I'm Not A Master, I'm A Director (Patreon)

Chapter 78: Shinji, You're the Fattest!

"Diarmuid! Diarmuid! Diarmuid—"

It must be said that in terms of fanatical devotion, ordinary moviegoers simply couldn't compare to the fervor of female fans.

Watching the sea of people blocking the roads, Shinji couldn't help but feel a little regretful.

When planning this promotional event, Shinji's idea was to casually interact with fans in the central square of Fuyuki City, record footage of the live event, and provide material for future "Fate/Zero" promotions.

Shinji had originally been worried that there might not be many people at the event, and he had even considered using some magecraft tricks to attract passersby to liven things up if the scene was too quiet.

But unfortunately, although the prototype of Fuyuki City was the port city of Kobe, the actual scale of Fuyuki City was much smaller, comparing the two, it was like comparing the metropolis to the ham town of Jinhua.

If possible, Shinji would have preferred to hold the event in big cities like Tokyo or Osaka. But who could blame the Heroic Spirits for not being able to leave Fuyuki City?

However, reality delivered a resounding slap to Shinji's face.

On the day of the event, female fans from all over Japan completely blocked the roads in downtown Fuyuki City, and the crew's convoy could barely get in.

Shinji had not anticipated being surrounded by so many fans, and he almost twisted his face to make sure it wasn't just someone playing a trick on him.

Fortunately, the Fuyuki City Hall had already learned about the situation before the crew, and immediately organized police forces to help maintain order at the scene.

The Fuyuki City police were at a loss. They had worked in this position for many years and had never seen so many people!

Who were all these people? Where did they come from? And what were they doing in Fuyuki City?

The policemen pondered these philosophical questions in their hearts.

But these three questions were very easy to answer. These people were all fans of Fate, they came from all over Japan (some even came from abroad), and what they were here to do was to see the real-life actors.

Especially Diarmuid, many female fans weren't necessarily Fate fans, they came just to see if Diarmuid was as handsome in person as he was on screen.

After all, the handsome guys on screen had makeup and lighting effects, often presenting a much higher level of attractiveness than the actors' actual appearance.

Compared to the beautification of movie scenes, the software beautification used by future internet celebrities was simply child's play.

In fact, a few well-meaning fans had secretly decided before attending the event that if Diarmuid's appearance was too poor, they would post comparison photos online.

The female fans never would have thought that Diarmuid's appearance in person was the highest they'd ever seen.

Because only face-to-face, could that "beauty mark" on his face play its greatest role, and the allure on the screen couldn't even compare to a tenth of it.

Naturally, when the female fans saw Diarmuid in person, they all erupted.

"Diarmuid! Diarmuid! Diarmuid!—"

The female fans at the scene were uniform and orderly, like a tsunami of cheers, making one wonder if the sky would collapse under their shouting.

Although Arturia and others were also very popular, compared to the enthusiasm for Diarmuid, it was hardly worth mentioning.

"Look at them, with hearts in their eyes," Shinji, walking ahead, whispered teasingly. "If they knew magecraft, I bet their eyes would shoot out beams of light."

"If they knew magecraft, maybe they wouldn't be so infatuated with him?" Ophelia, walking beside Shinji, wasn't very pleased.

Clearly, their boss was the biggest contributor to this movie, yet these fans were only thinking about that male vase!

This was disrespectful to their boss!

Ophelia clenched her fist slightly.

"Well, you never know. There were female magus who voluntarily gave up using magecraft to resist him, weren't there?" Shinji turned to look back. Diarmuid was surrounded by fervent female fans, layers upon layers, making it impossible for him to break through.

In fact, with the physical abilities of a Heroic Spirit, Diarmuid could easily push through these fans if he were a bit more forceful.

But as a knight who adhered to his creed, Diarmuid dared not do so. He just looked around at his enthusiastic fans with a helpless expression, not knowing what to do.

"It seems like the event won't be starting anytime soon," Shinji chuckled wryly. He knew what it meant to reap what you sow.

Afraid that no one would attend the event, he didn't set any entry conditions, resulting in chaos.

Diarmuid was just the most heavily surrounded, but there were also many fans around others like Arturia and Gilgamesh.

From these enthusiastic fans, one could see just how successful "Fate/Zero" really was. If they didn't truly love this movie, fans wouldn't have taken the time to come to a small city like Fuyuki.

Of course, the success of the movie also meant that Shinji's income would increase significantly.

Although he had incurred a considerable amount of debt to summon new Heroic Spirits from Fate/Zero, the commercial success far outweighed this debt.

Not to mention the box office results, the unprecedented record-breaking first-week box office almost gave those who viewed "Fate/Zero" as an enemy a collective heart attack.

The peripheral achievements of Fate/Zero were equally impressive, making it hard to believe.

Although Bandai's statistics in Japan had not yet ended, and the specific peripheral sales figures were not known, the news of sold-out peripherals everywhere made Shinji realize that the data would definitely be impressive.

However, the Japanese market was only so big, and even if Bandai implemented sustainable fishing strategies for peripherals, the Japanese market would ultimately be no match for North America.

According to the sales statistics provided by the Times Group to Bandai, as the world's largest consumer market, Fate/Zero's first-week peripheral sales in North America exceeded $30 million.

Undoubtedly, the best-selling product was Arturia's excalibur stick. Almost every different size of excalibur stick became a favorite among fans.

Even the poorly crafted soft rubber excalibur stick sold $1.5 million within three days.

Following the Excalibur stick in sales were Arturia's action figures, with various styles of Saber dolls selling at least $4 million combined.

Of course, these peripheral toys were just a tiny part of Fate/Zero's extensive range of products, only those produced by Bandai.

With Shinji as a transmigrator, he knew there were too many products that could be produced for this movie. Apart from the peripheral toys produced by Bandai, just the character image authorizations from major brand manufacturers could easily amount to hundreds of items.

However, the companies in this world hadn't yet grasped the concept of collaborating their products with film and television characters; it required individual negotiations with each of them by Type-Moon.

Although the initial negotiations weren't smooth, Shinji believed that once the manufacturers tasted success, they would come begging his master for character image authorizations.

"I can already imagine the scene of Fate's products being sold out," Shinji exclaimed with the laugh of a cunning merchant.

"In fact, they are already sold out," Ophelia reminded him. "The most popular products are in short supply, and both Bandai and the Times Group are working hard to produce and distribute them."

Just like box office success, no one could guarantee the success of a movie or its peripherals.

Anyone who had studied operations management knew that storage costs accounted for a significant portion of total costs.

Bandai's employees weren't Heroic Spirits or magus; without clairvoyance or future sight, they couldn't predict which peripherals would be the most popular.

So, to prevent excessive stockpiling, even Bandai's choices in peripheral production were very cautious.

Apart from Arturia, whose success was assured, the peripheral products prepared for other characters at the time of the premiere were actually limited.

The advantage of this approach was controlling storage costs, but the disadvantage was that once a product sold well, it would immediately be out of stock.

The current situation in the North American market was exactly like this.

Apart from Arturia, the second-best-selling character peripheral product surprisingly was Diarmuid, whose role wasn't particularly significant. With the support of female fans, the sales of Diarmuid's peripheral products even surpassed those of popular characters like Gilgamesh and Iskandar.

It seemed that female fans around the world had almost no resistance to handsome men.

However, Bandai didn't have sufficient stock of Diarmuid's character peripherals, and all related products were sold out.

Currently, in the North American secondary market, even slightly better-conditioned second-hand Diarmuid toys could sell at prices higher than the official price.

But what intrigued Shinji more was what these people did with Diarmuid's toys before selling them. Could it be that they used...

Ahem!

Although Diarmuid's peripheral toys were sold out, with Bandai's capabilities, the issue of supply shortage should be resolved soon once they saw the profit prospects.

Probably...

Thinking of the various sold-out products in various tight markets in his previous life, Shinji's confidence wavered.

‘Should I let Bandai establish several manufacturing plants in China?’

Such a thought suddenly popped into Shinji's mind.

"Sir Diarmuid is really lucky, receiving so much adoration just because of his looks," Ophelia said.

"Well, it’s one of the things that defined his legend." Shinji said to Ophelia, "I think we can promote him as a popular actor in our company in the future."

Diarmuid's good looks naturally attracted women, and more importantly, his temperament was one of the best among Heroic Spirits.

Ophelia said dissatisfiedly, "But clearly, boss, you are the most important person in the entire project, yet few fans have noticed you."

Compared to popular actors like Diarmuid and Arturia, Shinji, who had a less significant role in Fate/stay night and didn't appear frequently in the forefront of promotion, didn't attract much attention.

It could even be said that compared to the Heroic Spirits who were blocked behind, the effortlessly advancing boss could be described as deserted.

"That's not a bad thing~" Shinji said unconcernedly. "Occasionally making a cameo is enough. I am the behind-the-scenes big boss; how can I show my face like Arturia and the others? Besides, with a big handsome guy like Diarmuid around, who would pay attention to the 'plain-looking' Shinji Matou..."

Before Shinji finished speaking, a group suddenly rushed out in front of him.

They were holding various signs, and leading them was a black-haired girl, who led the group in shouting at Shinji in unison.

"Shinji, you're the best (棒)!"

"My weight is not even 60kg!"

Shinji's mouth twitched violently.

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Tn: 棒 Can also be read as ‘Fattest’, so, it become “Shinji, you’re the fattest!”