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Chiyomaru Shikura stream recap: New info about Steins;???, Anonymous;Code, Occultic;Nine revealed

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A little over a week ago, MAGES. representative director Chiyomaru Shikura held a livestream on the Japanese livestreaming site TwitCasting. The stream was titled “The Truth of the Underside of Society!,” and it was later reuploaded to YouTube by a fan.

The stream lasted for nearly four hours, and as such, it contained information on a wide variety of topics. Shikura spent time detailing his current situation and the current state of the world before switching topics to the Science Adventure series. The stream continued with him sharing information on Anonymous;Code and Occultic;Nine, as well as a few small teasers about the upcoming Steins;Gate thematic sequel.

A very helpful summary of the stream, originating from Japanese forum website 5channel, was reposted on Twitter by user @IkitaMato. We have verified the veracity of the information provided and will use it as a basis for this article.

Shikura’s current situation

  • One of the first items of note from the stream was Shikura’s comment that he’s been far too busy as of late to accept commissions from other companies (presumably for compositions) unless they are for simple anime opening or ending songs.
  • As he responded to commenters in the stream chat, Shikura jumped between various topics, such as how COVID-19 was affecting the area, or his thoughts on the vaccine.
  • Shikura mentioned that at the time of the Steins;Gate Hollywood series’ announcement, he had already finished composing its soundtrack, all done within his own residence.
  • He commented that he recently happened upon a video titled “Top 5 God-tier Games,” and he was overjoyed to see that Chaos;Child was among the ranks.
  • He ended this segment of the stream by saying that he hadn’t had any time to post on Twitter as of late—his most recent Tweet prior to the stream announcement had been posted two and a half weeks prior. He regretted that he wasn’t able to make any mistakes and/or cause any flame wars.
Translation: "I can't open the AKAI website... I might've bought too much...( •﹃ •)"

Anonymous;Code and synchronizing the Science Adventure series with reality

The next segment of the stream is where he began talking about Anonymous;Code, as well as the staging of the Science Adventure series in general.

  • He said that it’s been very difficult to create a story based in the future, because time is constantly progressing and moving forward. He continued by saying that it’d be much more doable if the story were taking place in the near future, but as Anonymous;Code will take place in the years 2036 and 2037, the task is far more difficult, especially when the team is faced with real-world events that happen as time passes.

    • “And if [the story being produced and reality] didn’t mesh well and had rampant contradictions, then it wouldn’t be SciADV. We have to draw a line somewhere, and while there is one currently there [for Anonymous;Code], we have to follow it at the very least, if that makes sense.”

  • The summary writer included an addendum listing off events that must appear in the series if the team is attempting to synchronize the real world and the world of Anonymous;Code. We were unable to find when, if at all, this information was stated in the stream, so we recommend taking it with a grain of salt.
    • “Plot points they had to address because of the effort to synchronize reality and Anonymous;Code’s world:
      • The 2020 United States presidental election (the Vatican is set to appear in the game)
      • Deepfakes
      • The Collapse of Arecibo Observatory”
  • Shikura then followed this up with an interesting fun fact about the team’s writing process.
    • “You wanna know what our number one, biggest savior is? It’s, uh, the fact that CERN hasn’t discovered any new subatomic particles. That’s what’s keeping us above water. Really.”
  • Shikura expressed relief at the fact that Steins;Gate synchronized so well with reality.
  • While he was on the topic of Steins;Gate, he mentioned that when he works with the branch of the SciADV series that involves time travel, he tries to create titles in which concepts and theories advance during the course of the story in order to make them seem more realistic.
    • (Steins;Gate spoilers) He noted that was the thought process behind the progression of D-mails to time leaping to time travel.

The Science Adventure series in general

  • In this segment, Shikura started out by mentioning that one of the biggest themes of the series is the concept of worldlines and world-layers.
  • Since the card game Vanguard exists in both the real world and the world of Occultic;Nine, it can be inferred that the two worlds exist on the same world-layer.
  • However, in the Steins;Gate world, as well as in a few other entries in the series, there are a few things that differ somewhat from the real world, so it may be inferred that those entries take place on another world-layer.
  • Shikura stated that he was told by the highest-ranking member of IBM in Japan that he could use the “IBM 5100” product name in his work. However, Shikura said that he likely won’t change the name due to the series’ structure, which most likely relates to the aforementioned world-layer system.

More on Anonymous;Code

  • Shikura stated that the world of Anonymous;Code is one where 6G is used by practically everyone, and talk of 7G is beginning to emerge. Shikura explained his thoughts on what 6G would be like: he suggested that download speeds might be insanely fast, or that the need to download anything wouldn’t exist in the first place. Commenters then flooded into the chat with their own ideas or reactions.
  • The recording we have of the stream cuts out during this part, but according to the summary, Shikura said that the simplest way to think about this world-layer is to consider it one where artificial intelligence is producing artificial intelligence.

Occultic;Nine

  • Shikura said that he’s trying to make each of his titles enjoyable, but at the same time, he’s trying to link them together while maintaining consistency. In part due to this, Occultic;Nine’s production has stopped—according to him, this is because he needs to tidy up a title that takes place near it and relates to the ending of the Occultic;Nine light novels.
  • Occultic;Nine’s scenario needs to be rewritten in some areas, but the scenario itself is already fully written.

Steins;Gate

  • “The strategy for Zero and One has been fully completed, and not even the Steins Gate knows what’s in store,” said Shikura. He did not provide any further elaboration as to what those terms could mean.
  • “I don’t want anyone to get upset and go, ‘You haven’t done it yet?!’ so I’ll just say that it may or may not already be done,” said Shikura.
  • He closed out by saying that Steins;Gate is a series that deals in worldlines, so the fans will just have to wait and see how the series advances from here.

This concludes our summary of Shikura’s stream. As always, we will keep you updated as more information arises.

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