Chapter 12: A Step Towards the Future
MOMO
Our company was financially ruined. We'd tried to export a show several times and failed miserably. What else was there to do? "It's hopeless," I said, "How can we make other shows if our first series franchise won't even get off the ground?"
Noah did her best to cheer me up, touching me with her now long blond hair as she gave a hug. It seemed like she was always doing this. "It's not so bad," she said, "The Japanese know about our work." I shook my head, "You're just saying that." She shook her head fervently, whacking me with her hair, "Oh sorry! As I was saying, earthquakes or failed marketing aside, Mink Momo has left a legacy in anime. Look!"
We watched several anime back to back. In Yu Yu Hakusho, the male lead becomes a ghost hunter after being hit by a truck and dying. She showed me at least forty or fifty other anime where Truck-Kun as he was called mercilessly ran over everything from children to kittens to particularly Japanese salarymen. "And that isn't the only idea they borrowed either! Look at this." She turned on our copy of Minky Momo where the girl basically appears by magic and seamlessly convinces her family that she is their biological daughter, and they barely notice that at her age she should be going to school. Then she switched to the show Sailor Moon at around the second series (known as Sailor Moon R in Japan). Serena's parents had likewise been hypnotized into believing that she was their niece, instead of a random person. Likewise, in Minky Momo she later did become biologically related to them, and in Sailor Moon thanks to some time travel weirdness, it eventually turned out that she was Serena's daughter. There was even the idea of her growing older all of a sudden. Chibiusa, as Serena's daughter was called, because Dark Lady through the actions of the villain from that season.
"You see?" she said, "Our show is not forgotten. Even if you have had a very rough time as an artist. And I know we're broke, and about to be tossed out on the street…" I sighed. She continued, "…But we've just gotten a contract with a Japanese studio called Shaft! They want us to help make their anime and then host it on Aniplex. Here, they even showed us a script!" The two of us leafed through the overall events of the show. "Wow," I said, "This is really fucking dark…." She nodded, "I know, right? Apparently, they liked how our show started out cute and got really weird later on, and they wanted to do something similar but even more intense." I liked it. "Let's do it!" I said, "It's not like we have anything to lose, after all. We're going broke, and we could use the business. Only… I'm having trouble remembering the name of this show. Puella…."
