New Stage Play by Yoko Taro, “Bakuken”

Updated: 3/25/2021 – 10:23 pm

During Saito Yosuke’s Christmas special last night on Christmas Eve, they announced a brand new stage play by Yoko Taro. Please see below for the current details.

[ TABLE OF CONTENTS ]

  1. The Details
  2. The Cast
  3. Tickets
  4. Links
  5. Speculation

THE DETAILS

Bakuken ~Shogun Imperial Match~

  • Yoko Taro
    Original Story / Script
  • Matsuda Ichidai
    Director
  • Schedule: Wednesday, March 24 – Wednesday, March 31, 2021
  • Dates:
    • Wednesday, March 24: 6:00pm
    • Thursday, March 25: 6:00pm
    • Friday, March 26: 6:00pm
    • Saturday, March 27: 1:00pm, 5:00pm
    • Sunday, March 28: 1:00pm, 5:00pm
    • Monday, March 29: 6:00pm
    • Tuesday, March 30: 2:00pm, 6:00pm
    • Wednesday, March 31: 1:00pm
      * Seats at half-capacity.
  • Location: CBGK: Shibu Geki, Shibuya

All are the strongest.
All are madmen.
And all are foodies.

The war-torn “Hinokuni” was conquered by Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Swordsmen who have lost their purpose to fight happen to meet at the restaurant “Yatsumedo.”
They heard a rumor that an Imperial Match* would be held for the shogun to choose his swordsmen.

  • Imperial Match (Gozen Jiai, 御前試合): A martial arts match held in front of shoguns and daimyu during the samurai era. Also a match to be held in front of the Emperor.

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THE CAST

[ TOP ]

TICKETS

Tickets are slated to go on sale in mid-January.

[ TOP ]

https://twitter.com/gekidan_ds/status/1342091072311160832

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SPECULATION

The majority if not all of the characters in this cast are a variety of famous figures in the history of Japan, but the main point that sticks out is that not all of them are from the same time. There are characters from the Sengoku, Azuchi-Momoyama, and early Edo periods, some separated by over 200 years.

In terms of the date, this stage play will debut AFTER the release of NieR Re[in]carnation (Rein) and BEFORE Replicant Ver.1.22… I have a hard time believing this will have any direct connection to Replicant, but I can imagine it having an indirect connection to Rein since it’s basically a mash-up of various stories, plus we already know there is at least one story that takes place around the Sengoku period (see also: Assassin). Notably, the family crest that is shown in her design is originally made for this project, but it somewhat resembles that of the Sasaki clan, so I would watch out for a possible connection with Sasaki Setsu with this clan. Another clue for this is that… There is no real-world famous figure by the name of “Sasaki Setsu”, so I would imagine this is an inserted, original character.

Additionally, I couldn’t find any information on Yatsume either, so this may also be an original character. The fact that Hanagiku will be portraying this character can mean several things, but the main thing that sticks out to me is that this character may be the red herring of the story. The name of the restaurant where the characters gather is called “Yatsumedo”, so I assume she will either be the owner of the restaurant (therefor the puppeteer of the story) or something similar. She tends to play either adamantly strong characters or the deviously insane type of character… so I’m betting she’ll be doing the latter.

So, I’m currently speculating that this play might have an indirect tie-in to NieR Re[in]carnation. What do you think?

[ TOP ]

NieR Re[in]carnation Delayed

The official Twitter account for the upcoming NieR Re[in]carnation smartphone game released the sad news that the game has been delayed.

Translation:
[Notice About the Start of Service]

From the beginning, we have been working on development with the goal of officially starting service within 2020, but this date has been pushed back to the first half of 2021.

We deeply apologize to everyone who has been looking forward to the release. (See the official website for more details.)

Translation:
[Notice About the Start of Service]
We would like to inform everyone who has been waiting for the release.

From the beginning, we have been working on development with the goal of officially starting service within 2020, but this date has been pushed back to the first half of 2021. We deeply apologize to everyone who has been looking forward to the release.

Additionally, let us discuss the current development status.

Regarding the development, most of the work on Ver.1.0.0 of the game has been completed. Currently, we are focusing on preparing additional content after the service starts, stabilizing and optimizing the game so it can be played smoothly.

When the new official release date has been decided, we will inform you again.

As the first smartphone game in the “NieR” series, the management team continues to devote themselves to making a game that will “surprise” many of those who play it.

We kindly ask for your patience until the official service starts.

The NieR Re[in]carnation Management Team

Yoko Taro, the creative director, also shared the news on his Twitter in usual Yoko fashion:

Translation:
Maybe I told them to fix too much, saying “fix this” and “fix that.” Now the service has been delayed until next year… But, I think it will be for the best… Please hold on a little longer…

Saito Yosuke, the NieR series producer, also mentioned the delay:

Translation:
We are aware that you’ve been waiting for this, but we’d really appreciate it if you could give us a little extra time to improve the quality and debug the game further. m(__)m

And Matsukawa Daichi, the NieR Re[in]carnation director at Applibot, also mentioned it:

Translation:
We’re very sorry to keep you waiting…

The development team will continue to do their best so everyone can play as soon as possible…!!


So, in terms of game development during the days of COVID, this really isn’t much of a surprise, or is it really much to worry about. Applibot makes some really nice, quality smartphone games (like BladeXlord), so I’m not really worried about this delay. We’ve just gotta wait a little bit longer until we can get our hands on the official release of the game!

Let me know what your thoughts are about the game!

YoRHa Girls Ver.1.1a Stage Play

YoRHa Girls Ver.1.1a Stage Play – yorha.com

Check out the link below for my YoRHa Girls Ver.1.1a stage play recap! It includes information on the creators and performers, details about the story, new insights into the world of YoRHa, and much more!

YoRHa Girls Ver.1.1a Stage Play

NieR:Theatrical Orchestra 12020

As part of the NieR 10th Anniversary, the NieR:Theatrical Orchestra 12020 was scheduled to be held earlier this March, but unfortunately due to the Coronavirus outbreak, all concerts with a live audience were cancelled. The concert was performed and broadcast live on NicoNico and YouTube, however, and just the other day, the Blu-ray recording of that performance has been released.

If anyone is a fan of the original NieR:Orchestra Concert 12018 from summer of 2018 or the later international performances of the same setlist earlier this year, let me reassure you… this version is by far superior in almost every way.

This version also featured two unique recitation dramas (朗読劇 / roudokugeki), one for each segment of the concert which featured NieR:Automata and NieR Replicant.

The Blu-ray features English subtitles throughout the entire concert, for both spoken dialogue on the stage and for the backdrop screen. I would highly recommend this concert Blu-ray to any NieR fan.

If you are interested in purchasing the Blu-ray, you can order it from Amazon here.

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)