Chapter 285: A Torrent of Bad Reviews
New year, January 1st. This day was very important for the fans, because on this day, the animated version of Ballad of the Enchantress premiered. Although Caibi Company had previously released a PV for the animation, the original author, Shion-sensei, had not liked it, nor had she mentioned her cooperation with Caibi Company.
As an IP of Wenqing, Ballad of the Enchantress had considerable novel sales and was one of the few masterpieces in recent years. The author herself also worked hard to tell a good story, without any filler, and without adding any vulgar clichés, purely winning the hearts of readers with her conscience. Shion-sensei also became famous with this work, becoming a god-tier author of Wenqing, and also establishing her position at Wenqing. The fans were fanatical about her work, and Xiao Yanhan was a representative among them.
Shion-sensei’s works were famous for their healing-style commercial novels. What she was best at was creating heart-wrenching plots in highly entertaining stories, and at the same time, she would unexpectedly deliver a powerful blow. But even so, the fans still bought it, tirelessly.
Ballad of the Enchantress premiered at the same time as The Rich Man’s Game. The interval between the updates of the two works was only one day. These two works, both belonging to Wenqing, were going to compete in animation, which attracted a lot of attention.
One was a senior of Wenqing, the other a rising star. Although Shion-sensei’s status had surpassed Air-sensei’s, and the speed of her animation adaptation was faster than Air-sensei’s, in the field of animation, they were both novices. Neither had anything to be proud of. Therefore, this battle was crucial, concerning which of these two god-tier authors was stronger in the animation field.
The fans waited for the premiere of Ballad of the Enchantress. Many people had already started a poll, mobilizing all fans to vote for Ballad of the Enchantress to support their idol.
On this day, after the TV commercials were over, with the sound of the theme song, the fans were excited. They stared at the TV screen without blinking, quietly waiting for the story to begin.
“Sorrow of the frost, for your love, I don’t want to be your enemy…”
Although the music was not very good, the fans patiently listened to it. The animation’s art style was different from the novel’s illustrations. The novel’s illustrations followed a refined and beautiful style, but the animation clearly went for a moe style, with a very obvious commercial style. And the character designs were not as beautiful as the illustrations. At the beginning of the animation, it started to tell the story of the male protagonist, Ye Han, in his own era. It was standard, with no highlights.
If it weren’t for the quality of the novel, the fans would not have the patience to continue watching. The literary drama was too long.
And the plot only entered the main line after a third of the way through. Only then did the protagonist accidentally enter a time-space tunnel and go to the future, meeting the female protagonist. But the subsequent plot was too bland. Although it completely followed the original plot, without a single change, the lines were the same. But completely restoring the novel’s content to the animation resulted in insufficient length, and the animation’s length was squeezed out at once.
For a 24-minute episode of animation, besides the fans, the audience had no idea what the story was about.
To say it was a cool film, but the ending was a bit deep; to say it was a healing animation, but there were too many gags inside; to say it was selling character designs, but the character designs were not that outstanding.
It was completely changed into a four-way mess.
In comparison, the neighboring The Rich Man’s Game was supported by the original fans as soon as it premiered, and the animation’s length was just right. Because the original work was relatively short, there was no need to rush the progress when adapting it into an animation. Therefore, The Rich Man’s Game had already explained everything that needed to be explained in the first episode, and had successfully attracted passersby.
Ballad of the Enchantress was the opposite. The first episode did not explain the story well, nor did it explain the characters well. There were many characters, but it was hard to tell who was who. Plus, the passersby had no basis in the original work and couldn’t understand the plot at all. And this story was also too boring, too chaotic.
“I can’t believe it! This animation is actually called Ballad of the Enchantress. Are you sure it’s not the wrong film?”
“I’m very disappointed! Shion-sensei’s novel is very good, but this animation, forgive me for being blunt, is a piece of shit!”
“It’s too chaotic. If you haven’t read the original work, you won’t know what it’s about at all. The key is, even for the original fans, they won’t think this animation is good. The boring plot, the awkward voice acting, the animator was clearly slacking off, and Xu Anqi’s face was drawn badly ten times!”
“What the hell is this! This is the worst animation I’ve ever seen. It would have been better not to animate it. After being animated, it’s a complete mess! The plot follows the original work, but the essence of the original work is gone. This is not the Ballad of the Enchantress in my heart!”
Online, a bunch of fans were cursing. A torrent of bad reviews swept across the entire internet. Most fans were very disappointed because this animation had completely ruined their original work. This animation was really too bad. The voice acting was out of place, the animation was not well-drawn, and the characters’ faces were often drawn badly, clearly due to insufficient funding. And the story was not told well either. The editing was a mess. One second the camera was on a love scene, and the next second someone was crying their heart out. The transition was really awkward.
Although there were also fans who tried hard to speak up for their idol.
“This animation has only been on for one episode. What can you tell from it? Let’s wait until this animation is finished!”
“I believe Shion-sensei will not disappoint us. The first episode is just a setup. The next episode will definitely be able to recover.”
“You have to know that the original novel is very good. The animated adaptation shouldn’t be that bad.”
“We have to believe in Shion-sensei.”
“I quite enjoyed this animation. As an original fan, I got the points of the animation. This is a gift for the fans. It’s normal for passersby not to understand. If you don’t understand, go and read the original work.”
But this was a futile effort.
No matter how much the fans spoke up for their idol, it couldn’t change the fact that the animation was bad.
The reputation of this animation had already collapsed.
“I really don’t understand why Shion-sensei would cooperate with Caibi. This company has no fame and has no decent works before. Why cooperate with this company?”
“Caibi Company is blacklisted for life! They ruined Shion-sensei’s work!”
“I don’t understand why Shion-sensei sold the animation rights to Caibi. Caibi is just Trash-tier, Incompetent, a piece of trash! If it’s for 100% restoration of the original work, Caibi has done it, but the plot is too chaotic, without the essence of the original work!”
“I’m sorry, Shion-sensei. I don’t love you anymore. See you again if fate allows.”
“I used to like Shion-sensei a lot. I’m sorry, I can’t love you anymore.”
It could be said that the internet was a torrent of bad reviews. No one had any hope for this four-way mess of an animation, nor would they have any expectations for it. Such a good IP as Ballad of the Enchantress had been ruined in Caibi’s hands. The animation was a complete flop. On the web platform, the first episode of Ballad of the Enchantress had reached eighty million views, but this was its peak. The number of views for each subsequent episode was decreasing. At its lowest, each episode only had twenty to thirty thousand views. It had already flopped.
This animation scored 5.0 on Douzi, and this was just the first episode. There was still a downward trend. It was estimated that the final score would drop below 4.
Even professional animation critics publicly stated, “I have never seen such a terrible animation. It would have been better not to have this IP developed into an animation.”
The majority of people gave it a bad review.
In comparison, the viewership of Air-sensei’s animation The Rich Man’s Game was considerable, and the ratings for each episode were rising. As a romantic comedy, it was indeed very successful. At least on the Douzi website, people gave this animation a score of 8.
In this battle, Air-sensei had won.
…
Xiao Yanhan had been fighting with the people who were flaming Shion-sensei online these past few days, without stopping for a moment. She could tolerate people saying the animation was bad, but she couldn’t tolerate people slandering her idol. She had to fight back. But even so, it couldn’t change the fact that the animation of Ballad of the Enchantress was already ruined.
This animation, in just one episode, had ruined everything.
The work that Yu Linna had created with her painstaking effort, the work she had cherished like a child, she had been unwilling to sell to others. Who would have thought that after selling it to Caibi, this would be the outcome?
Xiao Yanhan still remembered that after watching the first episode of the animation, Yu Linna had just been silent for a few minutes, then made a bowl of noodles, and after finishing it, she went back to drawing, as if nothing had happened. The calmer she was, the more worried they were. They would rather this girl cry a little, throw a tantrum, or even be willful for once. They could accept all of that.
But Yu Linna didn’t.
She didn’t even cry.
When Xiao Yanhan asked about it, she just replied:
“What’s done is done. It can’t be changed.”
It seemed she had already accepted her fate.
Most of the fans online were cursing her, cursing Shion-sensei for selling the copyright to Caibi, for making the animation so bad.
And after the animation’s reputation collapsed, Caibi Company, which had been bombarded by netizens, remained silent for a long time before posting a Weibo to defend themselves.
“We make animations with our hearts. When Shion-sensei sold the copyright to us, she made a request: that we restore the original work 100%, without a single change. We just agreed to the sensei’s request. There’s nothing wrong with that. As for the animation’s reputation, that’s not something we can decide.”
Clearly, Caibi Company was shifting the blame.
Rational fans knew very well that this company wanted Shion-sensei to take the blame and decisively blacklisted Caibi for life. And the irrational fans went to Shion-sensei’s Weibo and cursed her, calling her willful and capricious, not caring about her fans, and not letting the company make any changes.
After all, animation and novels are completely different.
The greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment.
For Yu Linna, this was as accurate as it could be.
Yu Linna, who was being verbally attacked, tasted the bitterness of her career for the first time. She had always told herself she couldn’t fail, but this time, she had failed completely, utterly lost.
She was always working hard, doing everything well. She didn’t want to lose; she wanted to win every time. But that was impossible.
Yu Linna didn’t eat anymore. She had a bowl of instant noodles every day, didn’t leave her dorm. Her dark circles became more and more obvious. And she also became less and less talkative, silent all day long. Besides drawing, she was just drawing. When her roommates asked her a few questions, she was too lazy to reply. Her complexion became more and more unhealthy.
“She won’t be in any trouble, will she?”
Xiao Yanhan looked at her like this, a little worried.
Lan Ranyan glanced at the drawing Yu Linna. She knew what this child was doing, but what could she do at this moment? They couldn’t help with anything.
