Project Sakura Wars Anime Trailer, Stage Play Cast and More Revealed

Sega held the final stream before Project Sakura Wars‘ release in Japan today. We got all the details on the DLCs, which we compiled in a separate article, along with new announcements, most notably regarding the Project Sakura Wars Anime, which will start airing in April 2020.

But first off, one of the songs in the game were revealed, titled “Arata Naru”. This is “track 2” from the OST which wasn’t revealed until now. You can hear it at the timestamp linked below.

Track 3 still wasn’t revealed and they stressed out on stream you should only listen to it after clearing the game unless you don’t care about spoilers.

Next, the full cast for the stage play, Shin Sakura Taisen The Stage, was revealed:

Yuna Sekine as Sakura Amamiya
Rina Takahashi as Shinonome Hatsuho
Yui Kanchiku as Azami Mochizuki
Juri Hirayu as Anastasia Palma
Natsume Oki as Claris

The stage play currently has 8 representations planned from march 5 to 8. This is normal and stage plays like these don’t initially get a lot of showings, and instead do more later at anime or games related events.

Next, a new trailer for the Project Sakura Wars anime, Shin Sakura Taisen The Animation, was revealed. The anime will start airing in April 2020.

Just like the manga, the anime will be slightly different and focus on Sakura Amamiya as the protagonist. Seijuro will still be appearing though. His seiyuu Yohei Azakami mentioned how the first recording session for the anime was actually the first time all the seiyuu of the New Flower Division characters recorded together. Michie Tomizawa/Sumire most notably told Azakami that Seijuro is a really serious captain unlike Ogami, which made all the girls look at him with eyes full of doubt. Seeing Sumire only interacts with Seijuro as his boss, Michie Tomizawa didn’t get to voice dialogues related to all the dumb choices Seijuro can do. Ayaka Fukuhara also mentioned how the seiyuu and herself were happy to meet Michie Tomizawa.

They also mentioned the anime’s dubbing is over. Kohei Tanaka again mentioned he did a new song for the anime’s ending theme. He also jokingly mentioned he received the anime’s first episode as a sample but he didn’t watch it because it takes forever to download. So he’s just gonna wait for the anime’s official start in April.

It was also officially announced that that the anime exclusive characters is the Moscow Combat Revue. Sega teased it at TGS 2019, mentioning the snowflakes on the visual were hints. It was pretty obvious it’d be Moscow seeing the Sakura Taisen series’ use of stereotypes. The Moscow Combat Revue characters and their character designer will be revealed next stream in late January.

Next, we had multiple announcements regarding goods and the like. We’ve summarized them below.

The cover illustration for the first volume of Shin Sakura Taisen The Comic, the Project Sakura Wars manga. It’ll launch in Japan on December 19, at the same time as the novel adaptation. Producer Katano almost spoiled things by chatting about the manga.

The menu for the Animax café collab was revealed with cute, new SD illustrations.

A 60 cm Sakura Amamiya doll by Dollfie Dream was announced for Spring 2020.

A Sakura Amamiya Nendoroid by Good Smile Company was announced.

This week’s Famitsu magazine, Weekly Famitsu December 26, 2020, issue, has a Shin Sakura Taisen cover. The physical version is actually sold out on Amazon JP. The magazines Voice Brody vol 6 and Seiyuu Animedia January 2020 issue also includes interviews with the game’s seiyuu.

The Project Sakura Wars Official Strategy Guide was also announced and will launch in February 2020 in Japan.

Project Sakura Wars will also be featured at Jump Festa 2020 on December 21-22. People who play the demo at the stand will receive a random bromide. There are bromides of the male characters too.

Last but not least, Tanaka Kohei also announced multiples things. The full OST of Shin Sakura Taisen, with all the BGMs along with the vocal songs, will be launching in Spring 2020.
Moreover, Kohei Tanaka announced he’s doing an acoustic concert in Japan on May 4. Saori Hayami/Claris and harmonica player Risa Minami will also be part of it. The concert will focus on Sakura Taisen, and it’s one of the projects Kohei Tanaka is planning for his career’s 40th anniversary in 2020.

Ending the stream, as everyone was chatting about the game’s release, Kohei Tanaka chatted about how he remembers in his youth lining up for games releases in Akihabara. For Dragon Quest releases especially, and how long lines would become.
Back when Sakura Taisen 1 released, the development team went to Akiba to check how the game was doing. Kohei Tanaka and series creator Hiroi Oji were both too stressed to go. They were really relieved when they heard the game was selling well. Kohei Tanaka hopes the same thing will happen with Shin Sakura Taisen.

Sega announced the next Shin Sakura Taisen stream will happen in late January.

【12月11日(水) 生放送終了】
皆様、ご視聴ご参加ありがとうございました！公式生放送「サクラ大戦帝劇宣伝部通信」発売記念公開生放送スペシャルは終了いたしました！

PS4『新サクラ大戦』は、いよいよ明日12月12日(木)発売です！！#新サクラ大戦 #サクラ大戦 pic.twitter.com/BeSP3EqDou

— サクラ大戦公式@SEGA (@Sakura_Taisen) December 11, 2019

The usual photo with everyone who appeared on stream. From left to right, MC Mami Yamashita, Yohei Azakami/Seijuro, Yuna Sekina/Sakura Amamiya in the Stage Play, Ayaka Fukuhara/Anastasia, Composer Kohei Tanaka, Producer Tetsu Katano.

Project Sakura Wars, named Shin Sakura Taisen in Japan, released there today. We’ll publish soon a gameplay video with us playing through and live translating the first hours of the game. Meanwhile, you can check our playthrough of the demo.

Project Sakura Wars launches in Spring 2020 in the west. You can read more about Project Sakura Wars with our previous coverage:

First story details and the first trailer

Spoilers from the unfinished French trailer

Comments on the Sakura Taisen series from its original creator Oji Hiroi

Translation of the Famitsu interview with the staff: Part 1 Part 2

Comments from the main cast

Comments from Toshihiro Nagoshi, story and mecha details

Gameplay intro videos for Sumire, Kaoru, and Komachi

Comments from Sumire’s seiyuu Michie Tomizawa

Shangai characters designed by Lucky Star’s Yukiko Horiguchi, new gameplay

Toshihiro Nagoshi explaining the switch to action RPG battles

London characters designed by Sword Art Online‘s Abec, new gameplay