#Ryo Hirata

[retrogamer2099]

Retro_G is back with another playthro of "Advance Wars" campaign mode. Like comment and subscribe! THX.

[askadvancewars]

Before I forget!

ヒラタリョウ (@RyoHirata0110) / Twitter

Hope somebody already archived Ryo Hirata's twitter. It'd be a shame to lose his account all because of crazed billionaire's astoundingly bad decisions, like say, purging accounts that had been inactive for 30 days.

[doublehushreginetrishphotographs]

Photography: Ryo Hirata

[makotoscoffee]

The original trailer for GrePre Stage was taken down, luckily I had it on my laptop.

[project-sekai-facts]

how many producers have gotten a commissioned song for the game before they got a cover/vs only song? (like guiano was commissioned for i am, we are before superhero was added, for example)

quite a lot of them actually!

kemu (SEKAI -> Roku-chou Nen to Ichiya Monogatari)

Mitchie M (Wah Wah World/Idol Shin'eitai -> Viva Happy)*

PinocchioP (Sekai wa Mada Hajimatte sura Inai -> Aisarenakute mo Kimi ga Iru)

syudou (Jackpot Sad Girl -> Bitter Choco Decoration)

R Sound Design (Forward -> Teikoku Shoujo)

YASUHIRO (once upon a dream -> Odore Orchestra)

DIVELA (Tenshi no Clover -> METEOR)

aqu3ra (icedrop -> Lonely Universe)

*Luna (Ryuusei no Pulse -> Attract Light)

Picon (Saisei -> Garando)

HarryP (STAGE OF SEKAI -> Deichuu ni Saku)

Kujira (Aoiro Enogu -> Kinmokusei)

Chinozo (Flyer! -> Goodbye Sengen)

Nanahoshi Kangengakudan (Parasol Cider -> Batsubyou)

Shishi Shishi (Utsuro wo Aogu -> Taemanaku Aiiro)

Heavenz (Float Planner -> Sore ga Anata no Shiawase to Shite mo)

Guiano (Watashi wa, Watashitachi wa -> Superhero)

iyowa (Momoiro no Kagi -> Kyuukurarin)

Hiiragi Magnetite (Realize -> Marshall Maxmizer)

picco (Tokimeki Jet Coaster -> Mousou Aspartame)

Kashii Moimi (LEADER -> Garnet no Namida)**

Niki (Rekka -> WAVE)

*these songs were added in very close proximity and were possibly recorded in the reverse order to release

**the songs were added to the game in reverse order but LEADER was released on SEKAI NOTE vol.1 months before Garnet no Namida was implemented

mafumafu, Police Piccadilly, 21SeikiP, Karasuyasabou, Kasamura Toota, Polypho, jon-YAKITORY, fullkawa honpo, HoneyWorks, buzzG, Haruka Ryo, Mizuno Atsu, Peg, Yairi, Mashima Yulo, Hifumi, Ukaroku, MuryokuP, Live-P, Sohbana, Hirata Yoshihisa, Wataru Sena, Sheeno Mirin, Sodeno Arawa, MaikiP, Komedawara, Haruno, Aoki Gou, and Ishifuro don't have any songs other than commissions in the game, so if cover/vocaloid songs by them are ever added you can put them on the list.

[shuuda-arts]

Commander of the Plains, Lyn (Fire Emblem, Blazing Sword)

Drawn in the style of Ryo Hirata's art for Advance Wars 2.

[softsoundingsea]

https://english.ryukyushimpo.jp/2021/06/08/33749/

Shoko Ahagon’s legacy of the Ie Land Struggle and Solidarity Dojo passed on to Ie Elementary School students

May 31, 2021 Ryukyu Shimpo

By Mitsue Chinen

On May 25, the 6th graders of Ie Elementary School learned about peace at the Danketsu Dojo (solidarity training center) in Maja, Ie Village, and in their classrooms at Ie Elementary School. The 30-hour learning opportunity raised awareness of the tragic Invasion of Ie Shima during WWII and elevated the children’s desire for peace. Director of Education Tsunenobu Uchima served as the lecturer and shared with the children the historical background of Danketsu Dojo.

Uchima explained, “Danketsu Dojo was founded in 1970 in Maja by the late Shoko Ahagon and others who fought in the Land Struggle in Ie Village under U.S. rule. The dojo served as a base for resistance against land confiscation and U.S. military exercises, and as a place to train successors in the struggle to take back land rights.” Using photos and panels, Uchima further explained, “The ‘Ie Island Land Protection Association’ advanced the fight by petitioning the U.S. government and organizing protests.”

Ryo Kurashita said, “It’s scary to think what would have happened to Ie Island if Shoko Ahagon hadn’t fought back.” Hinami Tanahara added, “If Mr. Ahagon hadn’t acted, I don’t think Ie Island would be here today, so I’m grateful.”

Makoto Hirata, a 6th-grade teacher, said, “There is a lack of knowledge of who started the war and why. [The children] study history in the 6th grade, so I hope to teach them the preciousness of peace.”

Uchima said, “Wars don’t start overnight. I want [the students to] read history books and newspapers, be curious, and learn about their world.” To conclude their learning, the students are scheduled to put on a play about peace and their local heroes.

(English translation by T&CT and Monica Shingaki)

[yuni-live]

ヒグチアイ / 猛暑です【Official Live Video】｜Ai Higuchi "Mousho-desu" (Live at Tokyo Shibuya,2023.6.11) LIVE VIDEO Director&Camera : Yu-ki Ninomiya Camera : Ryo Ishiwata / Yuma Hirai / Hideki Mizushima / Miki Yazawa / Yuta Kawasaki / K Hirata / Machiko Tanaka

[askadvancewars]

The short of it: full character art of the Super Famicom Wars commanders don’t exist. 

If it did, it would already be on the official website. There’s little reason to not feature fully done promotional art in gaming magazines and not reuse in other official capacities. It’s disappointing but it’s safe to assume that, then, that no full art of the characters exist, except maybe as concept art during game development like Hirata showed on his twitter for Advance Wars.

There are several in-game art that appears in Dual Strike that never had full hi-res art, like the full art of the logo of the combined Allied Nations-Black Hole Dual Strike or the staff credit roll with Colin and Eagle, and what seems to be Rachel and Jake riding a motorbike.

Presumably they made full art and they might exist somewhere in Intelligent Systems’ vaults but will we ever see them? Unless a staff unveils them, probably not.

Here’s an example of art hidden in AW2 that must have had a full illustration but does not exist in hi-res out here in the wild internet.

There’s also a good chance that Super Famicom Wars never needed full character illustrations. The use of different Commanding Officers as separate playable characters may have started with SFW but the game itself was mostly a better remake of Famicom Wars. When I think about SFW’s game development, I think of how Kazuma Kaneko started making the sprite art for the Shin Megami Tensei and only did the illustrations later, drawing from the sprite art he himself made. I can easily guess the SFW development gang made the sprite art first, maybe doodling how they’d like the characters to look like but never keeping records. In his tweet, Hirata seems to suggest something similar, where he created the battle sprite art based on a certain Mr. H’s prior sprite designs.

Again, this is all guesswork but consider when, how and where SFW was made. Consider how Super Famicom Wars only existed as a digital download and wasn’t released for any console, thus didn’t need box art, cover or a manual. At that point, they probably thought of the playable COs as novelties and not really the “point” of the game. The Commanding Officers were in play but certainly not the focus. Famicom Wars’s box art features a fairly generic picture of what seems to be realistic American marines shouting to the void. Pretty much all the Wars’ games that were released in Japan never really featured a CO on the cover: it’s either soldiers, unit art or a generic camo style. Character-focused covers seem to be exclusive to international releases.

But it’s why Gameboy Wars Advance 1 + 2 (or simply Advance Wars internationally) was such a game changer. The maps from Famicom Wars were still in the game but now there were playable COs with dialogue, backstory, different powers and music and even a campaign mode where you can play them through. 

Gameboy Wars Advance 1 "Character Intros"

Famicom Wars DS Characters

This seems obvious to point out but their character art is prominently displayed in the website. Reiterating the point that if SFW ever had character/promo art, it would’ve featured on the website. There was no reason not to. The only other possibility is, unfortunately, the sprite art is all there is.

Now this is where things get interesting:

About its sales and reception: this is what the Game Catalog wiki says: 

There weren’t many sales due to the difficulties getting to play the game. As noted, you’d have to jump through so many hoops to download a game. Via Google Translate: “It was a hassle…to operate…and difficult to understand at first glance. Lawson itself also showed little willingness to respond depending on the store.”

Just like how the Western fanbase has shared fandom jokes and memes such as Andy’s line  “What’s an airport again”; the Japanese fanbase has one of their own: a commercial for Famicom Wars parodying the movie Full Metal Jacket.  It’s probably the most iconic thing about Wars in Japan – a quick search on twitter for Famicom Wars will have, within a few tweets, fans referencing the quirky military cadence or the tagline “Don’t tell your mom!” Gameboy Wars and Famicom Wars DS both got commercials riffing on the original meanwhile Gameboy Wars Advance 1+ 2 have commercials showcasing gameplay. The most Super Famicom Wars got in advertising was a mention  as one of the titles available when using Loppi (online shopping) at Lawson. Getting to play Super Famicom Wars was “limited to a very small number of enthusiastic fans” and “many people didn't even know it existed until it was distributed on Virtual Console”.

Advance Wars is a critically acclaimed series but it can’t claim to have overwhelming popularity, even outside Japan. I’m saying it doesn’t sell, certainly not enough to make Nintendo nor Intelligent Systems pay attention to it. It’s very much beloved and I’m sure there are developers who would love to focus on it but at the end of the day, Nintenlligentsystems are companies and they go where the money is (hint: It’ starts with an F and ends with ire Emblem).

What would Super Famicom Wars have been like without Advance Wars? That actually has a very obvious answer. It would have been a footnote to Famicom Wars and Fire Emblem instead. 

If nothing else, Super Famicom Wars was an enhanced remake ten years after Famicom Wars, which was a critical hit and a certified Japanese gaming meme. The making of Famicom Wars was the turning point of Intelligent Systems as the company began to focus on game development. SFW was also one of the last games worked on by Shouzou Kaga for Intelligent Systems. Kaga is “widely recognized as the mind behind the creation of Fire Emblem”. There are also a bunch of developers shared between Fire Emblem and the Wars series–I personally recognized in SFW’s ending credits, Sachiko Wada, who worked on the game as a graphic artist, together with–of course–Ryo Hirata. Hirata mentions in his development tweet working with an W-san, who I’m pretty sure must be Wada. However, SFW isn’t listed in Wada’s FE page lol. Hirata doesn’t even have a page, just a mention in this credits page for Path of Radiance. Shows how much Wars mattered in FE history. Still. It’s important to note that Intelligent Systems released three Fire Emblem games for the Nintendo Power service: two were previously released games and one developed for the service, Thracia 776. 

Now check this out:

“Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 is one of the lowest-selling entries in the franchise. This can be partially attributed to its unusual release, first on the Nintendo Power service in 1999 and as a boxed retail product in 2000, as well as its status as a new Super Famicom title released well into the lifespan of the Nintendo 64 and competing consoles of the era.”

Sounds familiar right? The only difference is Thracia 776 actually got a physical release while Super Famicom Wars never did. This is also the character page of the game website, in which pretty much a bunch of characters got a full illustration, some who weren’t even playable. That just proves to me that if they went all that way for a similar game then there really would have been no reason NOT to include illustrations for the SFW COs. If they existed. 😔😔😔

First and lasts are important milestones so despite the difficulty of actually getting and actually playing the game, I do believe, yes, Super Famicom Wars would have been remembered. Mostly trivia as a follow-up for the more famous Intelligent Systems games within Japan, instead of a predecessor to the beloved but released-troubled Advance Wars. Really not much of a difference.

Just a bit more:

 So there’s this Japanese fansite: Gameboy Wars Network, which has all sorts of information about the Wars games. It’s also existed for a long time, back in the days when it’s hip to have your personal site and link to other fansites–it’s outlasted a lot of the other fansites on that page. It’s a bit melancholic to think about. Now, for many years I’ve referred to this site and wondered where exactly they got some of the more interesting info–like the ages of the characters only existed for the first AW game. Now, this was through Google translate, but a lot of the description came across as jokey and peppered with the writer’s personal opinions so I was wondering if it was just something the writer was making up as jokes–basically fanfic. But, no, the ages were based on actual info found in an official guidebook. 

I bring this up specifically because for the CO commentary, they say (via Google Translate) that “ヤン　デルタ (Gonna use the fanslation name Yuan Delta) was the former commander of the Red Star army. He decided to retire due to his age and in order to nurture his successor, he created Famicom Wars, which makes him the founder of the Wars series.”

SFW did not have story mode and this was never mentioned in his profile ingame or on the website. Yuan Delta created Famicom Wars? He retired from Red Star? How? He was obviously still commanding the armies in the game? When did he retire? How did he create Famicom Wars? Where did THAT info come from? Was this the writer’s personal joke? None of the other COs had outrageous backstories so why put that there?!

And the answer was…to look back.

The back cover of the FW game box had a picture of a general addressing you, the player:

“My name is Yuan Delta. I have fought in a number of battles as a strategist. It’s about time I raised my successor, and here I have prepared one of my games. Young COs, now is the time for me to test your abilities. The road to becoming a great strategist is to win this game.”

Amazing–the character Yuan Delta in SFW was someone taken ten years before from Famicom Wars! The apparent conceit of Famicom Wars was it’s an actual game to train future shoguns (COs). That’s a cute if obscure callback.

Now back to GBWN fansite, skipping down to the last commander, we’ve got Mister Yamamoto. Unlike Yuan Delta, the reference here is more directly written: “On the back of the Game Boy Wars box, there is a mysterious lookalike commander”.

They do look very similar but there’s obvious differences. There’s no direct reference like Yuan Delta pretty saying “It’s me, I’m Yuan Delta”. There’s too much similarities here to be just a coincidence, however, so unless they were referencing someone else who looked like this, it’s meant to be a visual callback, like how Caroline is with Catherine/Nell.

I do think the style of the cover art for Gameboy Wars is similar to the art featured in the Super Famicom Wars site. Probably not the same artist but maybe the cute chibi style was trendy at the time.

One last piece on Yuan Delta:  The twitter FCWarsMTbot posted two tweets that mentioned him:  Yuan Delta’s profile and Hachi’s profile. Both mention the same thing: that a person who looks like Yuan Delta appears in the strategy guidebook on Hachi’s page. That got my attention for sure. Nell was obviously based on Caroline and the countries shared the same names but as far I could tell there was no direct connection between the games. But if Hachi and Yuan Delta and Red Star were linked, did that mean there was info in a book somewhere that could irrefutably prove that Super Famicom Wars and Advance Wars did in fact take place in the same universe and had a shared history?

This year I finally got my hands on the Mediaworks book and excitedly pored through the pages, finding…nothing. I am not proficient in Japanese but there were absolutely no extra pages of lore or any mention of previous games. It’s a fairly standard guidebook. Where was the Yuan Delta and Hachi connection?

Now, this book, like a lot of books from Japan, had a slip cover. For most of the other guidebooks I have with me, the cover underneath was just the book cover but in monochrome, however, the Mediabooks guide was different. I’ve searched throughout the book except under the cover. Slipping off the book cover, there were

sketches by Ryo Hirata, concept art of some units and COs. He has posted some of them on his twitter. On Hachi’s concept page is a face of a man who looks a lot like Yuan Delta.  My interpretation of this: In Famicom Wars Yuan Delta is a retired commander for Red Star, looking for a successor, but in Super Famicom Wars, he still leads the Red Star army. Hachi is rumored to be the former Red Star commander-in-chief but by the start of the game has definitely retired. Advance Wars also starts with training a new Advisor, the player, to be part of the Red Star army. At some point in Advance Wars development, the leader of Red Star might have been Yuan Delta again or someone who looked like him, as part of a callback to the original game. At the very least, with doodling the character that would become Hachi, that concept was on Hirata’s mind.

So that’s the kicker for the whole essay–partial concept art for two of the Commanding Officers from SFW do exist, but were made way before the game even existed! In fact, it’s more like Super Famicom Wars made it a point to put in Yuan Delta and Mr. Yamamoto as callbacks to the earlier games, especially with Yuan Delta being the creator of Famicom Wars. Meanwhile, while developing the game that would become AW, Ryo Hirata doodled Famicom Wars’ main man as concept art that was featured in a gaming mag as promo material, which were later reprinted on the cover of one (1) guidebook. The concept art of Catherine and Domino shown on that page matches the ones on the book. It’s the same one with Ryo/Andy but Hirata put that up on his twitter. A lot of the concept art on the guidebook was already posted by him but I’d really love to get my hands on that magazine, especially to see Hirata’s comments.

To end this, here’s a short twitter discussion about the boxart and name “Famicom Wars DS”. A couple of Japanese fans find the choice for the Japanese box art rather odd. 

Instead of following past box art of the early games that had realistic military men or cartoony vehicle art, FWDS features toy soldiers. One fan speculated that idea at the time was to emphasize the connection to the original “Famicom Wars” game. Up to that point all the games followed the title of the game console adding the word Wars (Famicom Wars, Gameboy Wars, Super Famicom Wars, etc.) however, breaking the tradition, the game’s title now takes the original Famicom Wars and adds DS. Even the commercial is a throwback to that first memetic parody. The overseas version had a similar branding decision: despite not being on the Gameboy Advance, the title of the is now “Advance Wars: Dual Strike”. From that moment on, the Nintendo Wars series would become more commonly known for its most iconic game: for Japan, that’s Famicom Wars. For everywhere else, the series is most famously known as Advance Wars.

For Super Famicom Wars, the bigger case for being totally forgotten was if it was never put on the Virtual Console. Ironically, with Virtual Console ending that means there will be once again no legal way to play it. For all the other games, you could still find physical copies. The only Wars game with a sadder fate is Famicom Wars DS Ushinawareta Hikari aka Advance Wars Days of Ruin/Dark Conflict, which was only released as a Club Nintendo reward…at the tail end of the DS’s lifespan. There’s no way to legally play it if you’re Japanese. At least Super Famicom Wars will continue to exist until March 2023.

Was Super Famicom Wars popular and loved? No, it was difficult to obtain in the first place, especially if you were a kid, and was hardly advertised. Very few fans could get their hands on it and it never got a physical release. “If you downloaded the game, it took most of the disk’s memory and would have to give up on getting other games.” Despite all that, fans did get their hands on it, even before it was added on Virtual Console.

Could there be character art hidden away in gaming magazines somewhere? No, because if promo art were produced for the series, it already would have been added to the website. If at some point, it was something that actually printed either physically or digitally, then it must mean at some point, someone must have set eyes on it. No matter how obscure, there should be some whispers that it existed. Consider the canceled game, 64 Wars. This site managed not just post personal scans but also put up a magazine article. Yuan Delta’s connection with the original Famicom Wars and Mr. Yamamoto’s lookalike were documented by dedicated Wars Japanese fans so if full SFW art existed at one point, physically or online, surely the same kind of fan would have got winded of it. They’d have more time and opportunity to track that kind thing down, rather than fans like us, who sadly got into the series long after sites, videos, and physical mags have vanished. 

The simplest answer is that the art never existed. Which is a shame because the SFW art style is so adorable. You can’t help looking at the existing Yuan Delta and Mr. Yamamoto art and imagine what the other commanders would have looked like, with that adorable 90s watercolor chibi look.

“It is not an exaggeration to say that (64 Wars) is less than Super Famicom Wars.” 

RIP

The only official art that really exists are the graphics on the website. Here’s the BG stuff.

I just wanna circle back to what the Game Catalog wiki had to say about SFW: “the user(base) was limited to a very small number of enthusiastic fans”. The only reason I know the trivia of this game and pretty much any sort of knowledge of the Wars series is because of those kinds of fans, the kind of retro gaming enthusiasts who’d keep up wikis and fansites. The English translation came out on 2018 but years and years before that, fans were already asking for a way to play it. Comparatively speaking, Advance Wars is an unpopular and overlooked series and, yeah, Super Famicom Wars is an even more obscure and unnoticed part of that history, but I just wanna say, despite all that, there are people who do remember and tried for so many years to make it playable. 

That’s love.

Also, the reason why Google Translate changes Famicom to Nintendo or NES is because that’s what the Famicom is known in English. 

I tried looking for Super Famicom Reviews in Japanese, like with Famitsu, but I also got nothing. Mobygames does link one (1) review from a French website specializing in retro games. It came out in 2002 so a year after Advance Wars but still, that’s pretty early on.

(Via Google Translate)

Make War, not Love!

In Super Famicom Wars as in Advance Wars, you play as a general who leads an army and tries to defeat another character in various locations. No Andy, Max or Sami here, the 7 generals are named: Ian Delta, Rojienski, Von Rosso, Hitler (but yes, the real one), Caroline, Billy Gates (!) and Mister Yamamoto. But the stars of SFC Wars are not them, they are the little soldiers. A kind of revenge on history, the true one, which of wars retains only the names of generals.

That does highlight the point that playable COs were a thing, the “star” of the gameplay is still all about the rank-and-file soldiers doing the fighting.

How did I even find your post? Sometimes I search for stuff on google and that’s how I found that Billy Gates post by your friend–this post was on their tumblr first page at the time which is how I first read it. Your Advance Wars art is pretty funny.

For the past few weeks, even months maybe, I’ve been on a quest to try and find full character illustrations of the Super Famicom Wars characters by looking through scans of old japanese gaming magazines, mainly on internet archive and retromags. But now it’s turned more into trying to find really anything about the game in general because it seems like it was just, never advertised or mentioned? anywhere??

My last deep dive was last night from around 11pm to 1am, where I looked around mainly on internet archive through some of the magazines and frantically searched keywords in browser

I wonder what my FBI agent was thinking as I typed “Japanese nintendo magazine may 1998” into my search bar for the 3rd time at 1am. These aren’t even all of the tabs I had open at the time, just the ones I was using.

Eventually after not finding anything, I remembered that the Satellaview had some magazines that were broadcasted that might have something and I found one called “BS Nintendo HP” which I thought I’d give a shot.

The reason I was interested in this specific one is because “BS” I believe stands for “broadcast satellaview” and was put at the beginning of some of the games broadcasted, including Super Famicom Wars.

I was able to find a video of one of the magazines on YouTube and sure enough, there was actually something there.

The text in red, according to Google translate, says “The page for Super Famicom Wars has been updated” and led to a page talking about it releasing on the Nintendo Power Cartridge service.

I was really excited that I might have found something new, but then I realized that it just says the same things as it’s page on the official Nintendo of Japan website. It even has the same screenshots, just much crustier then the even the ones on the main site.

There’s also the same note at the bottom of the page from the head developer.

Even though it’s just the same thing, I still feel like it’s important to know this exists, because that means that there might be some other stuff in other broadcasts. But unfortunately, alot of the satellaview magazines are lost. The uploader in the comments said that they could only find 2 of this specific magazine (this being one of them.) And I remember skimming through the other and not finding anything.

It’s sad to see how much satellaview stuff has been lost, it seems like there was alot of cool behind the scenes stuff for alot of games.

All of this is making me wonder why SFW, or really any satellaview games were just, not advertised anywhere. (The only thing I’ve found for SFW was an ad for it on the virtual console on Nintendo of Japan’s YouTube) Maybe I just didn’t see it in the magazines I looked through, it is hard to find specific things while looking through walls of text in a language you don’t speak, but it’s still weird.

I personally think the game wasn’t really documented because of the way it released, it was first released on an expensive add on for an outdated console nearing the end of it’s life cycle, then fully released on an on demand service with the only ads for it being on said add on, with no plot or character depth for it to stand out. Though that’s just from what I’ve been able to find. Maybe it was really popular and loved and I’m just missing something, but if so, I’m still unable to find it. If someone out there has anything about this game I’m missing, I’d like to know about it.

with how little documented this game is, it really does seem like the only reason it’s remembered is because of it’s connection to Advance Wars. I can’t find anything about it in magazines, I haven’t been able to find anything about how the game was received at the time, anyone talking about it before AW was released, the only thing we know about its development is from a tweet from Hirata, makes me wonder what it would be without AW. It would probably be doomed to obscurity, forgotten, like it never existed.

[koushihaibaaa]

Aoba Johsai Cast 👑

[mihotose]

so fucked up when see 2.5d actors not in 2.5d

[retrogamer2099]

Retro_G is back with another playthro of "Advance Wars" campaign mode. Like comment and subscribe! THX.

[askadvancewars]

Further research required?

For years I've thought Ryo Hirata designed Kanbei/Kikuchiyo's red armor simply because it looks great with his yellow kimono but I've recently learned about "akazonae" -- red armored samurai.

I was thinking, "man, wouldn't it be cool if Hirata designed Kanbei after this specific historical armor" but looking for credible historical sources online is difficult--the search results are littered with fictional depictions or brand names. The first link is the first and only credible source I found and it has no pictures. The few pictures I found (so far) are mostly recreations and auction listings, and none of them match Kanbei's AW1 armor. The most famous, red-armored samurai example would be Yukimura Sanada, and Hirata didn't seem referencing his iconic armor.

Gonna be looking into this a bit more but my conclusion for now is Hirata did just design Kanbei because he looked cool in a red samurai armor and not out of specific historical reference. Sonja/Asuka is also sporting a red uniform, after all, so they form a warm colors pair. Kanbei's first game Japanese design is my favorite because it's the most colorful, unfortunately, he got increasingly duller with each game. I thought AW2's blue cape was a very good compromise! It's a great personal disappointment that Reboot Camp took from Dual Strike's brown cape.

Judging from Olaf's "self-styled samurai" comment, Kanbei's seen as samurai LARPer in-universe, though a later site profile just straight up refers to him as a samurai. He's canonically a master of martial arts.

[sambart93]

2018.02.06 Ookiku Furi Kabutte [Review!]

I was super excited for this! It’s got JP, I haven’t really seen Ino properly act in the flesh (shhh I did see him in Touken but... as something ELSE I haven’t seen him act in the flesh), and Nishime is the CUTEST and of course I like to support Naya whenever I can! So many amazing people in this cast! AND it’s about baseball; I enjoy baseball!

Official Website here Official Twitter here Press Coverage 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 Video Coverage 1, 2, 3

CAST and CHARACTERS

NISHIURA HIGH SCHOOL Nishime Shun as Mihashi Ren Ino Hiroki as Abe Takaya Shiramata Atsushi as Hanai Azusa Naya Takeru as Tajima Yuichiro Yasukawa Junpei as Izumi Kousuke Kusumi Koharu as Momoe Maria Tsutsui Shunsaku as Shiga Tsuyoshi

Takehana Yuta as Sakaeguchi Yuto Yumoto Kenichi as Mizutani Fumiki Kamei Kenji as Nishihiro Shintaro Sekine Shota as Oki Kazutoshi Motoki Ryo as Suyama Shouji Sawada Miki as Shinooka Chiyo

TOSEI HIGH SCHOOL Kanai Sonde as Takase Junta Kato Junichi as Kawai Kazuki Matsumoto Yuichi as Shimazaki Shingo

MUSASHINO HIGH SCHOOL Hirata Yuya as Haruna Motoki Kawasumi Bishin as Akimaru Kyouhei Shimano Tomoya as Kaguyama Naoto

MIHOSHI HIGH SCHOOL Ishiwatari Mashu as Kanou Shuugo Kaide Kousuke as Oda Hiroyuki Yoshida Eisei as Hatake Atsushi

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NON-SPOILER REVIEW Overall: I thoroughly enjoyed this! I had a lot of fun watching the baseball matches and my favourite part was definitely during the Training Camp! I really, really enjoyed Ino's character and I was getting such romance vibes from him that now, I'd quite like to see him do some sort of romance movie or role soon! I love how huggy he was with everyone ^_^ Also, it was great seeing Nishime get center stage; I haven't seen him act since last year's Satomi Hakkenden (review here). Naya was DEFINITELY the MVP of this entire stage! He was so entertaining and such much fun! I absolutely loved seeing him do such a comedic role ♡ I definitely weeped at this one towards the end because I got so attached to all the characters and I really do hope we see a continuation of this in the near future (within the next year or so please!). This was fun, some drama, some emotional parts, the games were done in an interesting way, the character development and relationships were great! The opening and closing dance was great too! If you’re a baseball, sports-anime, stage fan then I think you’re going to enjoy this quite a bit. OH and I forgot to mention the best part; their crotches and butts are tightly shown in those baseball pants o_O So enjoy xD  Rating: 8/10 << I think this would've gotten a higher rating if SOMEONE hadn't been snoring for at least half of the play and it super distracted me and took me out of the stage and story for a good 20 or so minutes.

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SPOILER REVIEW

I don't know how many of you are interested in the story but I'll give the BASIC STORY:

Mihashi has recently moved/started at Nishiura high school. Even though he refuses to play due to past trauma and experiences at his previous school, he still gets roped into joining the baseball club because he is somewhat of a well known name. So we follow Mihashi get over his trauma and learning to trust his new friends as well as face his fears and get back into baseball.

That really is the bare basic plot of this stage. To be honest, I just want to flail over so many parts of this play so lets get to that okay? OKAY!

I have so many feels about Ookiku!! I enjoyed this stage so much! I cried! I laughed! It was so good!! 

First things first, the opening and end dances were so good! I thoroughly enjoyed them. But unfortuntately for Ino, he was stood right next to Naya! xD Ino looked like such a bad dancer being stood next to Naya who's dancing was and is just amazing. 

One scene that really stood out to me what the Training Camp scene. I really, really enjoyed this scene so much and was a lot of fun!

There were a lot of cute moments of Naya and Ino Hugging; Ino and JP hugging; and Naya and JP hugging. I just ate it all up. I loved seeing these little moments that weren't exactly the center of the scene or the story but they were there and they were a lot of fun to witness and see! ^_^

Now for some character/actor break downs:

I have to mention Nishime first because he's the lead actor. I feel like Nishime’s character in this was similar to his character in Ghost or at least reminded me of that character. I think Nishime did such a good job and I really want to see him get more work! I’ve enjoyed both of the stage plays I’ve seen him in (the other was Satomi Hakkenden: review here), and I want to see him continue stage acting and see his progress and see him getting better!  

Next we have Ino! I loved angry Ino in this and I could definitely see the similarities between this character and Imaizumi (who he'll start playing in the next Yowamushi Pedal stage). His character in this is part fun, part angry but he's a whole lot of 'caring for his friends'. But also, for some reason throughout this stage I got major feelings of just wanting to see Ino do a romantic role I think he’d be the cutest! 

Even though he’s clearly a little shit! Which leads me to my next point about him! Ino is a little shit when people say their lines wrong xD There was a scene where the teacher kept messing up all his lines and Ino just stood up (it was in the middle of a meeting and the students were all sat down) and was really calling and drawing attention to it like 'what? What was that? WHAT DID YOU SAY? Just say that again' xD it was so funny that the audience were too busy laughing and clapping to Ino's reactions and reponses while the poor actor tried to continue the scene. It was hilarious! 

Now moving onto some others, but very quickly in comparison to the four guys I focused on (JP, Naya, Nishime, Ino):

I was surprised to see that Masshu played on the other schools' teams. In fact, all of the non-Nishiura actors essentially played as all the other schools! So it was interesting seeing Masshu play different characters with slightly different personalities. But he also had his main moment as Nishime's ex-team mate and trying to fix the problem between Nishime and Hatake.

Another shocker and surprising thing was how quickly I ended up really liking Junta! Pretty much straight after his school starts against Nishiura I started liking him and he end up being a baseball pitcher. I can't explain why I liked him so much but I just did.

An even small quick note is that Bishin's body is tiny!! Seriously, so tiny!

There was one character in Nishiura who was always nervous and didn't have much confidence and he tended to hug Ino a lot which was really cute. I think it was Sakaeguchi.

Oooohhh! Going back to Nishime and Ino for a moment! There was a really cute scene during their first match where Nishime gets scared and hides away just before matches starts because it's been so long since he's been a pitcher. Ino finds him and sits down next to him and tells him that everything is going to be okay and stuff, and all of a sudden there is this 'daisuke / I like you moment' and they hug and it becomes really bromance and -- I SHIP IT! It was a really good moment.

OOOHH Which leads me to an even juicer scene! Between Junta and Ino! Because they are opposing teams, they obviously have some rivalry going on, and Junta and Ino get WAY too close, and because of the helmet on Ino's head and with Ino facing away from the audience, it totally looked like they were kissing! I am not joking you but at this time, most of the audience SQUEALED at that one tiny part because of how MAJORLY it looked like they were kissing. Hey again... I SHIP IT! I hope this scene makes it onto the dvd -- I heard from a friend who also watched it that they didn't do that during the performance she saw! WAAAH?! Good thinking Ino << I bet it was him.

Also, SO MUCH Ino crotch in this! He’s a pitcher so obviously his has to have his legs wide apart so balance and catching the ball etc. and he faces the audience the entire time so yes.... WIDE CROTCH VIEWS ALL ROUND!

Just in general those Baseball pants are NICE around all their legs, butts and...other things xD

Now lets rave about the MVP who is oh-so-clearly: NAYA TAKERU! NAYA-CHAN! PATCH-KUN! TAKE-CHAN! 

Naya is the MVP of this damn stage! He was so freaking funny in this and caused the most of the audience to focus on and be laughing at him rather than paying attention to what's happening in the scene. He also broke the fourth wall quite a few times during his stupid and silly moments. <<- in fact JP did this too when Naya and he were pretending to play catch with an invisible ball and he pretended it fell of stage and into the audience so he asked a girl in the first row to through it back up to him. In fact, speaking of JP let me quickly mention him some more; unfortunately because of how far back I was and because of damn Naya stealing my attention completely from the very first second, it took me ages to find where JP was! But I did think in the very first few minutes 'oooh that guy in the background is really handsome and has really nice hair -- turns out THAT was JP! No wonder the guy caught my attention >.< it's just meant to be haha ANYWAY BACK TO NAYA!

So many things about Naya's character in this I loved! He was hilarious, he was the center of (what I assumed were) higawaris/daily changes, his dancing was amazing (as expected because he's done hiphop and martial arts all his life), his was just a brilliant character and had so much presence on stage -- but I've always felt this way about Naya I think. AND Naya’s back flip was so cool!!! For some reason, TouStage has yet to incorporate Naya's skills fully (same with Shiina) but one day I hope they do. Also Naya's character spends so much time doing doggy poses that shows he cute little butt off perfectly, so of course I enjoyed that! And also I was impressed he could do those poses! I don't think I'm flexible enough anymore to do them =[ Naya is also what made the Training Camp scene so great! There's a moment where he has to count the numbers up on a board but, because he's a badass, he does two boards at once and it was pretty funny. 

AND, I don't know if it was just me but I really felt like the coach, Maria, and Naya’s character, Tajma, were dating. There were just a lot of little things where I could really see chemistry between them - even though it appears like his character is supposed to be trying to get the new coach trainee's, Chiyo, attention - I seriously felt like maybe Tajima and Maria were secretly dating. I can't explain it but their chemistry was just great in my opinion.

I will definitely be getting Naya’s bromides from this stage if they ever make their way to AGS (Animate: AkibaGirls Station) in the future.

Now onto the finale part of the stage which was the match against Tosei. The very final game scene had me so very nervous! I honestly couldn't tell which route they were going to take and I was legit nervous about the game’s result! I cried at the end too! From the moment I started freaking that they weren't going to win, right up to the final score and celebration, I was crying. In fact, it seemed like quite a lot of people were crying during these moments too!

And, if you don't trust my opinion on this stage for some crazy reason, there were 3 huge rounds of applause during the curtain call!! So, clearly it was great! AND IT WAS!

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I only have TWO NEGATIVES.

For this stage, they didn't use mics, which doesn't bother me. But, in comparison to how well the male actors voices' traveled, and if someone with lesser hearing ability than me was at the show, the girls were a tad difficult to hear at times. I could hear them all pretty well 99.99% of the time but now and again I did think 'oh if my Japanese wasn't as good as it is' or 'if I was right at the back' or 'if my hearing started to go' I would've had a lot of trouble hearing and understanding them I think.

And the second negative has already been mentioned in the Non-Spoiler section; this ONE MOTHERFUCKER who had the audacity to come to a stage and SLEEP through it. And not only just sleeping, SNORING SO LOUDLY for at least 40% of the play, and a lot of this play has NO background music so the actors could hear it(!), I was legit getting so PISSED OFF and ANGRY at the person. DON'T FUCKING TURN UP IF YOU'RE TIRED! If you DO fall asleep, but you know you're a snorer, for the sake and respect for the fucking actors, please FUCK OFF. I was so surprised no staff came in to ask and escort the person out. If I had been on an AISLE seat, I definitely would've gone out to the staff and asked them to remove the IDIOT! Thanks to them, between the Nishiura vs Mihoshi match and the Training Camp and then the middle of the final game Nishiura vs Tosei, I got really taken out of the story and it took me ages to get back into it again, so this motherfucker really affected my enjoyment of this stage to an extent.

FINAL COMMENT:

I seriously need a continuation of this! GIVE IT TO ME NOW!

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GOODS

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I apologise for how often I mixed/swapped the actor and the character names; I do this all the time and I'm sorry (not sorry but) I hope it's never too confusing to understand.

And we got another one done! I am slowly getting through them! I hope I can get all my backlog reviews done before the craziness that is Dance with Devils and Patarillo performances xD

[makotoscoffee]

More photos from Great Pretender Stage | Source

[imasallstars]

THE IDOLM@STER M@STERS OF IDOL WORLD!!!!! 2023

Information regarding the MOIW 2023 live has been revealed! The live will occur in the TOKYO DOME on the 11th and 12th of February 2023. This live will feature all five brands of IDOLM@STER on the stage together after 8 years.

The voice providers participating in this stop are as follows:

DAY 1&2

IDOLM@STER 765PRO ALL STARS 　Eriko Nakamura (Haruka Amami), Asami Imai (Chihaya Kisaragi), Akiko Hasegawa (Miki Hoshii), Azumi Asakura (Yukiho Hagiwara), Mayako Nigo (Yayoi Takatsuki), Hiromi Hirata (Makoto Kikuchi), Naomi Wakabayashi (Ritsuko Akizuki), Asami Shimoda (Ami/Mami Futami), Manami Numakura (Hibiki Ganaha), Rie Kugimiya (Iori Minase)

DAY 1 ONLY

IDOLM@STER CINDERELLA GIRLS 　Triad Primus [Ayaka Fukuhara (Rin Shibuya), Eriko Matsui (Nao Kamiya), Mai Fuchigami (Karen Hojo)], Eldritch Loreteller [Haruka Chisuga (Ryo Matsunaga), Chiyo Ousaki (Koume Shirasaka)], Cyber Glass [Mina Nagashima (Haruna Kamijo), Rui Tanabe (Hina Araki)], Foreign Seaside [Nao Toyama (Mizuki Kawashima), Miharu Hanai (Tomoe Murakami)], from U149 [Asaka Imai (Chie Sasaki), Tomoyo Kurosawa (Miria Akagi), Hana Tamegai (Risa Matoba)]

IDOLM@STER MILLION LIVE 　Strawberry Pop Moon [Haruka Yamazaki (Mirai Kasuga), Azusa Tadokoro (Shizuka Mogami), Machico (Tsubasa Ibuki)], TIntMe! [Eri Inagawa (Tamaki Ogami), Akari Harashima (Iku Nakatani), Keiko Watanabe (Momoko Suou)], HanaSakuya [Yuu Kahara (Emily Stewart), Saki Minami (Tsumugi Shiraishi), Kotori Koiwai (Tomoka Tenkubashi)], Cleasky [Asuka Kakumoto (Elena Shimabara), Chouchou Kiritani (Miya Miyao)]

IDOLM@STER SideM 　DRAMATIC STARS [Shugo Nakamura (Teru Tendo)], Jupiter [Takuma Terashima (Toma Amagase), Daichi Kanbara (Hokuto Ijuin)], Beit [Shun Horie (Pierre), Tomohito Takatsuka (Minori Watanabe)], MofuMofuEn [Shogo Yano (Nao Okamura), Keisuke Furuhata (Shiro Tachibana)], C.FIRST [Yuri Ise (Shu Amamine), Masaya Miyakaze (Momohito Hanazono), Takeo Otsuka (Eishin Mayumi)]

IDOLM@STER SHINY COLORS 　 Hokago Climax Girls [Hiyori Konno (Kaho Komiya), Haruka Shiraishi (Chiyoko Sonoda), Mariko Nagai (Juri Saijo), Wakana Maruoka (Rinze Morino), Akiho Suzumoto (Natsuha Arisugawa)], Straylight [Yuki Tanaka (Asahi Serizawa), Eri Yukimura (Fuyuko Mayuzumi), Sayaka Kitahara (Mei Izumi)], noctchill [Yuu Wakui (Toru Asakura), Rio Tsuchiya (Madoka Higuchi), Saran Tajima (Koito Fukumaru), Miho Okasaki (Hinana Ichikawa)]

DAY 2 ONLY

IDOLM@STER CINDERELLA GIRLS 　Threat Sign [Sayuri Hara (Mio Honda), Makoto Koichi (Haru Yuuki), Teru Ikuta (Natalia)], Dimension-3 [Kotomi Aihara (Shiki Ichinose), Shiki Aoki (Asuka Ninomiya)], flamme martini [Maki Kawase (Tsukasa Kiryu), Sayaka Harada (Miyu Mifune), Satsumi Matsuda (Syoko Hoshi), Minori Suzuki (Hajime Fujiwara)], HappyHappyTwin [Hiromi Igarashi (Anzu Futaba), Rei Matsuzaki (Kirari Moroboshi)], miroir [Hina Tachibana (Nagi Hisakawa), Rika Nagae (Hayate Hisakawa)]

IDOLM@STER MILLION LIVE 　Chrono-Lexica [Yuka Saito (Subaru Nagayoshi), Atsuki Nakamura (Roco Handa), Rika Abe (Mizuki Makabe)], Senkou☆HANABIDAN [Yuri Komagata (Sayoko Takayam), Nana Hamasaki (Noriko Fukuda), Yui Watanabe (Nao Yokoyama), Eri Ozeki (Minako Satake)], 4 Luxury [Arisa Kori (Kaori Sakuramori), Rie Suegara (Fuka Toyokawa), Emi Hirayama (Reika Kitakami), Minami Takahashi (Konomi Baba)]

IDOLM@STER SideM 　FRAME [Kentaro Kumagai (Hideo Akuno), Kento Hama (Ryu Kimura), Takuya Masumoto (Seiji Shingen)], Café Parade [Sho Karino (Yukihiro Kamiya), Takuya Kodama (Makio Uzuki), Daiki Kobayashi (Saki Mizushima)], F-LAGS [Yuko Sanpei (Ryo Akizuki), Shunya Hiruma (Kazuki Tsukumo), Takehiro Urao (Daigo Kabuto)]

IDOLM@STER SHINY COLORS 　Illumination Stars [Hitomi Sekine (Mano Sakuragi), Mayu Mineda (Meguru Hachimiya)], L’Antica [Karin Isobe (Kogane Tsukioka), Chisa Suginuma (Mamimi Tanaka), Anna Yamaki (Sakuya Shirase), Shio Watanabe (Yuika Mitsumine), Yuina Mizuki (Kiriko Yukoku)], ALSTROEMERIA [Honoka Kuroki (Amana Osaki), Ryoko Maekawa (Tenka Osaki), Noriko Shibasaki (Chiyuki Kuwayama)], SHHis [Azusa Shizuki (Nichika Nanakusa), Aya Yamane (Mikoto Aketa)]

SPECIAL GUEST 　ZWEIGLANZ [Minori Chihara (Leon), Rie Takahashi (Shika)]