I am the Entertainment Tycoon

Wednesday, December 9th.

Misty 3rd Street, Sakura City.

Life in the capital of the most developed country in Azure Star started that Wednesday morning like every other morning.

Students woke up early to go to their school or college.

Workers also woke up early to go to their workplaces.

And some of these workers could be seen entering a building in Mysty 3rd Street.

It was at this place that the Grotto Sound Studio was located.

This was a small studio that worked in the developed anime industry of Sakura City.

They accepted orders to produce the sound effects of animes.

Some people may not know the importance of sound effects in animation.

Let's just do a comparison with live-action projects.

The simple fact that live-action projects happen in the real world means that everything makes noise, from the traffic in the street to the cameraman's footsteps. And even if the shooting occurs on a closed set, noises are everywhere.

But with animation, it's completely different.

Since it's created from the ground up, there's no "natural" sound.

Let's just imagine that a story is happening deep inside a forest.

The sound of the environment around the camera helps to set the tone of the story. It can tell the audience how dense the forest is, how pleasant the weather is, and even how secure that forest is. The audience sees a small bush moving slowly, with a nice soft wind blowing on the trees' leaves and the lovely sound of birds singing. Seems like a nice day, right?

Now, let's imagine that we have the same bush moving, but instead of the nice weather, we have a cloudy sky, a strong wind blowing, and a low-pitched growl coming from behind the bush. This, by itself, can change the entire perception of the story.

Add a mysterious voice-over or even a subtle dark and eerie music, and our hypothetical nice walk in the forest just turned into a nightmare.

With this example, we can understand the importance of sound effects in animation.

Without it, the audience cannot immerse itself in the story.

And if that does not happens, how the viewer will be able to concentrate on what they see?

Therefore, going with the forest example we have just seen.

If the director wants the audience to immerse in the story, the sound effects team will have to produce all possible sounds possible in that scene.

The wind blowing in the bush, the sound of the footsteps, the birds singing, and so on.

These sounds need to be made in a studio.

And a Sound Studio worked exactly with that.

The Sound Engineers and Designers of the studio worked hard to set the tone of the animation.

There are five different aspects that they needed to pay attention to:

Ambiance: The sounds that set the tone and the environment of the animation. For example, the sound of the wind blowing and of the birds singing.

Foley: Used to represent what's being seen. For example, the footsteps on the ground, and the sound of the bush's leaves moving.

Sound Effects: The sound effects that enhance other sounds, actions, or elements. For example, the sound of the low growl behind the bushes is a subtle sound of the character trembling in fear while he approaches the bush.

Voice Over: The mysterious narrator telling the story.

Music: The eerie music in the background works together with the ambiance to set the tone of the story.

Sound Design doesn't tell us the story, but it teleports us inside the story.

It's the immersive factor that allows an animation to be truly experienced and messages to be delivered with more purpose.

It was with all these reasons that we can expect that a sound studio filled with talented sound engineers and designers will be successful, right?

Wrong!

This was Sakura City, the holy city for animation, and the competition here was brutal.

If someone makes a mistake, they will suffer later because talented people who were vying for their position were just waiting for the ones in the position to make a mistake.

And that was what happened with the Grotto Sound Studio.

This was a small sound studio.

It had 30 sound engineers and designers.

It was opened by three friends after they gathered money of selling all their belongings.

These three people were talented and after much struggle in their first years, they landed a job to produce the sound effects for a slice-of-life anime from a medium animation studio.

This was their breakthrough project, and they nailed it.

They did such a good job, that they started receiving orders from other studios.

That was how they managed to get other talented engineers and designers to work with them.

Everyone was friends with each other, and they liked working with each other.

Life was good.

They were working in their dream job and being successful at it.

They could not have asked for more.

But it was then that everything started going downhill.

They received a big project from a big animation studio.

It was their chance of establishing themselves as a reliable sound studio in Sakura City's animation industry.

They gave their blood and sweat to produce the best effects in their capabilities.

And they did an amazing job.

But it was then that the worst thing happened.

,m Someone hacked into the studio's network and leaked the anime episodes in the studio's database.

A sound studio usually gets the animation ready, and as they watch the animation without any sound, they produce the corresponding sound for each action.

If they see someone sneezing, they will produce a sneeze sound for that moment.

If they see someone walking on a wooden floor, they will produce the corresponding sound too.

So, when they finish producing all these sounds and putting them together with the animation, the animation was almost ready.

And the Grotto Sound Studio wanted to do such a good product that they even worked together with the voice actors hired by the animation studio.

So, the episodes in the Grotto's Sound Studio database were complete and ready to air on TV.

Imagine their despair when they found out that the leaked episodes had come from their studio.

The animation studio that hired them for the job was furious.

They even sued the Grotto Sound Studio.

And because they could not prove that they were hacked, the Grotto Sound Studio was sentenced to pay exorbitant money as compensation to the animation studio.

The small sound studio did not have any chance of winning the case against such a big animation studio.

The three friends, who founded the sound studio, had to sell every piece of equipment that they bought to establish the studio.

Everything to gather money to pay the fine that they had to pay to the animation studio.

Imagine their pain when they saw their baby company being dismantled piece by piece because of one mistake they made.

And without any more equipment, they could not even accept any orders anymore.

Not that anyone would work with them again.

No one wanted to work with people who were suspected to leak anime episodes.

That's why the workers who entered the building of the Grotto Sound Studio in Mysty 3rd Street had melancholic and defeated faces.

Their career was ruined.

Or was it?

Someone was eyeing this studio.

But would that be bad or good for them?