YoRHa Ver.1.3aa Stage Play Blu-ray Premium Box

October 9, 2020 marked the release of the YoRHa Ver.1.3aa Stage Play Premium Box, recorded with an empty theater on March 14, 2020. The release comes in two versions, Standard and Premium. This post will take a closer look at the contents of the Premium Box.

The blu-ray box has several layers. When you first open the box, we have two little YoRHa goodies…

The next layer we have the actual blu-ray discs…

  • Disc 1: Multi-camera
    • Stage Play with & without Maintenance Time (179 minutes)
    • NicoNico Douga Live – NieR 10th Anniversary Livestream – Stage Play Talk (78 minutes)
  • Disc 2: Fixed Camera
    • Stage Play with & without Maintenance Time (179 minutes)
    • Family Mart Preview (1 minute)
  • Disc 3: Bonus
    • YoRHa Ver.1.3aa – Backstage Footage (103 minutes)
    • YoRHa Ver1.3aa – Location Making Footage (42 minutes)
    • YoRHa Ver.1.3a – Backstage Footage (108 minutes)
      • Includes the curtain call for the final Tokyo performance!
    • YoRHa Ver.1.3a – After Talk (128 minutes)
    • YoRHa Ver.1.3a – Osaka Daisenshuuraku – Curtain Call, July 15, 2019 (47 minutes)

I will be doing a livestream chat tonight discussing various stuff, but I will also include an unboxing of the Blu-ray Premium Box! Check it out!

  • Checking In With Rekka, Vol.01
  • October 11, 2020
  • 9:00pm (JST)

NieR Schedule for Tokyo Game Show 2020

Tokyo Game Show 2020 will feature new information on at least 3 NieR titles!

Last week Square Enix dropped their schedule for the completely online Tokyo Game Show (TGS) this year, but there were several time slots that remained empty. This usually their way of keeping some things a secret for a while just for the hype!

And by-golly, have we got some HYPE now!

Here’s the current schedule:

Thursday, September 24, 10:00pm (JST)
NieR TGS 2020 Special Programming
The “We Have a Decent Amount of New Info” Special
Japanese Audio / English Subtitles

  • NieR Automata – 3rd Anniversary
  • NieR Replicant Ver.1.22…
  • NieR Re[in]carnation

Other likely topics of discussion related to NieR may include:

  • NieR Theatrical Orchestra 12020 Blu-ray
  • YoRHa Ver.1.3aa Stage Play Blu-ray

Friday, September 25, 7:30pm (JST) – SINoALICE

SINoALICE will be featured in a presentation on Friday, September 25 at 7:30pm. Guests include Aoki Tact (writer) and Himiko (illustrator/mangaka). This will be discussing some “secret” stories and highlights about the SINoALICE comic that will be released through SQEX’s Manga & Books label on the Manga Up app.

Saturday, September 26, 10:00pm (JST)

There will also be a talk show type of panel with NieR related folks, discussing “almost no new information” apparently, according to the title.

Those who will be appearing at this panel include:


Sunday, September 27, 8:30pm (JST) – FFXIV

The FFXIV panel about YoRHa:Dark Apocalypse will likely be similar to the event last year. Yoko Taro, Saito Yosuke, Yoshida Naoki, and Murouchi Toshio will be in attendance. The presentation is scheduled for Sunday, September 27 at 8:30pm (All times are in JST).


Any further updates will be posted here!

Yoko Taro’s Manga “Thou Shalt Not Die” Ends With Chapter 59

** BEWARE OF SPOILERS **

Introduction

Today marks an end of an era. Yoko Taro’s longest running manga “Thou Shalt Not Die” (君死ニタマフ事ナカレ) with mangaka Moriyama Daisuke concludes with 59 chapters. It seems like an odd number to end the series on, but…

Continue reading

Thou Shalt Not Die, Chapter 57 Notes (Spoilers)

Now that we’re coming down to the end of the TSND manga, it feels like some loose ends are finally starting to come together. Exactly what light these revelations will shed on the overall Yokoverse or how the TSND story could be connected is still anyone’s guess at this point. But the more we see of this story, the more obvious it seems to get.

First of all, the main conflict taking place at the school is over. The US Army infiltration into the school to eliminate all of the kids was thwarted thanks solely to Asagi’s efforts. Because of his ultimate sacrifice, the main cast was able to retreat from the area… and after that, apparently the statute of limitations that connected the US Army to the whole thing in the first place ran out, so they will no longer be pursuing the kids after this point.

A segment of the chapter is dedicated to telling the story of the army’s side, focusing on a head general related to the latest mission at the school. He’s the one that tells his subordinates that they are not going to pursue the kids any further… But since their mission actually ended in failure, he has to take that responsibility upon himself… and he ends up committing suicide after briefing his subordinates. It’s almost like… Miyata is trying to cover its tracks.

The kids get away on a military vessel and are scheduled to be dropped off at a Yokohama port (maybe Osanbashi!?!). On the way, Kuroi calls up Yamabuki-senpai to discuss the progression he’s made on compiling all the information about Project White that Asagi had collected. I entirely forget now, but it seems as though Yamabuki has a direct connection to Project White and helping the others out like (I forget his motivations) also spelled his own death.

Yamabuki mentions that he has to take responsibility for the failure of the mission or whatever and was given some suicide pills from Project White (yet another instance of Miyata covering its tracks). He mentions he’s only got about 5 minutes to live.

He mentions that Miyata cannot be destroyed and that it was specifically created in such a way that it would survive. Apparently the “Special Abilities” side of Project White was just one of many it covered. The information that Asagi retrieved was the connection between the Special Ability High and Project White as well as its connection to the Political World and the Self-Defense Forces. But there’s apparently another plan that they haven’t yet uncovered…

It seems like it was one of Asagi’s final predictions that Yamabuki would have already compiled all the information to hand it off to Kuroi in preparation of his own untimely death. It’s super interesting that Kuroi would even go to say “This is the end both of us hoped for, isn’t it?” Kuroi certainly has his endearing moments!

Yamabuki transfers the information to Kuroi, and gives him the location where to find more answers: at the Miyata General Hospital.

At some point during the conversation, though, we find out that Mashiro isn’t on the ship… but Kuroi still knows–somehow–that she’s fine. It’s almost like they have a direct connection between them now…

Another interesting thing I noticed in this chapter was the prevalence of BIRDS throughout the entire thing, in every scene change even. Birds have never been a major focus in the story, so I can’t help but imagine what symbolic meaning they may have here.

I’m guessing they’re going to aim for a total of 60 chapters in this story, so that would mean we’ll have 3 more chapters left with the final chapter on September 25. That is assuming there’s no month break between any of the chapters and also assuming the chapter length. Nonetheless, we know the story will be wrapping up by fall… so best be prepared!! It’s been a long 6 years!!

YoRHa Ver.1.2 Musical and YoRHa Boys Ver.1.0 Returning to NicoNico!

In an effort to promote the “STAY HOME” movement during the Coronavirus pandemic, the 2018 performances of the YoRHa Ver.1.2 Musical and YoRHa Boys Ver.1.0 stage play originally streamed on NicoNico will be coming back for a brief time. The plays will be available FOR FREE from Friday, May 1 to Sunday, May 10.

If you haven’t seen these versions yet, I would highly recommend checking them out. Both of which have been released on Blu-ray as a box-set, and can still occasionally be found at vendors like Amazon. But be prepared to pay anywhere from $300 at this point…

And if you haven’t seen it yet, the YoRHa Ver.1.2 Musical was my first experience to work as freelance press on the stage play report, so you can check that out here.