INTERACTIVE LIVE SHOWS

Introduction

An Interactive Live Show (ILS) is a concert format where a story is shown on a screen, and the audience can determine how the story will proceed at a certain point in the story, called a hot point. Hirasawa describes it as “similar to a Role Playing Game”, and coined the format as a way to encourage an audience to come to concerts in an era where music was becoming much more accessible from the comfort of one’s home.

Each ILS has a plot, and while there may be aspects that refer to previous ILSs, the story is self-contained. Generally the plot consists of the main character, Hirasawa, overcoming many adversities in order to save the world. While the name “Hirasawa” shows up in every ILS, it should be noted that, unless otherwise stated, the “Hirasawa” in one ILS is not the same “Hirasawa” in another ILS. In written Japanese, the distinction between Hirasawa, the creator of the ILSs, and Hirasawa, the character in the ILSs, is made by the former being written in kanji (as 平沢) and the latter being written in katakana (as ヒラサワ).

On this page I will try to document as much of the lore and information about each ILS as I can. If you have any additional insight/questions about anything on this page, please reach out to me.

Legend of Aurora (1994)

Plot

Princess Aurora, the keeper of order in the world, is abducted by the Binary Descartes. Information warrior Hirasawa must save her by traveling through doors in the information space. At the first door, he attempts to fight the Binary Descartes; however, he is defeated without being able to deal any damage. At the second door, he receives a call from the Mother of Navajo telling him that he must not fight the Binary Descartes and rather remember what Princess Aurora looks like. At the third door, he attempts to fight the Binary Descartes again, only to have the same result as the first time. The Mother of Navajo repeats her message, saying that it is necessary to remember Princess Aurora in order to open the door that leads to Island Door, where the princess resides. When Hirasawa finally thinks of Princess Aurora, the door opens, and peace is restored in the world. However, the Binary Descartes are still out there.

TOKYO Paranesian (1994)

Plot

The People Who Put Up Ladders was a tribe that once lived on Island Door, Paranesia, putting ladders in the air in order to access the afterlife and gather whatever was needed to repair the world. One day, the Binary Descartes came and destroyed Paranesia. One of the survivors ran away to Tokyo and had a son, teaching him the way to put up ladders. Soon after, he passed away.

Hirasawa, a descendant of the People Who Put Up Ladders, is on a journey in the information space to find the ASCII Dragon, a creature crucial to defeating the Binary Descartes. After dodging and getting out of the traps that the Binary Descartes set up, Hirasawa found the Aurora Key, the key necessary to go see the ASCII Dragon. During this process, the Binary Descartes are almost defeated, however, they get away before the final blow can be dealt.

Adios Jay (1994)

SIM CITY (1995)

Plot

The main character has been stuck in Sim City for several months, being chased by an unknown entity. He was suddenly sent to this world and cannot remember why he is here, who is chasing him, why he is being chased, nor his own name. He can hear a voice calling a name, presumably his name before he was transported to Sim City, at which point it is revealed that the main character is Hirasawa. He attempts to reach that voice by breaking the layers of the world using a hammer, as the voice instructs him to head towards the space between Sim City and Charansanitwong 24.

As Hirasawa tries to reach his destination, the Binary Descartes try to thwart his plans. He fights back using his MIBURI, but is unable to defeat them. He continues his journey, but is stopped when the world closes down; he cannot go any further using the name “Hirasawa”. However, in order to access his new name, he needs the help of the People Who Put Up Ladders, specifically the Hirasawa that is a descendant of them. This other Hirasawa climbs his ladder to access the new name. However, upon accessing this name, an explosion occurs, killing him.

Hirasawa’s new name is written in the Thai language, so Neng, one of Hirasawa’s friends from Thailand, appears to teach him the pronunciation: Wiwat Tarasongop. Wiwat travels through the now opened up world, where he finally reaches his destination between Sim City and Charansanitwong 24. There, he meets Miss N, who holds the key to destroying the Binary Descartes. Together they physically destroy the Binary Descartes, but its ghost still remains.

Unreal Soprano (1996)

Plot

Hirasawa suffered an existential crisis, losing his sense of self after being destroyed by the Binary Descartes. Due to this, the green nerve has stopped functioning, and Hirasawa is thrown into the Solid Air pocket and trapped in the context cage. While he can see the world around him, he cannot feel anything from it, expressing his state of mind as “the world means nothing to me and I mean nothing to the world”. He can barely see the cluster of unreal temples in Kuala Lumpur along with a man; Hirasawa realizes that he must somehow remember who the man is.

The man instructs Hirasawa to travel through doors in order to reach him. The man explains that Hirasawa cannot get through the last door until he reestablishes the green nerve. The audience creates a new green nerve, and the unreal soprano sung by the sirens reconnect him with the world. The last door opens on its own and reveals the man to be Wiwat Tarasangop. Wiwat says that he was suddenly sent to this world, hinting at the possibility that the events happening in this ILS and the previous ILS, Sim City, are connected.

WORLD CELL (1998)

Plot

The World Sensory Cell or the "World Cell" is a system, represented by a piece of large machinery that resembles a neuron, that records significant events in history and uses those events to determine how the world should function in the present. Without it, the world would start collapsing, piece by piece. However, it shuts down right before it is due for maintenance, and the Gardener KING, who was tasked with maintaining the World Cell, becomes comatose due to the "existential paralysis" of the World Cell shutting down.

Hirasawa, the grandchild of the Gardener KING, is tasked with repairing and reactivating the World Cell in order to move the world from Phase-5 to Phase-6. With the help of the Rescue Bridge Guild and the Reinforcement Bridge Guild, Hirasawa gets closer to the World Cell while fighting off the "eraser hormones" that cause the existential paralysis.

While Hirasawa was making his way to the World Cell, JEHM, a disciple of Quite Zero, appears in front of the Gardener KING and takes him to the Mother in order to revive the people in the world; the Gardener KING takes himself off life support and the Mother bestows a death seed upon him. In his last moments alive, he hears Hirasawa and the Reinforcement Bridge Guild getting closer, and he is relieved that the people have finally come back to this land.

Hirasawa reached the World Cell only to find out from Quite Zero that it has already restarted. By sacrificing the Gardener KING, the World Cell was able to rid its logs of processes that would be harmful to the future world, and allow a new generation to prosper. Quite Zero explains that a new Gardener KING has been born and will work for the world as a bringer of peace.

Philosopher's Propeller (2000)

Plot

LIMBO-54 (2003)

Plot

White Tiger Field (2006)

Plot

Planet Roll Call (2009)

Plot

Nomonos and Imium (2013)

Plot

WORLD CELL 2015 (2015)

Plot

ZCON (2022)

Plot

In this world, there used to be two types of humans: the Ayokayo and the Ambani. The Ayokayo treated the Ambani as slaves, exploiting them for their own gain. However, the Ayokayo were eventually destroyed, as the principle of humanity states that those who refuse to live in coexistence will become the target of self-purification and eventually perish. However, a problem remained: the ZCON, the device used to control the Ambani, had not been properly disposed of, causing the ZCONITE implanted into the people’s heads to cause a condition similar to Dissociative Identity Disorder. In order to rectify the situation, Ruby and Citrine, must destroy their own ZCONITE and restore the melody of Dyunk An; since the sisters are templates, anything that happens to them will happen to all Ambanis and by playing the melody of Dyunk An they will be able to hear the BEACON that will lead them to a better world. nGiap has gathered together the Weather Technicians and the Revision Council to control the ZCON when the sisters eventually come across the ZCON.

Ruby and Citrine find the ZCON, which looks like a worn-down cabin, in the middle of the woods. Despite Citrine’s fears, Ruby turns on the ZCON. A fire starts spreading, but nGiap appears from a crack in the timeline to tell them that the fire is not real and they can escape whenever they wish. However, Citrine is still panicking so nGiap uses the HAPRA Dimension Number in order to rewrite one of the books in the library to destroy one of the ZCONITEs and show reality. The fire disappears.

The scene changes; Ruby and Citrine are on an airplane. The engines suddenly fail, and the plane quickly loses altitude. They crash onto a Thujarit on Planet Roll Call. Despite the signs on the Thujarit stating how unlikely a fatal plane crash is, Citrine is convinced that they will die and starts to panic. The Weather Technicians and the Revision Council successfully destroy the second and third ZCONITEs, and show the reality that they are not in danger.

The scene changes yet again; Ruby and Citrine are on a train. The train approaches a collapsed bridge and comes to a halt, but it does not stop in time and the train slowly starts to slip off of the bridge. The Pierrot appears and mocks the two for thinking the train will fall and that they think they are two people. The train finally falls, but it stopped just in time by Σ-12, who then proceeds to scold the sisters for taking everything at face-value. In the meantime, the fourth ZCONITE is destroyed.

The sisters return to the ZCON. The Chief of the Revision Council warns that this timeline is nearing the end. They must find the BEACON before then, but they have not destroyed the last ZCONITE. The Chief explains that Σ-12 will destroy the ZCONITE for them, and that they must focus on defeating the guardians of the ZCONITE. Ruby and Citrine perform what they think is the Dyunk An, however, in reality they performed the opposite: the melody of destruction. They successfully defeat the guardians and play the correct Dyunk An and restore the BEACON.

Ruby and Citrine finally realize that they were actually nGiap all along. They return to their true form, and with the help of Astro-Ho!, nGiap blows up the ZCON. nGiap returns to his original timeline through the crack in the timeline created by the explosion. Astro-Ho! falls from the sky and lands in an empty area with the words “END”.