Interview – Kiyoshi Tane
Photography – Hiroyuki Matsuzaki
Shinya Arino was born in Osaka on 02/25/1972. In 1990 he formed a comedy duo called Yoiko with Masaru Hamaguchi, a friend since middle school. In addition to his activities as a part of said comedy duo, he also regularly appears on Game Center CX (aired on CS Fuji TV One), as well as a wide variety of other things.
The Kacho’s Skills Have Actually Improved?
Congratulations on the 15th anniversary of Game Center CX! You’ve had many hard challenges in recent seasons, haven’t you? Like Chou Aniki (Episodes 220-221)
(Arino) Hard? As in difficult? Well my techniques have improved, after all! (Laughs)
The ADs said that you’ve been keeping a good eye on enemies lately. They even say that you’re getting better at shoot’em ups, which you’re known to be not very good at.
(Arino) I get complimented on that from the youngest person on the production staff. I wonder if it’s because I’ve been backing off when it’s time to back off, since my feelings of not wanting to die have been coming out.
It is you who has to start all the way back from the beginning when you die, after all.
(Arino) It’s because I had this habit of needing to attack no matter what, and even more so when it came to bosses. But I’ve fixed that habit by just resisting that urge and starting things off by being defensive.
You did a wonderful job of clearing the first Dragon Quest game for the 250th episode.
(Arino) Leveling up took awhile though, which didn’t make for very good TV. And I kind of regret getting that last level.
Yuji Horii wrote that the base level for clearing the game was 20, in his letter to you. And when you tried to take on the Dragonlord at only level 19, you said it was impossible.
(Arino) That’s right. But I thought it was because Hurtmore (Begirama) would hit at level 20. But it barely ever really hit at all.
They say it has a 1/16 chance of hitting. So you typically wouldn’t use it in that situation, with those odds.
(Arino) Yeah, you normally wouldn’t. It was pretty amazing though! Like an actual miracle occurring.
But you’re very popular for getting Hurtmore off at such a great point, and during the 250th episode.
(Arino) I know, right!? It seems like the staff really wanted Dragon Quest to be the game for the 250th episode. I didn’t say anything about it myself, it was just brought in and decided that’s what I was going to play that day. But even though it was the 250th episode, I didn’t clear it until the 251st. So that was a little bit strange (Laughs)
Playing A Game For 14 Hours In A Day!
You’ve been taking on some big-name retro games, and the amount of official challenges from Nintendo has increased as well. And you’re regularly releasing videos in your YouTube series “Surviving in Minecraft with Yoiko” (“Yoiko no Maikura de Survival Saikatsu”).
(Arino) I’m doing those with my partner in our comedy group. We always say how grateful we are that people support that series. Even though expressing your gratitude that much is sort of a 70s mentality (Laughs)
Hamaguchi has even started his own spin-off, “Game Center DX”, where he takes on newer games.
(Arino) I think of it as a branch of Game Center CX. But apparently when it comes to retro games, he’s begun thinking that I’m better at them than he is. Hamaguchi still hasn’t gotten rid of the habits that he’s had since we were both in middle school. Whenever something happens he jumps to try and avoid it. Because it was the era of LCD games back then, like the Game & Watch, the memory of games evolving to allow you to jump is still stuck in his mind. So when he gets flustered, he jumps (Laughs)
You couldn’t really jump in too many games before Donkey Kong, after all.
(Arino) Right. It’s great being able to jump at just the right time, but there are times when you just have to stop too. I’ve been playing retro games for the past 15 years, so I understand Hamaguchi’s jump habits. It makes me think “Oh, those are the habits of a younger player” when I see them. Even though I sometimes do the same thing.
But it’s very unique for someone to be playing nothing but retro games for the last 15 years. And on the days you have challenges, you don’t just finish the games in one hour a day or anything.
(Arino) A long time ago when I asked Takahashi Meijin “Why did you used to say “Play games for one hour a day”?”, he said he felt like he had to say something wholesome, since a lot of parents came to watch those video game tournaments and events. Games were considered to be bad things at that time, so he thought parents would appreciate him telling kids to “Play games for one hour a day”. And I shatter that to pieces every single episode (Laughs) Because I sometimes play them for 14 hours in a single day.
And there are sometime second and third days too (Laughs)
(Arino) Right, I sometimes play for 24 hours all together.
The entire production staff doesn’t do that though.
(Arino) The consoles get hot too. But they’re mostly in good shape, so they don’t tend to break down. Sometimes 35 year old hardware is still on active duty.
They sometimes do break down, though. During live events the staff usually prepares an extra console in case that happens, with the game already played up to a certain point.
(Arino) I think that’s a way of creating some extra insurance so that the production will go smoothly. I like to try and avoid consoles breaking down, but they don’t always let me. The idea for the show is for me to clear these games, after all. So that’s why I’ve taken to writing “Make sure you study for as long of a time as you spend playing games!” on construction paper or whatever, thinking about how I play games for 14 hours.
I guess those kids sure can study a lot then, huh? (Laughs)
(Arino) On the other hand, I’m sure there are kids who would say “I only play games for 20 minutes a day, so I can only study for 20” (Laughs)
Is The Kacho The Original YouTuber?
Well it’s been 15 years, and it looks like you’re wearing reading glasses now.
(Arino) I was too embarrassed to wear them at first, but without them I couldn’t read the instruction manuals. Then I started thinking how nice it would be if they put out “Kacho instruction manuals” with really big print.
It seems like large print manuals are in demand from older gamers (Laughs)
(Arino) There are a lot of games nowadays that don’t even have manuals. I mentioned wanting my own unique glasses case to Tsuyoshi Kan (Producer of the show, and also the narrator), thinking that since he wears glasses too he’d get it. But he said “People who wear glasses generally always have them on, so we don’t really need cases”, and I thought “Oh yeah, I guess so!” (Laughs)
Now I want there to be some kind of Game Center CX collaboration with reading glasses.
(Arino) They were able to make replicas of my necktie, after all. I wonder if a suit company or Aoyama couldn’t help with the uniform.
It would be amazing to see the Kacho work uniform lined up on a rack at a suit company (Laughs)
(Arino) That would be great. A work uniform in a suit store! The Kacho work uniform hasn’t ever changed (Laughs) Though they did make that new necktie in orange.
Given what you’ve said, I’m surprised that you’re going to continue wearing your reading glasses. But over the course of these 15 years, people playing games on YouTube and Niconico has really taken hold.
(Arino) I was filming something with Bakushou Mondai (a comedy group) yesterday. And when I was talking with Yuji Tanaka during a break, he said “Arino, you’ve been doing a video game program this whole time, right? You were the first one, before all of the YouTubers, right?”. And I said “Yeah, I might have been the first one. But do you think they started doing it because they saw me and thought “I can do this so much better than Arino can”, since I’m so bad at it?”. But he just responded with how amazing he thought that it was that I was the first one to do it. And then when I thought about it from that perspective, I really wanted to get more awards for it. I wonder if anyone out there would give me an award? Probably not!
You should get an award for being the original YouTuber (Laughs)
(Arino) But it’s not like I’m able to clear a lot of games in a short amount of time or anything. It’s all just been me slogging along for 14 hours, and edited down to a single hour. That’s probably why I don’t get awards, huh? (Laughs) The show staff are the ones that get them.
I assume the kids that watch YouTube don’t end up watching GCCX too?
(Arino) They don’t care about watching me. When I showed the “Donkey Kong” (Yoiko’s Banana Life With Donkey Kong, on Nintendo’s YouTube channel) videos to Gal Sone’s (a competitive eater) son, he looked restless right from the opening and asked when we were going to start playing the game. I guess he didn’t need to see a couple of old guys talking (Laughs) It’s a new generation though. They just want the person to start playing the game right away so they can see them mess up and laugh. It was a bit of a shock for me. But Gal Sone got really mad and said “It’s no good if they don’t get to see that happen!” (Laughs)
And yet his own mother’s job involves talking in that same sort of way (Laughs)
(Arino) That’s right! (Laughs) But kids are harsh, and they don’t understand things in the same way. That talk between a kindergartner and a comedian was a short one.
I think there would be a lot of happy people if GCCX was available streaming online, even if it was paid.
(Arino) I’m not on Nintendo’s YouTube channel as the Kacho. But we have live streams on Niconico sometimes, right?
(Ishida P) That’s right, we’ve live streamed on Niconico for the Super Mario Maker challenge (12/12/2015).
That worked very well on Niconico. There were times when the screen went completely white with comments.
(Arino) I see. I didn’t exactly have time to be looking at the comments, after all. But the screen just went completely white with them?
Everyone wanted to support you, and wanted to feel that same sense of unity.
(Arino) I always feel like Rocky in my own mind, but you’re telling me that at Continue I’m more like Giant Baba (a pro wrestler) (Laughs) When I get more lives and start making a comeback, I’d always thought I heard the Rocky theme playing. I wonder if the viewers think of me as Giant Baba too.
You’re a legend that’s surpassed just being a challenger at this point, Kacho! (Laughs)
(Arino) I wonder if I’m really a legend? Well, I guess that’s my job.
There aren’t any YouTubers that have had games made about them like “Retro Game Challenge”, and it seems like you have a big influence on the gaming industry.
(Arino) It would be cool if someone told me that Virtual Console sales or something on a particular game went up after I did a challenge on it, but I’m not a Nintendo employee so I have no clue if they do. I can’t even get my own glasses case! The Kacho’s just an employee with no real authority!
I’m sure you were a big influence on “Takeshi’s Challenge” being released on Virtual Console and smartphones. You answered the question as to whether people really want to play old games that much.
(Arino) I didn’t realize there was a smartphone version, that’s awesome! Parents like us must be really happy. They’re not buying new games, but rather cheaper used games because “The Kacho’s playing this one”. They’re happy because they can get them for 200 yen, or whatever. I’m sure the people who run used game shops are happy about that too.
Some people can’t have any fun with it if it’s not an old, used game. They’ve gotta blow in that cartridge.
(Arino) It’s that analog feeling, right? Shoving the cartridge into the system and such.
It would be great if you did a collaboration with Nintendo for Nintendo Labo.
(Arino) I really want to try out Nintendo Labo. But I’m not sure I can really do anything with it until something comes down from the production side.
Something like Nintendo Labo that requires attention to detail and patience is right up your alley!
(Arino) It seems really interesting. I want to buy one, but then I think whether or not I should hold out in case I end up doing something with it on the Nintendo YouTube channel. So I just tell myself to ignore it since I might end up covering it for work. But I probably won’t, since I’m waiting for it (Laughs) There have been times when I felt I should have bought something earlier, and ended up late to the party.
You’re more upfront now that GCCX has hit it big (Laughs)
(Arino) I’m a suspicious person! But when I’m patient things almost never go the way I think they will (Laughs) We have an excellent production team that’s always springing things on me in unexpected ways.
An Unbroken Heart Invites Miracles
The outlook on watching games being played has really changed over these 15 years, hasn’t it?
(Arino) Yeah, with e-sports and such. And there a lot of game tournaments as well. Hikari Ota from Bakushou Mondai asked me if I was planning on participating in any e-sports. I told him no, because I wasn’t actually any good at games, and that I wasn’t even sure I’d make it out of the preliminary round (Laughs) I’d surprise everyone if I did, but then I’d immediately lose and feel like just going home. Then he asked me if there weren’t any games that I was good at, and I told him they were all longer games. Ones that you can’t finish in a day.
You’re good at games that require you persevere at a steady pace, like the town building part of ActRaiser.
(Arino) It’s because you can’t lose those. People have told me that I’m good at those types of games.
Normally I’d think a game like Super R-Type (episode #246) would break you. But you hung in there through the final stage.
(Arino) I kind of have to, since it’s my job! The Kacho is just an employee working for the business! I play for a really long time, but I eventually get the hang of things and get through it.
You really invite miracles in, don’t you?
(Arino) So what everyone’s saying is that I actually haven’t gotten any better, and that it’s all just miracles. Think about how rude that sounds (Laughs) You don’t say that someone winning a gold medal was a miracle!
No, I think you really do have that special something (Laughs)
(Arino) I wonder about that. But again, that’s saying that I actually haven’t gotten any better. It just takes the miracles out of the picture.
But what I mean is like during Osomatsu-kun (episode #223), round 3 should have been really difficult for you because of the maze. But you made it through on your first try.
(Arino) That’s right! They even said “Actually, it actually only took this long” during the narration and everything, right. That was already a miracle at work.
After clearing it so easily, you even said that the episode might not end up long enough (Laughs) And it was unbelievable that you cleared Ninja Spirit in just 2 hours.
(Arino) Oh the one that was like Kamen no Ninja Hanamaru? Yeah I remember that.
During that part in the last stage where you just drop down, you’d normally look for a route in which you don’t die, after dying a whole bunch of times. But instead you just dropped right down and cleared it on your first try (Laughs)
(Arino) That definitely was a miracle. It really couldn’t have been anything else other than chance, going down like that. That was really cool though, wasn’t it? If the director had asked me to do it again, it wouldn’t have been possible. Maybe I do have that special something. Or maybe it’s just the ability to do things that I can’t reproduce again.
Things Gained And Lost Over 15 Years
You may play games for 14 hours in a day as a part of your job, but how about during your time off?
(Arino) I played them all the time when I was single, but I don’t nearly as much since I got married and had a child. I cleared Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, but I’ve been giving newer games another chance lately. I’m able to get further in them now. Before when the difficulty started going up, I would just give up (Laughs) But I wanted to save the Mushroom Kingdom, after all. I recently started Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom, but I’ve been playing it for 30 hours now and it still isn’t over. If one day I have a challenge for Ni no Kuni, it’s never going to end. I’ve just been doing side quests the entire time. I’ve been more interested in those than I have been the state of the kingdom!
The main story of most modern games tends to last 30-40 hours, but then there’s more to do even after that, right?
(Arino) I just quit playing Breath of the Wild. After I saw the ending I thought “That’s enough!”.
I bet finding all of the shrines would take like 200 hours or something.
(Arino) Gal Sone is a Zelda completionist, and asked me if I got the star fragments. When I told her I didn’t, she told me that I absolutely should get them! It’s something I would have gone home and done immediately when I was in my 20s, but I didn’t do it now. Even if I heard that there was a horse that could just keep running infinitely, I wouldn’t try to catch it. I didn’t do everything in the game, and I don’t even remember much about it. I can’t help but feel like I’ve lost sight of some of the important things about games because of this show (Laughs) There aren’t any games anymore that I can say “I’ve done everything in this game” like the ones back in my 20s, and that feels wrong.
But aren’t there also things that you’ve gained over these past 15 years? You’re the Kacho, so you reach points in retro games that other people can’t.
(Arino) But the problem is I don’t remember that stuff well enough to be able to talk about it. Earlier you mentioned “Ninja Spirit”, and I remembered it as being “Hanamaru” this whole time (Laughs) I guess it’s because I’ve had a lot of challenges that involved games with ninjas in them. I wonder how many of them I play per year. But with the ninjas always come birds.
Birds are your arch-enemies, after all (Laughs)
(Arino) Not so much in modern games though (Laughs) They’re zombies, or terrorists, or something like that. I guess I like it better when games have weird enemies in them. Like in Zombie Nation (Abarenbou Tengu).
There wasn’t any sort of reason as to why birds were so tough in games like “Hanamaru”.
(Arino) They’re all violent creatures! (Laughs) Tutorials in games now are so polite in teaching you how to play the game, but they didn’t teach you anything in older games. You only had the d-pad and 2 buttons though, after all.
Even Younger Fans Look At The Kacho In a Motherly Way
So there are going to be some different events for the 15th anniversary, right?
(Arino) We’re making this into a big deal. When we think about doing something on the 20th anniversary, I start to say “But it’s our 15th anniversary now!”. We’re living recklessly, kind of like no one on staff has much time left to live (Laughs)
Ha ha ha! (Laughs) You didn’t do anything particular for the 5th anniversary, right?
(Arino) I don’t think we did anything for the 5th anniversary. I wonder if we’ve just rolled it into the 10th and 15th. But who knows, we might do something for the 18th anniversary next (Laughs) Or hey, maybe the 16th anniversary, for 16 bit!
But the 16th anniversary would just be next year (Laughs)
(Arino) None of our staff or performers have been involved in any scandals over these 15 years. We’re an excellent program. Though along the way I’ve wondered if Kan hasn’t been engaging in tax evasion or something (Laughs) I wonder if at some point he’s going to bring in one of those gold Famicom cartridges.
Sounds like there were some things going on involving “Matsumoto Tooru no Kabushiki Hisshou Gaku” (“Tooru Matsumoto’s Knowledge For Success With Stocks”, a 1988 stock exchange simulator on the Famicom) or something (Laughs) A retro game that fits the lives of the staff.
(Arino) I played Tokimeki Memorial when I got married (Episode #13), had a challenge for a quiz game about raising kids when I had kids (Episode #125, “Kosodate Quiz My Angel”), so I wonder if there’s any kind of event-based games like that left. I guess all that’s really left is one about parents dying and having a funeral for them (Laughs) I want to play that game while yelling “Don’t make fun of me!”. I wonder if someone would tell me that’s too much? But I think it would be okay as long as I was laughing about it. While I’m saying “They’ve come back to life!”. Ahh, zombies would be cool.
But the GCCX fan base has really grown over these 15 years, hasn’t it?
(Arino) It has. But I still don’t really know what kind of fan base it is. When we did the GCCX museum in Shibuya I heard that it brought in enough visitors to make the HMV (the venue where it was held) people happy. A lot of people showed up in Nagoya too, so I wonder how it will do in Sendai and Hakata?
I heard that the satellite broadcast does well in the more rural areas.
(Arino) Satellite and cable do well because they don’t have many terrestrial channels in rural areas, which is why there are a lot of elderly people in those areas that know who I am. So they’ll obviously be such a big turnout there that it will make the staff tremble (Laughs)
I wonder if your elderly viewers go back to playing games again, after seeing you play them?
(Arino) An old lady that came to a meet-and-greet event told me that she doesn’t play games at all, but she could tell that I was bad at them (Laughs) But it was just so amusing that she couldn’t help but watch. And when I asked her if she would consider trying to play some games herself, she told me “No, no. I wouldn’t be able to do it”.
Your playing gets through even to people that don’t play games themselves.
(Arino) Oh come on, it isn’t that! It’s that they’re just laughing at how bad I am! They’re not saying “Wow, this is amazing”. They’re watching me thinking “He made that same mistake AGAIN?!”. But they do seem really happy when I manage to clear anything.
They’re almost more like relatives than fans. And they look at you in sort of a motherly way.
(Arino) It’s something close to that. I don’t know about mothers…since I think most of them are younger than me (Laughs) Since they see me on a program that their kids watch, they probably see me as being younger than them. And I’m not particularly good, so they probably feel like I should be trying a little bit harder.
But when you look away for just a second, something amazing happens. Whether it be a common mistake or a miracle.
(Arino) It feels like it’s all chance, for better or worse. There are a lot of things that just happen by chance. Ah! Now I want to make a “Chance Can” product! (This is referencing the existing “ikesou kan“, or Arino’s feeling of being able to do something. The “kan” here is actually “feeling”, but for the product it’s literally made into a can). “There’s something in here, but I can’t get the can open so I can’t tell what it is!” (Laughs) Let’s try to sell 10,000 of them at the Makuhari Messe event.
The Growth of Inoko MAX
That “chance” has made for a lot of climaxes though, hasn’t it? More so than you Arino, Inoue’s fruitless efforts resulted in the “Hitotsubashi Miracle” (At the 12/23/2006 event at Tokyo’s Hitotsubashi Hall, for the Mighty Bomb Jack challenge).
(Arino) Inoue was still an AD back then. I reluctantly let him play my last life. These days he’s a much more emboldened director, that likes to do impressions (Laughs)
If Inoue had supported you a little bit better before that point, that challenge wouldn’t have drug on to the extent that it did (That was the 4th day of the challenge).
(Arino) But that’s the reason why it was able to happen at Hitotsubashi Hall (Laughs) I wonder if it’s alright to talk about how Inoue’s grown into more and more of a big shot. The day might come when he’s the voice of the show. There was one time when Inoue tried to imitate Kan on one of Kan’s days off, but it didn’t work at all.
He has a voice that just can’t be imitated.
(Arino) I guess next for him would be producer, a promotion to an easy to understand title. His current title is “Group Leader”. I think it was a title created just so he can do the gags that he does with it, even though they don’t make him look like he’s that important (Laughs) “Section Leader Inoue” would have been better than “Group Leader Inoue”, but then he would have needed to be “Section Leader”.
(Ishida) Kan might not have liked that (Laughs)
(Arino) Is that why he’s “Group Leader”? Though I wish he’d just go around saying that he was the Section Leader anyway (Laughs)
Inoue is on his 12th year with the show, so he’s really done a great job in persevering up to this point (Laughs)
(Arino) And without ever getting fired. Though maybe he actually should have been fired back then.
There definitely were some moments where it would have been understandable to have fired him.
(Arino) There were quite a few. Like being late on the day of a big event, and that kind of thing.
I kind of want to see a GCCX drama that involves Inoue’s life as well.
(Arino) If there’s another GCCX movie, I want to make it a documentary about him. It would start with him being forced to drink alcohol (Laughs)
He’d be dead drunk and late again (Laughs) But this is a program where there isn’t that much distance between the talent and the staff, right?
(Arino) Then maybe I’d get to determine what to do with him. Kan and I went to go have Korean barbecue with Yuuko Watanabe (Director) since she’s been doing such a good job lately. We didn’t want to invite anyone else since this was for her, and I was just grilling meat the whole time. I was just flipping meat and saying “It’s not done yet, it’s not done yet!” (Laughs) And as we were talking I said “This is fun, should we do this with some other staff members too?”. Kan thought that was a good idea, so other staff members will be invited next time.
The Kacho is amusing even when he’s not playing games, and just grilling meat. Will that be broadcast on YouTube? (Laughs)
(Arino) No, I don’t think so. It was all just bad conversations anyway, Watanabe’s love life and that kind of thing (Laughs)
Even if that was broadcast, it might trouble the viewers (Laughs)
(Arino) No one would be interested in it. Even Kan and I were thinking “Whoa, don’t talk this much about these things, Watanabe!” as we listened. She drank a little too much Jinro.
So then it was like talking with Inoue.
(Arino) After that time he decided “From now on, I’m not drinking”.
(Ishida) He’s actually been drinking lately (Laughs)
(Arino) That’s what’s amazing about Inoue. It’s not like I asked him “Isn’t it about time you start drinking again?”, he just started doing it without anyone knowing. Don’t just start doing it again after you insisted so much that you weren’t going to! (Laughs)
The Road to the Biggest Event in GCCX History at Makuhari Messe
Over the time that GCCX has been running, it’s gone from being a show for video game fans to one for the whole family. There were quite a few parents with their children at GCCX Summer Festival in Hanayashiki (07/29/2017).
(Arino) It was a bit of an apology for all of our events not being quite as family oriented. I wonder if a kid would find the VR in the GCCX museum funny? Maybe we need to make a spin-off program. “Game Center CX Kids” or something, where the Kacho appears in a kigurumi (Laughs) Make the employees all fluffy, make their facial hair easier to draw, give them glasses, that kind of thing. A doll could appear from underneath the desk to give advice.
You don’t have a mascot like that at the moment, but I’m sure the staff would love it. Even though everyone involved was an amateur, the play that was put on by the entire staff at Hanayashiki was completely full.
(Arino) Even though there were a ton of people they’d never seen before (Laughs) People who just started watching wouldn’t know older staff, even when they came out. “He’s not talking at all, but who is that? Was his name Nakayama?”. That’s the kind of thing I heard.
I was definitely surprised when Nakayama and Tsuruoka came out.
(Arino) People who came into the show starting with Osuka would have no idea who they were. They’d say things like “Someone named Nakayama? He says he’s good at fighting games, but he actually isn’t at all!”. For people who said that or “Who’s that guy with the bass up in the second floor seats? Toujima? I don’t know him”, they should watch the old DVDs and realize how amazing Nakayama and Toujima actually are.
And that’s also an advertisement for the DVD box sets. It’s important for the old ADs to make appearances.
(Arino) The old staff members who are still single are quick to appear, but we can’t really call on those who have families now. Their jobs are far away, and that kind of thing.
To close out the 15th anniversary, you’re holding an event at Makuhari Messe on 10/28 called “Game Center CX 15th Anniversary, Arino’s Live Challenge: 7 Revenge Matches”. How excited are you about this?
(Arino) It was very exciting that so many people came to the GCCX Museum in Shibuya and Nagoya, but I’m a little worried about this one. I’m not worried about whether or not anyone will show up, but about what games I’m going to be playing. I’m getting all my information from the homepage too, just like everyone else (Laughs)
Ha ha ha, no one’s going to contact you before the event then? (Laughs)
(Arino) They’re not. I think the event is from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM? It’s kind of odd time for an event.
(Ishida) It’s supposed to feel like a festival!
(Arino) I don’t know what that means. That’s why I’m asking “What are we planning on doing here?”. The staff are all scared, so they’re hurrying to get that information together. So even though you asked me how excited I am for Makuhari Messe, it’s an event I originally thought would be two hours now turned into a four hour one. And now I’m hearing for the first time that it’s supposed to be a festival-like event.
(Ishida) They’ll be a 30 minute break somewhere in there!
(Arino) Something else I’m just now hearing about! So it’s actually three and a half hours?
I guess you are just getting all of your information from the homepage after all (Laughs)
(Arino) I’m just hearing about all this now! I only heard about the homepage from Twitter (Laughs)
(Ishida) Well it’s a big event, after all!
(Arino) Oh, it’s a big event huh? Then why don’t you include me in the meetings too?! I’m just saying that if it’s going to be like a festival, you should involve a lot of different people! I wonder if there will be more stages than just the main one. Like we’ll be playing Momotaro Dentetsu on a side stage, or something. Like a festival? I don’t know what that actually means.
That would be a very GCCX thing to do at a live event, wouldn’t it?
(Arino) I wonder if it will be a more chaotic event than usual, since we’re doing something we’ve never done before? Since it’s a festival…I wonder if I should practice or something. I don’t really know, but I wonder if messages of support from famous people have come in within the last hour.
(Ishida) (Immediately responds) None have!
(Arino) None!? (Laughs) Even though we’re still 5 months out, I guess there’s no time to talk about it with the Kacho. But when I was having Korean barbecue with Watanabe, we decided that she was going to be singing there. Kan hasn’t OK’d it yet, but Watanabe’s decided it herself (Laughs) It’s not decided within GCCX, but Watanabe’s put the offer out. She said that she sometimes sings at karaoke and such. The things that people want to do at Makuhari Messe are all over the place.
Everyone’s a complete individual at GCCX. (Laughs) The first live event was at Hitotsubashi Hall, and the 10 year anniversary event was at the Budokan. So it just keeps ramping up.
(Arino) We’re a small satellite broadcast program. And even though we may do one special broadcast on terrestrial TV once a year or so, we really talk a big game (Laughs) And now that we’ve done that, we’re running around trying to figure out what to do.
But the Gascoin company has a Section Chief (Kacho) too, so you should be able to do what you want.
(Arino) Even though they won’t let me play the games I want to play (Laughs)
That’s just your virtue as the Kacho (Laughs) Well, we’re looking forward to the Makuhari Messe event and the activities leading up to the 20th anniversary as well!