News

Kyoto Governor to Ask Japanese Gov't to Add Prefecture to State of Emergency

The governor of Kyoto prefecture stated on Friday that he has asked the Japanese government to add Kyoto to the list of prefectures that are placed under a state of emergency. Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a state of emergency in seven prefectures on Tuesday, including Osaka and Hyogo (both neighbors to Kyoto) and Tokyo. The governor of Aichi prefecture similarly asked the Japanese government on Thursday to add that prefecture to the list, and then independently declared a state of emergency on Friday.

The seven prefectures will remain under a state of emergency until May 6.

Newly announced events and places affected by concerns over the new coronavirus illness (COVID-19) include:

Exhibitions

The 25th anniversary exhibition for the Rurouni Kenshin franchise has been postponed until 2021. The exhibition was originally planned to take place in Tokyo from April 24 to June 7.

The Niigata leg of the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba exhibition that was scheduled to run from April 25 through May 17 has been postponed to February 2021. The Tokyo leg of the exhibit, which was previously cancelled, will now run in spring 2021. The Fukuoka, Osaka, Ishikawa, and Aichi legs of the exhibition are still planned for July and August.

Video Games

The official website for Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIV MMORPG announced on Friday that the game's patch 5.3, which was planned for mid-June, will be delayed. Producer and director Naoki Yoshida added his team are "undecided as to whether it will be feasible to limit the delay to two or three weeks, or if it will be closer to a month." Yoshida assured fans that his team will be maintaining servers from home, and the game's development and production teams are "all doing fine at present."

Theme Parks

The staff of the SMALL WORLDS TOKYO theme park revealed on Thursday that the park's grand opening has been postponed. The theme park was scheduled to officially open on April 25.

SMALL WORLDS is building the world's largest indoor theme park of scale miniatures with anime creator Shōji Kawamori as its chief creative officer. The theme park will open with scale replicas of world-renowned landmarks and imaginary locales in Tokyo's Ariake area.

In addition to real-world locales such as London and Hong Kong, the theme park will feature recreations of anime locales such as Evangelion's Tokyo-3 and Sailor Moon's Crystal Tokyo. It will employ practical special effects such as underground motors with magnets, projection mapping, and smoke machines to put the miniatures in motion.

Events

An event screening for the Ore wo Suki na no wa Omae Dake ka yo ~Ore-tachi no Game Set~ OVA that was slated to take place on May 16 has been cancelled.

Anime

The staff of the new Love Live! anime series have postponed the open auditions for the show's main cast members.

Sources: NHK, Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba franchise's Twitter account (link 2) via Nijimen, Final Fantasy XIV game's website, SMALL WORLDS news via email correspondence, Comic Natalie, Love Live! franchise's Twitter account via Nijipoi