Chapter 60: Half-Understood
After the opening scene, the game's theme song began to play.
"My name is Aiwumu, with an ironclad body, I parry, I dodge, I guard you with my form…"
The stirring melody rang out, and Chen Mo felt as if the passionate spirit of his youth was reignited. The tune and lyrics of the theme song were provided by Chen Mo, and the singer's performance was quite good, full of infectious energy.
Su Jinyu was a bit surprised; she hadn't expected the song to be unexpectedly pleasant.
People in this world had never seen anything like "Saint Seiya," but this song was composed by Matsuzawa Hiroaki and Yamada Nobuo, perfectly capturing the passionate feel of Japanese anime. No matter which dimension it was in, it would remain a classic.
The story began.
To complete a quest, Aiwumu arrived at the Wailing Caverns. At the cave entrance, he encountered a severely injured Shaman. Together, they went to rescue Thief, who was being hunted by the Dark Night Man, only to end up camped by him…
The Xuan Dong Aurora Studio was a professional team, and the plot transitions, voice acting, and pacing were all superior to the previous version. Guo Feng had also made some adjustments based on his understanding of the story, making it easier to follow.
Chen Mo had deliberately blurred some of the settings from "World of Warcraft," planning to gradually feed them to the players later.
Additionally, when the Dark Night Man appeared, Chen Mo directly used subtitles on the screen to note: Alliance-Dark Night Man. The word "Alliance" was displayed with an icon, and the font was colored red, using this method to introduce the characters' identities to the audience.
These tweaks essentially clarified most of the background settings that the previous work had left vague.
Ten minutes passed quickly, and the ending theme began.
Everyone recognized the melody this time: the Internationale. However, what piqued their curiosity was that the lyrics of this ending song included many names of people and places that seemed to belong to this world.
Chen Mo turned off the projection and asked, "What do you think?"
The group's expressions were mixed.
Chang Xiuya thought for a moment and said, "A small part of the plot, I half-understood."
Jia Peng commented, "The production is quite refined, basically top-tier."
Wen Lingwei said, "Too short."
Su Jinyu nodded in agreement. "Yeah, only 10 minutes. It feels like the plot hasn't progressed much before it ends. But I can roughly tell that the world-building is vast."
Jia Peng added, "It's interesting, but it feels like a 'lifetime series.' If each episode is 10 minutes, this anime might go on forever?"
Everyone chimed in with their opinions, but overall, the feedback focused on two points: it was too short, and the story's background and world-building weren't fully explained.
Aside from that, the character designs, scenes, and plot were all acceptable.
Chen Mo had anticipated this. Although he and Guo Feng had made some changes to the story and subtly inserted some world-building explanations, without the foundation of "World of Warcraft," it was normal for viewers to be confused.
Chen Mo asked, "Think objectively: if this anime had a second and third episode, would you keep watching? Don't consider my connection to it; treat it like a random work."
Everyone thought for a moment.
Jia Peng nodded. "I probably would. The theme is novel. Honestly, I've never seen an anime that combines Q-style, humor, and Western fantasy all at once. Just for that, I'd follow it."
Chang Xiuya nodded. "Yeah, I think so too. The characters are cute and each has their own traits. I really want to know what happens to that Shaman later."
"What about you two?" Chen Mo looked at Wen Lingwei and Su Jinyu.
Su Jinyu hesitated. "Hmm… I'd probably watch it. One reason is the unique theme, and another is that the first episode left a lot of cliffhangers. It'd be good for killing time later. Plus, the opening and ending songs are great."
Wen Lingwei said, "I don't know. If it gets popular, I might watch it. If not, I'd probably forget about it."
Chen Mo nodded. This was roughly in line with his expectations.
Without "World of Warcraft," would "My Name is MT" be worthless? Obviously not.
For the audience in this parallel world, while they lacked the familiarity and knowing smiles, they gained a sense of novelty and mystery.
In this world's anime scene, Western fantasy themes were almost nonexistent. The world-building of "My Name is MT" was entirely new to these people. Everything on the continent of Azeroth could spark viewers' interest, and having an ox as the protagonist was a decent gimmick.
This feeling was similar to when players from the previous world first encountered "World of Warcraft."
Moreover, the refined production, humorous style, relatively tight plot, and distinctive characters of "My Name is MT" were all shining points that would encourage viewers to keep watching.
Even if it didn't reach the super-popular level of the previous world, that was fine. As long as this IP was enough to support players' recognition of the cards in the "My Name is MT" mobile game, that was sufficient.
In Chen Mo's estimate, as long as this anime could generate buzz and reach 10 million views within a month, it would be enough to funnel a sufficient number of players into the "My Name is MT" mobile game.
What does 10 million views mean? In the previous world, "One Hundred Thousand Cold Jokes" broke 10 million views in three days, with the first episode's total views reaching 160 million.
In this parallel world, the quality of Chen Mo's "My Name is MT" was top-tier, and the plot and character designs had been proven in the previous world.
Even if you removed the nostalgia factor, in the worst-case scenario, if views dropped by three times, it would still be enough to support the "My Name is MT" mobile game.
If views were even lower? Then Chen Mo might as well go hit his head against a wall.
After seeing the production quality of the first episode and the reactions of the group, Chen Mo felt largely reassured.
"Alright, everyone, get back to your own tasks." Chen Mo turned and went upstairs.
Su Jinyu wanted to ask something, but after thinking it over, she held back.
She was actually a bit puzzled: why was Chen Mo so invested in the anime but so perfunctory with the game? If he put the same energy and money into making the game as he did the anime, he might create a better game. Why go through all this trouble?
Back on the second floor, Chen Mo continued working.
His main task now was planning the stats and combat abilities of each card, as well as the level-related content.
The UI and scene art resources had already been outsourced to an art company. Chen Mo was too lazy to draw them himself. These art resources weren't very important, so he just spent money to get them done and would do a final review later.
For the time being, Chen Mo had to ensure that the card system and numerical system were flawless.