I'm Not A Master, I'm A Director (Type-Moon Fanfiction) - Chapter 2: Be Careful When Choosing Propaganda Posters

Matou Shinji, a self-proclaimed veteran otaku, is a transmigrator.

Before his transmigration, Shinji not only enjoyed novels, games, anime, and other ACG-related hobbies that are popular among enthusiasts, but he also had some knowledge about Hollywood movies, tokusatsu dramas, and related fields.

Like most transmigrators, after an unfortunate accident led to Shinji’s untimely death, due to some unknown reason, he inexplicably transmigrated into the body of a 7-year-old boy with blue hair in the year 1994.

Transmigrating was supposed to be a good thing for someone like Shinji, an otaku, but when his opportunistic father called his name, told him about a sister named “Sakura,” and mentioned returning to their ancestral home in Fuyuki City, Japan, Shinji felt like this world was in chaos.

Matou Shinji, a character from the famous anime “Fate/Stay Night,” is the most inept Master in the Fifth Holy Grail War.

Moreover, in any of the three routes of “Fate/Stay Night,” Shinji’s fate is far from ideal. Except for the Unlimited Blade Works route, which can barely be considered a good ending, the other two routes have increasingly tragic outcomes for Shinji.

As for resisting fate… considering a certain old monster from the Matou Family, Shinji finds it incredibly difficult, extremely, extremely, extremely difficult.

Therefore, in the first few days of his transmigration, Shinji was filled with anxiety, fearing that he might be toyed with to death by some ET-like old magus.

Fortunately, this situation didn’t last long.

Once Shinji truly arrived and delved into the Matou Family, he realized the disparity between his imagination and reality, much like the difference between the Cotton King and a Cup A firearm — blatantly obvious.

The world Shinji transmigrated into is indeed a Type-Moon world, with elements he is familiar with, such as magic and the Holy Grail War.

However, this world is significantly different from his impression of the Type-Moon world. The mystery of this world has nearly dried up.

Due to some unknown reason, magecraft in this world rapidly declined upon entering the modern era, even reaching the point of barely surviving.

Taking the Fuyuki City’s Holy Grail War as an example, the quality of the summoned Servants deteriorated as the wars progressed.

Based on the information from the Matou Family, Shinji speculated that the Heroic Spirits summoned in the first Holy Grail War were already vastly different from the Heroic Spirits he knew from “Fate/Zero” and “Fate/Stay Night.”

By the second Holy Grail War, the quality had further diminished, and the summoned Servants couldn’t meet the standards, being only slightly stronger than ordinary people.

As a result, the once-famous Fuyuki City’s Holy Grail War only took place twice before coming to an end.

Examining a part reveals the whole: the decline of magecraft in this world is evident from the experience of the Holy Grail War.

Under such circumstances, the ambitions of Type-Moon magus, such as reaching the Root, became nothing but wishful thinking.

Gradually, the magus of this parallel Type-Moon world shifted their perspectives. They were no longer tirelessly pursuing mysteries but began treating magecraft as a more magical traditional craft.

Influenced by this change in perspective, the tradition of bloodline succession in the Type-Moon world began to decline.

On one hand, the new generation of Magus felt that the magecraft they taught was not very useful, and it was even less practical than a manual for technical training. The latter could at least provide them with a stable job.

On the other hand, magus couldn’t be sure if their next generation could meet their expectations and inherit their magecraft.

But having these magus witness the extinction of the magecraft lineage from generation to generation was more distressing than killing them.

As a result, the master-apprentice relationship became prevalent in the magus world. Institutions like the Clock Tower, which taught magecraft, became even more prosperous than the original Type-Moon world, becoming the core locations in the community.

These changes and disparities from the typical Type-Moon world were not a bad thing for Shinji.

No, it should be said that it was a great thing.

The fading of mysteries prevented the ancient ancestor of the Matou Family, Zolgen, from living to 500 years old.

During the second Holy Grail War, that old geezer passed away prematurely due to the inability to extend his lifespan and presumably went to the Western Paradise.

Of course, Shinji suspected that it was due to the hopelessness of the Holy Grail’s arrival that the old man chose to end his own life.

Although Shinji’s current grandfather is also named Matou Zouken and looks exactly like Master Yoda from “Star Wars,” this Zouken is merely an ordinary elderly magus who loves his grandchildren.

The most evident change is that Shinji’s status within the Matou Family has transformed from a “dispensable tool” in the original work to the true young master of the Matou Family.

Furthermore, even though magecraft has declined, the Matou Family’s identity as wealthy landowners remains unchanged.

In the original work, the Matou Family relied on leasing the magical ley lines to make a living. After the mysteries waned, these ley lines withered away, one after another.

Seeing that these ley lines were useless, Zouken, who had just become the head of the family, simply waved his hand and started real estate development with these lands.

Surprisingly, thanks to the post-war economic boom in Japan, Zouken’s actions greatly increased the wealth of the Matou Family.

Although the subsequent collapse of the real estate industry during the bubble economy greatly diminished the Matou Family’s wealth…

Nevertheless, the wealth accumulated by Zouken previously, even if it couldn’t make the Matou Family a top-tier tycoon in Japan, could at least be considered local gentry.

From this perspective, the decline of magecraft was truly harmless for Shinji, the transmigrator.

He had a wealthy and doting grandfather who showered him with gifts from childhood, enjoying the life of a young master with everything at his fingertips.

Shinji’s performance also didn’t disappoint Zouken.

Perhaps due to the effects of being a transmigrator who technically have two soul, Shinji, who was originally inept in magecraft in the original work, became the most talented magus in the Matou Family for several generations.

Especially in magecraft categories like hypnosis, suggestion, manipulation, illusion, and barriers, Shinji’s proficiency was truly remarkable.

Although due to the overall environment, Shinji’s magecraft couldn’t compare to the geniuses in the original Type-Moon world, in this world, he could already be hailed as a “child prodigy.”

Zouken regarded Shinji as the future hope of the Matou Family.

The only thing that displeased Zouken was that Shinji wasn’t particularly skilled in the traditional Matou Family magecraft of creating familiars and absorbing water-based magecraft.

Compared to his talents in other forms of magecraft, he was lacking.

This was mainly because Shinji wasn’t particularly focused on this aspect.

Rather than playing with bugs or reviving magecraft, Shinji, a seasoned otaku from two lifetimes, wanted to pursue things he enjoyed—like turning his favorite anime works into live-action films.

This dream was something Shinji had in his previous life, hoping to see his beloved ACG works turned into high-quality movies with Hollywood-level special effects.

The mention of Hollywood-level rather than just Hollywood movies was due to Hollywood’s peculiar aesthetic and certain industry rules of political correctness.

Now that he had finally become the young master, Shinji naturally intended to achieve this dream on his own.

Even more interestingly, the development of commercial films in this Type-Moon World progressed much more slowly compared to the world Shinji came from.

Whether due to some mycelium-willed individual or the actual universe of Type-Moon having no “Star Wars” setting, the film that changed the world’s commercial film industry, “Star Wars,” didn’t exist in this timeline.

Since even the patriarch of commercial films was absent, those commercial films inspired by “Star Wars” were also virtually nonexistent.

Although many classic movies and TV shows still existed, such as the famous “The Shawshank Redemption” and Jeremy Brett’s “Sherlock Holmes,” praised by the old Fu from the Type-Moon world, many big commercial films were missing.

As a result of this, the world’s commercial exploration of films remained at the most primitive stage, relying solely on box office earnings and video rentals.

There were no music CDs, no merchandise, and certainly no high-end strategies like film-game crossovers.

In this universe, film was considered an art form, and watching movies meant appreciating art.

“Enough! How could we make good commercial films by being with you fools!”

Facing this distorted film industry in this world, Shinji stood up and decided to build the perfect entertainment industry empire himself.

Moreover, with his identity as a magus in this lifetime, Shinji came up with an earth-shattering grand plan—to use magecraft to produce various kinds of anime works.

Through his research into magecraft, Shinji discovered that many forms of magecraft could be integrated into the production of films and TV shows.

For example, he could use magecraft to create all sorts of props; use familiars to control animal actors; employ explosion magecraft for safer yet more realistic explosion effects; certain visual deception magecraft could be used for post-production special effects…

Not only could these magecrafts lower the production costs of films and TV shows, they could also enhance the quality of the works.

It could be said that the relationship between magecraft and film production was much closer than Shinji initially thought.

After all, even in the age of later CGI effects, Hollywood still required a substantial number of modelers, pyrotechnicians, and other special effects workers, let alone in this film industry which was relatively backward in various aspects.

Considering all this, the cost-effective and high-quality magical filming techniques might have a considerable market potential.

Moreover, Shinji believes that the magus groups would also be very interested in his plan.

Due to the magus’s tradition of being low-key, ordinary people have very little knowledge about magus, so the number of new magus recruits decreases each year.

The inability to recruit suitable students has become a major problem for many magus sects.

If Shinji succeeds, making magecraft films would undoubtedly expand the influence of magecraft, allowing various magus sects to gain more students.

This parallels Shinji’s previous life, where the martial arts movie craze led traditional martial arts schools to enroll students, showing a similar pattern.

When Shinji presented this plan to his grandfather, Zouken, to inquire if it was feasible.

Zouken was very interested in Shinji’s plan, boldly encouraged him to proceed, and provided strong support.

Anyway, the Matou family has plenty of money; even if Shinji fails, he can still live without worries.

If successful, Shinji would become a hero in the entire magical world, and the Matou family might even achieve a prestigious position in the magical community.

Shinji himself was quite ambitious, achieving significant progress in magecraft within just a few years. With Zouken’s recommendation, he had the opportunity to further his studies at the Clock Tower four years ago.

After nearly two years of studying at the Clock Tower, Shinji not only gained an understanding of the overall magical level of this world but also confirmed that his plan could be fully realized with the existing magical techniques.

With this understanding, Shinji left the Clock Tower and went to the University of Southern California in the United States to continue studying film and television production. He even managed to find time for an internship on a Hollywood set.

Unfortunately, Shinji was a bit of a recluse in his previous life; while he had seen many good works, he needed to supplement his knowledge to create them.

After spending over a year in the United States and feeling confident in his professional abilities in magecraft and film production, Shinji returned to the Clock Tower.

This time, he wasn’t there to attend classes; he was looking for partners.

The plan was too massive for the Matou family alone to support. Shinji needed a partner with significant influence in the magical world.

In the end, Shinji found the Archibald family, where Director Kayneth was located, and reached a collaboration agreement with him.

The reason for choosing Director Kayneth wasn’t because Shinji was familiar with him; it was solely because the Archibald family, led by Director Kayneth, was the most powerful partner Shinji could find.

Stronger forces than the Archibald family wouldn’t pay attention to Shinji, nor would they consider his so-called modern entertainment plan.

Thinking about those old folks who could be placed in a museum like mummies, Shinji could only say one thing to them.

“Go live your life at Hogwarts with those chubby chicken-faced folks in Scotland!”┌П┐(▀̿Ĺ̯▀̿ ̿)

Fortunately, there were magus families in the Clock Tower that embraced modernization. In addition to the Archibald family, Shinji found several other partners.

After completing all the preliminary preparations and establishing the so-called “Type-Moon Film and Television Company,” Shinji returned to his hometown, Fuyuki City, to embark on his grand plan.

And the first step of this plan was to film the movie “Fate/Stay Night.”

However, despite thorough preparation, the actual filming of the movie encountered various big and small problems.

For example, the current situation—

“Hmm?”

On set, Shinji picked up the poster that was being used as a prop.

In the movie script, Emiya Shirou used this poster as a makeshift shield to block a spear attack from Cu Chulainn and ended up puncturing the poster.

The poster itself was fine, an advertisement for a gym.

But when it was punctured and the hole happened to be in the lower part of a muscular man on the poster, things became quite inappropriate.

“Who chose this poster?”

Shinji asked with a stern expression.

The content of the poster wasn’t the issue; it was an ad for a gym. However…

“Someone, replace this poster with a teenage idol—no, change it to a ramen shop’s advertisement.”

Thankfully, Shinji immediately realized that poking a hole in a teenage girl would be even stranger, and the scene of Lancer piercing the poster would likely take an X18-rated direction.

Watching the departing staff, Shinji shook his head in exasperation.

“Indeed, making movies is truly meticulous work.”

Shinji sighed, rubbing his forehead.