Feb. 12
Topic for Today: Shinji and Good Friends: Is That Solitaire? Production Notes

Hi! Valentine's Day is almost here!
Here at GAINAX, I'm planning on baking a cake, even though my cooking skills are about on a par with Misato's, while at the same, I'm thinking how much fun it would be if we sold Rei and Asuka chocolates (say, 17cm in length).

Anyway, come Feb. 26, Shinji and Good Friends: Is That Solitaire? is slated to go on sale. It has seven different solitaire games: Klondike, FreeCell, Pyramid, Accordion, Golf, My Pace, and Beleaguered Castle, and you can play them with characters from Neon Genesis Evangelion! Available for Windows95 and 98, it's priced at 7800Yen plus tax.
And everyone who buys the first pressing of Shinji and Good Friends: Is That Solitaire? will receive, as a bonus, Neon Genesis Evangelion Original Special-Edition Playing Cards!
And in this installment, we'll talk about those very playing cards:

(C) GAINAX, Project Eva, TV Tokyo (C) 1999 GAINAX (C) 1998 GAINAX

The card backs are a cute picture of Rei, the same as the packaging--an original illustration by Honda Takeshi! The fronts have portraits of Asuka, Kaworu, and other popular characters too!
These charming illustrations have made for some terribly cute playing cards. They'll have Eva fans watering at the mouth. You'll want them for sure!
Tell all the Eva fans you know about it too. The release date is coming up fast! We're doing all we can to make sure that you get this game on schedule!

(Toshiko)

Hi! It's me, Her Highness Suga Mariko! And as we're coming up on Valentine's Day...
Toshiko is lucky to actually have a boyfriend to spend the day with, and I'm feeling pretty burned up about it. Oh yes.
I'm kidding, really, but she does seem to be putting a fair amount of effort into her Valentine's Day plans this year. She's making a chocolate cake for the first time, and is also apparently carrying out a plan to floor her boyfriend with some secret item he gave her a while back.

As for me, such things are out of the question.
But this year I want a little something to come my way too, so I can give chocolates to someone special.

Well. The release date for this game is almost here.
To all ladies reading this: give it to your boyfriends together with chocolate, if they're Eva fans.

(Her Highness Suga Mariko)
Translator's Note: Feb. 11 is a national holiday in Japan. Thus, there is no diary entry for that date.--MH

Feb. 10
Topic for Today: Kareshi Kanojo no Jijoo Desktop Accessory CollectionProduction Notes

Hi there! How ya doin'?
It's me, Mama Noriko, and the other day my Windows crashed for the last time. It had been left running 24 hours a day as a printer server, which seems to have hastened its demise.
And I hadn't even gotten around to installing the KareKano Beta version yet. My budget spreadsheets, project schedules, Diary text files, my PostPet graphics email program, all lost to the vastness of cyberspace. Oh, it's enough to make me cry. I normally do my graphics production work on a Mac, though, so I'm not really hurting.
With nothing else to do, I go over to the software section, to check on the fun screensavers that they've already got running. They're bustling with activity, like the sunflower screensaver itself, going round and round.

We're getting the production work together on the Kareshi Kanojo no Jijoo Desktop Accessory Collection in time for its Girls' Day, March 3, 1999 shipping date.
In this installment, I'll show you the package art, because it's just so cute.

(c) Tsuda Masami, Hakusensha, GAINAX, The KareKano Group, TV Tokyo, SOFTX (c) 1999 GAINAX

The package art is by Tsurumaki Kazuya. Yukino, Arima, Asaba, Tsukino and Hanano, and PeroPero are all squeezed together.
Tsurumaki gave us an illustration perfectly suited to this software package! Our thanks for his idea of the chewing gum background.
With this desktop accessory collection, full of the lovely and powerful colors of KareKano, your PC will be in fine shape, rain or shine.
Until next week, then.

(Mama Noriko)

Feb. 9
Topic for Today No. 1: What Anno Hideaki has been doing lately.

Oh man, this is hot!
What am I getting so excited about, you ask? On the7th of this month, Anno Hideaki received the New Director's Award at the 20th Annual Yokohama Film Festival for Love & Pop.

The trophy Anno received at the 20th Annual Yokohama Film Festival

For those of you who haven't heard, the Yokohama Film Festival was inaugurated 20 years ago, when the people of Yokohama decided to lend their support to domestic moviemaking. The event has no sponsorship, which means that it can give impartial evaluations of films.
Although he received this prestigious award, from an event known for its track record for spotting talent, all he said was, "Thank you very much." Such a brief statement is very much in keeping with his nature.

Leading lady Miwa Asumi received the Best Debut Actor or Actress Award as well, making Love & Pop unexpectedly graced with accolades.

If you're reading this and still haven't seen Love & Pop, it's now out on video. See for yourself the treatment that Anno gave to the original novel by Murakami Ryu, and how the film differs from other films.

We have something else to celebrate too: the naming of Asteroid Anno Hideaki.
The asteroid was spotted by Nakamura Akimasa, an astronomer at the Kuma Plateau Observatory, and a classmate of Anno's at Ube High School. The two of them made 8mm films of the stars in high school, and this inspired him to name this asteroid after Anno, he says.
We hope you will all observe Asteroid Anno Hideaki.

(Kimoto)

Topic for Today No. 2: Interlude--The Macintosh Situation at the Yamaga Office (Part 2?)

As mentioned previously in this space, we at GAINAX use a lot of different pieces of hardware. The majority are a mix of Macintosh, Windows, and SGI, and the more they get mixed up, the more the staff that use these machines polarize along lines of preference and personal opinion.

The Yamaga Office, on the other hand, is an all-Macintosh operation. We all use Macintoshes in the normal course of things.

This means that when it comes to talking about hardware, we always end up talking about Macs.
Day and night, you can expect to hear things like, "The new five-color iMacs are so cute, I want them!" Or, "The New Power Macintosh G3 is not only reasonably priced, it's really powerful! I want it!" "Yeah, I want one of those too!"

Lately, the thing we're talking the most about is the new Macintosh consumer portable, the announcement of which is something that everyone is looking forward to.

Surprisingly enough, the rate of portable computer ownership at the Yamaga Office is very low indeed, and the biggest reason for that seems to be that we figure will think about purchasing a portable computer until after we've had a long look at them.
The way we eagerly await hardware we haven't even seen yet (hardware which we don't even know when it will be announced, for crying out loud), goes well beyond Macintosh fans. The feeling might almost be described as zeal.

It's more fun than you might think, though, to think about how you want such-and-such, and to count down to its release, assuming you know when that will be, that is. Such are the thoughts of the Yamaga Office staff.

(What we learned this week:

Yamaga sits at his keyboard day and night, pounding away like a demon possessed, but for some reason, he seems to be in high spirits this week. This is the best mood he's been in since, oh, last November, I'd say.

Yamaga: I guest-starred with Kinki Kids (two brothers who are a popular performing duo from the Kinki, or Kansai, region of Japan) on Fuji TV!
S-Take: Huh? When did you manage to work that into your schedule? I didn't know anything about it.
Yamaga: Well, it happened all of a sudden. I got a call in the morning saying that they had tickets.
S-Take: Tickets...?
Yamaga: We did about an hour-and-a-half of filming for about a 30-minute show.
Then he took out a print of a TV screen.

And sure enough, there he was, smiling off to the side of the Kinki Kids duo, who were also smiling! There was something funny about it, though. The lights weren't on him, and there were salarymen in business suits next to him as well.

S-Take: This looks like you're placed off to the side, doesn't it?
Yamaga: Well...kinda...

Now this is getting suspicious. Media exposure could be said to be part of the job, but this...

S-Take: Was there someone singing up near the front?
A cute girl about 18 years of age, with a short haircut?
Yamaga: Well...kinda...

-S-Take, Yamaga Office-

(Mo)

Topic for Today No. 2: This week at NineLives

Here at NineLives, we're all tensed up for the mastering of Dennoo Quizdom (Cyber Quizdom), which happens tomorrow

K: It's finally going to mastering.
Y: Looks that way.
K: What do you mean? Don't you get all the promotional news?
Y: If memory serves, it was supposed to have been mastered last week.
K: Well, there are always problems with making any game.
Y: You mean like buying an illustrated folder on impulse on Sunday, then following that up with a couple new CDs, and finding out that your wallet is empty as a result? That sort of trouble happens all the time. I just dropped the teriyaki chicken I was going to have for lunch.
K: Those are all your own personal problems, aren't they?
Y: Don't sweat it. I've verified the shipping date.
K: Just now, right?
Y: Yep, January 26.
KThat's February 26.
Y: Well, there you are: game production always has problems.

Cyber Quizdom is a Hybrid Mac OS/Windows95-98 CD-ROM, which will have an estimated retail price of 6000Yen (plus tax), and is scheduled to ship Feb. 26, 1999. Assuming it gets mastered on schedule, that is... But there won't be any problems with that.

K: There was something else, too, wasn't there.
Y: Oh yeah, I did another game yesterday. I can't solve Rave.
K: We're not here to talk about the games you've played.
Y: You mean the boss's wife coming by to give us snacks? They all got gobbled up before I got one.
K: Look, just do the promotion, will you?
Y: Well, let's see. Illustrations from Crest of the Stars will go on sale March 12, 1999. It's a Hybrid CD-ROM for Mac OS and Windows95-98, with an estimated retail price of 5800Yen (plus tax). Fans of Crest of the Stars will definitely want this.
K: See? You can do it if you try.
Y: Oh, and I saw a fan book for a game I've been playing...
K: Anyway, we hope you like " ということでCyber Quizdom and Illustrations from Crest of the Stars.

My name is Jinguji Sally, and I am the star of Cyber Quizdom! (c)1998 NINELIVES Inc. Illustration: Takami Akai

Feb. 5
Topic for Today: Don't you hate it when you miss taping a show you wanted to see? Kareshi Kanojo no Jijoo Term 1 goes on sale this Spring!

Don't you hate it when you miss taping a show you wanted to see?
Many's the time I myself have shed tears at this happening to me.
But never mind that. Those of you who've missed some episodes need worry no more. Kareshi Kanojo no Jijoo, Anno Hideaki's newest production, is coming out on LD and videocassette!
Kareshi Kanojo no Jijoo Term 1, which goes on sale April 2, 1999, will contain the first four episodes, at a price of 6930Yen including tax.
By buying this release, you will be able to watch this high-tension love comedy whenever you want, as many times as you want. Fans of the original manga will also want to check out GAINAX's incredible attention to detail.

And here's one more piece of exclusive news. I just heard that a certain manga artist, of whom I personally am very fond, is getting a CD-ROM of his works put together as I write this. You'd probably know who he was if I said he was connected with Eva, right?
It looks like even the manga he did based on a certain lame computer game, and which will probably never appear in collected volume format, will also be included on this CD-ROM! I expect there'll be an official announcement in the not-too-distant future, so keep checking back here.

Feb. 4
Topic for Today: Shinji and Good Friends: Is That Solitaire? Production Notes

Hi! Come the 26th of this month, Shinji and Good Friends: Is That Solitaire? is slated to go on sale. It contains seven solitaire games: Klondike, FreeCell, Pyramid, Accordion, Golf, My Pace, and Beleaguered Castle. And you can play them with the characters from Neon Genesis Evangelion! It's available for Windows95 and Windows98, and costs7800Yen plus tax!
And everyone who buys the first pressing of Shinji and Good Friends: Is That Solitaire? will receive special-edition Evangelion playing cards! You'll have to buy the CD-ROM to find out what kind of cards these are!

Gendou is always self-assured, as shown in his dialogue. (C) GAINAX, Project Eva, TV Tokyo (C) 1999 GAINAX (C) 1998 GAINAX

At long last, Is That Solitaire? is running like a real game.
Now we're in the debugging stage, where we check for program mistakes or runtime errors. And the stars of our debugging efforts are Maruko, who is a real demon at FreeCell, and Jikkii, who treats getting the best times as a matter of life and death.
They finish games quickly, and offer all kinds of useful comments. When they say that they think something is fun, I get even more enthusiastic (impassioned) about my work (solitaire)!

We're almost up to the release date! We're working hard to give you an enjoyable solitaire experience!

(Toshiko)

Hey there! It's me, Her Highness Suga Mariko!
We've been running around here, but at last we're in the final countdown to releasing this game. We've finally got the printed materials in, so I can breathe a sigh of relief. Oh brother.

Well, now. Shipping date is close at hand, and all your expectations are peaking, I expect. Toshiko is also at her peak.
She says she wants to take a trip when this is done--a honeymoon, if you can believe (there she goes, trying to leapfrog me again).
Well, as long as she does her job, it's OK with me...
Anyway, like I said, we're almost ready to ship. Hang on just a little longer, and you'll be able to play cards with the Evangelion characters!

(Her Highness Suga Mariko)

(c) Tsuda Masami, Hakusensha, GAINAX, the KareKano Group, TV Tokyo, SOFTX (c) 1999 GAINAX

(Mama Noriko)

-S-Take, Yamaga Office-

(Mo)