Chapter 24: Miyazaki and Satoshi

In a hotel room, the atmosphere was tense. Sunny was sitting with a grave expression.

Just an hour earlier, they had a meeting with Ghibli Studio founder and animation directors, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. These guys were frustrated with the Hollywood editing system, long-term contracts and cheap pay in return.

Plus, they are confident that even without releasing their work in Hollywood, they can make the movies they want and it will bring a lot of profit for their studio.

"Sir, how should we reply to them?" Wagner asked.

Wagner knew that the conditions Studio Ghibli proposed were very hard for the young boss to swallow but it's the power of the studio that can be treated as a partner by Disney.

"Agree to all of them. We agree with all of them. No editing. Only Dubbing. Lower distribution ratio than Disney plus global release in all the countries they have asked in writing.

We must be ready to pay the price if we want to work with them. At least now I know, we must look for studios that make animation work as commissioned and not for some director who focuses on his vision.

This old man... could be creating something legendary for the entire world but he wants to stick to his own ideas. Studio Ghibli...what a loss.."

Yes, Sunny truly felt pity for Studio Ghibli as the director Hayao Miyazaki had very unrealistic ideas about Hollywood or in general about the western audience. Maybe this is a reason why his movies were most popular when his characters are more 'general and universal' rather than part of the folklore of Japan.

"But Sir, we would be offending Disney with this and we should look for others," Wagner insisted on this after seeing low-profit ration in the contract terms.

"No, it's worth offending Disney for Ghibli. Let it be. We are only their distributors and when Disney will learn about our contract, they might feel pity for us rather than feel wronged.

No other distributor would sign this kind of contract in Hollywood for any production studio." Sunny laughed with a sad expression. He knew this contract with Studio Ghibli would bring a lot of money but working with these kinds of people who are headstrong and completely rigid in their way of work is simply not a good experience.

"Leave this. Prepare the contract with all the conditions they proposed and get it signed as soon as possible. Also, go and bring me all the latest manga and comics that are out there on market.

It would be better if we take the copyright of something and produce it ourselves."

"Sure sir...also... there is a guy who has repeatedly called for a meeting. Satoshi Tajiri, President of video game development company - Game Freak.

He is working on a game for the last two years and believes if we could provide him with little funding, his game could be the next 'Mario' in the gaming world."

"Next Mario...Wow! I should be jumping with joy...What game is he developing for two years?" Sunny asked in a frustrated manner.

Ever since the word spread about them in the Japanese anime and manga circle, they have had a dozen calls asking for investment every day. Seriously, even from guys who are making porno here.

"It's called Pocket Monster or Pokémon for short. They were working with Nintendo but Nintendo is not ready to fund them anymore and his own studio has invested a lot of money in this. If he fails, he might go bankrupt because of this." Mr Wagner told all the information he had about this Satoshi Tajiri.

"Pokémon! Nice name... Invite this guy... Let's hear him out." Sunny said without making a fuss but inside he was screaming with joy.

'Pokémon! OH, SWEET MARY JESUS.....Pokémon!'

Sunny had decided to not reveal any expression on his face for this. It was because he was very excited in meeting with Studio Ghibli that Wagner was not able to do a proper 'discussion' with those guys.

An over-enthusiastic boss is not a good boss for an employee.

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Satoshi Tajiri, a thin guy in his late 20s, was surprised when he got the call back from the American guy. He hurriedly called his team to prepare for the investment pitch.

Satoshi really had no other option than to sell his house and take a loan from a bank putting his studio as collateral if he could not find any investor. He has already spent a lot of money on this game but Nintendo hardly offers him any support.

His staff is resigning, the funds are drying and he is losing confidence in his own work. If he cannot find an investor, he might spend five-six years making this game and creating Pokémon alone.

In the evening, Satoshi dressed in proper neat clothes came to the hotel with two of his staff and met Wagner and Sunny. He seriously had no idea Sunny was the boss considering the age gap but looking at Sunny who was sitting in the main seat, he understood in seconds.

Who cares how this young man became rich? As long as he can get investment, this young man will be his grandpa in future.

"Hello, I am Satoshi Tajiri." Satoshi introduced himself and for the next 10 minutes, everyone basically talked politely and tried to have a small conversation to ease the atmosphere.

"Satoshi san, Mr Wagner here told me about your game. Why don't you introduce me to it?" After having the basic drinks and making polite talk, Sunny finally opened the conversation and Satoshi nodded.

He gave a look to his employees and they opened the suitcase they had with them.

Satoshi then began explaining the Pokémon, the concept, the characters and many other elements. Sunny found that the concept of Pokémon was already mature in this guy's head and he even had developed a backstory and many other ideas.

"Satoshi-san, how much funding you are truly looking for and what are the benefits you are proposing to me?" Sunny interrupted the presentation and asked after getting the initial idea.

After signing a not-so-good deal with Studio Ghibli, he was really not to become a fat piece of meat for others.

"Mr Sunny, we are only looking for investment up to 40,000 US Dollars. In return, I will hand over the copyright for all the Pokémon characters, movie and tv rights to your studio." Satoshi said clearly.

40,000 US Dollars might not sound like too much of an amount but 1 US dollar is 100 Yen in exchange in Japan this year. So, in 1992, this money was really a big amount for a game that has not even been developed and is still stuck in the initial development phase.

"20,000 Dollars and I want all the rights for this Pokémon. Movie, TV, gaming...everything. If you agree, then not only I will provide you with money for this game, but assign you an animation studio to make the Pokémon TV Series and Pokémon feature films.

Gaming can wait and will develop after the TV series and Movie are launched properly. This will take around 2 years at most.

You will be the director and scriptwriter for this project. I will provide you with an additional monthly salary and bonus for this." Sunny spoke as he appeared thinking deeply about this.

Satoshi was caught off-guard. He really wanted to control the gaming copyright for this Pokémon after all his dream was to make the game for Nintendo Gameboy but 20,000$ is really a lot of money.

"Sorry, Mr Sunny but the price is too low and I can't feel your sincerity in this," Satoshi tried to haggle the price in a polite way and Sunny did the same.

By the end of the evening, a contract was signed between Rover studios and Game Freak. Sunny paid them a total of 35,000$ for all the copyrights of Pokémon. In addition, he gave a big 40,000$ credit line to Wagner to buy and set up an animation studio immediately for the production of Pokémon.

"Have a drink Satoshi-san," Sunny happily cheered with Satoshi and Satoshi did the same.

He came with the hope of getting anything between 10,000 - 15,000$ and got a whopping 35,000$ in copyright, a new job as a director and found a new place for his Pokémon. He was truly happy.

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