SonicJPNews archive blog: 04/01/19

2019/04/01

Collab event of Puyo Puyo Quest and Sakura Wars!

News from 2019.04.01
Archived on 2019.04.20

Another collaboration between two SEGA titles!
Smartphone app "Puyo Puyo Quest" will do a collab event with Sakura Wars!
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April Fool's Day and announcement of new era-name Reiwa in Japan

News from 2019.04.01
Archived on 2019.04.19

It's April Fool's Day!
People in Japan are enjoying this day as an event, including people related to Sonic development.
Also, every year, more and more companies are joining the bandwagon of releasing fake game news and announcements - including SEGA, of course.

However, this year in Japan, April 1st was also the day on which the new era name was announced by the government due to the abdication of current Tennoh (Japanese emperor). The last time a Tennoh abdicated while he was alive was in the year 1817, so this event gathered attention of whole Japan. In order to avoid confusion and unnecessary information to fly around while the announcement happens, many companies decided not to do an April Fool's event on this day.

Instead, they joined the meme which spread immediately after the new era-name announcement, which you see below:

New era-name of Japan was announced to be 令和 Reiwa - and its announcement style immediately became a hot topic and meme


"The new era-name is 'Reiwa'!"
- SEGA Official
"The new era-name is 'Ray-wa'!" (wa = ring in Japanese)
- Sonic Committee
"The scrapped idea of the image that goes with 'Ray-wa'."
- Sonic Committee

"It's also good that it's easy to write. Happy Reiwa." - Junichi Kanemaru

But of course, there were people who commented on April Fool's Day related events on this day...


Naka-san on Christmas NiGHTS on April Fool's Day





Kanemaru-san and April Fool's Day
"Huh? Is something wrong?"
- Junichi Kanemaru

Wow this is unusual?! SEGA Official

Oh yeah, and SEGA of America enjoyed the April Fool's as usual...



Everybody seems to be having fun with April Fool's!
How was your day?
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Buy Ohtani-san's self-characterization 'Ohtanitter-kun' as key chain mascot!

News from 2019.03.31-04.10
Archived on 2019.04.21

You have a favorite composer? And you want to support them not only by buying their music but in all possible ways?

Now is your chance!
Ohtani-san's self-characterization "Ohtanitter-kun" is now available as acryl key chain mascot!



As I translated his tweet above, I received this reply from him:
"Thanks for the English translation :) I'm planning to tweet the method of international shipping later."
- Tomoya Ohtani

...looks like I rushed a little trying to deliver this cool information as fast as I can and interfered with his plan a little. Oops, sorry Ohtani-san.
Anyway, I replied as follows:
"Information on international shipping will be very useful! I'm definitely going to get one of your key chains!"
- SonicJPNews


And later he tweeted his said links:
He also mentioned that he wraps the key chains by himself, one by one!
"Packing and shipping are all done by me. It's kind of fun!"
- Tomoya Ohtani

He then explains what inspired him to make his own merchandise:



"As I wrote out in product detail, I thought about doing this as the TGS of last year ended. I've been holding a fan-meeting-like event called 'Find Ohtanitter' for 7 years because I missed the timing to stop doing it, and since I got this far, I thought about giving away a novelty goods for those who came to meet me at the 10th anniversary of this event. But then I realized the time won't come soon... and since I already had the idea, I wanted to make something now.
Then as for anniversary, I noticed that this year (2019) is actually my 20th anniversary of working at SEGA! That means... "You could probably make some goods on this oppotunity, don't you think?" said the voice from the sky (putting aside of it not being music-related), and so that's why I made it and started selling it. If there was no big wave like this, it's hard to take a step further to produce an item with myself designed on it, haha.
So this 'Ohtanitter-kun' could be counted as an anniversary item. Please take care of him!"
- Tomoya Ohtani

So it's an anniversary year for Ohtani-san too! That's really cool.
As this character was revealed in the beginning of this year, I asked Ohtani-san if he drew the character by himself - he then answered me that Ohtanitter-kun was designed by a designer who is a junior of him.
I really like pop look!



"This is what a designer, who is a junior of mine, drew for me!"
- Tomoya Ohtani

Additionally, Ohtani-san explained that this goods production is a part of SEGA's side-business system introduced in the recent years.
"You might already have heard that SEGA Sammy Group has introduced the side-business system; in fact, this character goods production of mine is also an officially approved side-business project.
Please don't say that it's a waste of side-business system *laugh*."
- Tomoya Ohtani


And since the announcement, Ohtani-san received many replies from his fans telling him that they will buy the key chain, or they even already bought them with the speed of sound!
"Again today, some of the 'Ohtanitter-kun acryl key chain' left my home. Thank you for your orders! The first batch is becoming scarse..."
- Tomoya Ohtani

The last two...
"Only two more left!! If you are secretly considering about buying it, now is your chance! If nobody buys them, should I buy them for myself? *lol*"
- Tomoya Ohtani

Aaaand... sold out!!

"The first batch is sold out! I wasn't expecting specific demands for them, so I was a little worried how this would turn out. I'd be happy if the item makes those of you who got it smirk. Thank you so much!"
- Tomoya Ohtani

That's really nice! He is so beloved and aspired. The key chain is also really well made!
Of course I got one too - so good, isn't it? :DDD


And don't worry if you missed the chance this time - Ohtani-san will make more and sell them again some time in the future!

"I'm thinking about what to do next. Of course I want to produce more and sell them again, and I'm also looking for other sales route than online shop, but it's not going to be soon. But I will make a sudden announcement when the time comes! For now, I will prepare the shipment of the last stock!"
- Tomoya Ohtani

So don't be sad, you'll have another chance in the future.
Oh by the way, this time he produced the 'Purple-Tee' version - there might be color variations in the future! Who knows? I won't be able to stop collecting them then!

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Naganuma-san's fans chose his representative track

News from 2019.03.31
Archived on 2019.04.18

Naganuma-san's fans chose his representative track!

Which one would you pick?
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Eguchi-san's Sonic!

News from 2019.03.31
Archived on 2019.04.18

Another Sonic art by Eguchi-san!

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