The inevitable birth of "Sakura Wars" from Sega in 1996 [Kiri Nakazato's "2.5-Dimensional" Idol Historia Vol. 6

Numerous "idol works" have been created for anime and video games as a standard genre, and CD releases and real events by the casts playing the idols are held every month (although the events have been postponed or cancelled across the board since the beginning of this year due to the new coronavirus). ......).

How were these "2.5-dimensional" idols, who freely move between two and three dimensions, born and how did they shape the scene? Writer Kiri Nakazato, who has been observing 2.5-dimensional idols of the Showa, Heisei, and 2025 eras, has started the sixth installment of her popular series summarizing the history of these idols!

Previously, we took a look at the early "THE iDOLM@STER" series. The concept of the series, in which the voice actors themselves take on the role of the characters and stand on stage, and the characters and the actors who play them lead a life together, is familiar to all.

The name of that work is "Sakura Wars. It is one of Sega's signature titles that everyone has heard of at least once as a game maker.

The History Behind Sega's Name

In this article, I would like to consider how a company called Sega came up with "Sakura Taisen," a content that has both games and stage performances at the core of its projects.

There are many theories about the roots of SEGA, and it would be very interesting to explore them, but since this is not the main purpose of this article, I would like to follow the history of the company from the official SEGA website. The company was founded in 1951 and incorporated in 1960 as Nippon Amusement Bussan. The name of the domestically produced jukebox (an entertainment device that plays music) developed by Nippon Amusement Bussan was the "Sega 1000. The name is an acronym for "Service Games," which is believed to be one of the predecessor companies. The name "Sega Enterprises" as a company did not appear in history until 1965.

Sega's history as a home video game console manufacturer begins with the SG-1000, which was launched on July 15, 1983. The fact that a company with a jukebox named "SEGA 1000" as its historical base released a game console named "SEGA GAME-1000," or "SG-1000" for short, shows the level of enthusiasm and prayer that had gone into the release of this console.

Unfortunately, the SG-1000 did not attract much attention beyond the enthusiasts. Although sales exceeded the initial target, the game market was taken over by an overwhelmingly strong rival that was released on the same day. The rival's name was the "Family Computer"-also known as the "Famicom. This monster, which would fundamentally change the history of video games, was released at the same time as the SG-1000 by Nintendo, a Kyoto-based company that sold toys such as Hanafuda (Japanese playing cards) and GameWatch.

July 15, 1983" was not only Sega's anniversary, but also the beginning of the company's struggle as a hardware manufacturer that, while deeply loved by the world's most devoted game enthusiasts, remained in an eternal second place from an objective point of view. Sega went on to release a constant stream of home video game hardware, including the SG-1000II, SEGA MARK III, MASTER SYSTEM, and Megadrive, but Nintendo's stronghold on the Famicom remained unshaken.

The "Mega Drive" released in October 1988 had superior specifications to the Famicom, but at the time, the Famicom software "Dragon Quest III: The Legend" was on sale, and the news reported huge lines and shortages as a social problem. As can be seen from the news reports of huge lines and shortages, this was the peak of the Famicom era.

The NES was at the height of its popularity, as evidenced by the news reports of the huge lines and shortages of the hardware. The NES camp continued to dominate other hardware with its extensive software lineup. And with the release of Nintendo's new hardware, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), in November 1990, it seemed that Nintendo's lead was definitive.

However, game hardware was evolving at a frighteningly fast pace, and this was a time when it had the potential to change even the nature of the gaming experience. In fact, at about the same time that the Mega Drive went on sale, the PC Engine, a game hardware company that was competing with Nintendo and Sega, introduced a peripheral device called a CD-ROM2 (CD-ROM-ROM). This device was designed to adopt the now-common method of recording software on a disc-shaped optical disc.

Until then, most game hardware used box-shaped or card-shaped ROM cardridges as software media; ROM cartridges had the advantages of high durability and fast readability, but their data storage capacity was limited. On the other hand, the CD-ROM used in CD-ROM2 had the disadvantage of taking longer to access data than ROM cartridges, but it had the advantage of being able to store large amounts of data, such as audio and video, which is now commonplace in games.

Although the CD-ROM2 was expensive for a game hardware, games such as "Dream Warrior Valis II" and "Tengai Makyou ZIRIA," which incorporated sound and animation, were accepted with surprise and created many fans. In the early 1990s, Nintendo's Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), which already boasted an overwhelming market share, was being pitted against high-performance hardware from various companies that had adopted new recording media. Sega also released the "Mega CD" peripheral for the Mega Drive in December 1991.

In fact, Nintendo was also moving to adopt CD-ROM at that time. No, there was someone who was pushing hard for Nintendo to adopt and jointly develop CD-ROM. That person was Ken Kutaragi, who would later become known as the "wind cloud" of Sony. The code name for the CD-ROM hardware to be jointly developed by Nintendo and Sony was PlayStation. If the "Nintendo PlayStation" had come to fruition, the game hardware war would have ended in an overwhelming victory for the Nintendo - Sony camp.

However, this dream collaboration hardware would end without ever being released to the world. The process is also too complicated and puzzling to mention here. Anyway, as a result, Nintendo took a step back from the competition to develop CD-ROM-based hardware, and Sony started developing its own hardware on its own. Sega also did not miss the opportunity presented by its biggest rival, Nintendo.

On November 22, 1994, Sega introduced the Sega Saturn, a home video game console equipped with a CD-ROM drive. On December 3, 1994, Sony Computer Entertainment released the PlayStation, a home video game console developed by Sony Computer Entertainment (this is different from the aforementioned Nintendo PlayStation). Although Sega had an image of not being able to win in the past, the evolution of game hardware performance made it possible to port high-quality arcade game titles, one of Sega's major assets, to home use at a high quality level. The SEGA Saturn had the specifications to reproduce arcade games in their original form for home use. The ability to enjoy 3D games such as the Virtua Fighter series at home was a major advantage.

However, the PlayStation camp had its own enemies, and in the fighting game field, they were also competing with popular titles such as "Tekken" and "Toushinden. The game industry began to revolve around a different structure: a one-on-one battle between Sega and Sony.

Hardware makers and creators' ambitions joined hands.

A new rival, Sony, appeared at a time when it might finally be able to fulfill its long-held dream of overtaking Nintendo. You can imagine that Sega was desperate for a killer title in the phase around the launch of the Sega Saturn. Porting arcade games is a weapon that takes advantage of the Saturn's high specs as game hardware. Then, when we thought about how to take advantage of the characteristics of the optical media, CD-ROM, it was inevitable that rich content, both in terms of video and audio, would be required. We wanted to create original titles with "multimedia" strengths, as the term was used at the time. This was the eve of the appearance of the "Neon Genesis Evangelion" animated television series, and it was a time when animation and voice actors were beginning to be recognized as strongly appealing entities.

Sega turned to Oji Hiroi, who was one of the core members of the team that created "Tengai Makyou ZIRIA," a software title that surprised the world by being compatible with the PC Engine CD-ROM2, which was a pioneer in the use of CD-ROMs. Mr. Hiroi was not only a game creator, but also a multi-creator who had been involved in the animation "The Hero of Magic: Wataru" and other projects. At the time, there were still very few creators (other than game developers) with solid experience in CD-ROM game production. Shoichiro Irimajiri, then vice president of Sega, personally headhunted Mr. Hiroi.

The original story and overall producer of the "Sakura Wars" project was Oji Hiroi. The original character design is by Kosuke Fujishima, a manga artist known for "Oh My Goddess" and "I'll Arrest You". The main writer and scriptwriter is Satoru Akahori, a scriptwriter and light novelist who had many big hits in the 1990s. The music was composed by Kohei Tanaka, who worked with Hiroi on the game "Tengai Makyo Fuun Kabuki Den. The top-notch creators who symbolize "Sakura Wars" have gathered here.

For "Sakura Taisen," Mr. Hiroi created the concept of the "Teikoku Kagekidan," which is both a singing troupe and a band of acrobats who fight monsters, in order to naturally combine the strengths of CD-ROMs, such as singing and animation, with robot battles. Many people think of the Takarazuka Revue when they think of Japanese revue troupes, but Hiroi had in mind the Shochiku Shoujo Revue, a prewar rival to Takarazuka. Mr. Hiroi was the last of the generation to experience the remnants of the Shochiku Revue, which was based in Asakusa.

Oji Hiroi, the creator of this show, is said to have had conversations with Kohei Tanaka, a close friend of Mr. Hiroi, about doing a musical or even a video game. In fact, it is said that even before that time, there were conversations between Mr. Hiroi and his ally Kohei Tanaka. I believe that Mr. Hiroi saw the "Sakura Wars" project as a chance to fulfill his own dream (of working on a stage musical) as well as to respond to Sega's request. At the time of the auditions for casting the main cast, the only thing that had been officially decided was the release of the game. Despite this, we can see a glimpse of this in the fact that he chose Michie Tomizawa, who had studied action and sword fighting as a member of the Japan Action Club while working as a voice actress, to play the role of Sumire Kanzaki.

Later, due in part to Oji Hiroi's persistence, the development of "Sakura Taisen" became extremely difficult. However, with the help of new key players such as producer Norikatsu Oba of Sega and animator Hidenori Matsubara, who was trusted by Kosuke Fujishima, the game "Sakura Wars" was successfully released on September 27, 1996. The Saturn version of the game was a hit, selling an estimated 500,000 copies, and the legendary "Sakura Wars" took its first steps forward.

With the tailwind of the hit, Mr. Hiroi finally embarked on his other dream, the production of the stage "Sakura Taisen: Song Show". Mr. Hiroi is particular about having the same voice actors play the characters in the game and on stage. From the perspective of the stage, that would have been quite absurd. To add a touch of the mundane, Mayumi Tanaka, who played the physical Kanna Kirishima in the game, was almost two meters taller than Kumiko Nishihara, who played Iris, a nine-year-old child.

Even so, Hiroi considered it most important that the voices and the play be together in the work and on the stage as a stage to deliver the game to game fans. About 20 years later, when Mr. Takaaki Kitani of Bushiroad launched the "Girls' Opera Revue Starlight" project, he announced that he would create musical content in which the voice actors themselves would appear in order to resolve the discrepancy between 2.5D musicals and anime voices. I was strangely moved.

The first special performance of "Sakura Taisen: Song Show", "Ai Hence", was a rush production with only one week of lessons for the cast. In addition to the regular lessons, the cast practiced until late into the night. The voiceover by Tsubaki Takamura, the signboard girl at the "Sakura Taisen" store, called Kohei Tanaka, the composer who created the music for this work, to the stage. Mr. Kohei Tanaka waved his baton and a live orchestra played the famous song "Proclamation! Teikoku Kagekidan," the curtain fell (literally, the curtain fell) on the legendary stage.

The show has since become a summer tradition for "Sakura Taisen," with the fifth anniversary performance of "Kaijin Villa" being considered the masterpiece of the show. The show continued with various pages, including Michie Tomizawa's retirement from the singing show and her sudden return to the stage, until the final performance of "Sakura Taisen: The Song Show Final Performance "Shin Ai Hence" in 2006. What should be noted is the monstrous nature of Mr. Kohei Tanaka, who continued to write a large number of new songs for each stage performance.

I myself encountered "Sakura Wars" on the Sega Saturn when I was a student, and I know most of the 10-year history of the Song Show only from literature and videos. Even so, when I heard the words of the voice actors wearing the costumes of the Hana-gumi characters at the press conference for the final performance of the "Sakura Taisen Song Show: Shin Ai Hence" held at Seiyoken in Ueno in 2006, I felt firsthand their thoughts about the past 10 years and that I was witnessing a very significant milestone in the history of the show. I felt firsthand that I was witnessing a very big milestone in the history of the company.

Since then, many of the junior members of the Hanagakudan have been active in a variety of activities as stars of the Hanagakudan, and not only in games. But the members from the beginning - Sakura, Sumire, Maria, Kanna, Iris, and Kuran, as well as Captain Ookami and his cast - are still very special. When I interviewed the cast members of the "New Sakura Wars" anime that is currently airing, I was struck by their deep respect for the original and their awe for carrying the name "Imperial Blowout Squad Hanagumi" on their shoulders.

Although not in the same genre as "idols," the fact that the voice actors of video games and anime have pioneered the way to express their characters on stage, and that they have continued to play their characters for 10 years and beyond, and that they are now seasoned veterans, is a testament to their ability to continue to play their characters. And now that they are veterans, once they take on a role on stage, Sakura Shinguji or Sumire Kanzaki will appear. In many ways, "Sakura Wars" is an indispensable part of the 2.5-dimensional context.

(Text by Kiri Nakazato)