Last month, I had the opportunity to attend this amazing live performance that mixed classical Japanese dance and music, with sword dancing and rock music! Produced by D･I･O ENTERTAINMENT LLC, the show featured the rock band KAO=S, helmed by Shuji Yamagiri and Kaori Kawabuchi, the mock sword fighting squad, IDEAL, and many others!
Kaori Kawabuchi is the motion capture actor for Zero (Drakengard 3), cinematic sequences for 2B and A2 (NieR:Automata), as well as the voices of Jackass and Simone from the same title. She has countless notable credits, so definitely check out her other work!
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:
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.
