On August 31, China’s first AIGC long-form series without live-action actors, The Sequel to Journey to the West, launched on Mango TV and simultaneously aired during Hunan Satellite TV’s prime-time slot.
According to a report today by National Business Daily, Cai Huaijun, chairman of Mango Excellent Media, revealed in an interview that the series’ total cost was about a fraction of that of a comparable S-rated live-action series. The 30-episode series, with 40 minutes per episode, took 70% less time from planning to release than traditional 3D animation.
According to Cai Huaijun, the director first establishes the emotional tone of the work, the art team completes the character and environment designs, and the AI team then moves from text-to-image generation to image-to-video generation. Directors, screenwriters, and artists remain involved throughout the production process. The team’s greater efforts are now focused on creative oversight, model generation, and coordination between different stages of production.
Regarding membership conversion, Mango TV previously attracted a relatively large female audience. Cai Huaijun observed that The Sequel to Journey to the West’s mythology-themed story and cinematic AI visuals had a significant effect on attracting new users to the platform. “In particular, the rate of attracting new male users exceeded our expectations, demonstrating the unique value of AI long-form series in broadening the user base.”
As China’s first AIGC long-form series, The Sequel to Journey to the West was produced by Mango TV, made by the Mango TV AIGC Innovative Content Center, and co-produced by Bojing Culture.
According to the introduction, the mythology-themed seasonal series The Sequel to Journey to the West is adapted from the novel of the same name, an anonymous mythological and supernatural work written during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Its first season has 30 episodes, each 40 minutes long. As one of the three major sequels to Journey to the West, the original novel tells the story of the “second generation of the pilgrimage” reuniting by chance to seek the scriptures after people in the world misunderstood the true scriptures. The series deeply integrates and complements the framework of the original book’s 40 chapters with related foreshadowing and clues from the original Journey to the West, creating a complete narrative system for the “post-Journey to the West” story.
The series is the first “review-and-broadcast simultaneously” production released after the publication of the “21 Radio and Television Guidelines.” It adopts an innovative model of producing, reviewing, and broadcasting simultaneously. This both shortens the content creation and release cycle and allows the production team to dynamically optimize plot details based on review comments and audience feedback.