With over 1.3 billion views on Douyin, how does "non-heartburn literature" take over the AI comic drama track?

Recently, the "no heartburn literature" trend has become viral in AI manhua dramas.

The Rule Must Not Be Broken, It Won't Cause Heartburn After Eating, Set the Rules First, Then the Path Will Grow Wider, Not Afraid of Losing Money? I Am, But I Fear Unclear Accounts More, What to Do Tomorrow? Just Start Doing It Now, What to Do With the Rest? Dump It, Things Are Finally Getting Better; Yeah, We Must Stay Steady, I'd Rather Earn Less Than Break the Rules

This type of lines mostly appears in AI manhua dramas themed around catering business operations. The stories usually start with a "conscientious shop owner". The protagonist insists on using high-quality ingredients to run a steamed bun shop, construction site meal stalls, or pork knuckle rice stalls, refusing to engage in the low-price competition of peers; while the antagonist uses inferior ingredients to poach customers and keeps pushing prices down.

At the beginning, customers usually rush to the cheaper stalls without hesitation. But as the plot moves to the second half, the inferior ingredients will sooner or later cause problems, and the customers who were attracted by low prices will turn back, come back to the protagonist's stall, and say the classic line:

"It's a bit expensive, but it tastes good and won't cause heartburn."

The "no heartburn" manhua drama Sincerity in Steamed Buns has recorded over 1.3 billion views on Douyin

After the steamed bun-themed stories became a hit, the catering industry quickly completed a round of AI franchise replication. Pancake stalls, noodle shops, barbecue restaurants, hot pot restaurants... The shop owners always "set the rules firmly", peers always poach customers at low prices, and the wavering customers will eventually stand in front of the stall and say the line "This one really doesn't cause heartburn after eating".

On Douyin and Hongguo, this type of "heartburn" short dramas often rank in the top 10 of the charts, becoming a popular and easily replicable hit theme. Therefore, the same set of commercial fables with the main line of adhering to quality, customers complaining about high prices, peer involution, and customers returning, has been copied to industries such as shoe sole stitching and wig net weaving.

Up to now, the total views of videos under the Douyin hashtag #NoHeartburn have exceeded 13.7 billion, and the whole internet has entered the "heartburn" era. In the teasing and meme sharing of netizens, "heartburn" has gradually become a set of internet evaluation system: formulaic, fast-paced content is heartburn; while in-depth content that does not rush to please the audience is classified into the no-heartburn camp.

While the characters in AI manhua dramas get to eat the conscientious high-quality goods that "don't cause heartburn", the audience outside the screen feels a bit heartburned after watching a bunch of manhua dramas that are just old wine in new bottles.

In fact, the similar copy-paste in AI manhua dramas not only exists in lines, but also includes thunderous BGM, abstract and exaggerated expressions, and other elements, which together form the current creation assembly line of a certain type of manhua dramas. Even if these routines have long been figured out by the audience, why are they still being produced continuously?

Over 1.3 billion views on Douyin, "heartburn" plots take over AI manhua dramas

Apart from the "no heartburn literature", the identical, thunderous and hyper-excited BGM has also taken over AI manhua dramas.

Play Cage when the CEO makes an entrance, play Antagonist's Aggressive Save when the antagonist plays tricks, play Bite March when the protagonist group makes a desperate counterattack, and play Cherry Grass when the male lead repents and chases after his wife.

Thunderous BGM has become the strongest spoiler assistant for manhua dramas. Most of the time, without even continuing to watch the plot, the audience already knows whether the next scene is an entrance, a face-slapping moment or a repentance moment. At every highlight moment, the manhua drama will beat drums and blow the BGM to inform the audience.

Nowadays, these thunderous BGMs have been condensed into a palm-sized pendant. As long as you press the button, people can automatically associate with all kinds of classic manhua drama scenes such as the protagonist's entrance, the antagonist's appearance, the killing highlight, and the pathetic performance for sympathy.

This pendant is available in male and female styles, priced at around 10-20 yuan. On Douyin, the best-selling link has sold more than 20,000 pieces, with a rough estimated sales revenue of about 300,000 yuan based on the product price.

Douyin blogger "Fang Yang De Xin Xin" bought the male-style pendant. She played the overbearing CEO BGM in scenes such as her boyfriend getting off the car and attending a meeting. For a moment, her boyfriend seemed to really become the overbearing CEO male lead in manhua dramas, wearing red leather shoes and super large shoulder pads, stepping onto the stage coolly with a dance-like stride. Now the reason why all the overbearing CEOs in manhua dramas put their hands in their pockets is revealed: "They are secretly pressing the BGM button".

There is also a trend on the internet where real people imitate AI manhua dramas. Someone is cooking instant noodles in the kitchen, while reciting the heartburn lines against the familiar manhua drama BGM: "1000 yuan for a bowl of instant noodles, this is today's purchase list. Only when the rules are set firmly, the customers will not get heartburn after eating."

It's hard not to doubt after seeing this: are these fixed plots serving the manhua dramas, or have these plots almost become the hit manhua drama itself? And this kind of overshadowing does not only happen in the audio part.

In the view of NewRank editorial department, thunderous BGM is only a standard part on the AI manhua drama assembly line. Apart from sound, character performances also have their own standard answers.

Manhua drama characters often make exaggerated expressions from zero frames. One second they are chatting normally, the next second their eyes are almost popping out of their sockets, and their saliva flows out like a waterfall.

When the female lead acts coquettishly, her cheeks swell infinitely; when she is angry, she cosplays a fiery chili pepper; when she is happy, the corners of her mouth can stretch directly to her temples. The amazing extensibility of her facial features makes people suspect that Nuwa added extra water when creating these characters.

If expressions are not enough to convey emotions, the AI actors' bodies can also join the performance, such as acting crazy and silly, twisting and crawling, making every joint of the body deform in a way that carbon-based life cannot bear.

Previously, the most criticized point of AI manhua dramas was that they were not realistic enough. This batch of manhua drama creators simply changed their approach, making the silicon-based content generated by AI even further away from human civilization.

Compared with AI realistic short dramas that have to struggle to solve problems such as fingers, lip sync and character consistency, the completely unruly gameplay of manhua dramas was very popular a few months ago. But the same joke performed 200 times in different themes and different short drama scenarios will more or less lose its appeal.

Nowadays, when you watch several AI manhua dramas in a row, you often get a sense of familiarity. The male and female AI leads have their own characteristics in modeling, but their expressions and movements may come from the same set of prompts.

The blogger "BAM Choushi Jia" once paid tribute to this type of performance in the video How to Make Yourself Look Like AI Generated. Her human agent training experience is that lines and expressions should be separated: speak first then make expressions, the speech should have no cadence, and the expressions must be exaggerated to show emotions.

"One can't become such a seasoned performer without watching tons of these shows"

Interestingly, after these identical manhua drama rules are deeply "set" in the audience's mind, many creators begin to use routines to deconstruct routines and create new hits.

In the "pure heartburn" version of business operation manhua drama released by Douyin account "Xiao Xiao Hua Ao Wu", the conscientious stall owner is completely blackened, and "the rules can't be broken" becomes "the rules don't need to be followed".

Other people sell fresh meat skewers for 50 cents, while the protagonist sells rotten meat barbecue for 2 yuan. "Others sell grilled skewers, but I sell lessons, how can they be the same price?" Facing the "returning customers" who have stomach trouble after eating, the blackened stall owner has a completely self-consistent logic: "I'm not afraid of no rules, I'm only afraid of not making money. If you get heartburn, that means the food you ate is not for nothing."

Represented by this, a batch of "pure heartburn" version of catering business dialogues have emerged, trying to fight back against the conscientious steamed bun shop AI manhua dramas.

The Rules Don't Need to Be Followed, It Won't Cause Heartburn to Me Anyway, What to Do Tomorrow? But I've Made Money Today, What to Do With the Rest? Ask Me? Can't You Put Them in the Fridge? Conscience? That Thing Is Also in the Fridge, Earn More, We Don't Have So Many Rules Here, Earn Today's Money Today, Earn Today's Money Tomorrow, I Don't Know If We Will Open the Day After Tomorrow, Whatever, Heartburn? I Said I Didn't Add White Phosphorus, Next Customer

"Produce 1000 Episodes Per Month", Why Can't Manhua Dramas Leave the "Heartburn" Assembly Line?

Since the audience can already see through these routines, why are these heartburn and identical assembly line plots still being produced continuously?

From the perspective of playback performance, these elements are really practical.

Familiar BGM can quickly arouse situational associations. Just like when the eerie soundtrack in a horror movie plays, the audience squints their eyes and gets ready to be scared; the passionate, sad and counterattack music in short dramas also has similar functions. For manhua dramas that need to present conflicts in a short time, this kind of sound code can save a lot of explanation and let people quickly get into the plot.

Recently, blogger "Bei Zhou" released a video saying that all those thunderous BGM in manhua dramas, Caged Beast, Leviathan, and Cage, are all created by himself.

At present, he is still releasing shorter works on Douyin, with more straightforward naming methods, such as BGM for the Wicked Second Female Lead's Rise to Power,