Anime
Central had a Sakura Taisen theme in 2003, because of the appearance of the people
who made the anime from the video game. From left to right they're Kouhei
Tanaka, who wrote the anime's music; Dan Kanemitsu, who translated some of
the anime episodes into English; Maya Okamoto, the speaking and singing voice
of Orihime in the anime and the Sakura Taisen stage musicals; Hidenori Matsubara,
who designed the animated characters from Kosuke Fujishima's original game
designs; and Satoru Akahori, who wrote the anime screenplay. This group had
fun with each other and the audience - Akahori pretended to escape on several
occasions, while Tanaka and Okamoto sang for the fans.
Okamoto
has said there's a "Sakura Taisen world" inhabited by the fans and the series'
creators, and the rest of the panelists agreed. "It is true that the franchise
is established, but the roles and the actors have started to jell together
to a high degree," Tanaka said. "They established far more than we expected
from that franchise." Tanaka said it would be nice if there were more American
creators who would work on the Sakura Taisen project; "There would be more
people who are bold and brave enough to work with us." Matsubara said he
would like to see the Sakura Taisen universe expand to include a role-playing
game and "...a movie that strives to be better than the last one.
Akahori
said the only limit to expanding the Sakura Taisen world to include more
shows and games are the human resources needed to complete those projects.
"There are only so many people who can work on Sakura Taisen and keep it
cohesive - we can work on only one project at a time," Akahori said. "I think
there are a lot of different opportunities. I look at where Sakura Taisen
is and think, `Don't we have enough characters already,' but I guess not
making more is not an option - so we'll keep trudging through to make more."
Those plans include setting the next Sakura Taisen game in New York City;
when Tanaka mentioned that there might be a Sakura Taisen concert in the
U.S. to promote the game, and asked "The singing might be in Japanese but
might that be a problem?" the audience showed with their applause that they
didn't mind the language a Sakura Taisen concert would use.
Anime
Central had a Sakura Taisen theme in 2003, because of the appearance of the people
who made the anime from the video game. From left to right they're Kouhei
Tanaka, who wrote the anime's music; Dan Kanemitsu, who translated some of
the anime episodes into English; Maya Okamoto, the speaking and singing voice
of Orihime in the anime and the Sakura Taisen stage musicals; Hidenori Matsubara,
who designed the animated characters from Kosuke Fujishima's original game
designs; and Satoru Akahori, who wrote the anime screenplay. This group had
fun with each other and the audience - Akahori pretended to escape on several
occasions, while Tanaka and Okamoto sang for the fans.
Okamoto
has said there's a "Sakura Taisen world" inhabited by the fans and the series'
creators, and the rest of the panelists agreed. "It is true that the franchise
is established, but the roles and the actors have started to jell together
to a high degree," Tanaka said. "They established far more than we expected
from that franchise." Tanaka said it would be nice if there were more American
creators who would work on the Sakura Taisen project; "There would be more
people who are bold and brave enough to work with us." Matsubara said he
would like to see the Sakura Taisen universe expand to include a role-playing
game and "...a movie that strives to be better than the last one.
Akahori
said the only limit to expanding the Sakura Taisen world to include more
shows and games are the human resources needed to complete those projects.
"There are only so many people who can work on Sakura Taisen and keep it
cohesive - we can work on only one project at a time," Akahori said. "I think
there are a lot of different opportunities. I look at where Sakura Taisen
is and think, `Don't we have enough characters already,' but I guess not
making more is not an option - so we'll keep trudging through to make more."
Those plans include setting the next Sakura Taisen game in New York City;
when Tanaka mentioned that there might be a Sakura Taisen concert in the
U.S. to promote the game, and asked "The singing might be in Japanese but
might that be a problem?" the audience showed with their applause that they
didn't mind the language a Sakura Taisen concert would use.
