But how can? I mean, all the actresses in takarazuka are Japanese, not westerners, aren't they?

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They sure seem to like those orchestra things, don't they?

Think they're dithering on GS5/any kind of canon stories because of the orchestras and opera, or making endless concerts to distract from the fact that they're not working on GS5 yet? It's been quite a while since GS4 in Japan, really... I'd love to know what direction they're taking with the series, and maybe they don't know either.

As for merchandise.. maybe we should demand international shipping on Capcom's Japanese online store?

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All they have to do is add some of the Japanese products to Capcom's other online stores overseas.

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Yeah, but according to their wikipedia, they tend to focus on more western shows, Broadway stuff and classic books.

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I am, just tell me where to go.

(Finally glad this forced vacation can be put to some good use).

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For instance, this year, the shows include The Brothers Karamozov, and the Great Gatsby, and the Japanese sourced stuff includes several Rose of Versailles stories, which are set in France, with French characters.

And the other shows next year include more RoV, Brothers Karamozov again, and Zorro: the Masked Messiah.

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If I can see it and understand it, I'll be happy. If not...

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Maybe they'll be more proper GS5 info at TGS...

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I don't know wether I should laugh or be scared. 8/

yesterday video.
http://www.famitsu.com/fwtv/?51218242

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkJ4KQhEIYs

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http://www.capcom-unity.com/ace_attorne ... erchandise

Here you go.

Anyways, I don't blame Capcom for doing what they can for their niche of a fanbase (and a niche of the niche at that), but they don't have to completely alienate ... uh, everyone else.

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Okay, I just wandered over here to clear up a few things. I like the Phoenix Wright game and everything, but I'm not a crazy fan like all of you. Rather, I'm a HUGE Takarazuka fan and want to set a few things straight.

Takarazuka does not perform "operas" in the strictest sense. Somehow, somewhere along the line after this news came out, someone took the Kageki part of Takarazuka Kagekidan just a bit too literally. Takarazuka performs musical theater, not opera. It's a highly talented company full of girls who train for years to make it to where they are. All Takarazuka actresses attened TMS (Takarazuka Music School - Takarazuka Ongaku Gakkou). Girls audition to get in from between their first year after Junior High School up through just following their High School graduation. Thousands try to get into TMS every year, but only about 40-45 are accepted. Girls spend two years in the school before their debut (hatsubutai). Even then, they generally only get very minor roles for YEARS - particularly in the case of otokoyaku (the actresses who play male roles). And even then, not everyone gets to be a star.

For example, Ranju Tomu, who will be Phoenix Wright, is currently in her 13th year with the revue and she's still not a Top Star (she's nibante, or second ranked, right behind Soragumi's Yamato Yuuga.

In short, these aren't your normal actresses who fill in the spots in other "myu"s. These girls are trained for things like this.

So, as for why it's set in America and uses the American names? The simple answer - and EXACTLY the way it was worded in the interviews - is that the American names are more Takarazuka-esque. Unless Takarazuka is performing a more traditional nihonmono, typically they don't use Japanese names. There is a HEAVY western influence in the revue. Actually, before the news started circling around the gaming fandom (the news came out around noon here yesterday on the official Takarazuka home page) and before reports started coming out concerning the use of the American names, my friends and I were saying that it would be ODD to have the Japanese names in a Takarazuka show.

You have to try to look at this from the other side. This is a collaboration, not solely a capcom or Gyakuten Saiban thing. Takarazuka has almost 100 years of tradition behind it and Takarazuka fans (Japanese and western - myself included) are among the most fervant and loyal that you'll find.

If they use the english names.. will thet pronounce it like "finikksu" or whatever then? =P

I am a huge Phoenix Wright fan, and I too would love to see a new game, anime, etc...but the reactions of some people to the announcement is bordering on ridiculous.

Okay, so as I understand some of you think that Capcom is "wasting time" on things like concerts and muscials that don't cater to an overseas audience. (Entitlement much?) Frankly, CoJ doesn't really care all that much about what goes on outside of Japan, and have no reason to bother creating something that's marketable worldwide, since outside of the Tokyo Game Show they largely leave the overseas merchandising and promotion to CoA and CoE.

On top of that, these two events probably take up 2% of Capcom's manpower. Of course, the concert was performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. Capcom didn't hire people off the street and train them for this. They didn't pull all the designers and programmers from their PCs and said "OK guys, we're going to do this concert, so learn to play a string instrument pronto." Of course not! It took very little effort from the people at Capcom (who made staggering amounts of money to boot) and a huge chunk of manpower from the Tokyo Philharmonic musicians and their staff to put together this concert which SOLD OUT WITHIN 24 HOURS OF TICKETS GOING ON SALE. To the point where they scheduled two MORE concerts. In case it wasn't apparant, the fanbase for this kind of thing is -huge- in Japan and now they can sell recordings, which can even be enjoyed by us ungrateful types who could not go.

Regarding Takarazuka...EXACTLY THE SAME. I recognize Takarazuka is not everyone's cup of tea. But guess what, it's almost 100% positive that THEY approached CAPCOM about doing a show, not the other way around, and it's going to be entirely organized and put off by the troupe staff. That's how it works. >_< Of course Capcom is going to promote this show because it's FREE PUBLICITY for the series, with essentially zero work on their part.

So let's recap: thousands of Japanese GS fans are throwing money at Capcom, who don't need to do anything at all except sign a few papers and cut the red ribbon to open the floodgates to more money. Yeah, probably their game staff are hard at work, if not on GS, then on something else...do you really think they'll have nothing at their booth at Tokyo Game Show three weeks from now? If they DO have more info on GS5 or other new canon work, it's going to be unveiled at TGS and not before, like it has been every year up until now.

Don't forget, the earlier games were all ports that needed little tweaking. GS4 was announced in 2004, but they didn't have anything to show for it until unveiling the nearly-finished game at TGS 2006. GS5 was announced in early 2007. Apollo Justice was featured at TGS in 2007. I would be very surprised if there was no Gyakuten Saiban feature at the show this year, so I highly doubt Capcom is slacking off or delaying the games for the sake of extras. It just takes more time to make a game that's not 90% GBA port.

Someone mind translating pieces of this, especially near the end, where two pieces of merchandise? games? other? were announced with dates.

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The dates near the end are for the Takarazuka shows.

'Do you ship to my country?
We only ship to the United States.'
>_>

Besides, ordering from the jp store directly means less of them needing to mess around with merchandise, since they don't know what will sell well out of Japan.

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KuroiShi I think you're exaggerating the degree of "entitlement" involved in people's disappointment with the announcement. Capcom has been telling us for a while now that "If the fans are vocal enough, we will give them what they want." Their employees have declared in podcasts and to me personally that they are all impressed with the strength and devotion of the Ace Attorney fandom. But for months we've been watching exclusive merchandise come out only in Japan - Tshirts and keychains and bracelets and all sorts of cheap, fun merchandise. Everyone keeps saying that they would buy these things, and Capcom keeps saying "If you want them, we'll bring them over" but that just never happens.

No, they're not required to give us anything. But then they shouldn't be saying things like "We'd like to localize the Encyclopedia" or "We'd like to do a concert outside Japan" when it's kind of clear by now they have no intention of doing projects that costly just for us.

And it's not like everyone is sitting and complaining pointlessly - that's why we started a thread on Capcom's board to rally for more stuff. We are turning our disappointment into something productive. Even the people who support the musical should be over there right now to rally for more DVDs to be made!

Plus I think your memory of events is a little off. GS4 was announced to be in production shortly after the first of the DS remakes came out in Japan. They then showed Apollo for the first time at E3 later that year, and the Famitsu released a few articles that introduced us to Kristoph and the new Phoenix, before TGS. TGS had the playable demo and the game came out in the spring. There was a lot of lead-up to the game, art and interviews and such. Pretty much the same is happening with Kenji now - the announcement, the articles, a playable demo at TGS, release in the spring.

But we haven't heard word one on GS5. It hasn't even been announced to be in production, short of a single line rumor reported a year and a half ago. In her latest interview Matsukawa made it sound like she's not working on it at all, and she's the series producer. So the fear that GS5 is being set back because of spinoffs like Kenji and extras like concerts and such isn't entirely unfounded.

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And it looks like the very last one said what we already know now, that Gyakuten Kenji will be out in Spring of 2009. ^_^

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I had not read the latest interview, was just recalling the news that was going around a year and a half back...still, I'd rather give Matsukawa the benefit of the doubt, especially given what an immense success GS4 was, as I recall it was the best-selling game in the series in Japan?

I know not everyone is complaining about it, there have been more good reactions than bad from what I've seen, but the attitude of some people was really starting to get to me to the point that I de-lurked here for the first time.

Capcom....has always said things like "oh, if there's interest, maybe we can do something..." (I've been in the fandom of one of their others series for a LONG time) but rarely do they ever follow through, sadly, even when the staff of that series is very interested. I suspect that's for a combination of reasons, and is highly annoying. Perhaps they've been looking at what Square's doing with regards to their worldwide concerts and saying "we should try that too," but never getting past the meeting stage. I don't know if it'll ever change.

At TGS last year, Apollo Justice had been -featured- with the first demo at the Capcom booth. It was definitely seeing publicity long before that. I just meant that at each of the Game Shows in recent years, a display for Gyakuten Saiban was up, and I'm sure this year will be no exception. Maybe it will just be for Kenji since that's had a lot of coverage...but if the rumour we heard about GS5 over a year back was true, this upcoming Tokyo Game Show is just about the right time for things to happen.

Capcom has already said that there is going to be a playable demo of Gyakuten Kenji at the Tokyo Game Show this year B:

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But... is there going to be GS5 news? ^_^;;

Arrrgh, October can't come fast enough. O_o

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Opera? Well I cant say Im not disappointed. I was hoping for an anime

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Yes. What I said was maybe it will just be Kenji, but there is a good chance there will be GS5 news.

It seems from the press release that they're going to be upplaying the whole Naruhodou/Mayoi romance aspect. Though it will be strange as the heroine usually wears really dramatic clothes, and in this case...Mayoi wears pretty simple clothes befitting a simple asthetic.

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That's a very good point.