20 years ago, there was such a game that became popular in Japan. Its protagonists are all girls who can sing and dance, they are usually the stars of the theater, and once the demons attack, they will sit on the mech to defend the imperial capital. In addition to the girls and mechs, there are also demon monks who have been dormant for thousands of years, steam motherships that swim in the sky, singable sacrifices and hard-won love - this game is "Sakura Wars".
Speaking of Prince Hiroi, the original creator of Sakura Wars, he is a guy who pedals two boats in animation and games, and "Legend of the Demon God Hero" is his masterpiece. At the same time, he is also passionate about various overhead settings. At the end of the 1980s, a book by Western historians about ancient Japanese stories, "Far East Eden", opened his eyes, which led to the Japanese wind RPG "Outer Heaven Demon Land". This time, he put "Sakura Wars" into modern times. In "Sakura Wars", the alternate space and reality coexist, and we can see both the imagination of Prince Hiroi and the imprint of real history.
When it comes to "Sakura Wars", its slogan "Taizheng Romance" is very exquisite. "Taisho" is the emperor's era name in the game, which corresponds to the real-world Taisho era, 1912-1926. Compared with the self-made Meiji era, on the one hand, the feudal lords and elders of the Meiji period stepped down one after another to leave political space; on the other hand, the politics were stable, and when Japan made great war wealth in World War I, the economic development was steady, and a number of middle-class classes emerged.
As a result, a wind of democracy blew all over the land of Fuso, and the civil rights movement and literary and artistic activities were unprecedentedly developed, so the great literary hero Natsume Shushi joyfully called this period of time "Taisho romance". Interestingly, the era name "Taizheng" did not come entirely from the brains of Prince Hiroi, who, under the wind of democracy at that time, gained the right to establish local councils, so Taiwanese historians jokingly called it "Taizheng" to praise that period of history.
Corresponding to this is the "taizheng" history of true and false mixing. The "Imperial Chinese Strike Group", which is basically composed of all women, is taken from the Takarazuka established in the third year of Taisho (1914), and the Takarazuka is divided into groups such as "Flower, Moon, Snow, Star, and Zeus". Prince Hiroi copied it as it was, and divided the Hua Strike Group into groups of "Flowers, Moons, Snow, Dreams, Winds, and Stars".
Both flower groups play the role of carrying handles. In Japanese, the Chinese Strike Troupe and the Opera Troupe harmonize, and in order to cultivate spiritual power, girls usually need to perform in theaters like Takarazuka stars. The Game's Grand Empire Theater is also real, but it was destroyed in the Tokyo Earthquake.
Of course, the other settings of the game, such as the use of human superpowers to control the spirit steam weapon, the protection of the seal of the imperial capital, the mirage of the thousand-year-old demon monk, such as similarities, pure fiction, exclusive to the parallel world of "Taizheng steampunk". If we do a little research, we will find that these settings are not purely Prince Hiroi, and some people have made similar settings as early as the eighties.
Japan has many natural disasters, unpredictable natural power, and the spirit of all things is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and all kinds of demons and monsters are popular. After the realization of modernization, these strange talks have also been transferred from the countryside to the city and have become various urban legends. Although the Great Tokyo Earthquake was caused by evil spirits, militarism must also be polluting people's hearts, and modern technology and folk beliefs are mixed together to form a fantasy style with Japanese characteristics. In the 1980s, the novel "The Tale of The Imperial Capital" by writer Hiroshi Aramata was a "masterpiece" that combined imaginary history and fantasy. The Five Elements of Yin and Yang, the Qi men and the Qi Men, the Mirror Listening, the Worm in the Abdomen, the Worm Technique, and the Style God are about to exert their power in the new era.
In 1912, as Japan was on its way to a rapid development, industrialist Eiichi Shibusawa prepared to implement his "Imperial Capital Transformation Plan." In addition to transforming the city, he also invited the Yin-Yang Master Hirai Homasa to appease the Pingjunmen Spirit who was buried underground, and used his huge spiritual power to defend the imperial capital. At the same time, the demon Kato Hoshin also tries to awaken Hei shomon's spiritual power to destroy Tokyo, and he kidnaps Hiratshomon's descendant, Tatsumiya Yuri, in a vain attempt to use her as a psychic medium. For a time, Tokyo was miserable and a great war was imminent.
After the publication of "Dido Story", it became the limelight for a while, and it was successively adapted into animation, TV series and manga - but there was no game. This was just convenient for Prince Hiroi to move the spiritual power, the imperial capital and other settings one by one, and even the final boss demon monk Tenkai was also related to Kato Hoken - Kato Hoshin's hometown was near the Tenkai ashram. Of course, Prince Hiroi will not copy purely, and he still shows his old and spicy skills in game production.
Outer Heavens was the first game in Japan to incorporate a large number of animations, and Sakura Wars further referenced the chapter form of television animation, with anime trailers between each chapter. From the first episode, starting from the heroine Maguji Sakura, taking turns to introduce a team member, and then the Apocalypse attacked, the opera house was attacked, once again strengthening Sakura's heroine status. Immediately after that, the decisive battle of the Heavenly Sea was launched, and the flying battleship "Mikasa" launched a desperate counterattack, and the members of the team bravely moved forward and sacrificed their lives to complete the task. In terms of character settings and game scripts, "Sakura Wars" is not an ordinary beautiful girl love + warboard game, not to mention the image of "female men" such as Kana Kirishima, Li Honglan's parents died in the Xinhai Revolution, and Maria's parents died in Siberian exile, which also revealed its strong "overhead history" component. In its sequel, we can also see that "Sakura Wars" not only follows the basic design of "Dido Monogatari", but also inherits its historical view.
"Didu Story" is not only a hodgepodge of science and strange powers, but also has elements of social psychology. Kato Hoshinami has made a comeback because he is the carrier of the 2,000-year-old resentment of the Yamato nation and represents the dark side of Japan as a whole.
In order to destroy Japan, in addition to natural disasters such as the Tokyo earthquake, he also continued to spread extreme ideas to corrupt people's hearts and minds – the extreme ideas of Japan in the last century, the first of which was militarism. Kato Hoshin's image has always been that of an army officer in a military coat, and the army was the most stubborn fortress of old Japanese militarism. The anime and film only show the first four volumes with the Great Tokyo Earthquake as the core, and in the subsequent episodes, the security movements of the 226, 918, and even the 6-70s, as well as the mutiny instigated by Yukio Mishima, are all behind him. He was not resisted by dignitaries, but entrepreneurs, scientists, yin-yang teachers, and left-wing students. Japanese historical films tend to portray the idealized side of coup officers, but in The Tale of the Imperial Capital, through the image of Kato Hoshin, Aramata Hiroshi clearly points out that no matter how good the starting point, militarism can only lead the country to extinction.
The subtitle of "Sakura Wars 2", "Wangjun Zhenzhong", comes from an anti-war poem, these words are from the poems of female writers and Xie Ye Jingzi, which are used to bid farewell to the brother who is about to go to the Lushun meat grinder.
In the poem, the female writer laments, "My brother must not go to death, the king disappears." Let you sprinkle blood for him, and let people be martyred in the Tiger Wolf Road. The spearhead pointed directly at the emperor. This made the Patriotic Youth of Japan at that time furious and regarded her as the number one Huangzuo Grand Virgin in China. However, no one thought at the time that Meiji and Taisho dissidents still had the opportunity to grow and speak, and that in the coming Showa years, they would burn jade.
Taisho is an era of development and an era of intensification of contradictions. With the rapid development of social economy, the gap between the rich and the poor is constantly widening, and the middle and lower classes are constantly impacting the shackles set by the aristocracy and the feudal lords. In addition to democratic ideas, extremely left-right Nazi ideology and anarchism are also taking off. The assassination of the first civilian Prime Minister, Hara Kei, was assassinated in 1921, setting a precedent for violent politics. The Great Tokyo Earthquake of 1923 gave many careerists the opportunity to succeed in their ambitions.
After the Tokyo earthquake broke out, Regent Crown Prince Hirohito and the government quickly issued martial law and declared military control. In addition to disaster relief and the restoration of order, the army also took the opportunity to massacre Koreans and hunt down left-wing dissidents. The introduction of martial law made it conceivable to radicals in the military that if they obtained martial law, they would be able to ignore normal procedures and form their own governments. Natural disasters are easy to find, man-made disasters are easy to obtain, and the Tokyo Earthquake opened the prelude to the "turbulent Showa history".
During the Meiji period, Japan's domestic situation deteriorated further due to the world economic crisis. The Japanese Army is also caught up in the struggle between the "Imperial Taoist Faction" and the "Unification Faction". In the early morning of February 26, 1936, the "Imperial Taoist" young army officers staged a coup d'état that attacked several government departments in Tokyo and killed several senior ministers. The coup officers then appealed to the Emperor to change the government and carry out the "Showa Restoration."
The enraged Emperor refused the request of the officers of the coup and declared a crackdown, which was confirmed as a failure on the 28th. Although the "Imperial Taoist faction" is a militarist radical faction, it still has the aspect of fighting corruption and restricting the privileged class to serve the people. After 226, many of the prudent civilian officials in the government were killed, and the army was controlled by the more conservative and commanding factions that advocated the overall war system, and embarked on the road of no return to accelerate the launching of a world war.
Sakura Vs. 2 is still in the "Taishō Era", but Prince Hiroi quietly turns the timeline to Showa. This time the Chinese strike group will face the enemy inside. From the very beginning of the story, the Chinese strike group was frequently plotted, first the commander-in-chief Yoneda Kazuki was shot, and then the budget was suspended. What's even more interesting is that the Chinese Strike Regiment itself was hostile to the new Minister of War Kyogoku Keigo, and when Maguyaji Sakura attacked Kyogoku, it was the leader of the Society who destroyed the imperial capital, the Ghost King, who intervened to block the attack. With the escalation of the contradictions between the two sides, Kyogoku Keigo finally could not hold back and launched a coup d'état, of course, under love and justice, evil will inevitably end in failure.
Although the Taizheng Japan is not peaceful, under the struggle of the flower group, it can finally overcome the danger, as long as it can kill the first evil, it can continue to sing and dance lightly and move towards a better future. Unfortunately, in our parallel world called "Taisho", there is no such a group of beautiful and righteous girls fighting for peace, and the giant spirits formed by the human heart will not disappear because of the death of individual characters, and finally only a group of angry young people who "don't know whether I am crazy or stupid, only know that I am running all the way" are running farther and farther on the road of destruction. A few years later, after wreaking havoc across Asia, Tokyo would also be carpeted by American strategic bombardment. Today, Kato Hoshin's brothers are still wandering in the land of Syria and Ukraine, and the cycle of history has been repeatedly staged, and the Qin people have no time to mourn for themselves and the future generations, and the posterity mourns without learning, and also makes the future generations mourn the future generations.