Split-Screen :: The Game-Geek’s Daily Read

by Ravi Sinha

When Square-Enix and Jupiter released The World Ends With You for the DS, I was stoked but I wasn’t the only one. Hordes of RPG gamers from around the world lapped up the game’s innovative touch-screen combat, mosaic culture and amazing music. It was always the story that caught me: The proverbial awakening of the protagonist in a world (in this case, Shibuya), not remembering who he is or how he got there. The cute heroine with a messed up past whom he teams with. The weird critters from a parallel dimension that required wicked attacks to dispense off – attacks only our protagonist could carry out. The clincher? Nothing was ever as it seemed and just when you thought the stakes couldn’t be higher, they did.

But just the other day, I came across a very strange little property called Shi15ya (pronounced, “Shibuya 15“). A 2005 Japanese-Drama series broadcast on TV Asahi, it centers around 15 year old kids in Shibuya, Tokyo.

This Shibuya is actually a virtual simulation (like, say, Shibuya Underground) created by some one (a Game Master, for instance) who watches over its “inhabitants” (or Players) and when they don’t function according to the rules, an enforcer is sent to “kill” (or Erase) them. Almost fittingly, this enforcer (called Peace here) only targets these 15 year olds.

Tsuyoshi wakes up in this freakish Shibuya, with no memory of who he is. He also has a habit of asking just about anybody he can lay his hands on whether they know him or not (did I mention he’s played by a girl?). He pairs up with Asagi, who wears a mini-skirt and who he coincidentally rescues. He lives in a restaurant, which is not really a restaurant, run by Kengo. Yes, there is a cease-fire observed by all the “gangs” of Shibuya in his restaurant, and yes he takes a liking to Tsuyoshi. Psychs are non-existent but there is a “You cannot leave Shibuya” system as well. And violence – lots of bloody, angst-ridden violence.

As if that weren’t enough, a few designs seem “inspired” from Shi15ya as well.

Now, I’m down with the whole game-style fight for survival that is a common plot in Japanese culture (Battle Royale and Gantz come to mind) but the similarities are surreal enough to give any TWEWY fan Deja Vu, sans great beats and evocative vocals. Wonder what Square-Enix/Jupiter has to say about it?