SonicJPNews archive blog: SEGA people on the last day of Heisei era

2019/04/30

SEGA people on the last day of Heisei era

News from 2019.04.30
Archived on 2019.05.02

The Heisei era of Japan that lasted for 3 decades is ending today, and everybody is looking back on the past 30 years.

From tomorrow, the Reiwa era starts. I wonder what SEGA and Sonic Team will show us in this new era!

Some look back on the history of Heisei era...

SEGA Official looks back on 'Print Club' or 'Purikura', the arcade machine which was invented in 1995 which became very popular especially among students, and is now a part of Japanese culture.
"Today is the 'Last day of Heisei'.
One of the entertainment born in Heisei and represents Heisei is 'Print Club' (SEGA/ATLUS 1995)
Shortened as 'Purikura', it was enjoyed by many people, especially by students as a unique Japanese culture."
- SEGA Official




"Behind-the-scene of developing 'Print Club'
The initial idea was given by a female staff who saw a staff of public relations making a reference materials by projecting video game screen on TV and printing it with video printer. She thought that it might sell well if they let customers print out their face pictures as stickers.
Since it was a unprecedented challenge, there were many hardships through the development."
- SEGA Official


"Since 'Purikura' was a machine like no other, there were difficulties in placing orders.
There were many unexpected problems such as 'messy background (such as a shoe store on the opposite side of the street) will be in the picutre' or 'the monitor is too high for some people and it makes them difficult to operate', for which the developers came up with improvements such as placing a curtain as a background or adding steps."
- SEGA Official


"Purikura 'Sticker Exchange'
Purikura became more and more popular among female highschool students who exchanged their stickers. The culture was born out of it too - they exchanged own or exchanged Purikura stickers with others to stick them on 'Puri-cho' (Purikura sticker book) like an album to carry around and showed it to friends.
Some also stuck the stickers on the back of cellphone battery cover..."
- SEGA Official


"An extremely rare machine today, the 'Print Club 2' from December 1996!
That's it for introduction of 'Purikura', a huge hit of Heisei era.
In the next era of Reiwa, what kind of ideas and challenges will new entertainment be born? There sure will be many trials and errors, but please continue to support us!"
- SEGA Official

Oh yes, Purikura is both nostalgic and exciting for me - there are many stickers I made with my family and friends. Today's machines have much more functions than 20 years ago, and it's interesting to see the development in their technology. What would the next-gen Purikura look like? Maybe a hologram-sticker-maker?


Mazin-san (Masato Nishimura-san) visited the old SEGA HQ again on this final day of Heisei.
"On the last day of Heisei, under the drizzling rain, I jogged to Ohtorii to have a last look at the old SEGA HQ in Heisei era. The walls look beautiful, right? This is going to be destroyed, you know that?"
- Masato Nishimura (Mazin)
(Last sentense is a reference to manga 'Touch' by Mitsuru Adachi)

"One day, people in Ohtorii will forget that SEGA once stood here.
That's why we have to tell the story down the history! To our grandchildren, their grandchildren and to their grandchildren!
Listen child, we are the last ones of Palma..."
- Masato Nishimura (Mazin)
(Reference most likely to Phantasy Star.)

"My style is to record anything with SEGA's trace."
- Masato Nishimura (Mazin)


"Looking back, in the first year of Heisei, I was moved by many things that are now our everyday life, saying 'Wooow!' to double scrolling, drum sounds in PCM, and PCM and FM playing simultaneously - and those things were what made me happy-."
- Masato Nishimura (Mazin)


"If I told myself of the first year of Heisei that a lot will happen in this era, for example that SEGA merges with a company called Sammy, or COMPILE, Date East and SNK will be gone, or Namco merges with Bandai, or SQUARE and ENIX merge and TAITO becomes their affiliate company, and Hudson will be bought by KONAMI, he won't believe it for sure. I can't believe it either yet."
- Masato Nishimura (Mazin)


Ohtani-san also looks back on the first year of Heisei...


"Looking back, I was 15 years old = third year of middle school by the first year of Heisei. It was such a susceptible age, but it was also the time I actively took an instrument (a bass guitar) in my hands and started doing music to start a band - it was also the first year of music for me. I hope I can start something new in the first year of Reiwa too."
- Tomoya Ohtani

Others are looking forward to the next Reiwa era...

Nakamura-san with a Reiwa's R and R for Rhythm Thief R:
"Heisei comes to its end, and the age of R is coming! I hope it will be a good era. #RhythmThiefR"
- Shun Nakamura



Kanemaru-san:

"Goodbye Heisei era.
I learned a lot from you
And you raised me up.

Hello Reiwa era.
Continued from today,
I will not stop myself from
Keep on going forward."
- Junichi Kanemaru


Many things happened in Heisei, in Japan and worldwide.
What was the last 30 years for you like?

I was born and raised in Heisei era, so it's a strange feeling that the era name is changing in real time.
Although it feels somewhat close to the time when we were having a change of century in 2001.

Thank you, Heisei.
See you in Reiwa!

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