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ponett · 9 months

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with the fallout of bandai namco's idiotic "it's up to interpretation" bs, do you think that it's possible to enjoy queer media made in a corporate environment in addition to independent works? is it even worthwhile to attempt making queer media in a corporate environment? i find it special how well the g-witch production team managed to tell the story they wanted even with the challenges and pressures they faced, but i have to admit that independent works like slarpg are always going to more completely tell queer stories. as someone who has resonated with both slarpg and g-witch, i was curious to know your perspective.

i'm probably less cynical about this than a lot of my peers are - not that i can blame anyone for feeling cynical about queer rep from corporate-owned media. (we've been through so many First Ever Gay Disney Characters at this point, and lord knows blizzard loves to tease that another overwatch character might be gay every year or so as a PR move.) unfortunately it's just extremely hard to get something like a full season of an animated series funded and produced independently, so the artists looking to enter these fields and pour their hearts and souls into meaningful queer stories as a full-time job don't have many options

going indie gives you theoretically endless creative freedom to tell your stories without corporate censorship, but it's also a massive gamble. only an extreme minority of indie creatives in any medium are actually able to make a living. the fact that i came out the other side of slarpg's development with enough money that i can keep being a full-time indie instead of being in massive debt makes me one of the lucky ones. and even with my modest success, i sure as hell don't have the money to hire a whole team, which limits the scope of what i can make. so i can't turn my nose up at the queer people writing disney channel cartoons where they can't say the word "gay" out loud. they have health insurance, i don't. for most people, what i do is simply not an option

with the corporate-produced Queer Stories i enjoy, i'm often able to squint and see what the creatives were trying to do, wishing that they could have done more while understanding that they probably had to fight tooth and nail for what's there

in the realm of children's animation in particular, i'm thankful that the people working at these studios ARE fighting for more, because it means that kids today have so many more positive queer stories to relate with. i didn't have a single gay character i felt i could relate to until i read scott pilgrim at age 16 and saw wallace wells. before that, i felt so alone in the world. i denied who i was for years because it felt like there would be no place for me. i didn't know anyone openly gay in real life, growing up in the south, and in fiction gay people either existed as the butt of a joke or not at all. the fact that queer kids are now able to see people like themselves in so many shows means something, even if we still have a long way to go and the big studios continue to be a major obstacle

on the subject of g-witch, i'm honestly unfazed by the statement from bandai-namco. i guess i wish they could've let suletta and miorine kiss, but like... the text of the show is extremely blunt about them being a couple by the end. it's not up for debate. and it's not like a gundam series having a meaningful story in spite of the wishes of the toy-producing overlords is anything new, this is just our latest example

all that being said, i do think people should branch out more and explore more weird indie shit if they want more wholeheartedly, openly queer stories. people gotta suck it up and embrace more outsider art instead of only valuing things with studio-level production values. start looking at ren'py visual novels, rpg maker games, obscure webcomics, zines drawn in sharpie, artists on bandcamp who aren't signed to a label, all that jazz. maybe part of the reason why i'm not more fazed by the state of affairs with corporate-funded fiction is that i'm constantly surrounded by furry artists who are telling their own little gay stories

#tamamayfox #ask

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animefeminist · 9 months

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Author and scriptwriter Watari Wataru on cynical heroines, getting a lesbian kiss onscreen, and keeping his day job

Watari Wataru’s appearance at Otakon 2023 was announced with copious mention of his 2011 light novel series My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU (sometimes known by the shortened portmanteau of its Japanese title, Oregairu). While it has its issues (like a spate of fanservice-heavy anime promotional material rather disconnected from the novel’s mentality), it’s also drawn comparisons to era contemporary Toradora for trying to integrate more grounded character dynamics into the extremely archetype-dense school rom-com genre. The series earned a dedicated fanbase, three anime adaptations from 2013 to 2020, three separate manga adaptations and three visual novel spin-offs (including one in 2023).

Even more of interest for AniFem readers, though, is Girlish Number. Its heroine, Chitose, is a cynical young voice actress who finally manages to snag a major role; convinced she’d just never been given a chance to shine, Chitose’s ego takes a serious blow when she can’t keep up with her costars. The series isn’t a brutal indictment of an industry a la Perfect Blue or Oshi no Ko, but a work-com closer to SHIROBAKO – ultimately upbeat but unafraid of airing its complaints, or of letting a cast of adult women have a few rough edges.

Stepping into the role of anime scriptwriter and series composer first to adapt his own work, Watari has increasingly taken up work on adaptations. In 2023, that included AniFem staff favorite The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady, an ambitious fantasy series that turned heads for managing to include both a love confession and onscreen kiss between its titular couple.

Such a move is almost unprecedented outside of titles marketed exclusively as yuri or BL, and despite the many beautiful queer love stories that anime has told over the years with one, the other, or only subtext to wield, it’s easy to see why this achievement touched anxious viewers: this interview was conducted only one day before Bandai Namco attempted to declare the couple at the heart of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury as being “up to interpretation” despite, among other things, their matching wedding rings (the creative team, in an admirable answering power move, released a staff art book at Comiket that included wedding and honeymoon art).

We were able to sit down with Watari, as well as SNAFU editor and Gagaga Bunko Chief Editor Hoshino Horinori, for a short interview.

Read it at Anime Feminist!

#girlish number #the magical revolution of the reincarnated princess and the genius young lady #magirevo #tenten kakumei #tensei oujo #oregairu #my teen romantic comedy snafu #chitose karasuma #articles

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auto-memory-doll · 5 months

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The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? (超時空要塞マクロス愛・おぼえていますか)

Developer: Scarab with assistance from SEGA

Publisher: Bandai Visual

System: Sega Saturn

Release Date: June 6th, 1997

Genre: Shoot 'Em Up

Follow for more scans!

#macross #sega #robotech #super dimension fortress macross #sdf macross #sega saturn #retro gaming #retro anime #anime #do you remember love #scans by me

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cwgames · 2 years

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I save the professor but the two other people are still missing.

#cwgames #digimon #digimon survive #nintendo #bandai namco #toei animation #visual novel #agumon #falcomon #labramon #kunemon #gomamon

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demifiendrsa · 2 months

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youtube

ELDEN RING Shadow of the Erdtree – Official Gameplay Reveal Trailer

Elden Ring downloadable content “Shadow of the Erdtree” will launch on June 21, 2024 for $39.99.

Key visual

Screenshots

New Game Editions/Merchandise

Base Editions

“Shadow of the Erdtree” Expansion – The standard version of the expansion, available digitally on all platforms.

Elden Ring: “Shadow of the Erdtree” Edition – Special packaged bundle including the Elden Ring base game (disc) and the “Shadow of the Erdtree” expansion (digital); physical retail versions are available only for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S; available digitally on all platforms.

Premium Editions

Premium Bundle – Includes the “Shadow of the Erdtree” expansion expansion and comes with digital art book and digital soundtrack bonus content for the expansion. Available digitally on all platforms.

Deluxe Edition – Includes the Elden Ring base game, the “Shadow of the Erdtree” expansion, and comes with digital art books and digital soundtracks for both the base game and the expansion. Available digitally on all platforms.

Collector’s Edition (Limited Quantity)

Elden Ring: “Shadow of the Erdtree” Collector’s Edition – Includes a single voucher code of the selected platform for the “Shadow of the Erdtree” expansion and comes with an approximately 18-inches (46-centimeters) statue of “Messmer the Impaler,” 40-page physical art book, and digital soundtrack. Quantities are limited, and exclusive to the Bandai Namco Entertainment Store (shipping is restricted to the United States and Canada.)

Exclusive Merchandise Pre-Order (Limited Quantity)

Available only in the Bandai Namco Entertainment Store in very limited quantities, pre-orders are now available for the Elden Ring “Shadow of the Erdtree” Helmet of Messmer the Impaler. This exclusive item includes a one-of-a-kind display piece made for the most discerning, distinguished, and dripped out Tarnished. This elaborate replica helmet of the imposing Messmer the Impaler is crafted with precise detail and comes with a numbered certificate of authenticity. This item is available only while supplies last and will ship beginning June 28 (shipping is restricted to the United States and Canada). This is a collectible item only and does not include any game content.

Overview

Winner of hundreds of accolades including The Game Awards Game of the Year and Golden Joystick Awards Ultimate Game of the Year, Elden Ring is the acclaimed action RPG epic set in a vast, dark fantasy world. Players embark on an epic quest with the freedom to explore and adventure at their own pace.

The “Shadow of the Erdtree” expansion features an all-new story set in the Land of Shadow imbued with mystery, perilous dungeons, and new enemies, weapons and equipment.

Discover uncharted territories, face formidable adversaries, and revel in the satisfying triumph of victory. Dive into the riveting interplay of characters, where drama and intrigue intertwine, that create an immersive experience to savor and enjoy.

#Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree #Elden Ring #George R.R. Martin #From Software #FromSoftware #Bandai Namco #video game #PS5 #Xbox Series X #Xbox Series S #PS4 #Xbox One #PC #long post

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satoshi-mochida · 2 years

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Digimon Survive Launch Trailer.

#Digimon Survive #Digimon #Bandai Namco #HYDE #RPG #SRPG #visual novel

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digi-lov · 1 year

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We talked about the Twin Digimon last week. This week, I wanna take a closer look at their (standard) evolution lines.

As you can see, they each have a "regular" and a "dark" evolution line. In Lopmon's case, the "dark" evolution line specifically has a corruption theme. This is, of course, because Lopmon and its entire "dark" line were designed for the movie Hurricane Touchdown, which had its corruption as the main plot point. As a result, Lopmon's lines are very different from each other, while Terriermon only gets simple classic recolors.

Possibly the most corrupted among them is Wendimon.

Wendimon first gets introduced in the movie, and it posesses a chilling presence throughout all of it. However, not just Hurricane Touchdown, but all iterations of Wendimon, across the franchise's media, depict it as somehow corrupted beyond reason, usually not even being able to talk in cohesive sentences.

I wanna take a short moment to talk about its name origin. I'll not delve into too much detail, as I'm sure there are more educated people on this topic, but Wendimon is named after an evil spirit from Anishinaabe cultures, which name you are not supposed to say, as to not draw the spirit to you. I just wanted to share, in case some of you weren't aware.

But, moving on

The "regular" adult levels Gargomon and Turuiemon. Comparing the two, I really like how Gargomon has a long-range armed combat theme and Turuiemon a close-range combat theme. Gargomon, as mentioned before, appeared in Hurricane Touchdown and appeared plenty in Tamers as Jian's partner. Turuiemon, unfortunately, didn't have any big appearances until recent years. It had its debut in December 2001 as a card in Hyper Coloseum, in a Tamers themed booster.

Next up are Lopmon's perfect Level evolutions, Antylamon and Antylamon (Deva). The original Antylamon from Hurricane Touchdown is a Virus type. For Tamers, they decided to have Antylamon as the Deva representing the Hare, and so a Data type variant was created. It had its debut in Hyper Coloseum, in a booster featuring all Deva, a month before first seen in the anime at the end of 2001. The biggest visual difference is the purple scarf of Antylamon (Deva), but it also has a crest, like all Deva, on its chestplate (more on that maybe at some point?). Video games predominantly feature Antylamon (Deva) over Antylamon (Virus).

Now, if you remember, Terriermon and Lopmon were specifically designed for the movie Hurricane Touchdown. With Terriermon first showing up in its child form and Lopmon in its adult form, Wendimon, Gargomon and Antylamon are each twins' first evolution we get to see them actually evolve into during the movie. Because of this, it's interesting to me that these two share a distinct symbol, Antylamon on its arms and Gargomon on its face.

Another evolution we get introduced to in the Hurricane Touchdown movie is Rapidmon (Armor). Most people are probably more familiar with the green Perfect level Rapidmon as we see it in Tamers. Looking at the Digimental of Fate, you can see the classic Armor Digimon - Digimental resemblance. Rapidmon's abdomen comes from the sphere part of the Digimental, the base below that resembles its boots, and the wing on top resembles the ear-wings. Because the Perfect level Rapidmon uses essentially the same design, the jump from Gargomon to Rapidmon seems a lot bigger than the one from Terriermon to Gargomon. On a little side note, the official Bandai artwork of Rapidmon (Perfect) has an open helmet, even though the anime uses a closed helmet like the Rapidmon (Armor). BlackRapidmon, despite being a recolor, has a closed helmet as well.

Lastly, a short look at Cherubimon (Virtue) and Cherubimon (Vice). Both of them, again, debuted in the movie Hurricane Touchdown, which influenced their design. We get to see the corrupted, mad Cherubimon (Vice) first and only briefly see it in its Cherubimon (Virtue) form.

I believe the simple but effective changes between their designs were in part to allow this nice transition at the end of the movie.

The Lopmon line, especially, gets used in a lot of media for the sake of corruption/dark evolution story lines. Most noteworthy, Cherubimon (Vice) is the (first) main villain in the Digimon Frontier Anime season.

#digimon #digimon card game #digimon tcg #デジカ #digica #digisafe #lov rambles #Terriermon #Lopmon #Gargomon #Turuiemon #Rapidmon #Antylamon #SaintGargomon #MegaGargomon #Cherubimon #long post

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ganbaramen · 4 months

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Link! Like! LoveLive! SPECIAL STAFF INTERVIEW

[This interview was published online on the G's Channel website, and is print in the Link! Like! LoveLive! FIRST FAN BOOK, released Dec 27, 2023.]

The Hasunosora Jogakuin School Idol Club is a group of virtual school idols that made their striking debut in April this year. How did their fan engagement app “Link! Like! LoveLive!” come about? Fujimoto Yoshihiro and Sato Kazuki discuss the app’s origin and what they think about the project.

It’s all about enjoying Love Live!—! The untold story behind the birth of the fan engagement app LLLL

—The smartphone app “Link! Like! LoveLive!” (which we’ll refer to as “LLLL”), celebrated its six-month anniversary in November. Let’s look back on the past six months and discuss the birth of LLLL. To start us off, could you two tell us about your roles in developing this app?

Sato: I’m Sato Kazuki from CERTIA, a producer for this app. I’ve worked for game companies as a planner and director, and now I’m a self-directed game producer. From arcade games to consumer software to apps, my path has involved a variety of media. I’ve been following Love Live! as a fan since the µ’s era, and became a producer for Hasunosora’s game after being consulted for a Love Live! app where the members stream.

Fujimoto: I’m Fujimoto Yoshihiro from Bandai Namco Filmworks, and I’m also a producer for LLLL. I started with the desire to make a Love Live! smartphone game.

***

—LLLL’s official start of service was May 20, 2023, but I heard that the road there was quite long. Could you talk about that?

Fujimoto: If we want to start from when development began…. we’ll have to go back to 5 years ago.

Sato: A big part of the appeal of Love Live! comes from these school idols being independent and putting their souls into it as a club activity, so there is a certain kind of enjoyment and emotional payoff from supporting them.

If you insert a “player” who can essentially play god into this, it inevitably feels like a mismatch. Then wouldn’t it be great to turn that idea on its head and instead have an app where you support these independent idols? And streaming would be a great match for that. As we worked out this concept where you cheer on the members as just another fan, this “school idol fan engagement app” took form.

—What led up to integrating motion capture into the app?

Sato: From the very beginning, we had decided that virtual concerts and streams would use 3D models. The development team already had the know-how for streaming with 3D models, so of course we were going to use them.

The key idea is to have the virtual concerts, live streams, and story intimately linked to make the entire experience real-time, so we decided it would be best to have them appear in the same form in both the streams and the activity log (story), which is why the story also uses 3D models. The visuals should be precisely linked so we carefully animated the story with 3D models.

Fujimoto: It is quite rare for the cast to also do motion capture, but it was necessary to realize the vision that Sato-san has described. Yes, it would technically be doable to have the cast only voice the characters and instead have actors do the motion capture, but that would be a lot less palatable.

Sato: It certainly feels a lot more real when the cast is both voicing and moving their characters. The fact that this project is a part of the Love Live! series helped a lot in being able to implement this. The cast loves Love Live!, and it’s because of how much the project staff and cast members put into this that we could make it a reality.

—As an example of this hard work: the cast had intense training on motion and talking, with lessons and rehearsals starting about a year before the app was released.

Sato: In both the live streams and virtual concerts, the cast do the motion capture, in real-time too! Even now, this fact isn’t well-known, or rather, it seems like there are a lot of people who think “No way they go that far!”. Yes, the cast do it themselves!

—So why does doing it in real-time make it good?

Sato: What a pointed question! (laughs)

Fujimoto: What’s important depends on what you value. What we’re aiming for is the feeling of a real concert.

Sato: Putting it concisely, the feeling that it’s live is very important to LLLL. It seems to me that the feeling of being live has recently been highly valued, not just in concerts but in the entertainment industry as a whole. We can look back on works of the past whenever we want through subscription services and the like, so following something now has its own appeal that can evoke a certain zeal. Bearing witness to this moment in history is now viewed as being more significant than it used to be. That’s why we maximize that feeling of being live by having the cast do the motion capture and by streaming in real-time. We felt that those two points are essential.

—So rather than just being parts of the concept, these are essential to the project.

Sato: At one point, we considered doing only the talk and MC in real-time, while having the performance part be recorded. But because we want to get at the heart of the pleasure of having it be real-time, we couldn’t make that compromise.

Actually, the cast do occasionally hit the wrong notes or mess up their dance formations, but these are little things that signal that it’s live—in fact, such happenings can increase how real it feels, which can make the performance feel special if you approach it with the right mindset.

***

—Can I ask about the Fes×LIVE production, like the camerawork, lighting, and outfits? It feels like the production value goes even higher every time.

Fujimoto: I think that’s probably because, just like how the Hasunosora members are growing, the staff is as well, going further each time after saying things like “For the next performance, I want more of this!”.

Sato: Things like flying over the stage or swapping outfits in the instant that the lighting changes—we won’t do those. A core principle is that we aim for a production that matches what school idols would do and constrain ourselves to portray what’s possible in reality.

***

—The story following school idols at a school steeped in tradition—that’s a new challenge, too.

Sato: We had certain reasons for setting this at a school with a long history—so long that this year is the 103rd. There’s this common image of streamers debuting as no-names, and then working their way up to become more popular. But if Hasunosora were like that, the fact that there would be a lot of fans from the beginning would make it very unrealistic. After all, there’s no way your average rookie streamer could be like “This is my first stream!” and yet have 5000 viewers. (laughs)

We thought hard about how to resolve this in a way that makes sense. Then, we figured out that it would work to have a tradition-laden school that was already a “powerhouse”. So in the end, we made it a point to have the school be a powerhouse with a history of having won Love Live! before.

—So the school already had fans following it, with high expectations for the new school idols: Kaho and the other first years.

Sato: Yeah, it’s meant to be like one of those schools that are regular contenders at Koshien, the national high school baseball championship.

—The world-building is done so thoroughly that such an answer could be arrived at pretty quickly.

Sato: We consulted with many people, starting with the writer team, about implementing the concepts that we mentioned before—having the cast do motion capture to maximize the live feeling, and doing the streams in real-time.

In the beginning, there was a lot of resistance to the idea of trying to successfully operate an app while constructing the story and streams such that there would be no contradictions between them. If you do streams in real-time, such contradictions can certainly arise—you have to work out the setting in quite a lot of detail, and even then, things can happen that are impossible to predict.

But my thinking was always that this is doable if we adjust how often we synchronize the story and streams. I think it’s impossible to stream every day and release a new story every day. But on the other side of the spectrum, if we were to write a year’s worth of story ahead of time, and then do however many streams within that year, that would certainly be doable.

Following that line of thought, in the early stages, we had a lot of discussion about how often we could do streams, searching for the limit of what would be possible to implement. As a compromise, we arrived at the system of fully synchronizing once a month. For each month, we can keep the setting relatively flexible, not setting everything precisely in stone until the month is over. We thought that a monthly frequency should make it possible to both maintain the charm of the story and implement streams.

But right now we’re streaming three times a week, so there end up being a lot of things like “they shouldn’t know this yet” or “this event hasn’t happened yet”. It feels like putting together a complicated puzzle.

Fujimoto: There’s one aspect that we haven’t made clear before—I don’t think there are many people that have realized it. It’s that the talk streams are the furthest along in the timeline, while the story shows what has already happened. It’s not that the story happens on the day that we update it, but rather that the story describes what happened up to that day. People who have realized this have probably read quite closely.

Sato: That’s why it’s called the “activity log”. The With×MEETS serve the important role of synchronization between what happened in the activity log—the world of the story—with reality, so we carefully prepare for them each time.

—That makes sense! One nice thing is that if you keep up with the With×MEETS in real-time, then watch the Fes×LIVE, it feels like keeping up paid off—”Good thing I watched the With×MEETS!”.

Fujimoto: It would be great if our efforts got through to everyone enjoying LLLL.

—If you set things up that carefully, it must be difficult when irregularities happen. In August, several cast members had to take a break to recover from COVID-19, causing many With×MEETS to be canceled. How did you deal with that?

Sato: The silver lining of that period was that it avoided the most critical timing. If that had been off by even a week… it might not have been possible to recover from that. This project always has this feeling of tension, because there is no redoing things.

***

Tackling the Love Live! Local Qualifiers! The culmination of the story put viewers on the edges of their seats!!

—On how people have reacted to LLLL: was there anything that went exactly as planned, and on the other hand, was there anything that defied your expectations?

Fujimoto: To bring up a recent event, the Love Live! Local Qualifiers in October very much stood out. There was tension all around—even I was nervous about how it would go. The feeling that “these girls really are going to take on this challenge, at this very moment”. It was like watching the championship of the World Baseball Classic… Well, maybe that’s an overstatement, but an atmosphere similar to that. I’m really happy that we managed to create such an atmosphere with the cast and everyone who participated as a user.

Sato: Not just in sports, but also in the world of anime or fiction, there is definitely a certain excitement that arises when you “witness” something. Bearing witness to the moment that “drama” is born produces an impulse, something that hits deep. This is not something that can be produced in an instant. Rather, such an overwhelming concentration of passion can come about only because so much has happened up to that point.

That’s why, aiming for “that moment”, we first have people experience the Hasunosora members’ existence and reality day after day. After having connected with the members and viscerally felt the sense of being in sync with their “now”, something new will be born…

The closest we’ve gotten to an atmosphere of tension that’s as close as possible to the real thing is what Fujimoto-san just mentioned, the Love Live! Local Qualifiers. I think part of why that was such an “incredible” event was the weight of everything that happened in the Love Live! series up to that point.

—Is there anything else from the fans’ reactions and the like that was unexpected?

Fujimoto: For the talk streams, we have a system where everyone can write comments in real-time. Some users go all in on the setting and act as if they’re in that world.

Sato: The characters are not aware that their everyday lives can be observed in the story, so these users adhere to the rule of not talking about anything that’s only depicted in the story, commenting as if they don’t know what happened there. And if you do that, your comment might get read. So you really can be a participant in the performance. We were surprised at just how many people were earnestly participating like that.

—It’s like making a fan work in real-time, or rather, it’s like playing a session of a tabletop RPG.

Sato: I think what we’re doing here is very much like a game. It’s the “role-playing” of a tabletop RPG taken to an extreme, a pillar of a certain kind of “game”, or maybe more like a participatory form of entertainment.

—Oh, I see! It’s as if we’ve returned to the classic reader participation projects of Dengeki G’s magazine, which is kind of touching.

[Translator’s note: Love Live! originated from Sunrise collaborating with the Dengeki G’s magazine editorial department, bringing Lantis in for music.]

Sato: Yes, indeed. In the era of magazine participatory projects, the back-and-forth would have several months in between. In comparison, a real-time system makes it easier to participate, which I think is a significant and useful advancement. For now, in the first year, it feels like we’ve been grasping in the dark while trying to do the best with what we have. But we’re thinking about how best to adjust the frequency and volume of activities from here on.

Fujimoto: Also, the users have largely figured out all the hints we cooked in!

Sato: They’ve been looking in quite some detail. (laughs) Our cooking has paid off.

***

—Is there any challenge that LLLL is taking on anew?

Sato: Going back to what I said at the beginning, I was a huge fan of µ’s, so I started by trying to analyze and put into words just what made me so attracted to, so crazy about them.

A big part of the charm was that it involved youth and a club activity, so by following their story and cheering them on, you could vicariously re-live the passion of those three years in high school. So I wanted to make it so that you could re-live that experience of youth in depth.

My goal is to have it feel so overwhelmingly real—through LLLL’s real-time nature—that you can unwittingly delude yourself into the sense that you’re re-living your high school years.

Fujimoto: If we’re talking about a new challenge, maybe it’d be good to touch on how frequent the interactions are.

For example, let’s consider a one-cour anime. No matter how much you’d like to keep watching it, it ends after three months. Even if it turns out there’s a continuation, you’ll have to wait before you can watch that.

In contrast, if we turn to virtual content, people are streaming three times a week on YouTube. In that vein, what we’re aiming for with this project is this: you can follow this group you like throughout that limited time between matriculation and graduation, and during that time they’ll always be there for you to meet.

***

—Some people are expecting an anime as one of the future mixed-media developments. To put it bluntly, what do you think about that?

Sato: What we are doing right now with Hasunosora would not work outside the structure of an app. As mentioned before, it’s not quite a tabletop RPG but rather a participatory form of entertainment, and it’s that structure that allows fans to experience the true spirit of the Hasunosora Jogakuin School Idol Club.

—So for now, we should experience it through the streams in the app! Is that what you’re saying?

Fujimoto: Exactly. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that LLLL is a project to make you fall for these girls throughout their streams—that’s how much effort we’re putting into it.

Sato: Starting LLLL by going through the story and then participating in the With×MEETS streams might be more common, but you can also start enjoying it in a novel way by just jumping into the latest With×MEETS stream. The members’ engagement with the comments has been especially noticeable in the most recent streams—it feels like a symbiotic relationship.

***

—Finally, a word for those who are looking forward to the project’s future.

Sato: I can confidently say that LLLL is a new experience made possible because of the times we live in. Because of that, it is very high-context, so it’s hard to explain how it will make you feel or what kind of game it is—you must play it to understand. We are very aware of how much of a hurdle this is, and how it might be difficult to get a grasp on if you start later.

But if you’re willing to take that first step into the world of LLLL, we promise to bring you content that is worth following. So to those reading this interview: please do consider trying it out once, even if it’s with a window-shopping mindset.

Fujimoto: Hasunosora’s story can only happen because of everyone watching. We hope you’ll keep supporting us!

Sato: We’ve prepared plenty of tricks up our sleeves for the end of the school year in March, so please look forward to it!

Credits

Translation: ramen Translation check: xIceArcher Various suggestions: Yahallo, Yujacha, zura

#love live!#translation #hasunosora #link! like! lovelive!

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