Inspecting Unused Map #2: Island Town
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Page detail: island town map |
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Page detail: island town map |
Every month Phantom River Stone holds a poll among our patrons to choose a topic for the blog in the coming month. After tallying the votes (including accumulated votes from previous months), the winning topic that has been voted this time is:
"Interview with Shenhua actress Hazuki Ishigaki in Dobuita"
In this post, we will be translating a feature about Hazuki Ishigaki, the voice actress for Shenhua in the Japanese version of the first two Shenmue games, from a magazine at the time.
Ishigaki was 21 years old at the time, and whose acting and voicing career started a couple of years earlier, with appearances on Japanese TV and radio prior to her work for the Shenmue games. Online information suggests that she retired from acting around March 2004.
The magazine feature was published in the Japanese Dreamcast Magazine of October 1999, and contains a series of Q&A as well as Shenhua cosplay photos taken on location around Dobuita St, Yokosuka.
Although this was still a few months before the release of the first Shenmue game at the end of that year - and well before Shenhua would be properly seen in-game in the second game - the character of Shenhua would already have been a familiar sight to gaming enthusiasts from promotional material and magazine articles.
The introduction states:
"Thank you for waiting, Hazuki-chan fans. Shenhua couldn't wait any longer for her turn to come, so she has come to the streets of Yokosuka! What discoveries await her in this foreign land?"
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The page containing the mysterious maps |
This time the episode featured Yu Suzuki, joined by three others from the game industry at the time, with the MC being Kazlaser, a Japanese comedian who is known for his love of Sega, who participated through a video link. Suzuki talks about the development of some of his hit arcade games at Sega in the 1980s through to the 1990s. (Shenmue also gets a mention!)
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Yu Suzuki with the episode's participants |
Every month Phantom River Stone holds a poll among our patrons to choose a topic for the blog in the coming month. After tallying the votes (including accumulated votes from previous months), the winning topic that has been voted this time is:
"Weekly AM2: Translation of Next Issue (Vol. 12)"
Earlier this month saw the release of a brand-new, extensive interview with Yu Suzuki that was held in person by James Brown of the Shenmue Dojo and myself (Switch) for Phantom River Stone at the YS NET office in Japan.
The full interview can be found at the Shenmue Dojo's website, who have also recorded an in-depth discussion stream but in this post we will focus in on summarizing some of the most surprising story details revealed during the interview, ending with new information regarding the leaders of the Chi You Men!
Every month, Phantom River Stone holds a poll among our patrons to choose a topic for the blog in the coming month. After tallying the votes (including accumulated votes from previous months), the winning topic that has been voted for this time is:
"Examining Shenmue Storyboards from the Shenmue The Animation Event in Yokosuka"
In the Spring of 2022, a promotional event was held on location in Yokosuka in celebration of the anime adaption of Shenmue, Shenmue The Animation, which was organized by Yokosuka City in collaboration with SEGA and IGN Japan. Various pieces of concept artwork were exhibited at a number of shops in the area, some being from the anime while others were sketches and illustrations from the time of development of the first two games.
Among the artwork were reproductions of certain storyboards from the game, detailing the camera shots and spoken lines to guide creation of cut scenes in the game.
The three storyboards exhibited at the event which will be covered are:
In this upcoming post, we will be looking at these in more detail and translating any written notes and characters' lines, noting differences of interest between the storyboards and the final implementation of the cut scenes in the game.
In this series we translate Shenmue content from Weekly AM2, the official online magazine published by Sega's AM2 development team back in the day. These pages regularly featured news and information about the Shenmue series from the end of 1999 through to 2001 with the release of Shenmue II.
Vol. 11 celebrates various awards won by Shenmue in Dreamcast Magazine, including Best Game and Best Scenario. The Shenmue Original Sound Track double CD goes on sale, and a third "wallpaper" image is made available for download.