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Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online Voice Actors Battle for Supremacy at Special Event
posted on by Kim Morrissy
Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online held a “Squad Jam Party” fan event on September 16 at the Tokyo International Forum. This event consisted of two stage shows (a midday session and an evening session) featuring the main voice cast plus some musical performances. In each stage show, the voice actors would get into teams and compete against each other for victory, Squad Jam style. This report is based on the evening session.
Before the games began, the teams were determined according to the roles they played in the anime. On team LPFM were the protagonists Tomori Kusunoki (the voice actor of LLENN), Yōko Hikasa (Pitohui), Chinatsu Akasaki (Fukaziroh), and Kazuyuki Okitsu (M). They battled against the voice actors of team SHINC, a group of girls from a high school rhythmic gymnastics team that becomes a troop of formidable gunslingers in the world of GGO. The team consists of Ayaka Asai (Eva), M.A.O (Anna), Chitose Morinaga (Toma), Yumi Uchiyama (Sophie), Atsumi Tanezaki (Roza), and Haruka Shiraishi (Tanya).
The voice actors participated in three different games before ultimately deciding the winner. The first game, called “BEST SHOT ONLINE,” involved showing clips of each character in the anime and identifying when the defining moment happens while blindfolded. For example, Sophie's “best shot” was from episode 10 when she died and Toma used her corpse as an immortal object in order to prop up her anti-tank rifle. The team with the smallest margin of error in their guesses won.
On LPFM's side, Kusunoki impressed everybody by identifying her “best shot” at exactly the right time, but she couldn't make up for Hikasa, whose guess was over 20 seconds off the mark. Thus, the match went to SHINC, who had a more consistent performance overall.
The second game was a charades-like game called “BEST POSE ONLINE.” This involved the teams making poses based on a theme, and the team which encapsulated the theme better would win. This time, Okitsu from LPFM was the Most Valuable Player; when the teams were told to do “villain poses,” he stood behind Hikasa and made a comically perverted face. When asked what villain he was trying to be, he said, “a molester.” Okitsu's actions may have cost him his dignity but he did win the game for team LPFM.
The third and final game was called “BEST SNIPE ONLINE.” The actors were given ray guns modeled from the anime and told to shoot at three targets in the audience. Just like their characters in the anime, Kusunoki and Hikasa made a great combination, taking down all the targets in just three seconds. This won them the third game, which meant that LPFM won the games overall. As the members of the team noted, this was the perfect revenge after losing to SHINC in the day session.
After the games concluded, Kusunoki, Hikasa, and Akasaki performed their character songs. They were later joined by ReoNa, the singing voice of Elsa Kanzaki. Finally, the actors concluded the stage show by restating their love for the Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online anime and expressing their hope that the series will get a second season.
Overall, the event was very fun to watch and produced a lot of laughs from the audience. Fortunately, those who couldn't attend the event won't be missing out forever. Footage from this event is planned to be given as a bonus to the people who bought all volumes of the Blu-Ray/DVD set for Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online.
