It won't be possible for me to make it to March's huge Basara Matsuri celebration in Japan this year due to work commitments, so to soften the blow I decided to take a trip to Tokyo this month instead to see the newest stage play: Butai Sengoku Basara 4 Sumeragi. It's been a busy few days with lots of castles and shops to visit, but I've finally found the time to write a few thoughts about my experience. In short, it was fantastic.
It's been more than a year since Butai Sengoku Basara 4, and since my DVD copy of the Devil May Cry crossover play arrived too late this was my first chance to see a play staged by the new production company which now manages the series. As a huge fan of the original Butai Sengoku Basara series it was impossible to avoid some concern about how the changes would affect things - most of the old cast members have moved on by now, and I feel a lingering sense of loyalty towards the old staff members. Even the familiar team of black-clad extras is full of new faces.
Then there's the plot - Sumeragi has a huge number of sprawling interconnected storylines loosely tied together by the presence of Ashikaga Yoshiteru. Yet his story was already covered in Butai Sengoku Basara 4 back in 2014 and he wasn't even scheduled to appear this time. How well would the new play's staff be able to tie the story together into a coherent narrative?
With these questions lingering in the back of my mind I managed to order my ticket early enough to win one of the fan club seats in the lottery. It was a great ticket - six rows from the stage, right in the middle. A perfect view, made even more fun by the fact that the actors passed by less than a metre from my position several times during the show.
Before I get started on my personal impressions, I'll include some facts about the play. Butai Sengoku Basara 4 Sumeragi is running between 21st January and 7th February 2016, comprising 22 performances across two locations: Zepp Blue Theater Roppongi in Tokyo and Sankei Hall Breeze in Tokyo.
I went to one of the Tokyo shows
The play is split into two parts (70 minutes and 65 minutes) with a 15 minute interval in between if you're seeing it live. Several of the shows have bonus talk sessions after the finale where the audience can see the actors fooling around out of character
The full cast list is as follows (newcomers are in bold):
In addition, Nakayama Yuuki and Yamaguchi Tomoya of boy band SOLIDEMO appear as members of Motochika's crew.
Composition and direction is credited to Ujigawa Masanari. The Sengoku Basara game series' scenario writer Matsuno Izuru assisted with the story and creators KobaP and YamamotoD worked on planning and supervision. This is important as the play contains new material which hasn't featured in the games to date; the staff have gone on record in the past to say that they sometimes try out new content in the stage play to help them monitor the audience reactions. Will we see some of these scenes appearing in future games?
The rest of this post contains spoilers for Butai Sengoku Basara 4 Sumeragi and the game series itself as well as a few of my personal opinions.
During my incredibly short trip to Japan last week, I managed to find time to visit the temporary Sengoku Basara 4 x Capcom Challenge Parkexhibition which is running until 30th April 2015. Here's a report with some pictures in case anyone is interested in what the event involved.
The first challenge was getting there, as the Capcom Challenge Park is part of an arcade complex in the Aeon Mall Okazaki in Aichi Prefecture. It takes at least a couple of hours if you want to travel there from Tokyo. Since I didn't have much time I took the Hikari Shinkansen to Toyohashi then a direct train to Okazaki - one of the quicker routes so long as you time it correctly. If you have a less hectic schedule it's far easier to get there via Nagoya, which has some excellent shops and sights of its own.
I booked a flight to Japan to attend today's Basara Matsuri 2015 ~Fuyu No Jin~ (hereafter abbreviated to Basara Matsuri) in a moment of madness after way too many months of overtime at work, and that's where I've spent most of the day, soaking up the festival atmosphere and enjoying being around my fellow fans.
It's already been confirmed that there will be a DVD recording released in June so I'll add a second post reviewing everything properly when that happens. This is just a basic event report; please understand that I might have omitted or misremembered a few details since watching the show a few hours ago!
Basara Matsuri 2015 ~Fuyu No Jin~ was held at the colossal Nippon Budoukan in the heart of Tokyo's Kitanomaru park, the same site which hosted the fifth anniversary celebration back in 2011.
There were two performances; one in the afternoon at 14:30 and one in the evening at 18:30. With the venue being so large, obtaining tickets was much easier than usual - even though there were more fans in attendance than at the previous Sengoku Basara event. The evening show was also broadcast live to audiences in cinemas all across Japan to ensure as many people could watch as possible. Tickets cost ¥7,000 for attendees and ¥3,500 for those who saw the show at one of nineteen selected cinemas across Japan; given that I'd estimate that there were around 6,000 people watching each performance live and several thousand more spread out in the cinemas, organising this kind of event was a very big deal.
Naturally, the advertised guest list was suitably impressive.
This weekend, the Animate Girls Festival 2014 (AGF)event was held in Ikebukuro's Sunshine City entertainment complex. AGF is a gaming convention solely targeted towards female fans - in other words, it's a feast of otome games and bishounen-filled anime which don't have to share billing with the big-budget mainstream games aimed at a male audience.
There are a few big brands in the otome gaming world which tend to dominate (e.g. Uta No Prince-sama, Hakuouki, Diabolik Lovers and Starry Sky) but one of the best things about female-orientated gaming is that it tends to be full of obscure titles which don't need huge budgets to generate a loyal fan base. To an outsider, the booths were probably full of similar-looking male hosts sporting colourful hair, ridiculous costumes and sexy poses, but to a fan this was as diverse a concentration of female-orientated content as you could possibly get.
The festival was split into two separate events on the 8th and 9th November 2014, each of which had a staggering amount of special merchandise, stage events and light hearted attractions on offer. With this being the event's fifth year everything was run in a professional way without too much queueing once the early morning crowd began to clear.
As luck would have it, I ended up visiting Japan at the same time that the new Butai Sengoku Basara 4 stage play was running in Tokyo. This is the first time in the five years of the stage play series that I have managed to accidentally time one of my trips to coincide with the plays and I wasn't about to miss this chance, so yesterday evening I found myself excitedly approaching the Tokyo Dome City Hall along with a couple of thousand of other eager fans to see how well the Sengoku Basara 4 storyline made the transition to live action.
I'd had no idea that I would be able to see this stage play until a few weeks ago so I didn't purchase my tickets as early as usual. It was incredible, then, that I managed to get a really good seat right at the front of the first floor of the balcony despite the show being almost sold out. I could see absolutely everything, right down to the actors' finely chiselled physiques.
Those of us who weren't seated in the arena below missed out on the fun of having the actors running into the aisles during the performance (Yukimura even apologised to several audience members as part of the act!), but with a perfect view of all of the action there was no reason to be disappointed. I am forever grateful that Lawson's online ticketing system accepts foreign credit cards, making reserving last minute tickets much less stressful than it might have been otherwise.
I'll summarise the overall details first. The play's run began in Tokyo on 31st October 2014 and it will end in Nagoya on 7th December 2014 after 27 performances.
The full cast list is as follows (newcomers are in bold):
There's also the usual extended cast of nameless background soldiers and the whole thing has been put together by maestro Nishida Daisuke and the original creators at Capcom. Fans may notice that there are fewer named characters than last time; presumably Nishida chose to keep things simple so that they could introduce the new setting without too much mayhem. The result is a very tight story which leads up to a struggle between four factions (yes, just four!) before a satisfying climax.
From here on, I'll be talking about the content of the play so please stop reading if you don't want any spoilers. There will be rambling, too.
The annual (and sometimes biannual) Hyper Japan event returned to London's Earls Court exhibition centre between 25th and 27th July 2014, so I managed to find time to pop to yesterday's show to see what they had arranged for this year's celebration of Japanese pop culture. Hyper Japan is a unique event which blends Japanese fashion, artwork, games, music, cinema and traditional culture together to allow visitors to get a taste of all kinds of activities in a single venue.
It's popular with young people, naturally, but also with older Londoners who are curious about Japan and expats who want to introduce their favourite traditions to a wider audience. The attendees come from a rich mixture of backgrounds; if the intense atmosphere at MCM Comic Con is too much for you, Hyper Japan tends to offer a much more pleasant, friendly experience.
The first hurdle we were presented with was that the popular Saturday show had been split into two halves this year as an experiment to help ease crowding. The first session ran from 09:15 until 14:15, then the second started at 15:15 and ran all the way until closing time at 20:15. You could buy tickets for both halves of the show, of course, but this would leave you waiting around in a fairly empty part of London for an hour with nothing to do until the event reopened. I wonder how well this experiment worked out.
Judging by the ticket sales on the official website, the Saturday afternoon and Sunday shows were probably the most popular. My group opted for Saturday morning as we wanted to see one of the special guests perform, and it turned out to be a good choice. The crowds weren't too bad at all first thing in the morning so we managed to see everything we wanted to before our session was over.
Sengoku Basara 4 x Oedo Onsen Monogatari ~The Advance On Oedo Onsen Monogatari!~ was the second collaboration between Capcom and the Oedo Onsen Monogatari spa in Odaiba, intended to promote Sengoku Basara 4 in a lighthearted way. The event ran between Saturday 18th January and Tuesday 11th February 2014.
Due to other commitments, I visited Oedo Onsen Monogatari late in the evening during the latter part of my holiday. This had advantages and disadvantages: the crowds were mostly gone and the ticket price was discounted for customers who arrived later in the day (I had a discount coupon from Basara Matsuri, too, so I made a significant saving). However, I hadn't realised that the Sengoku Basara 4 stamp rally game was only open during the daytime. It closed just as we arrived.
The other disadvantage was that it was very difficult to take good pictures in the poor lighting, so please forgive the quality of this photo report!
Since Oedo Onsen Monogatari isn't all that well known in the west, I'll describe the entire visit. The venue is accessed via Telecom Center station on the scenic Yurikamome line, a stone's throw from central Tokyo. The only thing that you need to bring with you is a credit card or a large amount of cash; everything else is provided when you arrive. Passing through the entrance is like stepping into another world.
The only other people at the park so late in the evening were various pairs of girls delighted by the Sengoku Basara 4 tie-in, and an enormous group of Chinese tourists who had apparently come to enjoy the spa facilities.
Traditional Edo-style bathing is the theme and the park uses a stylised version of the Tokugawa clan's crest as its logo. You stow your outdoor shoes in lockers after passing through the door and then check in at the front desk, where you're issued with a special wristband. This band is very important - it's used as proof that you checked in, it unlocks your (huge) assigned locker in the changing rooms and it pays for any food or activities you want to enjoy during your visit. The code printed on it tells you where to find your locker once you're inside the changing rooms.
I've just arrived home from my trip to today's Sengoku Basara 4: Basara Matsuri 2014 ~Shinshun No Utage~ event (hereafter 'Basara Matsuri'). I can't remember everything that happened, so a full report will come later once the event recording has been released on DVD; still, I hope that what I can recall now will be interesting to someone out there!
Basara Matsuri was held at the Nippon Seinenkan Great Hall in the heart of Tokyo. It was a small event with around 1,300 attendees at each of the two performances - naturally, obtaining tickets was a dreadful struggle which left many disappointed. To alleviate this, Capcom broadcast the second show of the day across cinemas all over Japan so that people who didn't manage to get tickets could still enjoy the atmosphere of the live event.
As this was technically the pre-release party for Sengoku Basara 4, the guest list was small and entirely made up of seiyuu from the game:
Afternoon show only: Hoshi Souichirou (Sanada Yukimura)
Evening show only: Nakai Kazuya (Date Masamune)
Series producer Kobayashi 'KobaP' Hiroyuki was also in attendance. Nakamura Yuuichi (Shima Sakon) had been scheduled to appear and had to pull out right at the last minute due to sickness. He's an extremely popular voice actor so this caused a lot of disappointment, which people tried to mask by wishing him a swift recovery on Twitter.
I arrived two hours before the doors opened even though it was ridiculously cold and windy in central Tokyo in January. In spite of this, the Mitsunari happi coats sold out while I was still in the queue for merchandise and the Masamune ones followed a few minutes later. There was a report that the Sakon coats sold out too, but the staff had a couple left later on - perhaps a few people decided against their purchases after hearing that Nakamura wouldn't be appearing?
Anyway, I bought most of the merchandise I wanted and got to see the amazing Date Masamune statue they commissioned for TGS 2013 in the flesh. It's huge! The game demos at the venue used the TGS demo build of the game since it was too chaotic to control the crowds properly; I wasn't interested in the old demo build so I didn't bother queueing for a turn.
When the doors opened, I took my weirdly-low-down seat in the theatre hall and watched trailers for the game for close to an hour. If I wasn't already buying the game I'd have been brainwashed into doing so by now quite effectively. When I was queueing, it was hard not to notice that everyone around me was female (I saw perhaps five males in the crowd the entire time I was there). However, right in front of me was a large group of adult men dressed quite smartly. It wasn't until just before the show started that I realised I was right behind the press area and the men lined up in front of me were all representatives from the big gaming magazines. Furthermore, two seats in front of me was director Yamamoto Makoto himself! I could have leaned forward and touched him at any time during the show as he stared down at the actors on stage (if I wanted to terrify him, that is).
The afternoon show began with a laugh-out-loud hilarious skit with Mitsunari and Hideyoshi reading out the rules. This was one of the best ones yet! Hideyoshi demanded to know where Hanbee and Gyoubu were, and Mitsunari's excuses for what they were up to were ridiculous. Then, as they read out the rules about setting your phone to silent mode, Mitsunari's cellphone started to ring. He almost died of shame apologising to Hideyoshi. The crowd was laughing from the start of the skit to the end.
After the rules were explained the show opened with a stirring performance of one of the new BGM tracks from the game performed live on stage with wind instruments. As it played, a reel showing all (?) of the 'Basara-zu' ink painting artwork from the game was shown in the background. There was no text but I spotted a few I hadn't seen before: a ship, black feathers, a nabe pot, three fish, a crane, a spider in its web, a demonic face (it could have been a noh mask?), some kind of furious furry animal and a scary-looking eye. Please understand that they flashed up very quickly and I had to remember them for three hours before I could make any notes, so my memory might not be perfect! It's easy to match most of them to the characters they must belong to, and the rest can be worked out without too much trouble. I'll wait for the two-character Basara-zu titles which accompany them before adding them to my ongoing list.
The opening to the game came next with the music turned up to the highest, most exciting level. I've already seen it quite a few times in game shops and it's still fantastic, especially on a big screen.
Next came a selection of dramatic dialogues from various story encounters in Sengoku Basara 4; if I recall correctly they were Katsuie versus Hideyoshi, Matabee versus Masamune and Kojuurou, then Sakon versus Yukimura and Masamune. The parts performed by seiyuu who weren't at the event were prerecorded. Watching Miki reading out Matabee's quavering lines in person is intensely creepy.
The usual introductions and discussion segment followed. Morita and KobaP were both dressed in gorgeous traditional formal wear and trying to promote the New Year theme of the event. At the end of the chat the cast had to present a kanji character to describe their character: both Hoshi and Okamoto chose 'change' (which made everyone laugh at first since the word on its own can also mean 'weird'). Okamoto explained that Katsuie goes through a lot of changes, while Hoshi gave a rather rambling explanation about how Yukimura doesn't change - yet he changes a little.
Anyway, after Hoshi had confused everyone it was Seki who picked the best kanji: 'hair'. After giving the main reason (he's obsessed with Mitsunari's hairstyle and brings it up whenever he can), he gave a sweet alternate explanation that the kanji character represents Mitsunari's relationship with Gyoubu because it contains the radicals for 'long' and 'friendship'. Aww...
Next came some Sengoku Basara 4 gameplay in the form of a team battle between pairs of seiyuu. They had to play as their own characters on the Battle of Sekigahara: Eastern Sun stage in two pairs. They were trying to get as many kills as possible within 10 minutes, and after 5 minutes had elapsed they had to switch to their tag partner (played by their teammate).
This was very funny as some seiyuu were much better than others - Hoshi didn't really know how to play. He got into a dreadful mess, shouting at Masamune when he kept attacking him and eventually dying to Tadakatsu. As it was tag mode he was able to revive himself and continue, and with the help of a Giga Basara and his teammate (Okamoto) having started them off strongly in the first place, the Yukimura/Katsuie team managed to win. Even though Hoshi's bumbling was adorable, it couldn't compare to the antics of the other team. Okiayu was giving in-character commentary as Hideyoshi while he played, then when Morita tagged in he started to criticise him whenever he screwed up with lines like "Keiji! That's me!"and "Keiji! Kill them more quickly!".
The winning team drew seat numbers at random to give three fans unique prizes of New Year kagami mochi decorations signed by the cast members. I didn't win.
The short television commercials for the game were played while the stage was cleared, then KobaP presented his new batch of announcements. There will be Sengoku Basara 4 cough drops, prize draws, a tie-in with a bunch of Japanese Internet cafes, a huge advertising campaign in the world's biggest train station in Shinjuku, and a series of fan meetings through the official fan club.
There will also be a brand new television anime project. KobaP smiled at all of the inquiring faces and said he couldn't reveal the details just yet - I'm going to guess it will involve Production I.G. in some capacity though, since they've been contributing so much work to Sengoku Basara 4. Of course, it could be a Mame Sengoku Basara series...
Two new videos were presented as well. One was for the 'DMC Dante' version of Date Masamune, a downloadable costume available on 23rd January 2014 for ¥300. The people around me were all screaming in delight when the name appeared on the screen and this continued during the short clip.
The second video was a highlights reel from Sengoku Creation Mode starring Date Masamune, designed to attract people to the way that the stories are presented between (and during) battles. It showed Masamune's introduction then the player picked Shikanosuke's stage, so we had some footage from that. The main attraction of this video was actually the voiceover covering a little of the early part of Masamune's story with Kojuurou. Yet a short clip of Motonari flying through the sky on his airship when one of his stages appeared distracted most people in the audience...
KobaP begged everyone to keep the announcements secret until the evening show had started (the press reporters were doing the same) to avoid spoiling things for all of the fans who were going to watch it broadcast in cinemas. A final round of dialogue performances ended the show: Keiji versus Yoshiteru, Aniki versus Mitsunari and Yukimura and lastly Katsuie versus Sakon.
--
The second performance was similar to the first except that Nakai replaced Hoshi and a few things were shuffled around. The evening's opening skit was performed by Masamune and Katsuie; Katsuie awkwardly trying to repeat Masamune's English in his dull voice was very cute! At the end, Masamune wanted to call out to the crowd so he and Katsuie had to yell "Are you ready, guys?" together several times to get us to respond. It sounded so peculiar to hear Masamune's shout accompanied by a monotonous, unenthusiastic "Are you ready, guys?" from Katsuie...
In the talk segment, instead of describing their characters with a kanji word everyone had their character's fortune read for 2014. Poor Mitsunari ended up with 'misfortune' while Hideyoshi got 'great luck'.
The last major difference came with the gameplay battle. This time, the teams were Hideyoshi/Mitsunari and Katsuie/Masamune and the stage was Battle of Sekigahara: Western Shadow. Okiayu was struggling until he tagged Mitsunari in and passed control to Seki, at which point Mitsunari's natural skill at hurtling around racking up masses of kills came into play. Okiayu couldn't help gasping (in Hideyoshi's voice) that "Ishida Mitsunari is...great.". They won by a large margin. Like Hoshi, Nakai wasn't actually very good at the game and Okamoto's skill couldn't compensate for the difference in performance.
In case it isn't obvious, I had a great deal of fun at the event despite the dreadful stress of obtaining tickets through the annoying lottery system several months ago. It was a privilege to see the seiyuu performing in person once again, and I'm even more hyped for Sengoku Basara 4 (and the new anime project!) than I was before.
Even though it's taken me a little while to get to this next disc of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, the fifth volume might be my favourite yet! The arrival of some new characters adds a new dimension to the character dynamics in play.
This fifth Japanese Blu-ray disc contains episodes thirteen to fifteen, the second set of episodes which belong to the Battle Tendency arc.
As usual, spoilers for these episodes may follow.
By the end of volume four, Joseph Joestar had become tangled in a mess much greater in scope than he'd expected when he first travelled to Mexico. His brush with German soldiers and the mysterious Santana has now lead him all the way to Rome, where three more 'pillar men' are said to be sleeping.
I mentioned Joseph's appeal as a protagonist in my comments on the previous disc. If there was one thing missing, it was that he had nobody to react to his cocky attitude and take him down a peg or two; JoJo often ended up talking to himself. Well, this volume takes care of that problem with the introduction of the fabulous Caesar Zeppeli.
Yesterday, I popped into London to spend a few hours at this year's Hyper Japan exhibition. The event is being held between 26th and 28th July this year to celebrate the usual blend of Japanese traditions and pop culture.
My group had purchased 'fast track' tickets in advance this time, which gave us the right to join a much smaller queue and enter as soon as the doors opened at 9:30 on Saturday morning. Separate queues had already formed for general entry and for last minute customers who wanted to buy tickets on the day.
I cannot praise the organisers highly enough for how well they managed the entry system. Unlike with MCM Expo events, where buying an early ticket means you'll probably be trapped in an airless hall for an eternity waiting to be allowed in, Hyper Japan started precisely on time and we were through the doors within minutes. They even had large posters on display showing the timing for the various stage events that were running throughout the weekend, making it easy to plan activities without having to ask the staff what was going on.
The venue for Hyper Japan has moved around the corner to the large Earls Court Two building. The event actually felt slightly smaller than last year's Christmas show in spite of the bigger hall; there seemed to be fewer exhibitors and celebrities overall. Still, the large hall meant there was plenty of space around the stages. Walking around the booths was pleasantly cool in comparison to the heatwave outside.
Earls Court Two in late July
The first order of business was to enjoy a light brunch before the food court became too busy later on. My friends all went with various types of donburi; I chose a tasty pumpkin croquette set. Other options included takoyaki, taiyaki, okonomiyaki, ramen, yakisoba, sushi, dorayaki, ice cream and shaved ice (kakigoori). The venue's cafes were also selling the usual sandwiches and coffees for the benefit of visitors who weren't interested in Japanese food.
I was very disappointed when the English language streaming rights for Karneval fell into the hands of FUNimation, doomed to be locked away from the UK forever until a DVD-only home video release is announced in a few years time (if we're lucky). The show's appealing, colourful palette had been eye-catching from the outset and I'd been really hoping to watch it week by week.
Bandai Visual came to the rescue by including English subtitles on the Japanese Blu-ray release. Ordinarily I wouldn't have imported on the grounds that I hadn't been able to see the stream; blind buys are risky when the cost of entry is so high. However, this time around I felt irritated at the western anime industry's failure to serve me as a fan. I didn't want to reward them by buying their edition later on, so instead I decided to buy the first volume of the Japanese edition as a peculiar kind of protest. This also gave me the opportunity to register my purchase and send a plaintive comment straight to Bandai Visual in Japan.
Unfortunately, the first Blu-ray set only contains one episode of the Karneval anime. I'm not familiar with the manga (it's not been released in English outside of Singapore and Australia) so I'm now in the sticky situation of trying to judge whether I should be buying subsequent volumes based on less than half an hour of content.
Although it's only one episode, it's a very pretty episode. The most noticeable thing about Karneval at first glance is the sumptuous artwork. Based on Mikanagi Touya's ongoing josei manga, all of the main characters are stunningly beautiful whether they're male or female. The anime staff have tried to capture the delicate use of colour from the source material by going all out with ethereal hair colours, eye colours and decorations. It's gorgeous.
After the excitement of the third volume of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, I couldn't wait to watch the next one as soon as I took delivery of the Japanese Blu-ray edition. Volume four contains episodes ten to twelve, the start of the second major arc of the JoJo saga.
The Battle Tendency or Sentou Chouryuu arc shifts the story from 19th century Great Britain to the prewar USA. The Phantom Blood arc's Jonathan Joestar has now been replaced by his grandson Joseph, a feisty young man with a talent for attracting trouble and striking stylish poses for no reason. He also has a habit of performing mid-fight commentary to confuse his opponents.
Joseph's considerable charm is enhanced by the inspired decision to cast Sugita Tomokazu as his seiyuu. Sugita reels off the ridiculous dialogue with the perfect cocky self-confidence needed to make Joseph a memorable lead right from the outset; even though I've developed a strong resistance to wisecracking American youths over the years, it's hard not to root for the guy when he's so gung-ho! Joseph seems quite different to Jonathan, sharing only a similar fighting style and sense of personal honour. His grandfather's naïveté is nowhere to be found.
Although some other familiar faces soon appear to tie the new adventure in with the Phantom Blood arc, this is a different story and things swiftly move on to an all-new struggle.
This entire post is a rant. Please skip to the next blog post if you don't like reading this kind of thing.
As the title is ambiguous I want to make it clear that this post is nothing to do with the way that splitting anime releases across two competing formats (DVD and Blu-ray) eats into anime sales. That's something the distributors have to deal with for themselves.
What I'm upset about is something completely avoidable which is killing my desire to buy new anime releases. As a collector, I find it disturbing to find myself skipping series I'd have collected a few years ago. It's not because of lack of interest on my part, nor is it due to streaming, piracy or cost. It's the fact that the anime industry as a whole has become so obsessed with controlling its audience that it's intent on making it as difficult as possible to support anime. The quirks of the Blu-ray format make it a powerful weapon in the anime home video industry's rush to self-destruction.
I don't usually review anime titles volume-by-volume, but my rambling coverage of this one seems to be getting quite a few hits. I'd like to believe that means there are lots of fans overseas who are curious about the Japanese Blu-ray release for JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, so here are my thoughts on disc three!
This third volume contains episodes seven through to nine of the 2012 television series, bringing the first part of the story to its close. The production quality is as high as ever; I cannot fault the artwork, animation quality or sound and the Blu-ray format presents the show the way it deserves to be seen. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is definitely one of the most worthy Japanese imports in recent memory.
The previous volume left off with the heroes battling against Dio's supernatural minions to try to stop a small town from being completely taken over. Even with JoJo's strength, Zeppeli's strange techniques and Speedwagon's, uh, cheering, the team have to make some dreadful sacrifices to make progress in their quest. The series continues to fly along at a brisk pace without ever skimping on battles, gore or shocks.
Note: This post follows directly on from part 2. If you haven't read that one already, please check it out first as I refer back to it for some explanations.
If the city of Shiroishi in Miyagi prefecture is all about Katakura Kojuurou, then the region's capital of Sendai is passionately devoted to Date Masamune. The real life Masamune founded the city in his domain more than four hundred years ago; since then it's grown into a busy urban hub and tourist destination, full of relics from the Sengoku period.
As soon as you step out of the train at Sendai station, you're met by endless references to the celebrated city founder and Musubimaru, the riceball-shaped regional mascot whose design includes nods to Masamune's famous armour. A beautiful stained glass window depicting the historical Date Masamune keeps watch over the station lobby.
And it's likely that you'll also come across the occasional Sengoku Basara poster in between the more traditional ones.
The second part of my travel report is all about Shiroishi Castle. There are a lot of pictures this time. I'm delighted that I managed to get it finished in time to post it on 'Kojuurou Day' (2013/5/16 - a goroawase play on words).
The original reason for this particular trip was a shallow one: I'd bought the Sengoku Basara Travel Navi CD for the Oushuu area and the two seiyuu spoke so affectionately about their experiences in the city of Shiroishi that I became fascinated with the idea of going there myself. Travel Navi CDs are also available for Ueda, Osaka/Gifu and Sekigahara, if you're a fan who needs further convincing to pay one of those areas a visit.
I like historical sites anyway and the Sengoku Basara link added an interesting twist, so last summer I hopped on the Shinkansen to Miyagi prefecture and went to go and see the area for myself. Unfortunately the most prominent of Shiroishi's local attractions, Shiroishi Castle, had suffered significant damage from the terrible Touhoku earthquake which hit the region in 2011. I couldn't change the dates of my planned holiday even though the castle's website had explained the situation in advance.
The beautiful gate, in front of a building site
Due to the extensive repairs that were required visitors were only able to see the grounds; the castle building itself was covered in scaffolding and inaccessible. In spite of this problem I loved what I'd seen of the area and wanted to go back when the repairs had been finished.
It was impossible to see the structure of the walls
Not willing to be defeated, I decided to revisit the area as part of my trip in March 2013 to see what it was supposed to look like.
There are three main ways you can get to Shiroishi by train from central Tokyo. The first is to take one of the luxurious Hayabusa Shinkansen trains all the way to Sendai, then change for the JR Touhoku line to take you back a short way to JR Shiroishi station. This takes you closer to the centre of the city and the historical sites, and if you're planning on seeing Sendai first it's the route which makes the most sense.
Alternatively, you can take a slower Yamabiko Shinkansen and change to the JR Touhoku line at Fukushima station, avoiding going all the way into Sendai and then back out again.
My preferred route is to take the Yamabiko Shinkansen train to Shiroishi Zaou station, which is slightly farther away from the castle than JR Shiroishi. The advantage of this is threefold; it makes it easier to get to Shiroishi directly early in the day (which is important when the tourist attractions closer quite early in the afternoon), and it doesn't require any changes after getting on the Shinkansen so you can relax. It also gives you a chance to visit Shiroishi Zaou station.
Descending into Shiroishi Zaou station from the
Shinkansen platform
Shiroishi Zaou station is almost worthy of a sightseeing trip on its own. It contains a tiny 'Uumen Noodle and Kokeshi Doll Mini-Museum' on one side of the ticket hall, traditional handicrafts, replica armour pieces, Sengoku-themed beer, a mikoshi portable shrine shaped like Shiroishi Castle and an incredible gift shop decorated with Sengoku Basara imagery which sells goods from all over the Touhoku area.
I started to write a single post about my two visits to Shiroishi Castle from the perspective of a Sengoku Basara fan. It soon became so long that I ended up having to split it into three parts - all because I kept wanting to include details of other things I did on my trips!
Therefore, this first post is all about some of the other Sengoku Basara sights I've enjoyed on my trips to Japan. The castle will come afterwards.
Tokyo International Anime Fair
I went to Tokyo International Anime Fair 2013 (TAF) for the first time on Saturday 24th March 2013, one of the public dates. Buying a ticket in advance was easy thanks to the convenience store reservation system and there was no queue at all when we arrived at Tokyo Big Sight just after 10:00am - we were inside within minutes. The most surprising thing was how tiny the event was, spread over the three East halls. It always looks huge when people post photo reports, but I'm used to attending much larger gatherings whenever I head to Big Sight in search of doujinshi at Comic City or Comiket. I'd never seen the venue so quiet before! The other culture shock was how many foreigners there were. Many of them arrived dressed in cosplay before making a beeline for the fenced-off cosplay area. The whole thing felt just like one of London's MCM Expo events (only without the rampant piracy and stormtroopers).
Dragonball, One Piece and Toriko at the Toei booth
The reason I went to TAF wasn't for the anime coverage this time, even though I was pleased to see Kobayashi Yuu participating in a Ginga He Kickoff panel. It was for something much dorkier: I wanted to buy the special Sengoku Basara goods that appeared on this blog previously!
In the top left is volume three of the Sengoku Basara fan club newsletter, which I'm not going to talk about further except to say it has nothing to do with Sengoku Basara 4 (I received my copy late). The cover is seasonal as usual and it also came with a mini clear file decorated with Mame Sengoku Basara characters (Muneshige, Sourin, Yoshiaki, Kanbee, Tenkai, Kingo and Gyoubu this time).
Anyway, next to it is Sengoku Basara Magazine issue one! And at the bottom is the special talk CD and the rubber strap which came with it.
I've got other things to attend to tonight, but I'll definitely be reading the magazine as soon as I get a chance to. Sleep is overrated anyway, right?
It's no secret that I adore Sengoku Basara. It's the reason I visited the Sengoku Basara karaoke room in Akihabara and the official Capcom shop in Odaiba, and it's a contributing factor to several of the pilgrimages I've made to historical sites in Japan before.
As part of this obsession, one of the locations I made sure to visit on my 2012 trip to Japan was the Capcom Bar, an 'entertainment bar' situated in Shinjuku, Tokyo. This post is mostly going to cover the crazy food my friends and I ordered during our visit, but I'll start by describing the bar itself in case anyone needs help planning a visit one day.
Capcom Bar is located in Shinjuku and might be difficult to find. The easiest way to get there is to navigate to Shinjuku Sanchoume station then take exit B9; it's a long underground walk but hard to get lost that way. A map and list of opening times is kept up to date on the bar's official website.
The first thing which needs to be understood when planning a visit is that the Capcom Bar is very popular. It's so popular that on the day we dined there, a queue had formed which stretched down the road even though the bar wasn't scheduled to open for another hour and a half. If you are a fan of the Biohazard series (Resident Evil), it might be worth trying the separate Biohazard Cafe and Grill S.T.A.R.S. in nearby Shibuya instead.
Everyone in the line ahead was female
Because of the high demand, the bar requires that every visitor reserves a time slot in advance (that's why we were queued up outside to begin with). At the time it was only possible to book in person - slightly annoying, as even though we'd arrived early the queue was so long we had to pick the second time slot of the day, leaving us with a long wait before our meal. Since then, the staff have introduced telephone bookings and Lawson convenience store reservations which should streamline the process.
I'm not sure whether it's still done this way, but we had to complete an order form for our food in advance as well to avoid delays; each time slot is only two hours long so you don't want to waste any time. The names of the menu items are all in Japanese, so if you don't speak the language it's a good idea to check the website before you visit and make a list of all of the dishes you want to order. It will make completing the reservation form much easier. If you can read Japanese, there are detailed menus outside the bar which give much more information about the food than the website. It's quite fun to wait in the lobby area leafing through the menus, making use of the free shaved ice machine and gazing longingly at the merchandise on display.
When our reserved time slot was due to begin the staff rounded everyone up and gave a rousing introduction ("Let's party!") to get all of the guests in the mood for some fun. We were then led inside the Capcom Bar and given time to look around at the decorations bathed in blue neon lighting. Small screens were set up next to the tables to show trailers from various Capcom games and merchandise from Monster Hunter and Sengoku Basara covers all of the available wall space. There were some consoles available too for people who had time to play (nobody did when we were there; the food was too interesting!).
The most prominent Capcom games represented on the menu are Monster Hunter, Gyakuten Saiban (Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney), Sengoku Basara and Biohazard, with Street Fighter and Devil May Cry appearing too. Since my visit a few items from Dragon's Dogma have also been added to the list and there are occasionally special events for other games.
As soon as everyone had settled in, it was time to dine!
I picked up the second volume of the recent television adaptation of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure on my recent trip overseas. This disc contains episodes four to six, covering the middle of the Phantom Blood arc.
As with the first volume, the series has stunning visuals and fantastic, over-the-top voice acting. The quality of the presentation on the Japanese Blu-ray disc is magnificent. There's still no sign of a western release - or even a legal English-subtitled stream of the show - so I'm relieved that the Japanese edition has been handled with such care.
JoJo's come a long way since the start of the series. He's been forced to leave his innocent boyhood behind and found some allies in unlikely places, most prominently the reformed thug Robert E. O. Speedwagon from the first volume who has decided to stay around and help JoJo as much as he can.
Speedwagon steals most scenes with his melodramatic narration and reactions to everything that happens. I think it's impossible not to love his ridiculousness; even if he has completely abandoned his intimidating appearance from the previous volume he's so adorable like this that it doesn't matter at all.
Anyway, I should say something about the plot instead of talking about how amazing Speedwagon is for the entire post. After the fast-paced start to the series I was worried that there wasn't much farther that the Phantom Blood arc could go, having already covered enough material to fill a normal television series within its first three episodes.
It soon turns out that Jonathan Joestar's problems aren't over yet as he encounters the mysterious Baron Zeppeli. Zeppeli seems intent on dragging poor JoJo into even more trouble, but he's kind enough to introduce him to some new techniques first. The episodes on this disc consequently teach us all about hamon, the foundation of a new fighting style which might give our hero the edge over his opponents.
It turns out that JoJo very much needs that edge, as Dio has wasted no time in mastering his new powers and setting himself up as a classic villain - now with an even greater grudge than before. His unwavering dedication to his role as the antagonist is an inspiration; criminals all over the world should have posters on their walls to encourage them to strive to be as evil and twisted as Dio.
With another clash between JoJo and Dio seeming inevitable, the three unlikely heroes head to the town of Windknight's Lot to confront the swarm of criminals and undead warriors lying in wait for them. The classic shounen battles which follow are turned into impromptu training sessions by the unpredictable Zeppeli. Every time I think that the series has reached its limit for craziness, it bowls me over with Zoom Punches and various rainbow-hued Overdrive attacks. My excitement turns into laughter (then straight back into excitement) many times over the course of each episode.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure volume 2 was released on 22nd February 2013 and is available as a special edition Blu-ray or first press DVD (picture). The standard Blu-ray and standard DVD aren't being made available until the first press versions have sold out. Once again, the first press DVD has a special slipcase to set it apart from the standard edition while the Blu-ray has a more interesting 64-page 'Key Animations ~Phanton Blood~' booklet accompanying its special packaging (pictured). The second proof of purchase ticket you need to collect to claim your special statue at the end of the series is also included, of course.
On-disc extras for the Blu-ray are limited to English subtitles and a couple of television commercials for the first part of the series. The quality of the English subtitles on the Japanese edition is just as good as before.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure hasn't lost any momentum so far, continuing to be memorable and entertaining with every episode. I can't wait to watch volume 3 next week!
