiroshi knew that in the future of his previous world, Kasou Taishou remained successful all the way until 2025.
It was only 1990 now, why couldn't it succeed!?
...
In mid-September, when the summer heat of Tokyo was finally washed away by an autumn rain leaving practically nothing behind, a raging fire of creativity named "Kasou Taishou," personally ignited by Nohara Hiroshi, burned across the entire Japanese archipelago with an unstoppable prairie-fire momentum.
This time, the promotional battleground was no longer confined to cold television screens and newspaper pages.
From the bustling Tanukikoji shopping street in Sapporo, Hokkaido, to the open-air plaza brimming with southern island charm on Kokusai Dori in Naha, Okinawa;
from beneath the eternally crowded Glico sign in Shinsaibashi, Osaka, to the entrances of department stores bursting with fashion in the Tenjin Ward, Fukuoka...
Bright yellow registration booths, decorated with a childlike wonder and vitality, sprouted like bamboo shoots after the rain overnight, appearing in the most densely populated corners of every core city in Japan.
Above the booths, massive banners displayed a promotional slogan written in an enchanting artistic font, capable of turning anyone's head—[Imagination is your Superpower! Three minutes, and you are the next national star!]
Next to the booths, massive television screens played the classic, hilariously creative short clips from the first season on a 24-hour non-stop loop.
And inside the booths, staff members wearing unified yellow T-shirts and friendly smiles patiently handed out exquisitely produced promotional brochures to every passerby who came to inquire.
Rather than calling this lineup an audition for a variety show, it was more like a grand festival brimming with joy that swept the entire nation.
...
Osaka, on the rooftop of a certain private girls' high school during lunch break.
"Hey, hey, Mika, look at this!" A girl named Yuki, sporting a cute bob cut, was excitedly waving the promotional brochure in her hand. A rearing-to-go light flashed in her sparkling large eyes: "It's the auditions for Kasou Taishou! It's right in Shinsaibashi! Should we... should we go try it out?"
The girl called Mika was a rather quiet literary girl wearing black-rimmed glasses. She glanced at the comical image on the brochure of someone using their body to mimic a "ramen master tossing noodles," and an imperceptible blush crept onto her cheeks as she hesitantly said: "This... isn't this too... too embarrassing? Wearing those full body tights in front of so many people... I... I could never do that."
"Oh come on, what does it matter!" Yuki waved her hand dismissively, her youthfully exuberant little face written full of longing: "Don't you think it's a really cool thing to be able to perform your own ideas in such an interesting way? And look here!"
She pointed at the reward rules highlighted in bold font on the brochure. Like a Columbus having discovered a treasure, her voice rose a whole octave: "Just by signing up for the audition, you get a super cute, program-exclusive 'Taishou' keychain for free! Furthermore! If you pass the preliminary selection, not only do you get a keychain, but you also get a ten thousand yen appearance fee! Ten thousand yen! That's enough for us to go eat a luxurious all-you-can-eat yakiniku!"
"Is... is this true?" Mika's eyes instantly lit up.
"Of course it's true! Look, this is a TV Tokyo program! It was personally planned by that Sensei Nohara Hiroshi! How could it be fake?"
Yuki puffed out her small chest, posturing like a fanatical fan defending their idol: "Plus, if we can pass the regional finals, not only does the appearance fee jump to fifty thousand yen, but our performance will also be broadcast on Kanto TV! That's... that's Kanto TV! Who knows, we might even get discovered by a talent scout because of this and become true idols!"
This description filled with temptation acted like a key, instantly unlocking the doors to Mika's maiden heart, which was full of fantasies.
She looked at the whimsical ideas on the brochure, and then looked at her own heart that was unwilling to be ordinary—a heart that had long been confined by boring textbooks. The impulse belonging to youth finally triumphed over that pitiful sense of shame.
"Then... should we... go try it?" Her voice was as quiet as a mosquito's, yet her cheeks had long flushed as red as a ripe apple.
"Yay!"
...
Tokyo, inside the pantry of a certain large trading company. The air was permeated with coffee, nicotine, and the exhaustion of middle-aged men.
"Sigh, I've really had enough. That bastard Department Manager dumped another mess on me. It looks like I won't be able to hit this month's KPIs again."
A man named Tanaka Toshika was leaning against the window with a face devoid of the will to live, viciously crushing his cigarette butt into the ashtray.
On that face, which appeared somewhat puffy from long-term overtime, was written the numbness unique to corporate slaves.
"Tanaka-san, don't look so miserable."
A young junior who hadn't been with the company long, Sato Takeru, eagerly came over, handing him a brightly colored promotional flyer: "Look at this! Kasou Taishou! That variety show that's been super popular lately! This Sunday, they're holding auditions in the plaza downstairs from our company!"
"Not interested." Tanaka Toshika was too lazy to even lift his eyelids;
his voice was full of weariness toward reality: "I don't even have time to sleep, where would I find the spare time to go play those make-believe games only kids play."
"Oh man, Tanaka-san, you're out of the loop!" A shrewd light flashed in Sato Takeru's eyes: "This isn't a simple game of make-believe! Look here!"
He pointed at the reward rules, which were also highlighted in bold font on the flyer. Like a most professional salesman, he analyzed and patiently guided: "Sign up for the audition, get a Souvenir. Pass the preliminary selection, get a ten thousand appearance fee. Pass the regional finals, get fifty thousand, and you even get on television on Kanto TV. If... if we get selected to go to Tokyo for the final recording, the appearance fee is a staggering two hundred thousand yen! Moreover, even if we don't win the championship in the end, our performance will still be broadcast on TV Tokyo's official program!"
"Two hundred thousand?!" This number acted like a clap of thunder, viciously striking Tanaka Toshika's heart, which was already numbed by the heavy weight of his mortgage and car loan.
"That's right!"
Sato Takeru's eyes shone even brighter: "Most importantly, look at these rules—it doesn't require you to have any talents, it doesn't require you to know how to sing or dance. What it wants is creativity! The two of us, in the company, aren't we specialists in creativity? We casually think of an idea, go sign up, and even if we aren't selected, we can get a keychain for free. And what if... what if we do get selected? That's two hundred thousand yen picked up for nothing! Tanaka-san, this is a sure-fire profitable deal!"
Tanaka Toshika fell silent.
He looked at the promotional flyer. In his eyes, which had long been tortured into cloudiness by KPI reports, there was now a faint spark of fire named "temptation."
He thought back to himself during his university days, having also been the ace scriptwriter of the drama club, having also harbored impractical dreams of using creativity to change the world.
It was just that that dream had long been ground to dust by reality, without even a single crumb remaining.
Perhaps...
He looked at the young man brimming with vitality beside him, and then looked at his own long-silenced heart. That final, tiny struggle belonging to a middle-aged man finally bowed its proud head to that tempting benefit after all.
"Then... should we... go take a look?" In his voice carried a tiny bit of anticipation that even he himself hadn't realized.
...
This wave of creative frenzy initiated by Kasou Taishou, involving the participation of the whole populace, swept across all of Japan within a short week with an unstoppable momentum.
From high schoolers wearing uniforms with faces full of collagen, to salarymen in suits and ties suffocating under the pressure of life;
from housewives wearing aprons toiling daily over rice and oil, to retirees with greying hair but still retaining a childlike heart...
Countless ordinary people had been completely ignited by that tempting reward and the massive sense of honor of "I, too, can become a star"!
For a time, long lines formed at the audition registration points in major cities across Japan.
The scene was comparable to the annual summer festivals.
Extraordinarily lively!
Yet behind this nationwide carnival, the young man at the center of the storm simply sat calmly in his office overlooking all of Tokyo, watching the snowflake-like registration statistical reports faxed in from across the country.
"Department Manager."
Tanaka Kei, this variety show Section Chief who had long since been Reborn, currently stood before him with a face full of excitement, his voice brimming with irrepressible fanaticism: "As of five o'clock this afternoon, the total number of people who have registered for the nationwide auditions has... has officially broken the one hundred thousand barrier!"
"Moreover, this number is continuing to grow at a terrifying speed! I estimate that by the time registration closes next week, the total number will reach at least... three hundred thousand!"
Three hundred thousand!
This number caused everyone present who heard it to subconsciously suck in a breath of cold air.
This was no longer a simple variety show.
This was a nationwide carnival in the truest sense of the word!
"Very good."
Nohara Hiroshi merely looked calmly at the report, a Calm and Indifferent smile curving at the corners of his lips.
He knew this war had already begun.
And the result...
Was already predetermined!
From the moment he decided to bring that Proposal capable of overturning an era from that spacetime belonging to the future into this world.
The ending was already predetermined!
"Send down the notification."
He stood up and walked to the massive floor-to-ceiling windows, overlooking the steel metropolis beneath his feet that had long gone crazy for him. His voice was calm, yet carried an ample confidence capable of turning the heads of an entire era.
"Kasou Taishou Season Two Nationwide Auditions, officially commence."
"Let all of Japan burn for our creativity."