[Honey’s Anime Interview] Hinni Yanagisawa from NTT Solmare (Shall we Date? Series) - Anime Expo 2018

2:00 PM July 17, 2018

Anime Convention / Anime Expo [Article Category]

The people behind the amazing “Shall We Date” series with romance for everyone!

For fans of otome games, especially mobile apps, the “Shall We Date” series is well known. Themes range from fairytale settings like “Wizardess Heart” or “Lost Alice” to darker tales like “Blood and Roses” or “Niflheim” as the company prides itself on unique worlds and stories to entertain readers with different interests. They know not all otome game fans are the same and strive to match the desires of their wide audience. Hinni Yanagisawa walked us through the different attractions they had at their setup this year at Anime Expo. After exchanging pleasantries, we got into what Solmare is excited to share with their fans at AX and beyond.

Honey-Chan

Hinni Yanagisawa

Interview with Hinni Yanagisawa from NTT Solmare (Shall we Date? Series)

Would you like to tell us what all you’ve got here today?

We have the booth divided into 4 different corners. One is for males, with “Moe Ninja Girls”. That’s a game that’s available on Apple Store and Google Play. Basically, you’re raising a ninja girl, making her become stronger. So your ninja girl fights other ninja girls. But today, we’re making YOU fight with her. So girls and guys can fight with her. But she’s pretty strong so if the guys aren’t man enough, they might lose to her and she’ll beat them up. So that’s the first corner.
The second corner we have is based on Alice in Wonderland trick art, it’s like 3D art. There’s no wall or floor, and if you look from a certain angle it looks 3D and it looks like you’re falling into Wonderland.

And the third one we have a survey where we ask you to pick who’s your favorite guy and favorite girl. That way we can know which guy is the most popular guy in our games. You don’t really know the personality just by looking at them, so it’s just by looks, who do you like the most. Then you get a free bag with the guys on them.

And then the last one is our free spinner. It’s a casual game, you do a free spinner and then you can get a prize. So that’s our booth!

Tell us about some of your newer games!

“Lost Alice” and “Moe Ninja Girls” came out about 2 years ago, and our newest one is “My Shelf”. That’s the only game we’re doing right now that’s localized, so it’s got a more American art, comic book style. That way it’s easier for non-otaku or non-otome fans to get into it.

In “Blood and Roses”, you have a next generation continuation of the game. Are you going to be doing that for other games as well?

Right now we’re making a new game coming out in winter that instead of having one theme, it’ll have many different themes. “Lost Alice” is just Alice in Wonderland themed, “Wizardess Heart” is just about wizards, but this game by January or February will have many different themes under one title.

Do you think you’ll have more games for guys in the future or will you still focus mostly on girls?

We’re actually making a second “Moe Ninja Girls” game as an RPG. After all, they’re ninjas, so they’re supposed to be fighting!

What’s something important in all your otome games?

A sense of security. You know they’re not going to cheat on you, they’re not going to look away from you, you’re their princess. Also, if you were to have a relationship with someone but not really know them, it’s kind of awkward. So with every character in every game, we make it so you can really get to know the characters.
We also try to have new themes for each game. Our fans don’t want the same story each time. For every game, we have a different scenario writer. We have a producer that checks to make sure it has a certain level of quality but the scenario writers don’t work together.

Tell us more about the motion capture Moe Ninja Girls game!

So in the game, you can throw shuriken and hit the ninja girl, but she’s REALLY strong. And she has magic. Our next ninja game coming out is for girls this winter, and then this one will be coming out after that.

So for the next ninja game, will it be girls can date girls or will they be dating guys?

Actually, we wanted to have it both ways so girls can date girls or guys. In “Love Tangled”, one of the dating options is also a girl.

Hinni mentioned the face cut-outs shaped like Instagram pictures with different boys from the Shall We Date series were just something for people to do while they waited, but ended up being immensely popular. Foreseeably, many women liked posing with their chosen hubby but quite a few guys cozied up for some pictures with shirtless hunks as well. By Saturday, the 4000 limited edition bags has dwindled down but the lines for the new motion capture game remained long. As a company that looks for innovative ways to fulfil fantasy romance for everyone, NTT Solmare has us looking forward to what they come out with next year!

Writer

Author: May

Hey friends! I reside in Georgia and use my degree in Japanese primarily to (barely) read doujinshi that hasn’t been translated. Beyond deciding who is best girl in whatever I happen to be watching, I really enjoy ballroom dancing, reading, crying over dating sims, karaoke, and being surrounded by beautiful things~ (You know, scenery, décor, boys, stuff like that). I also love talking about passions with others!

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