Santa Saito’s Christmas Final Special

Saito and the gang will be hanging up their annual Santa Saito’s Christmas specials with this year’s final installment. This year’s show will be “A laid-back Christmas night, talking about the previous Santa Saito’s Christmas specials as well as the NieR Fan event last month.” There were many things they weren’t able to discuss at the NieR:Automata Fan Festival 12022, so they’ll be touching more on those topics. And since it’s Christmas, the special will also feature giveaway and variety segments!

The special will feature the following individuals:

  • MC: Yasumoto Hiroki
  • Saito Yosuke
  • Yoko Taro
  • Taura Takahisa
  • Okabe Keiichi

Title: Santa Saito’s Christmas Final Special
Date: December 25, 2022
Time: 7:00pm (JST)

The special is free to watch on NicoNico, but will likely contain a paid-only segment at the end as usual. It’s usually during that segment that some hot news is revealed.

I assume they will be advertising the Bakuken 2 play like they did last year. Unfortunately, the play had to conclude with less than half of the performances completed due to an overabundance of caution regarding COVID. The play was also scheduled to be broadcast live on NicoNico, but the first cancelled performance was for the live broadcast. That is likely one of the reasons they’re bringing the play back one more time so a DVD/Blu-ray can also be released eventually.

This has been an annual show for the past 10 years, first beginning in 2013! You can read my old recaps below. Some of the specials are still available to watch on NicoNico Douga as well.

The first five years of the special mainly focused on Dragon Quest X, but you can spot several Yoko related guests throughout:

2013: Dragon Quest X TV – Special Guests by SaitoV, Yasumoto Hiroki, Hatsumi Meari (Operator 21O), KENN, etc.
2014: Dragon Quest X TV – Special Guests by SaitoV, Hatsumi Meari (Operator 21O), Isobe Keiko (Operator 6O), etc.
2015: Dragon Quest X TV – Special Guests by SaitoV, Hatsumi Meari (Operator 21O), Isobe Keiko (Operator 6O), etc.
2016: Dragon Quest X TV – Special Guests by SaitoV, Hatsumi Meari (Operator 21O), Isobe Keiko (Operator 6O), Inko-san (Cactus in YoRHa Boys Ver.1.0),etc.
2017: SUPER Dragon Quest X TV – Assistant MC by SaitoV with guests by Hatsumi Meari (Operator 21O), Isobe Keiko (Operator 6O), Inko-san (Cactus in YoRHa Boys Ver.1.0), Takano Kohei (Kurenai in Kimi Shi ni Tamou Koto Nakare -ZERO-), etc.

NieR:Automata Anime – Illustrations, Trailers, and Cast List

Updated: January 6, 2023

ー Illustrations ー

ー Trailers ー


ー SPECIAL PROGRAM ー

Released by Aniplex USA (available outside Japan)
Released by Aniplex Japan (available within Japan)

ー Cast List ー


ー Episode List ー

Episode #1: or not to [B]e


ー On Air Information ー

Every Saturday at 12:00am from January 7
TOKYO MX / Tochigi TV / Gunma TV / BS11

Every Monday at 1:59am from January 9
Yomiuri TV

Fukuoka Housou
Every Tuesday at 1:59am from January 10

Chukyo TV
Every Tuesday at 2:27am from January 10

Sapporo TV
Every Thursday at 2:29am from January 12

Animax
Every Saturday at 10:00pm from January 14

  • Streaming on DMM TV, dAnime Store is scheduled to begin every Saturday at 12:30am from January 7
  • Additional broadcasts on other platforms are scheduled to begin after noon on January 10

NieR:Automata Fan Festival 12022

Updated: 2022.11.23 – 10:22 PM

This is an on-going event so there may be multiple updates to this post.
Please check back to see any future updates!

With the NieR:Automata Fan Festival coming up this weekend, I wanted to share a couple of helpful links that might be useful to everybody!

There are THREE shows of the NieR:Automata Fan Festival held in Tokyo, each with a talk and music portion, as well as a recitation drama section. Please be aware that not all sections of the event will be streamed live. It seems that the talk portions will be streamed for free, but the music concert will only be streamed once on Saturday night for 5,000 yen. The talk segment should include a brief talk session with the development staff followed by a recitation drama (朗読劇) by the voice cast.

Please see below for the details.

NieR:Automata Fan Festival 12022 壊レタ五年間ノ声
Pre-show

The pre-show kicked off with a “Driving DJ” segment in which a staff member drove from somewhere toward Tokyo through the rain. People suggested NieR related tracks throughout the whole thing until the next talk segment started around 8pm. Here’s an example of the view… IT’s basically someone driving for hours in the rain along to various themes from the NieR series. xD

Once the talk portion began around 8pm, we were joined by Yasumoto Hiroki (Pod042/Weiss (Replicant Ver.1.22)), Saito Yosuke, Okabe Keiichi, and Taura Takahisa.

They also showed off a couple of the items that will be available at the fan festival:

Attendance Fortunes – Everyone who attends the event will be given a random fortune.

These are the various livestreams that will be available. Please see below for the direct links.

The Livestream ended with a Premium user segment in which they were mostly waiting for the kick off for the World Cup game with Japan.


NieR:Automata Fan Festival 12022 壊レタ五年間ノ声
Voices from the Verge 5th Anniversary

TALK STAGE

Development Staff Part

  • Producer: Saito Yosuke
  • Director: Yoko Taro
  • Composer: Okabe Keiichi
  • Senior Game Designer: Taura Takahisa

This is a sort of free talk of discourse by key figures of those who brought you NieR:Automata. They plan on discussing secrets that could only be discussed 5 years after the game’s release, as well as a report detailing the results of “☆ * △ × * 〇”.

Voice Actor Part

Friday, November 25

  • Pod153: Akiyama Kaoru
  • 2B: Ishikawa Yui
  • Emil: Kadowaki Mai
  • A2: Suwa Ayaka
  • Yonah: Nonaka Ai
  • Pod042: Yasumoto Hiroki
  • Nier: Yusa Kouji

Saturday, November 26

  • Pod153: Akiyama Kaoru
  • Emil: Kadowaki Mai
  • A2: Suwa Ayaka
  • 9S: Hanae Natsuki
  • Mama: Hara Yumi
  • Pod042: Yasumoto Hiroki
  • Nier: Yusa Kouji

This is a conversation between the voice actors who breathed life into the characters of the NieR series. You can enjoy an original recitation drama during the special project corner that will deliver “a slightly strange fantasy comedy” by all the performers.

The talk stage will also feature a give away segment in which participants can win a rare item that can only be obtained at the event.


Friday, November 25 – OPEN: 17:50 / START: 18:00

Saturday, November 26 – OPEN: 10:50 / START: 11:00

Saturday, November 26 – OPEN: 16:50 / START: 17:00

CONCERT STAGE

Saturday, November 26 – OPEN: 17:45 / START: 18:15
Price: 5,000 yen
Purchase Window: Friday, November 18 at noon through Sunday, December 11 at 8pm (JST)
Archived through: Sunday, November 27 at 6pm through Sunday, December 11 at 11:59pm (JST)

Click the image above to purchase an online ticket for the concert.

The introduction will include the following participants:

  • Music: Okabe Keiichi
  • Director: Matsuda Daiichi
  • General Supervisor: Yoko Taro

The musical performance includes the following participants:

Recitation Drama Part

Friday, November 25
Between the Collapse (2B)

Performers:

  • Ishikawa Yui – 2B
  • Suwa Ayaka – A2
  • Yasumoto Hiroki – Pod042
  • Akiyama Kaoru – Pod153
  • Yusa Kouji – Nier
  • Nonaka Ai – Yonah
  • Kadowaki Mai – Emil
  • The devastated YoRHa Squadron and the cornered 2B. Preparing for her death, 2B arrives at a city she had never seen before and encounters A2. What will 2B’s choice be when she meets with an unknown brother…?

Saturday, November 26
Between the Collapse (9S)

Performers:

  • Hanae Natsuki – 9S
  • Suwa Ayaka – A2
  • Yasumoto Hiroki – Pod042
  • Akiyama Kaoru – Pod153
  • Yusa Kouji – Nier
  • Kadowaki Mai – Emil
  • Hara Yumi – Mama
  • 9S has lost the entire YoRHa squadron but also 2B. In despair, he awakens in a city he’s never seen before. With the abhorrent A2 and a disturbing shadow approaching, soon we shall witness the future 9S had envisioned.

There will also be another Emil truck driving around the concert hall, so if you take a walk around the area, you might see it driving by! This would be the 2nd Emil truck since the last one that went around various cities in Japan.

I perched outside for several hours to try and catch a glimpse of it driving by in Yokohama, and I was pleasantly surprised to spot it in the end!! Check the video below for more on that!


Official Links:

Penny Blood Fan-made Social Media Images

Hello, and welcome!

Below are a bunch of images that I made for fans to help spread the love for Penny Blood on social media. I made all of these as a fan, so please keep in mind that there is no official OK received to distribute these images. If at any time I need to remove them, they will be gone in an instant, so please keep that in mind! My goal here is merely to share the love and hype for this title, so maybe the official guys will be a little lenient. haha

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