Usually, at any time when Nier creator Yoko Taro makes an look, the auteur retains his face hidden from the general public with a large masks primarily based on Emil, the strange-looking Nier character. Nevertheless, whereas attending Anime Expo 2023 to advertise his new anime, followers witnessed a new and truthfully fairly horrifying search for Taro. After I requested him what had occurred to his previous masks, he informed me that he’d misplaced it the evening earlier than the conference.
In line with Taro, the Nier creator wasn’t accountable for his lacking masks. You see, a producer from Fuji TV, which Taro describes as one of many “greatest and most bold” tv corporations in Japan, misplaced the Emil masks whereas the 2 shared drinks at a Los Angeles bar the evening earlier than Taro was imagined to host a panel about his upcoming anime, KamiErabi GOD.app.
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Taro claims that when he requested the Fuji producer to obtain him a brand new masks to put on for Anime Expo, the producer mentioned he couldn’t discover any. That’s till they stumbled upon a big leprechaun masks at a fancy dress retailer in LA.
“After all in LA, you recognize? Depart it to LA to have this specialist retailer only for masks. And so we went into that retailer and there was the largest masks like actually the largest one that they had was one which was sitting up on the cabinets and had been there for 30 years,” Taro informed Kotaku.
Taro advised that the masks was a going-away current that the shop proprietor’s grandmother had gifted to the enterprise, “or one thing like that.”
“I assumed ‘Oh, poor factor, but it surely was the most effective masks there. It was simply the most effective match. And so I satisfied them to let me purchase it,” Taro mentioned.
Yoko Taro is satisfied that his creepy new masks is cursed
The masks apparently price him $120, which Taro thought was low cost contemplating how last-minute his want for it was. Nevertheless, its “tremendous low cost” price ticket got here with the caveat that there’s a excessive likelihood that it’s cursed. His operating principle is that it’s both possessed by the spirit of the shop proprietor’s grandmother or a cousin who apparently died in 1945.
“It’s gotta be possessed or one thing like that. … It must be cursed or possessed. There’s one thing occurring with it,” Taro mentioned.
After I advised the masks could be good luck as a substitute of being cursed, given its leprechaun-like look, Taro checked out me in shock, saying “Is that what it’s? A leprechaun masks?” I mentioned it sort of has a St. Patrick’s Day vibe, however that didn’t appear to alter his thoughts about it being cursed.
To his credit score, the soullessness of the masks makes it leagues creepier than Emil’s masks, so he could be on to one thing.
In the interim, Taro’s workers is floating the concept that it’s most likely in his greatest curiosity to return the masks to the place they acquired it from. Whether or not it’s in worry of it really being cursed or not they didn’t specify.
Kotaku is overlaying every little thing at Anime Expo 2023, together with large bulletins at panels and unique one-on-one interviews with the trade’s greatest creators. Whether or not you’re a seasoned anime fan or a beginner, you’ll be able to sustain with all issues Anime Expo 2023 right here.
