Chapter 307 - Decent Negotiations (1/2)

At past seven in the evening, Meng Fan left Kodansha with the first draft of a contract in his backpack. The contract naturally consisted of the collaboration contract Meng Fan had requested with Kodansha.

Of course, the collective contract wasn’t completely catered to Meng Fan’s requests, as he had to back down on some of his requests just like Kodansha did with theirs. These requests had been used by Meng Fan originally with the intention of leaving room to bargain as well, so he was satisfied in the end as long as they passed his bottom line.

Of course, Kodansha had some requirements of their own as well, but it was all within the limits of the contract, so Meng Fan happily accepted them.

This included some very unfair clauses, like Kodansha having the power to terminate the manga and its serialization at any time.

In addition, aside from the animation copyrights going to Kodansha, all copyrights for “The Legend of the Mountains and Seas” within the region of Japan also belonged to Kodansha.

If “The Legend of the Mountains and Seas” were to film a Japanese movie or TV series, Kodansha would be in charge.

Meng Fan wanted the manga to be serialized in Japan. Aside from wholeheartedly wanting to penetrate the Japanese manga market with a Chinese manga — this was like how actors yearned for Hollywood, basketball players for the NBA, ping pong players gunning to get into Huaxia, and soccer players for the European Cup — but he also wanted to create a stepping stone by signing a contract.

For a manga to become popular, it required a serialization platform. Regardless if it was a manga publishing house or an online platform, it had to continue producing volumes. Otherwise, nobody would know of it, and it will not gain popularity.

Most of the mangas in Japan all went through these three publishing houses for serialization, publications, and art book publications. If Meng Fan wanted his manga to penetrate the Japanese industry, he couldn’t avoid these three firms.

Even if this contract was not successful, Meng Fan could still await his manga to gain popularity in the mainland before selling it independently in Japan. But he still had to go through one of these publishing houses.

This was different in Huaxia, where he could randomly find any platform and serialize his manga, publish it at a private publishing house, and gain popularity by selling copies by himself.

Of course, even if it was in the mainland, if Meng Fan didn’t have the skills as a base, the publishing house would devour Meng Fan like they do with other exclusive manga artists, regardless which platform and publisher he chose.

Because he had the skills to back it up, he was able to negotiate with Kodansha without any reluctance toward their policy.

If he authorized part of the copyright to his manga through the cooperation agreement he signed with Kodansha, making websites and publishing houses unwilling to sign with him, then Meng Fan would deal with the consequences himself.

Otherwise, Meng Fan still had to consider the market back home in Huaxia as he negotiated with Kodansha.

This time, they had reached an agreement and drafted up a contract, but it hadn’t been stamped yet. One, Meng Fan needed time to find a professional to look through the draft, and two, he wanted to visit Penguin Animations for some final negotiations.

Regardless if Penguin Animation agreed or not, Goro Takahashi will still fly out to Huaxia afterward to find Meng Fan and sign the contract.

If Penguin Animation Networks agreed to negotiate, and it went well, then they would have requests of their own too, which would require more negotiation and discussion. Ideally, all three parties would come out of this as winners if the situation allowed.

Meng Fan politely rejected Goro Takahashi’s dinner invitation with several other colleagues, saying he already had plans. He had plans indeed. His second sister, Meng Cailian, had scheduled a Michelin-grade dinner for him, and Meng Caiwei, his third sister, had been excited to join them and also invited her friend Shiyua.

But Meng Fan didn’t reject Goro Takahashi’s offer to drop him off. After he said his goodbyes, Meng Fan gave the driver an address and gave Yixin a call.

“Legend of the Mountains and Seas” had to be serialized in the mainland, and he was set on choosing Penguin Animation Network as his serialization platform. First, Penguin Animation Network was the largest manga hosting platform in the country, and second, he was used to working with them and too lazy to switch.

Yesterday, Meng Fan very shamelessly awarded himself with 100 million Penguin points, followed closely by 100 sponsorships by an equally shameless Ironfan. Not only did they manage to list “Legend of the Mountains and Seas,” which didn’t even have a description yet, into the best-selling list, it also created the highest sales record since Penguin Animation’s creation.

The entire industry was boiling, much more so the web platform.

“Legend of the Mountains and Seas” could be said to have blown up before it was even aired. Nobody even knew what the content would be, yet its popularity could rival some very popular manga artists’ lifetime of work.

The directing board from Penguin Animation Network had constantly been asking Yixin for updates on the situation, which made Yixin want to cry. What the hell do I know, I want to know too!

After seeing his phone ring with a call from Meng Fan, Yixin immediately picked up the receiver and listened to the voice coming from the other end. Immediately, his expression changed. Then, his scream of excitement could be heard throughout the entire office.

“What? You signed with Kodansha?”

“And it’s a collaborative contract, too?”

“You’re really in Japan!”

“And you somehow managed to give the copyrights for ‘Legend of the Mountains and Seas’ in Japan to Kodansha?”

“While you still have the other copyrights?”

“You want to sign it with Penguin Animation Network?”

“So, it’s a Sino-Japanese collaborative effort to update?”

“Ha, ha! How did the negotiations go? You promise this is true!”