For the past 9 years, the "Tales of Festival" has gathered far and wide fans of the Tales series, a massive franchise started by Namco Ltd. (now Bandai Namco Entertainment), dating back to the year 1995 and consisting of 16 console games, plus spin-offs and mobile app games. The first “Tales of Festival”, a grand celebration of all things Tales, was held in 2008. Regardless of the franchise’s age, since then the event has only grown with each coming year. This year’s celebration, like the last few preceding it, was held at the Yokohama Arena (capacity of 17,000), and spanned over two days. The theme of this year’s event was “Natsu Matsuri”, or the traditional Japanese “Summer Festival”!
The TOM Team had the very lucky chance to participate in this exciting event, and we hope that we can bring fans a taste of what it was like to be a part of this spectacular gathering!
Arriving at the Yokohama Arena on a rainy afternoon, despite being 2 hours early for the event, the venue itself was already buzzing with energy. My first stop was a fun outdoor festival food spot with Tales themed food and drink outside of the venue.
Turning a corner, I lined up where I thought must have been the entrance to the event, judging by how the line snaked around the entire building, but it turns out to just have been the line for official merchandise. It looked to be at least an hour or two wait just to gain access to the booth! Considering the event started at around 3:30 pm and ended at 8 pm, this event really was a whole day affair.
After meeting up with the rest of the team, we made our way through the press entrance and into the venue’s lobby. We passed by a human-wall of attendees; and stopped to photograph the impressive display of flower-stands lined up outside of the arena entrance.
Sending flower bouquets to events is common practice for companies/sponsors as good luck and congratulations. But for anime, game, or idol events, groups of fans will often come together and purchase extravagant flower bouquets dedicated to their favorite character(s)! These unique arrangements typically cost anywhere around $200 ~ $500 and are one of the highest shows of dedication from fans to their beloved characters.
But what better way to show your dedication than decking out your own clothing? It’s not a summer festival without some traditional Japanese summer gear. Despite the overcast outside, it was full on summer festival mode inside with the crowds of event goers in pretty yukata and festive wear! Fans could also be spotted wearing the official “happi” and decked out in merchandise of their favorite characters.
After escaping the sea of fans waiting to purchase goods near the merchandise booth, we wandered into the 2nd floor which was much emptier in comparison. It was now about a half hour before the start of the event, but we hear the music inside erupt in the same moment as the audience’s collective cheering.
Leaving the mission of light-stick and pamphlet acquisition to my teammate, I took a peek inside the arena hall and was greeted with a mind blowingly impressive stage setup, surrounded by an ocean of light. With each new Tales series opening song that was being played, event goers were changing the colors of their light-sticks to match the image color of the game that it belonged to! Watching the crowd light up in one color after the next was just another testament to the love and energy that could be felt for a timeless series like Tales brought forth by the power of its fans.
The main event starts with a bang, featuring the cast members of the Tales games in a live skit, as well as a small themed talk show section. This year a total of 14 cast members from the Tales games appeared for the first day. Voice actors of Zelos (Onosaka Masaya) and Edna (Fukuen Misato) who served as MCs of the event were charismatic, beyond energetic, and downright hilarious. This year’s “summer festival” themed skit was performed in-character and accompanied by in-game skit visuals shown on the big screen, drawing in endless laughs from the audience, with thrown in tongue-in-cheek interactions through the camera screen for the thousands of live-viewers tuning in to the event via movie theaters across the country. Secret guest Velvet (Rina Satou), the main character for the newest Tales game, Tales of Berseria, made her entrance just in-time for announcements about the upcoming title!
Announcements for the Tales franchise in the upcoming year included brand new PV and new character visuals revealed. It was confirmed that the new Tales of Berseria game (releasing Aug. 18, 2016 for PS3/PS4) will be a tale of revenge, unlike most of its predecessors. And for the first time in Tales history, the game will star a female heroine as the stand-alone main protagonist. New characters “Artorius”, a man once called “brother” by the protagonist Velvet, and “Seres”, a fire-spirit whose allegiance still remains a mystery, were also introduced. The Original Soundtrack for the game will be released on Sept. 28, 2016.
Tales of Zestiria the X, the new anime starting this season for Tales of Zestiria also has some exciting events coming up, including exclusive live screenings of the anime, limited-edition Blu-ray box sets releasing on Dec. 22, 2016, and the official ending song “calling” (by fhana) to be released on Aug. 3, 2016. Exciting news for fans abroad as well, starting from July 12, ufotable cafe will be hosting a collaboration themed cafe for Zestiria the X! Another popular otaku tourist destination, Akihabara UDX, plans to host the ufotable 15th anniversary exhibition, which will exhibit stills from the anime along with other ufotable works.
Last but not least, the opening songs for Zestiria the X (“Kaze no Uta”) and Tales of Berseria (“Burn”), both performed by rock band FLOW, will be released as a double a-side single on Aug. 24, 2016.
The announcements lead into a special mini-concert by guest star FLOW, firing up the audience to new heights during the latter half of the event. The set list starts with “Burn”, and continues with “Colors” and “Steppin’ Out”, firing up the audience with the classic anime song “GO!!” before their finale.
They end with a passionate rendition of “Kaze no Uta”, and the crowd cheered fervently as the band and cast members all line up for one last hurrah of “Viva! Tales Oh!” with everyone at the end of the night.
During the end call, cast members shared some final laughs with the audience, and genuine messages of love for the Tales series game as a whole, reminding us that next year will be the year to watch for as the “Tales of Festival” event moves into its 10th year anniversary. Tales of Vesperia, one of the most popular games in the franchise, will also be 10 years old come 2017.
The second day of the event included new guest cast members, as well as several new announcements including new mobile game Tales of The Rays, a hello kitty and ToZ collaboration, and a ToZ and Idol-master mobile game collaboration.
The power of love and support for this timeless series was truly moving and positively contagious, an experience that we would recommend to even casual Tales fans!
Lastly, western fans can watch out for the launch Tales of Berseria in 2017!
Official Website (JP)
This is a Tokyo Otaku Mode original article by Jessica T. with photography by Takemori S.
Check out our Tales series products here!
Check out the Gallery below for more awesome pictures from the event!