Almost at the same time that Kazutani clicked on the trailer, Shiori Kaede, who had returned home, also clicked on the Fate movie trailer.
Watching the trailer when he gets home is what Shiori Kaede has been doing every day for some time now.
When Shiori Kaede saw the blonde girl Lily Wettin for the first time at the premiere of "Spiral", he fell in love with her.
Although in Shiori Kaede's heart, his true love is still Miss Ryogi Ori.
There is absolutely no doubt about this.
But this did not prevent him from liking this knight girl from England.
The daily pilgrimage of browsing previews has become a daily routine for Shiori Kaede when he opens his computer.
As the trailer was released, melodious background music began to sound.
This piece of music has a strong flavor of Western classical music, which can calm people's irritable mood.
Then, Miss Lily Wettin, wearing a blue dress and armor, appeared on the screen. She looked directly into the camera and spoke majestically in a smart voice.
"Servant, Saber has come here in response to my summons. I want to ask you, are you my Master?"
Kazutani was stunned. If the photo albums he had seen before gave him the impression of a beautiful girl, then the one who now appeared on the computer screen was a mature knight.
Although Kazutani knew that the other party's words were definitely not directed at him, he still felt a little happy.
How lucky it would be to become the master of such a knight.
The Lily in the picture was just a video, and she certainly wouldn't wait for Kazutani's answer.
The knight girl was seen raising the invisible weapon in her hand and performing a knight's salute to the camera.
"I come at your call. From now on my sword is with you, and your fate is with me."
"—The contract is concluded here!"
A gust of wind swept across the screen, and before Kazutani could react, the camera had already switched.
A deep middle-aged man's voice began to sound, and he began to explain the background elements of the movie to the audience.
"The so-called Holy Grail is a wish-granting machine that can fulfill any wish."
Following a commentary that sounded like your stomach growling, a golden cup engraved with various patterns appeared on the screen.
"Heroes from every age and country awaken in the modern age, and fight each other with swords drawn for the Holy Grail until only one remains."
Various cards began to scatter around the cup. Kazutani had no time to identify them because they appeared so quickly. However, he could see the last Saber card clearly.
"This is the Holy Grail War."
The screen went black again, the original golden holy grail disappeared, and was replaced by a scene of two men fighting.
"Archer."
The picture stayed on the face of the man in red.
"Lancer."
This is the man with the red spear.
Then the two servants started a fierce fight.
Sharp editing, heavy percussion sound effects, and exaggerated lighting effects.
These elements made Kazutani realize that this would be a very exciting special effects blockbuster.
As a trailer, it is of course impossible to release all the content at once. After the battle between Archer and Lancer was just a brief encounter, the scene switched again.
This time, two women appeared, one of them was covered in a dark wizard robe, and the other was wearing a purple lace tights and a purple eye patch on her face.
"Rider."
"Caster."
This time the picture did not pause with the voice-over, but Kazutani immediately identified which of the two women was the magician (Caster).
After a brief confrontation between the magic bullets and the chains, the scene switched again.
This time the battle scene was set in a cemetery, and the blonde knight girl who appeared at the beginning was fighting a monster that looked as tall as a floor.
"Berserker."
"Saber."
There is no need to pause the screen for this group. Even without the initial scene, Kazutani can still tell who is the Berserker.
Despite being at an overwhelming disadvantage against this giant beast, the knight girl named Lily still did not miss any opportunity to attack.
"And Assassin, these seven warriors."
This lone servant did not appear in any fighting scenes (because they had not yet been filmed).
What Kazutani saw was a full moon, and under the full moon was the half-body silhouette of a long-haired Japanese samurai. He could neither see the other person's face (because the actor had not been chosen yet), nor did he know where the other person was standing (because the location of Ryuudou Temple had not been decided yet).
Compared to the other servants who have already revealed their faces, the last assassin looks very mysterious, which makes Kazutani wonder if the other party might be the final boss.
As the scenes continued to switch, Kazutani originally thought that the next scene would be a mix of other clips from the previous battles, but the actual scene switched to the interior of a church.
The uncle who had been acting as the voice-over finally showed up. He was wearing a very distinctive priest's uniform and looked at the camera with a very, very cheerful look.
However, the other party's happy expression made Kazutani feel a little uncomfortable, because he had the illusion that he was being treated as a prey by a wild beast.
The priest slowly walked towards the camera. He looked at the camera with a cheerful tone and said, "Decide here, do you want to participate in this battle─the Holy Grail War?"
Then the preview ended.
[The Holy Grail, the Master, the Heroic Spirit——This is a story of destiny]
[Fate Stay Night]
[Released in 2005]
This is the last scene of the entire trailer.
"This..."
Kazutani doesn't know how to describe this trailer. Judging from the pictures that have been leaked so far, this will definitely be a big-budget movie with exciting fights and special effects. The setting of ancient heroes adds a sense of historical weight to this movie that was originally supposed to be just a popcorn movie.
Apart from anything else, the character design alone has left a deep impression on people.
However, I don't know if it was intentional, but except for the shots where a few servants appeared in the middle, the priest and Saber in the beginning and ending scenes were looking directly at the camera when they were talking.
This gives the feeling that the characters in the movie are breaking the fourth wall and asking questions to the audience who are watching the trailer.
Plus there are servants appearing in between.
Kazutani felt as if he was not watching a movie trailer, but playing a character version of the [Pet Master] game, and the priest was like the doctor in the game, asking Kazutani which main pet of the three great families he should choose.
This made Kazutani very excited. He had the illusion that he was the protagonist and was about to fight in the Holy Grail War with his own servants.
Even though I know this is fake, I still can't resist the creation of this atmosphere.
This is also why Shiori Kaede has to watch the trailer every day, because this guy now fantasizes every night if he were the Master, what kind of Servant he would choose to participate in the Holy Grail War, and what the final result would be.
Of course, every time this kid dreams, he chooses female servants, with Saber appearing the most often.
"This is what I wanted."
When asked this by Shion, Nanaya gave a very affirmative answer.
"The main audience of our film is young people, and audiences of this age group love to daydream."
"So you gave them the chance to realize their dreams?"
Shion was very interested in Nanaya's theory.
Put yourself in their shoes. If someone told you that you were the chosen one and now you had to take your destined hero to fight a legendary war, she believed that few people would refuse this very tempting adventure.
"We don't have the basis for adapting the original novel, so we need to increase our fans as much as possible before the 2005 summer season. This is the basis for us to hit the first week box office."
It is very difficult for commercial films to go against the trend or to be screened in theaters for a long time in North America. In Seven Nights of Memory, Cameron's "Avatar" should be the last movie to accomplish both feats at the same time.
After that, even "Avengers 4", which surpassed "Avatar" in box office performance, failed to achieve this.
Therefore, Fate's first week box office will most likely form the basis for the entire film's North American and even global box office performance.
"Speaking of movies, how is your post-editing going?"
Ever since Nanaya entered the post-production of the film, Shion has been concerned about the content of this part.
However, because the things involved in the later stage were too complicated, a lot of work was done simultaneously in groups over seven days.
This resulted in that, although Shion could check the post-production progress of the film at any time, she was not a professional and didn't even know how much of the film had been completed so far.
Nanaya looked at the notebook beside him and replied, "The main editing has been completed, and the basic modeling of the special effects has also been built. I will bring out the second version of the plot trailer at the San Diego Comic-Con."
"Isn't this time a little close?"
The first version of the trailer was released in early June, and the second version was released directly in mid-July.
This publicity arrangement feels a bit dense to Shion, because now is not the time to start publicity.
"This isn't a big problem." Nanaya said confidently, "This version of the trailer will not be posted online. It will simply be a benefit for fans attending the San Diego Comic-Con."
"Aren't the fans who didn't go to the comic convention pitiful?"
Nanaya's smile was just like Kotomine Kirei's when he met Emiya Shirou.
"It's okay. The second trailer will be released online in two months. Other fans just got the information a little later. It's their fault for not having the money to buy plane tickets to the convention~"