Fumiya Takahashi, an amateur film critic.

I run a personal channel on YouTube with a pretty good number of fans.

Tonight is the day when GENIE's new program "Katsutengu no Monster Retreat" will be aired on TV for the first time.

Takahashi has been in front of the TV for a long time. He plans to publish a review video about this new series on his channel.

For this reason, a video recorder was even set up, ready to completely record the content of the new episode.

TV broadcasts are like this. There is no way to pause or rewind, so in order to better explore the details of this show and make the videos I make have more content to talk about, I can only rely on peripherals.

Regarding the promotional video for "Katsutengu no Monster Retreat", Takahashi has watched it several times on GENIE's official website.

To be honest, he is looking forward to this new show.

After all, he was originally a loyal fan of GENIE's previous work "Miss Mary", and he was also a fan of the virtual anchor "Mary-chan" who has a subtle connection with GENIE.

And even if these personal emotional factors are put aside, the quality and sincerity of the new work as shown in the promotional video for "Katsutengu no Monster Retreat" cannot be faulted.

The images shown in the promotional shots are very sophisticated and gorgeous, and the soundtrack is also of a very high level. At first glance, it seems that a lot of money was spent on it.

Moreover, in the promotional video, there is a flash of a Gothic doll sitting in a dark cabin.

GENIE has made it clear that Mary from the previous work "Miss Mary" will appear as a supporting character in a certain episode of "Katsutengu no Monster Retreat".

Now I have to watch it!

"GENIE is obviously an animation company that only appeared last year, but in terms of funds for animation production, it is even far ahead of most major companies in the industry. To put it a bit exaggerated, there is a kind of No. 1 goal of producing animation regardless of cost.

It’s not about the feeling of making money.”

"Perhaps their business policy is to spend a lot of money to build strong ships and cannons, and win with superior quality?"

"It's also possible... GENIE is not short of money at all. If this is the case, the somewhat outrageous inference that has been circulating on the Internet may be true."

The outrageous inference that has always existed on the Internet refers to——

The person in the virtual anchor "Mary-chan" who has close ties with GENIE Studio is actually a rich lady.

Whether she is cheating and debuting as a V, or setting up a club to produce animations, this young lady just came here by chance to experience life.

Therefore, whether you are watching the live broadcast or watching the program, everyone should watch and cherish it.

Maybe one day this mysterious eldest lady will get tired of playing house and stop playing house with the common people.

Because this hypothesis has always existed, Marie-chan's live broadcast room and GENIE studio attracted many people to watch the fun.

"Is it true that a wealthy lady would be so free? Moreover, GENIE has great ambitions, and it doesn't look like she is just playing around."

Takahashi Fumiya couldn't help but laugh when he thought of this hypothesis.

It doesn't matter what the facts are, anyway, for a fan like him. The emergence of a company in the animation industry that does not hesitate to spend a lot of money to polish its works is a great thing no matter what.

While waiting for the broadcast of "Katsutengu no Yokai Retreat", Takahashi's cell phone kept vibrating.

It’s a group chat in LINE called “GENIE Hobby Club” that keeps popping up messages.

This small group is said to be a fan club, but in fact there are only three members, Takahashi and his two high school friends - Tsunayoshi Hidaka and Yoji Shimogawa.

Last year, it was also because of these two good friends that Takahashi watched the TV premiere of the TV drama "Mr. Mary" together. Not only did he successfully eat the Amway of that drama, but he also became a celebrity because of it.

Fans of "Mary-chan".

And now all three of them are in college.

Because they went to different universities, the time the three of them could see each other was reduced, but they still chatted on LINE from time to time.

Like tonight, because of the first broadcast of "Katsutengu no Monster Retreat House", Hidaka and Shimokawa were chatting enthusiastically in the group——

"Have you seen the promotional trailer for "Katsutengu no Yokai Cure House"? The main feature is "The Beautiful Picture Scroll of the Yokai Cure House", which is awesome!"

"Of course I watched it. Ms. Kamiya, the animation producer at GENIE Studio, is so beautiful! She will have no problem debuting as a star."

"Where do you focus your attention?"

"But she is really beautiful, the kind of OL beauty. By the way, is there a possibility that Miss Kamiya is the one for Mari-chan?"

"It's impossible. It's completely unimaginable that they are the same person. I feel that Mary-chan's middle-aged man is more like the financial backer behind that company, and he won't appear in that documentary."

"You don't even understand what contrasting cuteness means!"

"... Take it, your house smell is overflowing through my mobile phone screen."

"Oh, what a pity. Speaking of which, the number of live broadcasts by Marie-chan has dropped a lot this year. Obviously the live broadcasts are more diligent, and Marie-chan is very hopeful to become a major anchor this year."

"Perhaps it's because GENIE is too busy with things? It doesn't mean that the second season of "Miss Mary" is already in production, and now a new monster series has been launched."

"That's what I said. But I still want more people to feel the charm of the goddess of luck. No matter who they are, I will become a believer in Marie-chan! Mammon will last forever!"

"Mammon!"

"..."

Takahashi casually looked through the chat history of his friends, and then found that the topic had shifted to the topic of Miss Mary being the "goddess of luck".

Whether it is virtual anchor Mary-chan or "Miss Mary", they have all created such an image.

In a sense, both Hidaka and Shimokawa are "loyal believers" of Marie-chan.

Especially this guy Hidaka, who always said that he was able to get into Hokkaido University in his "explosion" because of Miss Mary's good fortune.

...I don’t know who was studying the questions until early in the morning every day during the preparation period.

Takahashi felt that Hidaka was able to get into a good university entirely because of his own final efforts.

However, maybe there is also the influence of the so-called "Goddess of Luck". That guy seems to really want to prove to everyone that being a fan of Mary will really bring you good luck...

Childish! Ridiculous!

After casually speaking a few words in the group, Takahashi put the lock screen of his phone back on the desktop.

Then he looked at the TV, which was still showing advertisements, and silently clasped his hands together: "Miss Mary, you must continue to bless my channel data to increase."

But then again——

Anyway, "faith" in Miss Mary doesn't cost money, it's just a matter of words and thoughts.

Takahashi, who is always rational and serious, is more or less convinced.

…

It's half past twelve in the morning.

"Katsutengu no Monster Retreat" is broadcast on time on TBS TV station.

After a passionate and gorgeous OP, the screen faded into black.

The first thing that catches the eye is the castle streets with a strong Edo period style.

The whole piece is a two-story building made of brick and wood structure, with a thick black tile roof. Then the picture zooms out, and several tall foreign-style buildings with different styles appear across the street from the "Tibetan Building".

Above the western-style building, you can still see the Stars and Stripes flying.

This is the initial stage of the drama's story, Yokohama at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate's rule. The western-style building that appears in the picture is the American Consulate that was the first to open the door to Japan.

You can see Japanese people wearing kimonos or suits on the streets, and there are also blond and blue-eyed Westerners hanging out next to the consulate.

The opening shot, with its exquisite painting style, vividly demonstrates the non-homogeneous mixture of Japanese style and Western culture during the Reverse Movement period.

Such a sense of conflict in the pictures under a special historical background immediately caught Takahashi Fumiya's attention.

He couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief: "Sure enough, GENIE did more than just make the images in the promotional video excellent."

The camera advances through the streets and enters a Japanese-style mansion. Because the family crest appears on the screen, this should be the mansion of a certain daimyo.

A boy of five or six years old, dressed in a kimono, walked along the deserted corridor.

"I put my upper teeth under the floor of the verandah and threw my lower teeth on the roof. I lost my upper teeth, so the floor... the floor..." the boy said vaguely.

In traditional Japanese-style buildings, the ground is set a certain distance from the ground to prevent moisture, so there is a small, dark space.

The boy came outside the verandah, squatted down, and raised his hand to throw his baby teeth into the floor.

But his movements suddenly stopped.

There was a subtle and very dense sound under the floor of the outer corridor, like the sound of insect wings vibrating.

Click, click, click!

Then, swarms of winged "flying insects" with strange shimmering lights suddenly emerged from under the floor of the verandah!

The boy suddenly fell to the ground.

On the floor of the outer corridor, the sound of wings vibrating was still ringing, but this time it was no longer dense, but louder.

The little boy pinched his baby teeth, shivering and looked again at the small space under the floor.

All he could see was a twisted woman curled up in the small darkness.

There were transparent insect-like wings on the woman's back, which flapped violently against the bottom of the floor.

"Tooth..."

She groaned and stretched out her hand toward the camera.
To be continued...