In New York, KiShin Pictures was already filming the Spiderman film project for a few weeks.

The casting director felt that Tobey Maguire, who took the role of Peter Parker, was a really good choice.

So far, Tobey Maguire performed the scenes of Peter Parker losing his uncle Ben and crying exceptionally well.

Tobey Maguire also embodied the nerdy side of Peter Parker quite convincingly.

Even Stan Lee, observing Tobey Maguire's performance, nodded in acknowledgment while watching him act as Peter Parker.

Meanwhile, Tobey himself was deeply engrossed in playing the role, giving his best performance.

--

In Tokyo, Japan, alongside the latest news of video games set to release in November or December, anime fans were hyped about the upcoming anime, One Piece.

Many anime fans stayed at home to watch One Piece on TV Asahi after some anime segments.

As it was Saturday at this moment, many people staying home were either elementary or high school students.

They chose to stay home and wait for the airing of One Piece on TV Asahi.

Before One Piece, several animes had to be watched by the anime fans.

And these anime segments were impressive, featuring famous anime replays of previously aired episodes like Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, EarthBound, and finally, the recently released gag anime by KiShin, Shin-chan.

The name "Shin-chan" meant nothing special to the public's ears, but to those close to Shinro, they felt that Shin named the anime after his nickname. However, the protagonist, "Shin-chan," was nothing like Shinro at all.

After "Shin-chan," the much-anticipated first episode of "One Piece" would finally air, exciting many One Piece manga fans.

--

Meanwhile, Shin himself was eager to see the anime fans' reactions to watching One Piece so early in 1995.

If people from Shin's previous life knew he accelerated the creation of the One Piece story—having the manga released in 1993 and the anime adaptation airing in 1995—they'd probably worry about the animation quality. Shin, however, would just smirk at them in disdain.

Shin had no concerns about the quality of the anime created by his subsidiary animation studios. In fact, the quality of the animes produced by these studios far surpassed those from his previous life.

Why, you ask?

Well, it's because the current anime studios in this 1995 parallel world focus strongly on traditional hand drawing, offer more diverse genre representation, and boast a bold and distinct artistic style. This emphasis results in characters that are more expressive and feel more animated. While these factors lead to slower production times for anime studios in this parallel world, KiShin's animation studios were equipped with digital tools provided by KiShin to expedite animation production. With seven anime studios under KiShin, there is a broader and larger team working on the few anime projects.

The introduction of digital tools significantly accelerated animation production while maintaining expressiveness and animation quality through the combination of digital tools and traditional hand-drawn techniques. Additionally, the animation studios under KiShin employed traditional hand-drawn techniques only for scenes that required such precision, opting for other animation methods in scenes that didn't necessitate those techniques.

For these reasons, the anime produced by KiShin exhibited significantly higher quality, with the One Piece anime particularly standing out in Shin's eyes.

Given that One Piece is a manga with a strong comedic element and characters expressing a wide range of emotions and actions, the animation studios under KiShin brought this to life. By combining traditional hand-drawn techniques with digital tools, scenes requiring heightened expression, actions, and animation were masterfully realized in the One Piece anime.

--

After a prolonged wait, anime fans would finally be able to watch One Piece following the conclusion of the "Shin-chan" anime.

The introduction of the One Piece anime mirrored the manga, with the resonant voice of the Japanese narrator stating, "Wealth, fame, power..." The narration continued, depicting Gold Roger in a paper-laid animation sequence.

The anime finally commenced, featuring Luffy on the barrel and his amusing interactions with Coby, which elicited laughter from viewers unfamiliar with the manga.

Even anime fans who weren't avid manga readers found delight in Luffy and Coby's banter, and when Luffy confronted the portly and unattractive female pirate, a friendship blossomed between Luffy and Coby.

As the first episode of One Piece unfolded, even viewers typically disinterested in anime found themselves somewhat entertained.

Once the initial episode of the One Piece anime concluded, many viewers, introduced to the story without it's prior One Piece manga knowledge, became intrigued and eagerly anticipated the next episode.

--

Following the One Piece anime, TV Asahi's ratings in the Kanto Region surged further, causing some major TV channels to feel somewhat disheartened by the competition during weekend ratings.

Consequently, TBS, NHK, Nippon, and others experienced lower ratings, particularly in the Kanto Region. While they were not as despondent as in previous years when TV Asahi dominated both young and adult audiences with KiShin's captivating and highly popular animes, TBS, NHK, and Nippon managed to counteract by producing interesting animes.

Although they successfully challenged TV Asahi and KiShin's anime dominance in the ratings for Japanese anime, they still trailed significantly.


Tora-Suzuki conference meeting, the executives were reviewing the report of their video game, "Gloomy: Land of Happiness," and they were initially happy about their video game's first-day sales being quite high, even surpassing the estimated sales of other video game entertainment companies.

But as the days passed, their video game "Gloomy: Land of Happiness" started to gradually decline in sales.

Then, according to the report, the estimated sales of KiShin's "Metal Gear Solid I" were widely different compared to theirs. Although its estimated first-day sales were slightly lower compared to theirs, KiShin's video games surged in sales day by day, and if there was a decline, it was only a slight one.

"According to our survey, our video game, 'Gloomy: Land of Happiness,' is pretty boring according to the gamers' opinions. It's because the levels were too easy, and they felt that some of the levels were repetitive. Additionally, the in-game character, Gloomy's return to the Elemotion Land, was dragged out with the easy and boring levels in the Magic World."

The Tora analysis that leads a team reported out to the Tora-Suzuki executives.

"Tsk. If your Data Scientist had done a good job, this wouldn't have happened," Shiko said to Itori Tanaka, who is sitting in the center of the table.

"That's right! If the Data Scientists of Tora had really analyzed the patterns and trends in gamers' behavior, we could have developed a better video game design and made better decisions!" A Suzuki executive also exclaimed.

"It appears that the Data Scientists at Tora are slacking to not notice such a simple issue!"

Itori Tanaka, having heard the executives' complaints, mainly from Suzuki, felt a bit helpless. Nevertheless, he addressed them with a faint smile and calmness, saying, "Please calm down, everyone." He continued,

"We can't attribute everything to the Data Scientists' analysis of gamers' behavior. The video game industry was revived just five years ago, and there's still much to discover and learn. We also face limitations in storage and processing power, which hinders our ability to store and analyze large datasets. Analyzing even moderate amounts of data can be laborious and time-consuming. Since the video game industry is vastly different from several decades ago, having been revived only five years ago, predicting players' preferences is more challenging. These factors contribute to our Data Scientists being less able to predict player behavior."

Upon hearing Itori Tanaka's explanations, the Tora-Suzuki executives were momentarily silent, finding his reasoning sensible.

If Shin were here today, he would probably be laughing uncontrollably.

After all, if he were in the Tora-Suzuki position, he would probably feel just as helpless, considering that the data scientists today have limited insights. With less data and simpler tools, the depth and granularity of player insights were constrained. Predicting player behavior and understanding what they truly enjoyed or disliked about the game has been quite challenging. Data-driven design approaches like A/B testing and dynamic difficulty adjustment were non-existent. Balancing gameplay, creating engaging challenges, and personalizing the experience would have relied heavily on intuition and guesswork. And there were more issues regarding video game development.

While KiShin doesn't face most of the problems of Tora-Suzuki now, as KiShin has access to the historical datasets of Shin's previous life through Shin, the existing competitor studios in this parallel world wouldn't have access to the massive historical datasets Shin currently possesses. KiShin would be replicating known successes, and the competitor's data scientists would be building analyses from scratch on a smaller player base.

Without the wealth of data and algorithms that Shin processed, the competitor's data scientists might be less accurate in predicting player behavior and preferences. This could lead to misfiring game designs and marketing strategies.

After a moment of silence, a Tora executive asked, "What about KiShin? How could most of their video games be so successful? Do they have better Data Scientists and advanced equipment for technical storage than us?"

As soon as this question was brought up, almost everyone in the room looked at Itori Tanaka, who chuckled helplessly in response.

"We don't exactly know why KiShin is so accurate in analyzing players' preferences, but I assume it's because KiShin was the one who revived the video game industry and released the early video games that entertained gamers when the industry was pretty much 90% dead. That's why gamers have become accustomed to KiShin's video games..." Itori Tanaka provided a reasonable analysis.

"Oh? Is it like when the baby duck comes out of its egg, and the first one it sees is its mother?" Seki, who was listening while stroking his chin, exclaimed.

"Uh... Maybe, it was something like that." Itori Tanaka's smiling lips couldn't help but twitch in response...

Bang!

"That is the most ridiculous explanation I've heard today!"

Shiko banged the table, surprising almost everyone in the room. He then stated, "I don't agree with such explanations; even a kid wouldn't be fooled. If you're trying to cover up for your data scientists and your team's incompetence, come up with a better explanation."

Upon hearing this, Itori Tanaka remained calm and replied, "If my earlier explanations were hard for you to comprehend, Mr. Shiko Suzuki, then I don't know what to say anymore."

"Yeah? Because you couldn't think of any other reasons anymore!" Shiko chuckled disdainfully and muttered, "I should have gone to the car design discussions at Suzuki instead."

Suddenly, a voice was heard.

"Then let me suggest an idea."

Almost everyone was surprised, including Itori Tanaka, as the one who spoke was his younger brother, Kenji Tanaka.

"Oh? What's your idea, Kenji?" Itori Tanaka couldn't help but ask with a smile.

"Why don't we analyze KiShin's success instead of relying on our own? By closely studying KiShin's game design choices, player reception, and marketing strategies, we could gather valuable insights and adapt our own games accordingly," Kenji said with a smile.

When everyone heard it, especially Taro Ikeda, couldn't help but chuckle and said, "Isn't that just copying KiShin again? Didn't it already backfire? I mean, we could explore the same genre, like side-scrolling, but completely copying will make it too obvious to the players. We are trying to build off our own originality, right?"

Almost everyone thought the same, and Itori Tanaka also shared the sentiment.

Kenji Tanaka nodded in understanding and said, "I'm not suggesting we copy them; what I'm trying to say is we'll learn from KiShin. While KiShin dominates the video game market, we could focus on identifying and catering to underserved niche markets in the existing player base, offering fresh experiences that KiShin might overlook."