Japan's literary world was highly developed, and its modern literary classifications were known throughout the world.
This was closely related to Japan's literary environment. Japan enforced copyright protection very strictly, so physical books had never declined. As a result, novelists who published physical works enjoyed considerable copyright income. With such a mature environment, there was naturally no shortage of talented authors.
Among Japanese literature, detective novels were perhaps one of the most successful genres.
Although Kamiyā Yuu rarely read Japanese literature, he was still familiar with several famous mystery works. In his previous world, for example, the novels 'The Devotion of Suspect X', 'Journey Under the Midnight Sun', and 'Phantom Night' by Japanese mystery writer Higashino Keigo had all been adapted into films or television dramas and generated phenomenal social responses.
Looking at anime, there were also phenomenon-level detective series such as 'Detective Conan', whose protagonist remained an elementary school student forever, and 'The Kindaichi Case Files'.
A little later came popular but more ordinary mystery anime such as 'Hyouka'.
Less popular examples included 'Heaven's Memo Pad', 'GOSICK', and 'Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning'.
That was getting slightly off-topic.
The reason Kamiyā Yuu wanted to involve himself in Japan's literary world was actually because of a comparatively niche branch of it—light novels.
In his previous world, excellent early Japanese light novels were too numerous to count.
Series such as 'Zaregoto', 'The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya', 'Kino's Journey', 'A Certain Magical Index', and 'Full Metal Panic!' had all led trends within the industry.
'The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya' had even pioneered the wave of adapting light novels into anime.
However, as light novels became increasingly commercialized, this literary branch inevitably wandered down a path that was not exactly the wrong path, yet somehow still was.
Its most obvious characteristic was what people called "Qidianization"—lagging more than a decade behind Qidian.
Kamiyā Yuu felt this deeply.
The Japanese perhaps possessed an innate talent for writing mystery novels and creating wildly imaginative worlds.
Yet those talents were often confined within an extremely narrow range.
Once Chinese web novel culture flourished, the contrast between the two became strikingly obvious.
As a result, Japanese light novels were eventually overwhelmed by so-called "Qidian-style novels."
Not only in China, but even on certain websites in Europe and America, Chinese web novels were vastly more popular than so-called light novels.
One of Kamiyā Yuu's strongest impressions of light novels was that most light novel authors wrote at an elementary school level.
Many of the so-called light novels were written worse than a child's diary.
Yet these same works would be adapted into manga and then anime.
After watching the anime and then reading the original novels, Kamiyā Yuu often found himself admiring the anime directors.
How exactly had they managed to create anime from those novels?
At that point, what was the difference between it and an original anime?
If Chinese readers had encountered those light novels without the polish provided by translators, they might not even have been able to finish some of the so-called classics.
In comparison, the prose of light novel authors in this world was several tiers higher.
At first, Kamiyā Yuu could not understand why.
Only after carefully researching did he discover that Japanese writing in this world had been heavily influenced by Chinese culture.
The prevalence of Chinese characters was astonishingly high.
As a result, writers frequently used Chinese idioms and classical references. Combined with the straightforward descriptive style characteristic of Japanese literature, the resulting prose was much more pleasant to read.
A simple example:
When most light novel authors with poor language skills described a cloud, they would simply write:
"A white cloud."
That would be the end of it.
No description of the cloud's shape, color, or state.
Even Chinese elementary school students knew enough to add a simile.
No wonder some people in Japan joked:
"Buying a light novel is just buying toilet paper that comes with illustrations."
Because of this, even when a light novel was adapted into anime, the original author rarely held much influence.
This gave rise to the phenomenon known as "tragically adapted into anime."
The original author could only watch helplessly as the plot was altered and characters were ruined.
The light novel industry in this world resembled the era before commercialization had polluted it in Kamiyā Yuu's previous world.
It was filled with boundless imagination and youthful fantasy stories.
In terms of popularity, it was not inferior to the light novel industry of his previous world.
Writing novels had originally been Kamiyā Yuu's primary profession.
To be honest, if he wanted to enter the light novel industry, he was confident that he could become a popular author even without copying works from his previous world.
Judging from the later popularity of genres such as isekai reincarnation, Japanese power fantasies, and underdog protagonists, China and Japan shared a surprisingly similar understanding of fast-food literature.
Simply writing an isekai power fantasy with a bit of creativity would be enough to become popular.
And now, Kamiyā Yuu intended to test the waters of this world's light novel industry.
...
"The promotional materials for 'Fate/Zero' on our company's website are ready."
"We've already contacted the physical publishers. The printed novel can be released at any time."
"Chiyo Bookstore has expressed willingness to cooperate with us and provide promotional support for 'Fate/Zero'."
Inside the modestly sized office, Morishita Aoi placed a document before Kamiyā Yuu and spoke calmly.
Kamiyā Yuu accepted the document, quickly flipping through it while casually asking:
"How's the PV preparation coming along?"
"Based on the storyboard drafts you provided the day before yesterday, we've completed both the novel promotional PV and the anime promotional PV. They can be released at any time."
Kamiyā Yuu nodded and pondered for a moment.
"Then release them together on June 1st. I'll upload the novel simultaneously."
He looked up at her.
"Aoi, I'll leave the promotion side to you."
Morishita Aoi frowned as she looked at him.
After hesitating for a while, she said:
"Yuu, how about taking a break? Working too hard isn't necessarily a good thing."
"Even after finishing 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica', you haven't really rested. Starting immediately on the novel and storyboards for the next anime seems a little too rushed. It can't be easy on your body either."
His body?
For an ordinary person's physical and mental endurance, Kamiyā Yuu would probably already be lying in a hospital bed.
Yet he did not feel particularly tired.
What he felt instead was enthusiasm for creating something new.
Morishita Aoi's concern warmed his heart.
After handing the document back to her, he smiled.
"Don't worry. I know my own condition. Right now, I'm overflowing with enthusiasm because of this new project."
"I also make sure to balance work and rest."
"For all you know, I spend my entire day sleeping when you're not looking."
"For example, after you leave this office, I might immediately collapse onto my desk and go to sleep."
Hearing his playful remark, Morishita Aoi smiled and shook her head.
"I understand. Still, I hope you'll be a little more lenient with yourself."
Rest?
Morishita Aoi was not foolish.
After looking through the storyboard drafts Kamiyā Yuu had submitted, she already had a rough idea of his workload.
And this time, he was writing a novel as well.
No matter how she looked at it, she could not find any room in his schedule for rest.
After Morishita Aoi left with the documents, Kamiyā Yuu turned his attention back to the computer before him.
The screen showed that he had already completed over one hundred thousand words.
This was the result of three days of writing.
On average, he spent three hours a day writing, producing roughly ten thousand words per hour.
With the plot already fully constructed within the consciousness space, this pace was not particularly fast.
His remaining time was devoted to building the anime storyboards and drawing illustrations for the novel.