Shin Sakura Taisen DD

Volks and Sega are collaborating on a new DD, based on Shin Sakura Taisen's Amamiya Sakura.  Spring 2020 release.  

 

 

Wow, I can’t remember a time Volks have ever made a teaser announcement like this and given us the date at the same time. (Since there’s apparently no march Dolpa (unless the volks news was a misprint) that means late April’s Dolpa43 in Tokyo.)

I guess because it’s Sega making the announcement? 

Edited December 12, 2019 by Monty

She looks like she will be cute. I can't wait to see if they realize the potential of the character.

I hope she is an interesting DD. I feel like the game's character design is really really generic as seen in that tweet picture (the game's 3D models even more so), at least compared to Fujishima's work in the previous games, and even that I felt got derivative after a while with many of STIII's characters coming off as attempts to make variations on the first two games'--but I'm no fan of Erica Fontaine, either her game or DD incarnations.

Anyway, given typical Volks behavior, there should be a second DD released with her. Since only the one was announced, I'd speculate the other doll will be from a different IP.

Is it common for Volks to make a collaboration doll this early? That is to say, like in this case before a game's release where it's not really known if it will be that popular or how the character will be liked?

55 minutes ago, cfx said:

Is it common for Volks to make a collaboration doll this early? That is to say, like in this case before a game's release where it's not really known if it will be that popular or how the character will be liked?

Outside the old Sakura Taisen anime on VHS that I saw about 15 years ago I know extremely little about the franchise so I actually didn't realise this entry was that recent. Looking it up now, it only came out TODAY! 
That definitely doesn't seem normal at least with my experience in the hobby. Back when people try to guess upcoming dolls like the identity of the lottery doll and inevitably suggest characters from shows that only got popular this year, I always think they're being unreleastic, because it seems like Volks decide and plan their licenses well in advance so it only makes sense to do so after its a proven success. So this is pretty weird.

It's likely because they already had the Sakura Taisen license to begin with, but it sure is going to be awkward for them if the game isnt popular. 
Edit: Its also likely that Sega approached them first and wanted to announce the doll as part of their promotion for the game.

Edited December 12, 2019 by Monty

Outside of their surprise releases, I don't think VOLKS has put a teased doll out so early since most license companies, and doll manufacturing companies won't usually think of putting a sizable funding into merch that might not sell. Especially if this is a brand new item to the license's merch line. So it's relatively gutsy of Sega to instill/allow such an early release date.

This series looks to already have a following, and from my rooting, it looked to be quite notable in Japan, popular enough to gain manga and anime adaptions. Since its being put on the PS4, and it'll be the second title of the whole series to be localized into English, I think it's a risk Sega (and VOLKS) is willing to take. To be honest, as Monty theorized, VOLKS likely had this license for a good bit, with the release of the new game, the Dollfie Dream is probably the cake topper for the marketing of the game.

Edited December 12, 2019 by freakie-oppa

1 hour ago, Monty said:

Back when people try to guess upcoming dolls like the identity of the lottery doll and inevitably suggest characters from shows that only got popular this year, I always think they're being unreleastic, because it seems like Volks decide and plan their licenses well in advance so it only makes sense to do so after its a proven success. So this is pretty weird.

1 hour ago, freakie-oppa said:

Outside of their surprise releases, I don't think VOLKS has put a teased doll out so early since most license companies, and doll manufacturing companies won't usually think of putting a sizable funding into merch that might not sell. Especially if this is a brand new item to the license's merch line. So it's relatively gutsy of Sega to instill/allow such an early release date.

That's what I was thinking. Sakura Taisen was a big deal in Japan, and Sega had all kinds of tie-in marketing--there was a themed cafe, musical stage shows, the various anime, I don't even remember what else. But this was back in the 1990s, when the original games were out on the Sega Saturn. It's been a long time since there was a game in the series, with the last entries being on the PS2 (and AFAIK those not being as successful), so there is no gurantee at all this one will be a success. A lot has been changed too; Fujishima is no longer the character designer, and the stategy-lite styles of the battles of the previous games have been replaced with something that's more like the somewhat mindless mousou-style of button mashing action battles. [What I would've wanted for battles in ST woud be something like Valkyria Chronicles, which seemed like an evolution of what was started in STIII anyway.]

Outside the previous Sakura Taisen dolls, clearly Volks has a continuing relationship with Sega as evidenced by MDD Arle and those 7th Dragon outfits released not so long ago.

I agree this seems like a case of Sega approaching Volks first and indeed if the game turns out to not be popular it'll be awkward for Volks, and we might see another Freyja heh.

Edited December 12, 2019 by cfx

I'm not familiar with this character at all but I like her outfit

Will definitely want her outfit if someone wants to do a split for her.

Spoiler

If you want more than one DD from Shin Sakura Taisen, you don't have to be stuck with just Amamiya Sakura. Let's take a look at info available on the web. Take a look at this page:

https://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/review/1220857.html

Now from that page, there are these screenshots:

https://game.watch.impress.co.jp/img/gmw/docs/1220/857/html/at_05_o.jpg.html

https://game.watch.impress.co.jp/img/gmw/docs/1220/857/html/at_50_o.jpg.html

If you can sculpt a mask + sew outfits or if you can commission someone to make them, here's what you can do. Create the mask and outfit for DD Shinguuji Sakura. Once she wears them, you now have *TWO* characters from Shin Sakura Taisen in your DD collection!

(The smile from DD Shinguuji Sakura will make her look very evil once she dons the new costume and mask!)

 

Edited December 13, 2019 by growcian

if they include her sword it will probably be rad! and i’m with (almost) everyone else, not super interested in the doll but i want that outfit .....🙉

 

Pictures of her were shown on Sega’s stream today.

————-

My Comment:

She’s cuter than I expected. I had sort of a low bar set because I was not really wow-ed by the new art. 

But it looks like another Misaki Serika sculpt. She looks like a mix of Sailor Moon and Asuna Titania ver. IMO. I’ll wait to see more pics before I make a more concrete opinion. 

Highkey think her wig looks nice (except the ahoge) for the prototype. I love wigs like that with the skintop part instead of the helmet spiral.

Edited January 29, 2020 by Subaru

It says that Volks will be displaying her at Wonfest next week, so we’ll see a lot more photos then. To be honest I can’t tell a lot from that photo at all, but she does look more on the mature side and I always like seeing more dolls like that.

As I thought, she is releasing at Dolpa in April. 

oh, she's pretty cute! excited to see more photos. 

Lighting in that picture seems to wipe out detail so it's somewhat hard to judge much, but she does look like the character art.

Unfortunately for me, I strongly dislike the character art for this game and feel it's very generic and think the doll also looks generic.

4 hours ago, Subaru said:

But it looks like another Misaki Serika sculpt. She looks like a mix of Sailor Moon and Asuna Titania ver. IMO.

Probably, but she also has that fuller face shape that one of the other sculptors tends to do; the one who did Erica and M.O.M.O.

I used to love Misaki Serika's sculpts; she did all the old iDOLM@STER DDs that I love. But these days nearly all her sculpts have this flat face look that I really don't like.

I think I only bitch about every new doll lately though so... I will just add that there's more old DDs that I want than the number I really wanted to own, so new announcements not appealing to me isn't really a disappointment.

I had completely forgotten this Sakura was a thing that was coming, which I guess says how much I expected from her lol.

4 hours ago, Monty said:

As I thought, she is releasing at Dolpa in April. 

There should be a second doll right? It's fairly uncommon to release a single DD at an event?

Addendum: I kept thinking she reminded me of some new standard head--I think it's probably DC-H-14, one of the Dream Choice-only heads I was thinking of. Also, she's got this weird cross-eyed look to me, but the character design is the same.

Edited January 29, 2020 by cfx

2 hours ago, cfx said:

I used to love Misaki Serika's sculpts; she did all the old iDOLM@STER DDs that I love

When first saw her I thought about Yukiho, but subaru’s right because Sailor Moon is very similar too.

Anyway I’m safe ^^ outfit and katana are cool but not enough for clinging to me.

She looks pretty cute. I look forward to seeing photos of her at Wonfes.

Well I guess if someone wanted to make a Bleach character doll they could technically use the new Sakura as a base since Tite Kubo did the art for the game. Lol..... but it's a stretch because I don't think the doll really reflects the games artwork. 

4 hours ago, cfx said:

There should be a second doll right? It's fairly uncommon to release a single DD at an event?

I would assume so but we probably won’t see them until April. It’s also very uncommon to see a doll this early (although we got to see SD Cinderella early too and she’s not out until August... but like I said that could be Sega/Disney’s decisions).

It would be funny if the other doll was Sakura Matou after all. Two Sakuras for spring would be nice lol.

24 minutes ago, Monty said:

It would be funny if the other doll was Sakura Matou after all. Two Sakuras for spring would be nice lol.

"Seems like sakura season"

33 minutes ago, Monty said:

It would be funny if the other doll was Sakura Matou after all. Two Sakuras for spring would be nice lol.

9 minutes ago, Subaru said:

"Seems like sakura season"

Sakura Miku was also April, so you two may be onto something.

Edited January 29, 2020 by cfx

5 hours ago, Monty said:

Two Sakuras for spring would be nice lol.

This sounds financially painful.

They could do what they did with Miku though, and do a Shinguji Sakura Reboot to go alongside Shin Sakura. If she got enough votes it is possible.

Edited January 30, 2020 by BeyondTime

I think quoting got messed up; I didn't write that.

58 minutes ago, cfx said:

I think quoting got messed up; I didn't write that.

Fixed.

She's surprisingly cute, and her wig looks nice. Her mouth reminds me of the vlockers fiore (?) dds they did. It'll be nice to see some more pics soon. 

 

9 hours ago, Monty said:

Two Sakuras for spring would be nice lol.

That would be really awesome hahah.