The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- 1st Anniversary Event | Evening Session Report ④
This continues from Part 3, where a surprise cake was delivered to Kimura.
⚠️ Due to the nature of the content, this report contains some spoilers. If you do not wish to read spoilers for The Hundred Line, please do not read further.
You can see the photo of the cake Kimura received here:
MC: Kimura-san, how are you feeling right now?
Kimura: Honestly, the bitterness of the senburi tea completely disappeared. Getting celebrated like this at an event for a work I love so much is overwhelming. My heart is full. Thank you so, so much.
Kodaka: No matter how famous you get from here on out, don’t remove The Hundred Line from your profile, okay?
Kimura: I’ll keep it at the very top forever!
Ogata: Come on, let Sakurai-kun feed you some cake. It’s the classic wedding thing.
MC: Wow, we’ve entered the Cult of Kimura route.
Sakurai: Where do you want it?
Kimura: Umm... then, my face♡
Sakurai: Alright then... I’ll give you this little heart. (Scoops it up with a fork) Come eat it.
Kimura: Uh, okay... (hesitant)
Ogata: Say “aaah,” come on, “aaah.”
Audience: (cheers and squeals erupt)
Ogata: Congratulations on your marriage! (applauds)
Sakurai: We’re gonna be so happy together.
Just like in the daytime session, the cast performed a live voice acting segment. The first performance was a scene from Day 58 of the Multiple Eitos Route, performed by Kimura and Sakurai.
One thing that really stood out to me as something unique to live voice acting was when Eito talked about how, once he completely took over Takumi’s body, he would of course wipe out humanity, including the Special Defense Unit, and wondered if Nozomi should be the first one he killed. Right at that moment, Kimura immediately performed Takumi sharply gasping for breath. In the actual game, Takumi’s dialogue had not appeared yet at that point, so getting to hear his reaction before his line was shown made the scene feel especially powerful.
The next performance was a story from the night of Day 54 on the route leading into Last Defense Academy 2nd Scenario, performed by Kimura, Ogata, and Ito. The story begins with Kako and Ima, calling themselves the “great detective” and “great assistant,” visiting Takumi’s room. Ima explains that Gaku and Takemaru have been locking themselves in their rooms all day because Eito asked them, “Do the people you care about really exist?”
At one point, Ima says, “Well, I can understand how the senpais feel. Just imagining a world where Kako wasn’t around makes me want to tug on her cheeks without even thinking about it.” While saying this, Ogata ad libbed a “poke poke” gesture toward Ito, poking her cheek with his finger.
Afterward, Kako gets angry because Ima explained everything, and when Ima notices, saying, “Huh? Kako’s cheeks are all puffed up. I wonder what’s wrong?” Ogata continued the bit by adding, “Hey, Kako. Look, poke poke poke,” while poking her even more. Ito responded by puffing out her cheeks and going “Nnnnngh~!” while acting like she was resisting Ima’s finger.
They even added a new line for Takumi at the very end: “That guy Ima... was even louder than usual today...” And with that, the drama came to a close.
MC: Since this was the evening session, the ad libs were really something. (laughs) Sakurai-san, how did it feel performing it?
Sakurai: It really feels completely different when you’re acting off each other directly. I feel like my bond with Kimura-kun deepened a lot over the course of today, too.
Kimura: Yeah, it definitely did.
Ogata: Cross media projects are really fun, because they give us opportunities to do live acting like this. I tend to throw things at the other person and leave it in their hands, but it makes me really happy when someone picks it up and runs with it.
MC: Ito-san, you were getting poked a lot. (laughs)
Ito: I got poked so much!
Kodaka: During game recording sessions, everyone records separately, so watching this really reminds me that acting off each other directly creates the best performances. It made me want to work even harder to make an anime adaptation happen someday.
MC: Well, there’s no harm in saying what you want! We’ll call it a goal for now.
Announcements & Latest News
The final segment introduced information about post event online sales for the merchandise sold at the venue, along with various new goods. Then, for the first time, they revealed plans for a stage play adaptation, something that had not been announced during the daytime session.
MC: What kind of stage production will this be?
Kodaka: We’re planning a very THL style experiment where 10 out of the 13 performances will have different endings...
Ogata: Isn’t that basically telling the actors to die?
Kodaka: Honestly, this is an unprecedented challenge, and I genuinely don’t know if it’ll succeed. It’s not like only ten minutes of the script changes, either. The scripts are almost completely different. There’s a theory that maybe I shouldn’t meet the actors in person. (laughs) They’d probably say, “That’s the guy! He’s the reason we’re suffering!” (laughs)
Then, just like in the daytime session, they also announced the manga adaptation.
MC: It really feels like the series is building strong momentum across different media now, including the manga adaptation and everything else, doesn’t it?
Kodaka: Definitely. We’re aiming for a positive cycle, so I hope we can keep this momentum going.
Ito: Thank you all so much for today. We got so much THL news today, but personally, I really want an anime adaptation! This is only my second day doing events like this...
Ogata: It’s your first day! A full day hasn’t even passed yet!
Ito: Ah, right! (laughs) It’s my very first day in life doing events, and this is my second time!
Kimura: Are you time leaping?
Ito: I’m just so grateful to be involved with such an incredible work.
Ogata: There were quite a lot of men at the daytime session, but there are so many more women here this time. I was really surprised by that.
Kodaka: It’s popular with people of all ages and genders.
Ogata: Nothing’s been decided at all yet, and maybe I’m just saying it out loud for now, but “kotodama*” is important, so we have to fire the bullet first.
*One of the terms from Danganronpa, translated in the English version as “Truth Bullets.” In Japanese, it is originally a play on the word “言霊(kotodama),” meaning “words have power,” replacing the “dama” character with the kanji for “bullet.”
Ogata: Everyone! Do you want an anime adaptation?!
Audience: (huge applause)
Ogata: Thank you very much. With everyone’s support, I’m going to fire this off today as a “kotodama,” and I hope that if we keep moving forward with hope in our hearts, someday the opportunity for an anime adaptation will come.
Sakurai: With the manga adaptation and now the stage play adaptation, things are progressing really smoothly. And once things get to this point, naturally you start wanting even more, right? You want to see an anime adaptation too. It made me really happy hearing the screams and cheers every time new information was revealed, because it reminded me how much passion the fans have for this series.
Kodaka: Though it got pretty quiet whenever we talked about the Commanders.
Sakurai: I was genuinely happy that we could share new THL developments today, and I’m really glad I could be here for it.
Kimura: Today I could truly feel everyone’s love for THL with my whole body, and it reminded me once again from the bottom of my heart what a wonderful work THL is. The senburi tea was bitter, but I was also so happy to be celebrated for winning the Best New Voice Actor award. Thank you all so much for today.
MC: And finally, Kodaka-san, please.
Kodaka: Right. Could I see everyone’s faces one more time?
The audience area lights up.
Kodaka: Yep, just as I thought, you all have the faces of people destined for success! And you know why? Because you play THL. Playing THL raises your luck. Your financial luck goes up too, of course. So please spread the word to your friends as well, and let’s all become happy together.
Ogata: It's starting to feel like he's going to try to sell us some kind of vases or something. (laughs)
*In Japan, “selling vases” has become almost synonymous with psychic scam businesses and “good luck” fraud schemes.
Kodaka: I want this series to continue through its 2nd anniversary, 5th anniversary, 10th anniversary, even its 100th anniversary. Of course I want an anime adaptation, but I also want to keep announcing new DLC routes and turn it into a game that continues forever. I’d be very happy if you continue supporting us.
The venue erupted in huge applause, and it seemed like all the guests were about to leave the stage — but then Kimura alone remained behind.
Kimura: Before we finish, we have one final surprise we’d like to share with everyone. Since this is the end of the event, we’d like to perform a dramatic reading of the final scene from Last Defense Academy 2nd Scenario. It’s a little sad, but it’s an ending that really symbolizes The Hundred Line, and one I personally love very much. I hope you’ll listen to it, and I’ll do my best.
Then, on the dimly lit stage, a mysterious figure appeared to hand Kimura the script. Immediately afterward, the screen revealed the name of Tomoyo Kurosawa, the voice actress for Nozomi Kirifuji and Karua Kashimiya, creating a surprise reveal that triggered one of the loudest cheers of shock and excitement from the audience all night.
Their reading was absolutely incredible, and what impressed me most was Kurosawa’s facial acting. Even during moments when she had no dialogue, she nodded along to Takumi’s words, made expressions like she was holding back tears, and completely embodied Nozomi.
You could hear people quietly sobbing throughout the venue, and many audience members were crying.
After the final movie from Last Defense Academy 2nd Scenario played, the lyric video for Sedam’s ending theme appeared on the screen.
Once it finished playing, the song that echoed throughout the venue was Chopin’s “Étude Op.10 No.3,” the same piece that plays in the game during the time limit sequence between the escape pod appearing in the schoolyard and everyone boarding it.
And with that, this concludes my report on the evening session. Thank you very much for reading all the way to the end!
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