SQUARE-ENIX HANJUKU HERO 4's EVE PARTY~

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SQUARE-ENIX held a special fan event on May 25th, 2005 at EGGMAN Shibuya (Tokyo). This event was held to celebrate the release of the new title, Hanjuku Hero 4. The event was set into 2 parts, the 1st part was from 17:30 to 20:30 which was a "Talk Show" by the staff, performance by Mr. Isao Sasaki, Voice Actors and Voice Actresses introducing the game title, introduction of the internet radio program "Hanjuku Radio" to the public, Q&A and a giveaway game. The 2nd part was from 21:00 to 22:30 which contained comedy shows by professional comedians, and some special performances.

At the beginning of the show, promotion videos were played. SQUARE-ENIX' s new game titles, Grandia III and many more. After the promotional videos, three Cheerleaders appeared on stage for the introduction. The hosts of this show were the producer, Mr.Takashi Tokita and the publicity manager Mr. Ryutaro Sasaki (with Mohican hairstyle). The talk show was held by "The Hanjuku Mages" that sounds like The Black Mages. As they were named this way, some members from The Black Mages worked on this project. (Mr. Nobuo Uematsu, Mr. Kenichiro Fukui, Mr. Tsuyoshi Sekito). Mr. Kenji Ito also worked on this title, and he arranged a Romancing Saga track into an elegant way referring to very famous animations in Japan " Rose de Versailles" . This music is used in the game for one of the stages, "Planet Romancing".

Mr. Uematsu composed a track similar to a folk song style, and mentioned that he usually listen to folk songs and he was happy to put this stlye of music into a game music. He also mentioned that the Hanjuku Hero series were flexible to create, and he showed his interest in designing the game characters in the future for the next Hanjuku Hero series (if possible!) . Mr. Ito and Mr. Uematsu had a chat about how they used to create the game music when they were at SQUARE-ENIX, and how they manage the old musical equipments back then.

There were many "Parody Game Music" made for this game, on another note, "Matoya's Cave (from Final Fantasy) " was arranged into classical music style. All music staff working on this project said they really enjoyed working on it, and was a great challenge. They also wish to work on future Hanjuku Hero projects should there be another one.

 

After the talk show, the vocalist, Mr. Isao Sasaki (he is the singer who sung the main theme song to the popular animation, Spaceship Battle Yamato) who sung the main theme song to this game appeared on the stage and started singing the new theme song. The audience got very excited to see his performance up close. Mr. Sasaki sung the main theme song to the former Hanjuku Hero series, Hanjuku Hero VS 3D back in 2003. Mr. Tokita who is the producer (also the host of this event) of this game title wanted Mr. Sasaki to sing for the new Hanjuku Hero title again, and it happened, and he came to this event as a special invited guest.

The next guests were the voice actors and actresses. As there are many characters with unique styles who appeared in the game, the voice artists were also unique. They also talked about this projects and how they worked on the game. Two voice actors were not able to attend this event, but had sent video messages. A popular comedian in Japan (see picture named Tekken but not related to the game from Namco) , actually became a game character.

After welcoming the guests, "Hanjuku Radio (internet radio program)" was recorded for the next broadcast. After this live recording, the developers of the game got on stage and had a chat and held Q&A session with the audience. Then, the giveaway game was held. The audience vs. Mr. Tokita, playing the Janken game "scissors-paper-rock" (in which the players indicate one of the three choices by a gesture). Gifts were the Hanjuku Hero 4 Limited edition game set, Nintendo DS with a Hanjuku Hero series game software, and a T-shirt & wrist band set.

Everyone joined in the Janken game, half of the audience lost and then someone shouted, "Can staff join this game, too? I want one!". The staff and Mr. Uematsu were watching and joking just behind the audience. The winners were given their gifts and the first part of the show was about to end.

The first part was held for everyone without an age limit, free to enter (but to the people chosen by lot), Food & Drink were treated by SQUARE-ENIX for this event. This is a very special fan event from SQUARE-ENIX Hanjuku Hero staff, and some lucky people had really a good time.

The second part started. This part was different to the first part as there was an age limit, no one under 20 years old could enter nor stay for this show. This is the legal age for drinking (alcohol). The beginning of the 2nd part was by Mr. Udatsu Tanaka who usually does the MC at the The Black Mages live concerts, too. Then, a big Eggman appeared. The Eggman is the main character of this game, but no relation to this live house -Shibuya EggMan-. Needless to say, this live house was the perfect place to hold this event. The guy who is in the Eggman costume is one of the hosts of this event, Mr. Tokita. The Eggman danced, sung and gave the audience an insight to this game.

The next show started. People that performed voices to this game came to this event, and the audience found out who did who, also see some familiar faces on TV.

Members from a disbanded comedy group got together again only for this event and performed. (Abare Nunchaku).

Voice + Sound copy of Robocop, a mimic performer appeared on the stage. He mimic the sound effects of some movies, but his performance got out of control and became an obscene one, but made the audience laugh. (Reipah Sato)

The next performance was a 3-person male unit that performs gymnastic acts. All were near naked except for their red loincloths, showing their trained body and acts. Their performance was very energetic and the live house seemed a bit small for them to perform. (Red Dragon) . They did some voice parts to the Hanjuku Hero 4 and they celebrated the eve of the game.

Mr. Isao Sasaki returned and everyone was already drinking plenty of alcohol by this time as well as Mr. Sasaki. Here, Mr. Tokita confessed that he wrote the lyrics and sung the theme song. Mr. Saski said Mr. Tokita's singing was very good and the lyrics were impressive. One of Mr. Tokita's dream came true at this moment, a duet with Mr. Isao Sasaki his idol. Actually, Mr. Sasaki urged Mr. Tokita to sing the song since he was good at singing, then both did a duet on the stage. After this, there were a lot of talking and we never got tired of listening, watching and participating at the event. The time was nearly midnight and the audience counted down to see the coming day which was supposed to be the release date of this game, but they had a Time-Forwarded-Clock on the wall, so they started slightly early to the count down there. It was a very enjoyable, exciting, fun and a very special event for the fans.

The original soundtrack album was only available with the 1st prints of the game, and regret to say that no information of releasing the original soundtrack was confirmed or planned. However, the very first Hanjuku Hero Original Soundtrack and Hanjuku Hero VS 3D Original Soundtrack set is available here.

We would like to thank SQUARE-ENIX, Mr. Tokita the Eggman, Mr. Ryutaro Sasaki, Mr. Daisuke Yamamoto and Mr. Kenji Ito for this very special show.