Chapter 324: Pen Names and Movie Adaptation

For hard sci-fi works, scientific fantasy was the most important thing, even far exceeding writing style and storytelling.

And many sci-fi works even directly placed the scientific fantasy in the book in the form of the book title, allowing readers to understand it at a glance.

For example, Andy Weir's "The Martian," Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," and Asimov's robot series.

Tatsuzawa Yuriko, as the Director of the Sci-Fi Club, naturally understood this truth.

So after seeing the name "Japan Sinks," she knew immediately what theme this book was going to talk about.

For a moment, she was a bit excited.

Among these submitted manuscripts, there was finally one that was not a soft sci-fi work about space battleships or robot combat.

Besides that, this scientific fantasy work about Nihon sinking was something no one had ever written before.

But while excited, Tatsuzawa Yuriko was actually secretly worried.

After all, although this subject sounded very attractive, this submitter named Akihara was someone she had never heard of before.

So, could such a newcomer really write any excellent work?

Would he waste this subject and write some specious things?

For example, using the gimmick of Japan sinking to tell some love stories between men and women.

Such things had not been without precedent, or rather, there were too many precedents.

Thinking of this, Tatsuzawa Yuriko collected her thoughts and decided to take a look first.

She pulled out this thick manuscript, placed it on the desktop, and then lowered her head, holding a critical attitude, and started to read it carefully.

The beginning started by talking about a lot of geographical and cultural knowledge, not bad, not bad, it seemed the author had put in a lot of hard work.

Huh, so Japan sinking could be explained in this way!

Because the Nihon archipelago was located at the junction of the North American Plate, the Pacific Plate, the Philippine Sea Plate, and the Eurasian Plate.

And the Pacific Plate was currently subducting beneath the Eurasian Plate due to crustal movement.

This led to three possibilities.

The first was that the two plates lifted each other up.

The second was that one plate inserted beneath another, lifting the other plate up.

And the third was that the subducting plate would take the large plate where the Nihon archipelago was located into the deep crust together.

And the text also cited the view of a scientist in 1977, which was that scientists confirmed that the Nihon crust was indeed gradually sinking toward the eastern trench.

Seeing this, Tatsuzawa Yuriko couldn't help but feel horrified; could Nihon really sink? And what would happen after it sank?

With new questions, she continued to read down.

Time passed bit by bit, and the sky outside the window changed from azure to dusk, and then to pitch black.

By 3:00 AM, Tatsuzawa Yuriko finally finished reading this extremely thick manuscript, and she discovered that she had spent a full 10 hours.

At this time, she was both hungry and thirsty.

However, despite this, she didn't have the thought of getting up to eat something, but her pupils contracted, and her eyes emitted an excited light.

At this very moment, she was already impressed by this work and the author of the work.

This book, this... who on earth wrote it!

This was much more interesting than those books that were wrapped in a sci-fi skin and told love stories between men and women!

Rigorous and detailed scientific settings, social dynamics of human nature facing crises, and concise writing style; even if placed in the world sci-fi literary scene, it could have a place!

Could it be some retired sci-fi master who felt dissatisfied with the current sci-fi world and picked up the pen again?

Or was there a foreign sci-fi writer who specifically wrote a Nihon version to participate in the award?

Thinking of this, Tatsuzawa Yuriko turned her gaze to the first page of the manuscript, which was the submitter column.

On it, the characters "Akihara" were written.

Akihara?

Tatsuzawa Yuriko silently recited it twice, associating it with the Japanese translation of this name, which was "Akiwara."

Could it be that the detective writer Akiwara Yuto was going to enter the sci-fi world?

Tatsuzawa Yuriko couldn't help but think of this possibility.

But she quickly shook her head, feeling that she was thinking too much.

Akiwara Yuto, as the bestselling writer in the Nihon detective world today, had already won the Uemura Award, which represented the highest award for Nihon detective fiction.

And the status of detective fiction now was much better than the waning sci-fi.

So she couldn't think of any reason for Akiwara Yuto to enter the sci-fi world.

Besides that, as a detective writer, even if he really had an interest in writing some sci-fi, it was estimated that he would just write some soft sci-fi works, and at best, he was just a newcomer.

A rigorous and reasonable work like "Japan Sinks" could not possibly be written by a newcomer.

Then the question arose, whose work was it?

She frowned and thought for a long time, finally couldn't think of it, so she decided to give up.

After all, in her view, as long as the other party came to the scene to receive the award, she would definitely see the person in reality.

While Tatsuzawa Yuriko was amazed, Akiwara Yuto was in a private room of an izakaya, drinking shochu while waiting for someone.

And the person he was waiting for today was Utsumi Takuto.

After "Memories of Murder" became a hit, this director, who was a part-time independent investor, also gained many opportunities through this chance.

Not only did many movie companies invite him to film, but there were even investors willing to invest in him to shoot new movies.

To put it simply, he had already become a popular figure in the movie circle.

And Akiwara Yuto was looking for him today regarding the movie adaptation of "Japan Sinks."

Compared to the promotion effect of the Sci-Fi Club's award on the sales of the work, he believed that movie adaptation would be more effective.

After all, the former could at most say a few good words on the cover or the obi, while the latter could help the work be seen by more people.

Once a social hot spot was formed, it would inevitably lead to big sales!

Just like in his past life, after the movie "Japan Sinks" was released, it quickly caused heated discussion among the public and was printed in hundreds of editions.

It could simply be said that it created a "miracle" in the publishing industry.

After this, there was no sci-fi work in Nihon that could compete with it, until "The Three-Body Problem" landed in Japan, and it could barely fight it.

"Teacher Akiwara, what is the matter with you looking for me today?"

10 minutes later, Utsumi Takuto arrived in a hurry; in fact, he had just rushed over from a film crew in Kyoto, so he was quite a bit late.

Akiwara Yuto nodded and stated his thoughts.

"Utsumi-san, I would like to ask you to shoot a movie about Japan Sinks." ===== CHAPTER 325 =====