Chapter 152: Jumping Focus
Milla's thoughts aside, the semi-Japanese but heavily Americanized had a lot more implications as it is releasing and circulating across society.
It wasn't supposed to be anything big though as it mostly concerns topics involving love, romance, finding soulmates, and all that.
What could society even expect from a little cute story about teens finally being girlfriend and boyfriend with each other?
It was too bad that the influence of the little graphic novel was not made calm and easy at all. Everything became a bit bigger as little articles in newspapers and discussions on radio broadcasts sought to put 'A Mysterious Thing Called Love' into the spotlight.
Creed Comics' success at the very start was brought about by such timely articles, broadcasts, and even a bit of TV reportings here and there. It brought the comic books into the spotlight indeed but the theme this February seems a bit more damaging.
A certain love advice column says that the Shinri and Hotaru story is an over-exaggeration and is very unlikely to happen to teens or any people alike.
One radio program discusses the deep implications of how the love story may impact its readers.
The improbability of the love story compounds itself unto the relative simplicity of the couple's get-together.
They even dove deep into the trope of a teenager's gullibility to matters of the heart and poor Hotaru happen to be the biggest representative of it.
The bad showcasing also highlights how a repeat player of girls like Shinri gets to have his own happy ending. Shouldn't someone who gets so many girls and have a high standing in school society get a bad ending?
People with great advantages must have their downfall and it mostly calls upon society's dislike of overwhelming privilege and silver spoons.
There are also discussion points that appeal to the parent group that advocates the no relationship rule while their children are still in school.
Most of what was being discussed and tackled mostly bring up some interesting points but it also happen to point out a biased perspective that put the graphic novel, Creed Comics, or even Alexander Creed in a bad light.
It was a clear and propagandic media targeting that could only be traced to be masterminded by a few people, organizations, and competitors that are set to benefit from it.
There was no refute given by the targeted though as most of what has been discussed has feasibilities and viabilities to be discussed.
How could Creed Comics or Alexander even care for those supposedly "damaging" attacks when the sales are still good? Media representation essentially gives a product some reputation and visibility. It was a welcome development as the advertising fees need not be paid as the competition was doing it for them.
Even though it was mostly bad, there are still other competing columns and broadcast programs that want to up their media counterparts... so, the progression of things simply went for balance and development.
Either way, the influence of the simple graphic novel was somewhat unnecessarily overblown.
Perhaps Marina Umezawa herself had never expected that her short concept could sway so many people or even trigger some minor unrests.
Even Alexander, who plagiarized and plundered the cute love manga, had pretty much not considered what his romance initiative would lead to.
It would seem that love is truly a disease whose infection seems to have jumped towards matters of society's stance and business rivalry.
In any case, it was just a little media fiasco that really didn't amount to anything much except being a minor annoyance.
However, it did increase the Creed companies' vigilance as the sharpened fangs of enemies seems to be gnawing and readying themselves for something.
It was best to prepare the poisons and the traps lest the fangs truly lead to irreparable damage.
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Creed preparation matters were already being put to practice though while competitors were truly eyeing up on a lot of things that were happening.
The media damaging was a test on a lot of things and they based most of their future strategies from there.
One of such major competitors happens to be Mattel as they discussed Creed Comics matters with much more importance than normal.
"Did our methods achieve something?" A Mattel executive asked as he turned his attention to representatives that analyze market correspondence.
"We gave the book some bad reputation but so far... that's pretty much it." The head of market research could only give the news that their attempts really didn't amount to anything substantial. "This isn't the so-called pre-CCA period where people burn comic books after all. That industry just works differently with how our toy market works."
While toy bashing might have worked well for them, it may not necessarily work well when dealing with an industry leader like Creed Comics. The executives knew that and could only knit their brows at that realization.
"Why are we even making trouble for a comic book anyway? Shouldn't we be dealing with toy matters?" An executive found their attack on Creed Comics pointless when they have far more pressing matters to deal with in their own field. "I heard that a talking teddy bear is in the works, why don't we tap on that toy ingenuity?"
"Talking toys can just stand aside for now as that comic book you're dismissing could very well be a threat to our Barbie dominance?" An executive that hasn't lost faith in Barbie said in grim news. "Our Hot Wheels toyline is already being overshadowed by Creed Toys' Autobots and Decepticon toyline. We can't afford to lose Barbie!"
Everyone in the meeting felt the seriousness of the matter when they considered what has been happening in the market as of recently.
Much to the scorn of the toy-making industry, Creed Toys has officially outsourced their retailing to malls and toy-oriented stores for the past weeks.
Everyone's scorn eventually turned to somber seriousness at some point as a noticeable trend was being noticed. Creed Toys was outshowing every other toy in display with incredible detailing, impressive background stories, collectible advantage, and considerable action featurettes.
February was clearly a slow month for toys but anyone who stands out during that period was already a looming threat.
Cybertronian toys beating their simplistic Hot Wheels was acceptable due to transforming robots being an ingenious advantage that they can't overwhelm. However, Barbie was on its way to being threatened and they needed to do their work.
"How are Ken and Barbie going to be able to fair against this Shinri and Hotaru pair?" An executive asked but he already knew the answer along with the rest of his companions.
Hotaru was way too cute and Shinri was incredibly handsome. Although it was only a matter of art style in comic books, the Mattel heads were already troubled in the possibilities. If Creed Toys were to make them into one of their detailed toylines, then Barbie and Ken will truly have a true competitor.
The battle between Barbie and 'A Mysterious Thing Called Love need not be answered as everyone in the meeting room proposed their solutions to help mitigate the toy battle that is about to come.
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Eventually, the Mattel masterminds came to a consensus that should be enough to give them a fighting chance against the comic book popular Hotaru and Shinri.
"Let's start the Barbie comic books then!" The Barbie executive was quite enthusiastic about this decision. "Our Barbie Empire must not fall!!"
"""Yeah!!!""" The Barbie constituents yelled on. They clearly weren't Barbie fanatics but they can't help but be caught up in the moment.
In any case, toy giant Mattel seems adamant on jumping their toy marketing focus into the comic book industry.