Episode 76: The Other World’s First Animation (1)
Just as I had been certain when I watched the Gigant piloted by Sir Karoi cleave the drake in two with a single stroke.
This Gigant demonstration achieved results that truly deserved to be called a resounding success.
Naturally, the prestige of the Royal Knights, which had been the goal of starting this project in the first place, also soared without end.
“I saw it with my own two eyes, I’m telling you.
The greatsword split the drake’s breath apart, then went straight on to cut the drake itself in half.
Wow, that’s when I realized battles from legends and myths really look like that.”
“Krrr— It wouldn’t even be an exaggeration to say anyone who didn’t see that scene missed out on half their life!”
“The comic is one thing, but a Gigant moving in reality is way more incredible.
You haven’t felt what it’s like when the entire space rumbles every time that giant machine moves, have you?
You can never feel that through a comic.”
Part of it was thanks to the people who had witnessed that scene firsthand in the capital that day, going around full of excitement and heat, bragging about what they had seen and spreading rumors.
—The Moment of the Gigant Demonstration.
Capturing the Historic Sight That Shook the Capital!—
“Ohhh! Look at this picture. It’s so vivid, it’s almost like they transferred reality itself onto the page.”
“Hiya— It may not be as good as what the people who saw it in person keep bragging about, but just looking at this peculiar picture called a ‘photograph’ tells you how incredible the Gigant was.”
Thanks to Professor Logic’s new technology, which had developed while making various games recently.
We were able to print something like photographs that captured the scene at the site in the newspaper.
And the fact that this allowed us to convey the sight of the Gigant demonstration to everyone across the kingdom had the greatest effect.
‘Honestly, the focus and composition weren’t perfect, and the image quality wasn’t all that clear either.’
But that actually made it feel even more vivid and real.
The comparison shot of the drake that had been cleaved in two and died split in half, beside the Gigant standing nobly with its greatsword in hand,
was more than enough to convey the majesty of the Gigant, and of the Royal Knights who had created and piloted it, to every corner of the nation.
And once that happened, topics related to the Gigant naturally came to monopolize the attention of the entire kingdom.
—Breaking News! Two mages, both critically injured after dueling while precariously riding atop homemade golems!
Was the cause an attempt to recreate a scene from the comic?—
“What the hell? Who are these ridiculous but awesome bastards?”
“Ah, those mages? I saw it in person, and it was a real masterpiece.
Since making a Gigant was impossible, they used golems that only roughly imitated the appearance, but it was still full of impact.”
“I saw it too. They were very impressive fellows.
The sight of them shouting the protagonist and rival’s famous lines while clashing fists was something I had no choice but to acknowledge as a man.
Well, immediately afterward, the golems were destroyed and they were carried off to the temple.”
“Damn it! I should’ve seen that sight myself!”
Among them, there were even mages who used golems that clumsily imitated the Gigant to clumsily imitate a scene from the comic, beating each other up,
only for both sides to suffer serious injuries and be carried off to the temple, ending up immortalized in the newspaper.
‘It was a little dizzying to see people praising them as brave and cool after seeing that.’
—Real Gigants are piloted by trained knights.
No matter who you are or what you do.
Never! Recklessly imitate this.—
Thanks to that incident, we had to hurriedly release a warning telling people not to imitate it and a notice saying we were not responsible if they got hurt while doing so.
No matter what, let’s at least care about our own lives while having fun, shall we?
Of course, unlike the people and public opinion who were enjoying it in a generally positive way, even if it was a teeny bit extreme,
just as I had worried beforehand,
there were also a few troublesome people who appeared, making aggressive claims that the Gigant should be used in war and so on.
“Did you not see the Gigant’s destructive power?
If you saw it, you should naturally have felt it!
With Gigants, becoming the hegemon of the continent is no mere dream!
Imagine it! Gigants running across the entire continent!”
“What the hell is this bastard saying?”
“You little shit. You didn’t read the original properly, did you?
The original kindly explained how brutal and dangerous war is, and how deep its scars remain.
If you’d read it properly, there’s no way that nonsense would come out of your mouth!”
“So are your ancestors going to pay the cost of making and operating Gigants?
And will the knights who pilot them sprout from the ground? Huh?
Do you want to watch the country collapse while doing nothing but building Gigants?”
Fortunately, they were immediately suppressed after being beaten down from every angle, both in principle and in practicality.
It was a moment when I felt truly relieved that most people had properly understood the antiwar message contained in the work.
“It seems the Kingdom of Justia has no intention of waging war.”
“There are no signs that they intend to mass-produce Gigants either.”
Thanks to that, we were also able to avoid friction with other nations that had heard news of the Gigant, or causing them to raise their guard.
“Ssseup. Isn’t that thing basically just a large, expensive ornament?
It moves for a few minutes and then collapses. How could it be operated in actual combat?”
“It certainly has powerful strength, but if you’re going to mobilize that thing on a battlefield, it would be better to just deploy knights.
Its size and weight would make transport difficult, and naturally, it would be discovered before it could even be deployed, so protecting it would be difficult too.”
“If it were operated passively in a restricted location and situation like in this demonstration, it might be efficient.
But it seems too early to actively utilize it.”
Well, it might also be because they concluded that the Gigant was still lacking for real battlefield deployment.
“Still, just in case, shall we make one too?”
“Let’s. It may be lacking now, but who knows what will happen later?”
“Besides, if we have one, it’ll look impressive, won’t it?
If we use it during important national events, it seems like it would be quite good for establishing authority.”
“More than anything, if everyone else has one and we’re the only ones who don’t, our prestige would be a bit…”
Still, since no one knew what the future might bring,
Duke Lucid explained that other countries had also begun research and development related to Gigants, one by one.
It wasn’t intentional, but should I say that, in its own way, we had exported culture?
And Duke Lucid also brought the happy news that His Majesty the King, the client behind this most important project,
was greatly satisfied with the results and had stamped the quest complete.
“Thanks to you and the Gigant, the Knights’ status is piercing the heavens right now!
Knights from all over the country are clamoring to join the Royal Knights, so it’s no ordinary commotion. Hahaha!”
I didn’t know whether they had seen the Gigant demonstration, fallen in love with the Gigant, and developed the ambition to become piloting knights themselves,
or whether they had fallen for the technical skill, financial power, and authority that had produced such a Gigant.
In any case, we had overachieved the quest of raising the Knights’ prestige by more than 140 percent.
Sir Mateus, the commander of the Knights, and His Majesty the King apparently couldn’t stop smiling for days.
“How do you plan to use the Gigant Savior you made this time from now on?”
“Hmm, from now on, we intend to use it ceremonially whenever there are important national events.
Its actual combat ability is still lacking, but it’s more than enough for demonstrations during events.
If we show it off periodically, there’ll be some bastards sweating bullets just in case. Hehehe.”
Well, if they weren’t going to use it once and discard it, but intended to keep putting it to good use, that was enough.
I’d grown somewhat attached to it, and it felt a bit wasteful to scrap it like this.
Besides, if technology developed in the future, we might really get to see Gigant battles in actual combat.
‘Though that’ll probably be in a few decades.’
Let’s look forward to that time.
“By the way, since you successfully completed the mission, you should receive a reward befitting it, shouldn’t you?
Is there anything you want?
Permission has been given to grant you almost anything within reason, so just say the word.”
And since I had completed the mission, it was only natural that a reward would follow.
As it had been a quest personally given by the king himself, the clear reward was extremely generous.
Duke Lucid said he could grant most things I wanted, handing me a blank check and telling me to ask for anything.
Something I wanted…
Of course there was something.
There was a plan I had been pondering recently, and with the royal family’s help, I felt I could carry it out a little more comfortably.
‘Monetary compensation doesn’t really have meaning or necessity anyway, and there isn’t anything else in particular I want to demand…’
I nodded inwardly, made up my mind, and presented it to Duke Lucid.
“Could I receive help developing moving-image technology?”
***
Watching Professor Logic develop photography this time made me realize something.
Just adding a single photograph like this made it much easier to convey a sense of being on-site.
So how much better would it be if we had moving images?
Hadn’t we already shown moving images in the dating simulation game?
‘That wasn’t moving images. It was just images.’
The dating simulation game only showed illusion magic that displayed still pictures in sequence.
What I wanted was true “moving” images, where the objects on the screen genuinely seemed to come alive and move.
Naturally, it would require technology far more difficult than photography, which only showed still scenes.
That was why I asked for support in developing the technology as this reward.
After all, rather than having Professor Logic develop it alone,
it would be far faster if we formed a think tank with other capable developers, like during the Gigant’s production.
And if we needed to gather such high-level personnel, using royal authority was the most direct way.
Fortunately, after hearing my explanation, Duke Lucid also showed interest in moving images and accepted my request.
“Hooh. Developing a new technology that can show objects moving exactly as they are.
That sounds interesting. It seems like it could actually be used very effectively too.
If that’s your request, then of course we must help.”
As the duke said, if we developed moving-image technology, it could be used very effectively.
If only we had been able to record the scene of this Gigant demonstration as moving images, its impact would have been far more powerful.
Even people who hadn’t been able to come to the capital could have had a much more vivid experience.
Of course, what I was aiming for
wasn’t how politically or socially useful moving-image technology could be.
There was only one thing I was aiming for.
‘You need moving-image technology to make movies, dramas, variety shows, and stuff like that.’
Spreading a new culture through moving images.
Movies.
Dramas.
Variety shows.
Documentaries.
And ahem… even those slightly racy sorts of things.
Once moving-image technology was secured, it would be hard to count on one hand how many new forms of culture could be created.
It was also technology that had occupied a very large share of the culture from my previous life.
Of course, such works required more than simply recording moving images.
‘We’ll also need editing technology to save, cut, splice, insert, and revise footage.’
My request included all of those editing technologies as well.
Without editing technology, even if we had the ability to record moving images, it would be incredibly difficult to utilize.
It wasn’t as if we could film the entire contents of every movie or drama in one take.
In any case.
It was good that I had secured Duke Lucid’s promise of support for technology development, but—
“Once my thoughts started flowing toward moving images, I keep thinking about moving images.”
The problem was that once I started thinking about moving images, the desire for them that had lain dormant since my reincarnation went out of control.
I want to watch videos.
If there aren’t any, I want to make them and watch them.
But as I said earlier, we still lacked the technology, so we couldn’t make them yet.
While I was groaning and agonizing amid that unresolvable frustration, one idea suddenly occurred to me.
“Wait. Other moving-image works may be impossible, but…
Couldn’t we make animation with our current technology?”
Unlike other works, which require filming actual moving images and various editing technologies to edit them,
animation is a work created by using the optical illusion of afterimages that occurs when multiple still pictures are flipped through in rapid succession.
So with our current technology, it seemed like it might just barely be possible.
“Of course, reaching the level of smooth animation I saw in my previous life would be impossible…”
Still, I could see the possibility.
“This isn’t the time to be sitting around!
I need to go see Professor Logic right away!”
And so, my next goal was decided.
To create the other world’s first animation!