"How are the sales of Rotom Company's new phone?" Edward asked Zoroark as he glanced over. After the new member joined the group chat yesterday, they went silent, and Edward hadn't paid them much attention since. Right now, what he was more concerned about was the sales performance of their partner's phones.
After all, Rotom Company was the very first company to partner with Ghost Films Pictures. Their performance in this collaboration would, to a large extent, determine whether other companies would be willing to cooperate with Edward's team in the future.
A successful collaboration like this was practically a goldmine. All Edward had to do was continue making excellent films and maintain control over a strong intellectual property (IP). When the time came to license the IP to others, he'd be able to earn massive profits without needing to invest too much effort himself—an extremely cost-effective arrangement.
After all, production and distribution were handled by the other party.
"Not bad at all. The youth edition sold over five hundred thousand units within three hours. The standard edition has already surpassed seven hundred thousand units, and the flagship version sold more than ten thousand and is currently out of stock," Zoroark reported while holding a folder. Edward nodded approvingly.
The flagship phone came with an embedded Rotom. Though the price wasn't excessively high, Rotom Company always sold them in limited batches. That reasonable pricing, paired with scarcity, gave the flagship version a fantastic reputation online. And because of that positive buzz, the other models sold well too. Even though they didn't contain a Rotom, they came equipped with Rotom Company's independently developed smart assistant.
"Boss, do you regret not asking for a cut of the profits?" Zoroark teased with a grin, clearly in high spirits. It also had a phone from Rotom Company—just the standard version, though. Zoroark didn't actually use it. It had only bought one for the in-game perks. After all, being a hardcore gamer, Zoroark always went for top-tier gaming phones.
"What's there to regret?" Edward replied nonchalantly. While getting a share of the profits might've brought in more money, Edward had made his choice. There was no point in being a backseat strategist after the fact. Besides, the phone's breakout success could be attributed mostly to Rotom Company's own strong reputation. Edward's One Missed Call might be famous in some niche circles, but it alone certainly wasn't enough to influence so many buyers.
In a way, Edward felt like he was the one riding on Rotom Company's coattails.
"Boss, you're really magnanimous!" Zoroark gave a thumbs-up, smiling broadly as it laid on the flattery. The compliment sounded genuine enough, but coming from Zoroark with its cheeky expression, the whole scene felt slightly off-kilter.
"Alright, I know what you're trying to do. Go on, there's nothing going on at the office today anyway." Edward rolled his eyes. This little trickster—there was an anime convention happening in Rustboro City this afternoon. Zoroark's mind had probably flown there hours ago.
Edward himself didn't have much planned for the day either. Ghost Films Pictures was essentially a one-man operation where Edward's word was law. If he wanted to make a movie, the company had things to do. If not, things were incredibly relaxed. At the moment, probably only Ada and his crew were hard at work filming the new Tom and Jerry project.
To some extent, this wasn't really normal. In his past life, most film studios would never have this kind of leisure time.
Zoroark happily headed out the door, but to Edward's surprise, it came back just a few minutes later. He was stunned. Wasn't this guy going to the convention? Why was he back already?
"Boss, there's a film company from the Unova region that wants to talk with us about renting personnel for a shoot," Zoroark said, looking relatively composed. Edward cast a sideways glance at him. He could tell this fox was keeping a cool appearance on the outside, but inside it had probably cursed that company's entire bloodline at least five times by now.
"You handle it, and send Deck over to deal with the rest," Edward waved his hand. It was just about renting some staff—not a big deal. It could generate a bit of extra revenue, give employees a chance to hone their skills, and prevent them from sitting around idle. All in all, it was a win-win situation.
Zoroark immediately brightened up again and practically danced out of the room. Later, Deck came in to brief Edward on the matter. Apparently, the Unova film company was producing a campus idol drama but hadn't brought enough production crew, which was why they had turned to Ghost Films Pictures for help.
Edward didn't turn them down. He had Deck lead the legal department over to draft and sign a contract that outlined the cooperation period and various responsibilities. After that, Edward lost interest and left the matter to them.
Campus idol dramas were practically an evergreen genre in the Pokémon world. The classic "poor protagonist gets admitted, befriends Pokémon, gains honor, and finds friendship and love" storyline was practically the golden formula here—always in demand and with a reliable audience base.
"Another one of those idol dramas that get churned out every season, flop without a trace, and vanish into obscurity?" Edward stretched lazily. He had just looked up the director's resume online. There were quite a few entries, but among the 18 shows he had directed, the highest rating was just 7.2 out of 10.
And even that 7.2-rated one was a lone exception. The others mostly hovered between 3.1 and 5.3—impressively consistent, in a tragic sort of way. Over the past two years, he had directed three dramas, all idol-themed:
Love After the Gym Battle – Rating: 4.3Love Between Two Elements – Rating: 3.7The Budding Trainer and the Beautiful Genius Gym Leader Will Never Meet – Rating: 5.1
Yup, all of them belonged to that type you'd never stumble across unless you specifically went looking for them. But what really got Edward was the audacity: this guy still kept making drama after drama. Edward had no idea who kept investing in this.
Curious, he looked up the highest-rated one—The Budding Trainer and the Beautiful Genius Gym Leader Will Never Meet—just to see what it was about.
Oh boy. Each episode was 40 minutes long, and there were 58 episodes in total.
"Alright, let's evaluate this." Edward pulled out his phone and started watching the first episode.
And right away, he felt like those 40 minutes lasted an eternity—so slow it felt like four hours had passed.
When the episode finally ended, Edward was mentally and emotionally drained.
The male lead couldn't act. The female lead had a heavy accent, and when she called the male lead's name, it sounded like she was calling for her grandfather. Hearing her go "How could you treat me like this!" in a nasally, cutesy voice gave Edward a massive headache.
And that wasn't even the worst part. This so-called "beautiful genius gym leader girl" was actually a social media influencer with an exaggerated figure and a heavily made-up face. Her makeup was so thick that every time she moved, Edward worried a chunk of it might fall off.
"Well, I guess there's no hope of learning any real technique from this… But for someone to be this prolific, they must have some experience, right?... Right?" Edward scratched his head. He wasn't very confident in that assumption. The director's work was truly otherworldly. Edward didn't understand a thing—but he was profoundly shaken.
In the end, Edward decided it would be better to go to the anime convention and wash his eyes out with something more pleasant.
(End of Chapter)