Today, Sunday, May 26th was the 5th Anniversary of the Shoumetsu Toshi smartphone game and series, held at Shinagawa Intercity Hall.
The event was comprised of this year’s championship rounds (the same guy won two years in a row!!), a lengthy talk segment detailing the various off-shoots of the series, and finally a live concert!
I’ve been preoccupied with many other things that I didn’t hear about this year’s event until recently… then I also heard that you needed some invitation card to participate even though it’s a free event. I was asking a staff member how to get an invitation, and just then a member from noisycroak saw me and helped me out. He gave me a special VIP pass, too– maybe he was thinking I was invited by one of the performers like last year, but that wasn’t the case this time. *sweat drop*
Guests & Performers
▶︎ Announcers / Guests
- MC: Yanagihara Tetsuya (America Zarigani)
- MC: Aru (Taikai MC)
- The Shoumetsu Toshi Development Team
▶︎ Seiyuu
- Yuki: Hanazawa Kana
- Geek: Nishimura Taisuke
- Researcher / Yumiko: Nakae Mitsuki
- Scientist / Eiji: Shingaki Tarusuke
- Kikyou: Aimi
- SPR5: SPR5
▶︎ Performers
- DJ: Kato Hiroyoshi (LOST BOYS)
- DJ: Kawagoe Yasuhiro (LOST BOYS)
- Vocal: Emi Evans
- Vocal: SAK.
- Vocal: Jonathan “Jon” Matthew Underdown
- Bass: Itou Keisuke
- Guitar: Asada Yasushi
- Drums: Kudou Eisei
- Violin: Matsubara Mari
- 2nd Viiolin: Hirota Midori
- Viola: Furuta Hirokazu
- Cello: Okamoto Souma
▲ This was a really cool illustration of Yuki…which clearly had a tear-away panel on the right side. Later, about half-way through the event after the talk segment that covered the new smartphone app “Afterlost”, which is a revisioning of the original Shoumetsu Toshi game in a more typical RPG style, they removed the tear-away film to reveal a mysterious new character!
The entire event was streamed on various platforms like NicoNico Douga and YouTube, however it looks like the videos are no longer available to watch. Maybe they will make it available again in the future. Besides the photos I took myself, the rest were taken directly from the stream on YouTube.
The Opening
The beginning of the event kicked off with a cute skit with Geek warming up his voice by screaming Takuya’s voice. The researcher quickly chimes up and tells him he’s being noisy. Geek mentions that he’s feeling a bit nervous even though this is not his first time speaking at an event like this, so he thought he’d do some vocal warm-ups. The scientist then mentions that the mic was on the whole time, and the whole audience heard Geek yelling… heehee
Championship Tournament
The 5th Anniversary Championship Tournament began with a brief explanation on how contestants were chosen. There were several area tournaments that took place at different locations around Japan to select a single champion. The six categories included:
- Hokkaido / Touhoku: Counterattacking Hikki
- Kanto A: flat
- Kanto B: blackcat
- Kansai: Insect Specialist
- Kyushu / Okinawa: kashun@
- Past Champions: jaga
Counterattacking Hikki 
flat 
blackcat 
Insect Specialist 
kashun@ 
jaga 
The contestant Insect Specialist was actually a junior high student from Osaka, so when they all came on stage for their initial introductions, he gave everyone a box of Pretz pretzels, plus a big box of “Omoshiroi Koibito” (Funny Lover) snacks to the announcers. All gifts were unique souvenirs from Osaka. It was pretty entertaining to see him give everyone the gifts.
The rules of the tournament were pretty straightforward. Contestants were to use the event stage “Resonating Feelings”. Groups of 6 players would compete at a time, and 2 contestants from each group would continue on. Contestants were able to freely select the stage difficulty level, but they would be disqualified if they used any continues. There were a bunch of other rules regarding the types of “Souls” they were able to utilize as well.
Winners of the 5th Anniversary Tournament would be given the choice of an exclusive Level 6 Soul. Below is also a look at what Souls were given to the Champions of the previous tournaments.
1st Anniversary – Napoleon (Shoumetsu-tei yamahan) 
2nd Anniversary – Rou (haruka-sama) 
3rd Anniversary – Ruu (MIK) 
4th Anniversary – Oda Nobunaga (jaga)
The winning champion of the 5th Anniversary Tournament would be given a trophy and one-of-a-kind illustration board.
- Insect Specialist: Finished in 3:16 with a high score of 11,936,326.
- kashun@: Finished in 3:17 with a high score of 11,927,103.
- Counterattacking Hikki: Finished in 3:13 with a high score of 11,946,877.
- blackcat: Finished in 3:17 with a high score of 11,463,867.
- flat: Finished in 3:05 with a high score of 11,968,315.
- jaga: Finished in 2:59 with a high score of 11,990,295.
Here are some photos that I took during the tournament:
Photo / Art / Music Contest
There was roughly 30 minutes between the Tournament and the Contest portion of the Anniversary Party. This was when I left my seat to have another look around the hall at all the awesome displays. If it was at all possible, I really wanted a good view of the music concert at the end of the event, so I asked Jinnouchi-san if it might be possible to sit in the balcony for that portion. He asked where I had been sitting before, and I told him I was in the center of the general seating. He then arranged for a staff member to lead the way to the balcony seating! Thank you so much!! I owe everybody for treating me so well! I’ll try to make it up by publicizing this event, the series, and everyone who had a hand in creating it!
▶︎ Photo Contest
The first portion of the awards assembly was for the best photographs that best represented the feeling of Shoumetsu Toshi or illustrated your personal thoughts about the game. There were three awards: First Prize, Shimoda’s Award, and Kuriyama’s Award. Shimoda Shouta is the series director for Shoumetsu Toshi while Kuriyama Kazuya is the producer. Here’s a look at the many honorable mentions:
And the awards went to…
▶︎ Illustration Contest: Fan Art Illustrations
The next award segment was for the best fan art illustrations or depicted the design for a new Soul character in the game. Kani is the game designer for Shoumetsu Toshi. Again, here’s a look at the honorable mentions:
Again, the awards went to…
▶︎ Illustration Contest: New Soul Character Designs
Here were the honorable mentions for this category:
And last but not least, the awards went to…
- Art Team Award: mokosuka
- Kani’s Award: wakkaron
- First Prize: Mine ALL
▶︎ BGM Remix Contest
This segment was led by Kato Hiroyoshi. Contestants were to make their own unique remix of the theme “Flashback”.
- First Prize: remix:komine
- Special Award: F100t, Kagetsu, hemioLa
Talk Show – New Content and Upcoming Events
This next segment started off by introducing the guest seiyuu cast. Sugita Tomokazu, the voice of Takuya, wasn’t able to attend the event, so he recorded a brief message beforehand, explaining that his beloved motorcycle was getting repaired and that he was scheduled to attend a different event for another job… Therefore, he recorded some audio clips to be used freely in his absence.
The next segment talked about the new Shoumetsu Toshi 12-part anime series that is currently airing on various channels across Japan. Here’s the special opening sequence:
Volume 1 of the DVD/Blu-ray release is scheduled to drop on June 19!
This next portion of the talk segment featured new information for “Shoumetsu Toshi 0.” with Chapter 3 scheduled to be released later this summer.
Takuya 
Yuki 
Kano 
Souma 
Beo 
Uchuu
This next section takes a look back at the previous chapters in the story while featuring several of the main characters.
New Raid coming in June!
XX.JUDGEMENT – The Game Master (Voiced by Uchida Yuma)
It’s too early to despair… 
Everything is in the palm of my hand… 
The next segment introduced the various 5th Anniversary campaigns and goodies!
Next they played a pre-recorded segment of Asai Ayaka, voice of Souma, took a tour around the Wright Flyer Studios office to get the latest scoop on “AFTERLOST”, the new revisioning of the original smartphone game.
There will also be a Shoumetsu Toshi collaboration cafe at some point in the future! Asai helped decide the character dish for Souma, calling it “Souma’s ‘that happy time’ pancakes”.
We were also introduced to several new items of merchandise!
This next segment showed us some actual gameplay of the new AFTERLOST smartphone game. It’s a sort of revisioning of the original game in a more typical RPG format. Unfortunately though, the game crashed several times during the presentation, and in the meantime, they played around with AI Takuya’s recorded lines. It was pretty amusing, but I could also feel the tension quickly rising from the development team.
▲ Chapter Select
▲ Side Stories
▲ Stage Select
▲ New Style of Dialogue Scenes
▲ New Battle Game Design
▲ Akira’s Special Attack
▲ All characters have their own unique animated sequence for special attacks!
▲ AFTERLOST–Shoumetsu Toshi will be out in June!!
LINE Stamps 
Win fried chicken from LAWSON for a year! 
The Music Concert
The concert portion of the event was a mix of music, recitation dramas, and a short talk segment with SPR5.
▼ Seiyuu – Voice Cast
Yuki – Hanazawa Kana 
Eiji – Shingaki Tarusuke 
Kikyou – Aimi 
Geek – Nishimura Taisuke 
Yumiko – Nakae Mitsuki 
▼ The LOST BOYS
Kato Hiroyoshi & Kawagoe Yasuhiro
▼ Emi Evans
▼ SAK.
▼ Emi & SAK.
▼ Band Introductions
Kudou Eisei 
Itou Keisuke 
Asada Yasushi 
Emi Evans 
SAK.
Matsubara Mari 
Hirota Midori 
Furuta Hirokazu 
Okamoto Souma 
▼ Additional Cool Shots
SPR5 
Jon Underdown 
▶︎ Afterword
If I remember correctly, this was my 2nd time coming to the Anniversary Party. I went last year and absolutely had a blast! There have been several other Shoumetsu Toshi music concerts, which I’ve always tried to go to. The last concert, the Shoumetsu Toshi LIVE EXPERIENCE Vol.1, was beyond amazing, so I would highly recommend anyone to at least familiarize yourself with the music from this series. It’s all composed by the LOST BOYS, who compose a lot of EDM type of music.
As for the original game itself, I played it pretty regularly when it was first released in 2014, but around when I hit that point where you really need to start grinding big time (this exists in just about all smartphone games), I quickly lost interest because… I just wasn’t that good at playing it. I’m more of a casual player, I suppose. I loved the music, the story, the characters… just I didn’t care too much for the gameplay or the heavy grinding aspect to it. I’m hoping the new AFTERLOST version will be a little easier for me to continue playing.
Lastly, I’m not positive about this, but I believe the official English localization of the title is merely “Afterlost”. I originally thought that this was only the title of the new revisioning of the game that will be released this June, but I noticed that many English sites were calling the series as a whole by this name.
▶︎ Links
▶︎ Super Special Thanks: