Chapter 313: High EQ: Nasu's Character Writing Is So Damn Detailed
Whether Sony and Kadokawa would accuse him of being a shameless youngster with no respect for his elders, ambushing them with a sudden release-date clash—well, that wasn't Shinji's concern.
That so-called Shin Gamera was eighty percent likely to be a flop anyway. And if that was the case, then they had no right hogging such a prime June slot.
Sitting on the toilet without doing your business—that kind of behavior only earned hatred.
Granted, Shinji's move was a bit underhanded. Among the big studios, there was usually a kind of unspoken rule: whoever announced their release date first, the others stayed away.
Two blockbusters colliding head-on wasn't a noble battle. It was just mutual cannibalization.
Smaller films didn't have the luxury of choice, sure. But for heavyweight projects like The Garden of Sinners or Shin Gamera, this kind of clash was rare—unless one side deliberately wanted to ride the other's publicity wave.
Experience showed that these standoffs usually ended with one side yielding and shifting their release date.
Because at the end of the day, studios cared less about "putting on a show for rubberneckers" and more about "making money."
Just like when Marvel's Civil War once butted heads with DC's Batman v Superman. In the end, Marvel adjusted their schedule.
So, naturally, people speculated Shinji was doing the same thing. That he'd picked the date as a stunt to generate buzz, and that later he'd quietly move The Garden of Sinners to a safer window.
Unfortunately for them, this time they guessed wrong.
Whether Sony and Kadokawa planned to blink or not, Shinji didn't know. But on his end? Unless a god from the age of gods descended and intervened, that date was set in stone.
It was domineering, yes. But that was Shinji to the core.
And as for whether Sony and Kadokawa would change their own schedule? That wasn't his problem.
By October, Shinji finally finished all the prep work for The Garden of Sinners and stepped into actual filming.
The very day Type-Moon and the Time Group held a flashy press conference to announce Remaining Sense of Pain's release date to the world, Shinji had already packed up and left Fuyuki City, leading his team to Mifune City for the shoot.
By then, Super 8—which had premiered back in May—was wrapping up its theatrical run worldwide.
After over five months of screening, boosted by the naked-eye 3D tech, it had earned $357.8 million in North America alone.
Relative to the production budget, that meant Shinji and Tsuburaya were swimming in profits just off the U.S. box office.
Globally, the film was still screening in overseas markets, with current worldwide gross at $760 million. Clearing $800 million total by the end was all but guaranteed.
Sure, compared to Fate/Zero's record-breaking $1 billion+ haul, Super 8 looked almost modest. But as far as the yearly charts went, it was still poised to claim the crown.
And even in its final days in theaters, the audience reception remained strong. For hardcore tokusatsu fans, the movie's collector appeal all but guaranteed Blu-rays and merch would sell like wildfire.
With results like that, the Time Group's faith in Shinji only grew stronger.
Whatever he asked for on his new project, they delivered. Money? Done. Manpower? Done. Resources? Done.
Honestly, it was a good thing he was busy filming in Mifune City. Because if Shinji strolled through the Time Group's headquarters right now, he could probably put his feet up on the chairman's desk, and no one would dare complain.
At this point, anyone looking from the outside might mistake Shinji Matou for the actual boss of the Time Group.
But that's just the way it was: in business, the one who brought in the profits was the one treated like a king.
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Arriving in Mifune City with his crew, Shinji allowed just one day of rest before pulling the trigger on filming.
For the very first scene, he chose nothing less than the nighttime hospital battle between Shiki Ryougi and Aozaki Touko.
Although in the original story Shiki mowed down the Dead Apostle who came looking for trouble, and then Touko rather casually took her in as a disciple—offering to teach her how to wield the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception—Shinji found that a little underwhelming.
Not only that, but the original Remaining Sense of Pain was far too short. Even with the addition of The Hollow Shrine, the overall volume of the story didn't really change much.
The reason the original novel managed to stretch out such a tiny sliver of plot into so many pages was simple: Nasu's obsessive focus on inner monologues.
High EQ phrasing: "A delicate, nuanced depiction of the characters' inner psychology, making them more three-dimensional."
Low EQ phrasing: "Taking one sentence and stretching it into three, just to pad the word count."
So, to make the film's story a bit meatier, Shinji decided to add a duel between Touko and Shiki. It would also give audiences a clearer, more visceral sense of their fighting styles.
Of course, calling it a "duel" was generous. It was really more of a sparring match—mutual probing, both sides showing restraint, ending before things went too far. A proper, martial-arts-respecting kind of clash.
October in Fuyuki wasn't exactly sweltering, but it was still warm enough that you needed air conditioning at night.
Mifune City, however, was already swept with sharp autumn winds, chilly enough in the mornings and evenings that you needed a thick coat.
Both cities sat on the coast, yet their climates were completely different due to geography.
It wasn't snowy like Hokkaidō yet, but for Shinji—who'd lived in mild Fuyuki his whole life—the cold took some getting used to.
"This place reminds me of when I first went to London," Shinji muttered to Shirou as they walked through Mifune City's streets.
"Cold and damp everywhere, and the fog makes it look like a giant haunted house."
He exhaled slowly, white breath curling in the air, rubbing his hands for warmth.
"Isn't that a bit exaggerated?" Shirou scratched his cheek, unsure if Shinji was just whining.
But when they stepped onto the film set, with the foggy hospital exterior and the desolate courtyard looming before them, even Shirou had to admit—
"…Yeah, this place really does look like a haunted house."
After a pause, he gave his verdict. "The atmosphere here is… unique."
Shinji arched his brows triumphantly. "What did I tell you?"
Honestly, he was surprised himself. He'd assumed Type-Moon's fictional cities—Fuyuki and Mifune—wouldn't feel that different. Yet here they were, worlds apart.
Fuyuki got the occasional snowfall in winter, but overall the temperature was mild—almost embarrassing, given the "Winter" in its name.
Shinji figured this was Nasu patching over the original Fate/Stay Night setting hole, where Shirou was forever running around in just a T-shirt, even in winter.
In most places, if you dressed like that outside at night, you'd be bedridden with fever.
As for why Shirou insisted on wearing just a T-shirt in the dead of winter? …Most likely Takeuchi didn't want to bother drawing more casual outfits for his sprite art.
Compared to Fuyuki, Mifune City was far less forgiving.
By October it was already this cold—and not just cold, but foggy every damn day like London.
Just as Shinji had complained earlier, the whole place really was a giant haunted house. No wonder The Garden of Sinners's original story was full of spirits, monsters, and all kinds of freakish things. With this atmosphere, the city practically summoned them on its own.
Still, while Mifune City wasn't a great place to live, it was a perfect place to shoot a film.
The bleak skies, the heavy tones—this was the story's natural backdrop. They didn't even need much color grading.
"Oi! Move Crane One and Crane Two so they're right above the hospital corridor windows!" Shinji shouted from atop a raised stone in the courtyard, giving orders to the crew adjusting the equipment.
"Crane One, forty-five-degree overhead. Crane Two, sixty-degree diagonal. Make sure we've got multiple angles covered."
Then he waved over to Touko, who walked briskly toward him. "While they're setting up these shots, go prep the hospital room set. This scene won't take long—once we're done here, we'll cut straight to yours."
With Heroic Spirit stunt doubles, rented locations, and all kinds of logistical headaches, Shinji had no desire to linger in Mifune City longer than necessary.
The sooner they wrapped, the sooner they could escape. Stick around until winter really hits, and who knows how much worse this frozen dump would get.
Yes, Shinji had already mentally labeled Mifune City as a "crappy place." Out loud, though, he kept it more polite: "This city's perfect for ghost stories."
The The Garden of Sinners crew was made up mostly of Fate veterans, so everything ran smoothly. In no time at all the equipment was ready, the sets adjusted, and Touko returned from dressing the hospital room with a fully made-up Shiki in tow.
Shinji positioned himself behind the director's camera.
He didn't step forward or say much. This was an action scene—the blocking and choreography would be handled by Li Shuwen.
Heroic Spirits, after all, were heavily restricted when outside Fuyuki. Unless you were somewhere with a ridiculously rich leyline like Venice, they couldn't freely manifest.
Here in Mifune, they had to stay sealed inside specially made spiritual-core storage cases, only being "let out" for work.
Among the Servants, this routine was jokingly called "prison yard time."
Shinji himself wasn't fond of the tedious grind of filming action, so he kept quiet, letting Li Shuwen wrap things up as quickly as possible.
This wasn't Li Shuwen's first time choreographing, and he knew exactly what to do. As soon as he stepped out of the prep room (Spirit Origin Recomposition complete), his booming voice filled the set, commanding the cast and crew with full authority.
Since Touko and Shiki weren't exactly Servant-level fighters, their action scenes had to be filmed in countless fragmented shots.
Their first clash was no exception. Only Touko's spellcasting scenes were shot in long, continuous takes; the rest were sliced up into small, manageable chunks.
Luckily, both actresses had gone through several months of intense training beforehand, so their physical condition was solid.
Even with all the constant "cut and reset" work—striking poses, adjusting positions, then repeating—it went relatively smoothly for a first day's shoot.
—Aside from one problem.
Shiki was way too excited and kept forgetting her lines.
"Unbelievable… this is the first time I've had a lead actress like this," Shinji groaned, clapping a hand over his face as she blanked out in the middle of the scene again.
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