Halloween in Japan

0:08 Halloween Whernits is a little different in Japan than in the US. That's coming up on today's show from the Hanted Attraction Network. I'm Philip and this is our sixty one day Haunted on where we're counting down to Halloween by celebrating haunted houses daily via videos, podcasts, and VAP experiences. Since this podcast is only part of this year's Hantathon, the best way to follow along is by subscribing to our newsletter where you're get weekly updates, or by going to our website at Hanted Attraction Network dot com and clicking on the hantaed on twenty twenty three link. Today's episode is a replay from our sister show called Green Tag Them Parkdin thirty, and in it, I'm discussing my experience at Ayappa Presents Universal Studios Japan. Specifically, we're going into the details of the Halloween programming and the IP experiences that they really bring to life in Japan. So, without further ado, here is Scott and I from Green Tag Team Park in thirty discussing Halloween at Universal Studios Japan. From our studios in Los Angeles and Tampa. This is a Green Tag Team Park in thirty. I'm Philip, and as always I'm joined by Scott Swinson of Scott Swinson Credited Development. Hello Scott, Hello Philip, Welcome back to the United States. You've been You've been traveling abroad for a while. Yeah. So between this last recording, when I was on my way to the airport and I just got back last night, I went to Japan, and then I had a layover in Hong Kong, and I went there to see the Halloween events. Of course, yes, of course, And of course I spent my to hourlayover running to

1:38 taking a taxi to Hong Kong's Land, which was a journey, an odyssey in and of itself. But I went to Universal for the Ayapa Presents Universal Studios Japan, which was a fantastic event put together by the Asia Pacific region there and it had education and it had tours and whatnot. And what I did was I really want to talk about this event on the show. So of course I took notes as I do during the presentation, meticulous notes, and I what I articulously what I tried to do, And I've created a spreadsheet with various tabs and yeah, oh yes, yeah, I know you really truly. So what I tried to do then was take the big, big key takeaway moments they mentioned in the presentation and then make sure that the next day when I was there and then the following day when I was there meeting with the team, that I made sure to go to those experiences so I can speak firsthand about, you know, what they were talking about the presentation, right, So, so in other words, here's what they said, here's what they did, Yes, are they in line? Yeah?

2:42 And then what can we take away for our audience? So so yeah, So so basically the presentation, tom Merman, our old buddy Tom, he kicked it off and he gave us some background just kind of underlying the importance of USJ. He said that one in five visit to Japan actually attend USJ, which really really underscores, you know, that they're a cornerstone for the market and underscoring that it's the number three most visited a theme park in the world. And he talked about they have them having three pillars as a management and creative team, to become the destination of choice, the employer of choice, and to give a return to shareholders. That's kind of basic right, his in his I think in their view, becoming a destination of choice means staying culturally relevant to Japanese culture particularly, and for them, their biggest way to do that is IP overlays. So of course we know that they just opened Super Mario there not too long ago, and it was a huge It's an enormous expansion. It's the much larger here than the one in the US.

3:51 Right, that's very popular. They have a lot of IPS there, and specifically what they want to talk about in the presentation was not the the like the permanent eyeps, but what they call temporary ips, which is, you know, the temper ips that they use for their seasonal overlays basically, and of course since it was Halloween time they taught, they focused in on the temporary ips that they utilized for Halloween. So so so before we get before we get too deep in here, I have just a couple of quick questions because I honestly don't know. So Universal Universal Studios Japan is that a is that a licensed Universal Studios or is it part of uh Universal Studios that we know here in the States. It is part of our Universal Yeah, it is team members from the from from US will go back and forth.

4:43 But there is a team based there in Japan, and I'd say the team is kind of mixed, right, there's a there's a core team that is Japanese, but they but kind of they have rotating folks from the other parts come in. And then the other question I had was when you stay when you say they want to stay culturally relevant with but they and the way to do that is with intellectual properties. Are the majority of these intellectual properties Japanese focused or are they just popular in Japan? So I think they are both those things because honestly, all the examples that they shared were all all anime. Okay, good, good, That's what I just wanted to clarify that real quick, because you know, I know that if if I'm questioning, and I have a little bit of insight into this stuff, but if I'm a questioning, I just want to make sure that we're being clear with our listeners as well. So that's great. I'm glad to hear that. I'm glad to hear that because I didn't I know that in some countries, for example, all of their intellectual properties, all the intellectual properties that are so cool and popular come from other countries. Yeah, And I just was I was curious to see if that was if that was the case here, but clearly not if it comes from anime. And of course you know Mario and that sort of stuff. So that's that's great. Yeah, so cool, right, I just wanted to clariff that's right. Clarification I would say that I think the permanent stuff is is definitely you know, Harry Potter is not there whatever, But all the temporary stuff is either from anime or from local artists. Like there's a song that was composed this year that's from a local pop singer that's very popular in Japan. So they So, I think his

6:15 point is valid in that that they have trying to be a destination of choice for locals and for visitors. And if you're visiting Japan, you know you want local you know, you're visiting Chan for Japan, You're not visiting Chan for America, right, So and I think so, I think that's that's very smart them. They and then they they gave a presentation called Unlocking the Power of IP and Entertainment Programs, and it was presented by Dan Mitchell and Dan Peiz from the Creative team there. They didn't say anything that our listeners would not be familiar with in terms of the overarching view. Right. They talked about how it's cheaper just like we do. It's cheaper and potentially more beneficial to do temporary installations, which we've talked about out. They talk about adaptive reuse is what they call it, which is what we would call utilizing your assets. You know, they talked about the balancing new ips versus established ones because the new ones can be cheaper, but it's hard to work with them. Potentially they've never done something. Establish stuff is more expensive. And they just talked about it being helping driving attendants for shoulder seasons. They didn't use the term shoulder season, that's my term. And then you know, they also talked about it helping to basically suck crowds away, you know, during peak times into so everything we've talked about so right, yeah, right, So it's interesting because you know, you mentioned you mentioned the term shoulder season or lower attendance periods, and I can remember I just had a very long discussion with one of my clients about the way Halloween events actually started in

7:51 theme works, and that was to cover the shoulder season between summer and Christmas, but that shoulder season really no longer exists. Halloween has become such an integral part of it, and utilizing these temporary ips, as you say, seems to be a smart way because you just know you're going to do a pop quote unquote a pop up ip for Halloween and potentially for Christmas or the winter season as well. So it seems like the idea of Laura attendance period that's no longer the Halloween season in most cases. Is that still true? Is that still true in the Japanese market as well. That's a great point. And I asked several members of the creative team and they didn't give me an answer, so I don't have an official answer, or at least they didn't want to go on the record give me an answer. I also couldn't even get from them an on the record answer about what percentage of their folks attending Halloween or annual passes versus visitors versus international guests. They would not tell me any of that. What I can say from my experience there at the event is that this almost seems like it is developmentally several years behind the US Halloween events in that I sense that this is still something to fill a shoulder season. That is, it has yet to come into its own in the way that Universal Studios Orlando is its own entity. I don't think that it

9:22 has gotten to that point yet. So it feels it just feels developmentally behind in that way. Like the creative direction for the event as a whole is definitely lacking, and some of the spaces are you know, just a lot of the Clearly they're focused on the IP and making the IP integrate into event. They're less focused on We're creating an event in and of its own that people are coming for. It's more like we're doing something to encourage people to visit, and that thing is IP and it happens during quote unquote Horrorites, But honestly, as someone visiting would I would not even know that it was horrorites. There are not there's not signage, there's not banners on the streets, there's not a cohesive design anywhere. I mean, there's barely a map, right, I mean, it's really it's really like, come for our parade featuring Pokemon, and come for our Halloween Pokemon dance party featuring DJ Gangar and also come for the ju Jitsu Kaizen experience. Oh, by the way, these are for Halloween. That makes sense, not really so yeah, so what I'm hearing is unlike unlike Universal Orlando Halloween Hornites, which is almost well no, not almost, is now a brand unto itself, as we are seeing in the in the Vegas installation. You know, it is a brand on too itself. This is still to your point, at the point of its development where it's let's throw them throw some Halloween things into our park

10:54 mix and see how this how this stands as opposed to diving into all things Halloween, which you know it may it kind of makes sense really because Halloween is significantly more of an American holiday slash celebration anyway. So if they are trying to remain culturally culturally valid and connected to the to the local culture, then to be able to say, you know, here's this, this, and this, which are all Japanese in origin and Japanese in popularity, and by the way, we'll we'll wrap it into that sort of Halloween thing that goes along with Yeah, it could also it could also be. But yet I think to your point it basically they're not utilizing the brand of Halloween Hornites almost at all to your point, and I think to your point, it could be. It could be again they would not answer me when I asked, So it could be that it's because they're unaware of uh, you know, of of what what it could be, you know, or whatever.

12:01 Or it could be it's not popular in the Japanese market, or it could also be that, which is what I personally think the reason is because again there there may be like a decade behind the US parks. I think that it's not a separately ticketed event. So therefore you don't you almost like don't need to make it a thing. Like if they were to transition into charging for this thing, then there would be a reason to call this thing horror Nites, and you would have to come up with reasons for people to attend, and you would need to program those things right, And if you look back at our history here in the US, that's kind of what happened, right whenever Halloween exactly, you know what I mean. So that's what I mean, Like they're developmentally behind, like and maybe they'll never do that because of the culture. Maybe they'll never make it. I would maybe it's not right for the market, maybe there's not that much draw for it. But but yeah, this is this is no different than many many, many parks went through here in the States where it was okay, let's add let's add some trigger treating stuff, and then let's add some and it developed into Halloween.

13:03 Now, in many, many cases, if it's going to be scary or more accurately, if it's going to be outside of the family friendly theme park brand, then it's going to be a separate admission tape. So and I know that when we made that decision at Bush years ago, which was you know, it's been twenty four years since since Hollow Scream started in Bush Tampa, and it's that decision twenty four years ago was a tough discussion to have. It was, you know, do we have enough? Do we have? Are we willing to brand this as its own separate entity? And the only thing that kicked it over the edge was actually having the idea of this is Holo Scream at Bush Gardens. Now it later transitioned into Bush Gardens Hollow Scream, but the idea was so that we wouldn't undermine the daytime brand.

13:52 We would make it a separate admission price so that people couldn't accidentally stumble into something that was too much for them. But it sounds like what they're doing at at Universal Studios Japan is they're doing stuff that is is so much in line with their day product that they don't really have to worry about that and and they may eventually, you know, discover, hey, here's an opportunity to get a second gate, as many parks did here in the in the States. Yes, but I don't know, it's just it's just interesting to me to see how how they handle the same, the same, potentially the same event in different cultures. I agree, And who knows, you know, they wouldn't tell me, They wouldn't give me an answer either way.

14:37 So it might be a market mismatch, or it might be that they're just unaware, you know, of you know, speaking to the creative team, it became clear to me that not a lot of them had visited other events or really you know, even knew what happens at the other Universal parks, you know. So so it could be that, you know, it's like the idea of a second gate is so foreign, or you know, it could just not you know, or or they're not sure it would work, or you know whatever. I don't know, but but it's just it. It doesn't lean into that. And to your point about the offerings being integrated, So the houses are open almost the entire day, it's not like it's not like they open at night, you know, at six pm.

15:20 They're open from like ten am to nine thirty pm the closing time. And then the only thing that is timed is the scare zones. They open at dark, and there's an announcement that plays for like the hour beforehand, like every like fifteen minutes that is warning people that the streets are going to fill up in these areas and they'll be startling effects and you know you might get scared and blah blah blah. So it like prepares people, and then the scare zones come in for basically the last two to three hours of the event. So so all the Halloween offerings are available for the entire for every day, like they're just normally. It's just like Christmas, right, they're just normally available and open. They're not they're not so anyway pop ups within the brand. Yeah. So, so the examples that they gave during their presentation about IP I thought I would go through some of them and just give some takeaways. Uh so the one that I thought was actually the most impressive, and to me is like, again, these are things that it's so impressive.

16:26 I'm not sure it would work in the US because of the you know, the cost and how how how much of a lift it is, and it's something that was only lightly touched on during the presentation, but when I experienced it myself, I was almost flabbergasted. So so this is the Jujitsu Kaisen experience, which happens in the four D theater. Ju Jitsu Kaizen is a relatively new but wildly popular anime series and it's kind of an action horror anime series. I love it, of course, because it's horror and anime and action and whatnot. So I love it. But it's relatively new, only in season. They're currently airing season two, and it's very it's relatively adult, so it's not for kids because it's you know, a lot of fighting and blood and demons and everything. And what they did was they designed an experience for their forty theater, which usually has a Shrek and the best way I can explain it is that they basically wrote an original, full length episode that you watch in the forty theater, an episode that is animated for four D, and that is using the actual voice actors from the anime series, and that fits with the script and not only fits with the anime series, but it's almost like a canon episode that is like added into the series.

17:48 So it's almost like it's like here having like something like The Last of Us where they made an episode that you can only watch at Halloween horrorites, but that contains information that's part of the series, right, So yeah, yeah, it's completely and this is they do this every year with a different series. So they had Detective Conan one time, and it was a whole case that you you know, that had had information that actually was referenced later in the anime series in it, so it became part of canon. I mean, it is this is something I'm not even sure. It's like I was flabbergasted at the depth of this, of getting the voice actors, writing the script, you know, coming up with a whole episode, making it four D, you know, which is a separate animation studio to make it four D for forty three. It was yeah, like well, and this is the kind of thing, This is the kind of thing that you're right, is very very expensive to do here in the States. However, with an up and coming with an up and coming IP, you know, you have the ability to get a hold of of the voice actors or the company who owns the IP, who owns the brand is far more willing to make their their writers or their animators or their voiceover actors available to you because they're still looking at it as investment in long term success. So yeah, this is something that you couldn't do with you know, a long long standing i

19:23 P, which is more expensive to begin with. But I would guess that this is not only a pop up for Universal to test it and see how it works with their market. It's also a pop up for the people who own the who own the i P outright and to say, is this something we can do perhaps full time? I mean, it almost sounds like it almost sounds like an audition for a long term agreement, or perhaps even an agreement with some other some other park, or or even doing their own live engagement interaction stuff. But it sounds great. I love the idea of making it sort of this is this is season one point five, right, this is season you know two point three, because it's it's tied into it's tied into the show bible of the whole you know, story arc, and yet and yet unique to them. So there's a lot of advantages to this.

20:17 There is, there's a lot of advantage and it gets even better there are easter eggs. Keep in mind, this was all in Japanese, so I'm, you know, at best, my translation is rocky at best. But what I do know is that they're it gets better because they were easter eggs in it. So like at the end of the episode, after the characters have had their battle and succeeded their teacher, because it's it's three school kids that you're following, they're the main protagonists, and their teacher is showing up and he's like basically, they're like, oh, well, let's go to Universal Studios Japan. And they talk about how they're going to go to University Sities Japan and like ride rides, which is great and it's integrated into the story. And then they're basically like, what's our reward and he's like, let's go to usj And I'm like wow, And then they also he basically he was like I was just there and he had like a thing of popcorn.

21:07 He like throws popcorn that you can buy out on the street, like the popcorn that like the chocolate popcorn that you can buy at the event, he like throws at you in the forty theater. Love it, absolutely Love that. Yeah, that's the see that's the kind of integration of of of merchandise, culinary guest experience that that is is just so so impactful. It's it's sort of like back in the earliest days of Muppet Vision at Universal I'm sorry, at Disney Studios, Disney Hollywood Studios. They there was one point in time where they actually broke through the wall of the theater and looked out into the park. I loved that sort of seamlessness. And that sounds like this sounds a lot like that's the kind of thing that they're that they're aiming for. However, they've done it in such a way that it's not going to age out quite as quite as quick well, and they've done it for just a what two month run, you know, with an external ip and what another level steps it up in even if possible and even an extra level.

22:07 Right outside of the forty theater, you can buy in the exclusive popcorn bucket, like with the guy who throws the popcorn at you, like in that scene, like it's his popcorn bucket. You can get outside the theater and you can buy school uniforms, the uniforms that they were wearing in the episode, out in the merch store. It like, this is excellent. This is a plus temporary IP integration. I just kept thinking, this is a month and a half that they did all this work for a month and a half, a thing that's going to just play. I mean, yeah, kudos, kudos, But well, but if it's going to if it's going to help anchor the IP in people's brains so that it's going to make it so that season two, season three, season four, season fifty, season sixty continues to be there. You know, it's it's a great It seems like a great investment in time and an effort, and it also makes it you know, not only no, not only is it good for the for the long term of the brand, but also it's it's a great sort of short term makes it cutting edge for the park. Yep. So yeah, and everything you just said they did talk about in the presentation when they went through like kind of you know that, So I think they're on the same page. They have a few other ones I want to get through quickly.

23:18 Not as much time on these, but they do a Sadoku Satoku, which is the Japanese version of The Ring. They do an overlay of that on their version of Space Mountain. They're like Space Odyssey ride. They do overlay on this one. It's not nearly as immersive. There's really just some you know, some some some story and screen changes here and there, and then as they're riding through you see see some overlays of that. They still are doing their Biohazard Maze, which is from Resident Evil, and you can it's the same one that they had I think and they think deybuted it in twenty eighteen or nineteen one. It's still there and you can choose the two routes of the main characters and it's very you know, it's just like the Last of Us. It's a game IP maze integration. However, the big thing for this year was they're doing a Chucky Maze, but they're just like, we are here and it's kind of for you know, because Chucky has a new series on Sci Fi, so that's kind of why there's a lot of push for Chucky. But they're they're doing it as kind of like the Child of Chucky, and it's an original storyline just written just for this Maze of kind of how Chucky's son is like rebelling because he doesn't want to kill people, and he like tries to kill his dad and then like, you know, you can't kill Chucky and so he like comes back. It's like this whole fight between like father and son type of thing that's happening throughout the Maze and Chuck. You know, Chucky's sun Is speaks in Japanese because he's Japanese in this story. But they did use the original voice actor for Chucky

24:52 in the Maze, and they had I mean, they used Brandy. So basically all the fabrication right is original, but it's made to look like it fits within the universe of it. So that's that's another I guess we don't we don't do it that way in the parks, but it's it's an if you can get the IP holder to agree to something like that and you and you have the capacity to to work on things like that. It is interesting. The only CABT I'm going to add to that is they added a forty element into that maze, which I don't think helps the story at all. Like there's no narrative reason for the forty element, and it definitely takes away from from the Chucky element. But the Chucky stuff is good as in, like, it makes sense, it follows a narrative, it makes sense.

25:37 It does look on brand for Chucky. Chucky looks like Chucky his son, you know, looks. I mean, so those pieces fit so well, that's no, that's that's great. Well, you know, and what's interesting is when you say, you know, use like utilizing the original voice actors. I've I've one of the ips that I've been involved with a couple of times is the the Sesame Street eyps and getting you know, getting a lot of even when we're doing new shows, you have to work it into the budget because with those ips, you cannot allow these characters to appear without utilizing the actual approved current voices or voice actors. And there's a couple of different ways around that. It's it's usually it is done in larger productions. Larger we'll call them full time productions. It is done with a full script and a new recording session, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But there are times that, like for smaller inserts, for shorter periods of time, they can get bits and pieces of character lines and and and dialogue from others, from other scripts, other shows, et cetera, edit them together in such a way to create a unique piece. Now, yes, the actors do still get their residuals for those because they're being utilized again and in a different way. But you don't have to have to pay the cost of or the full recording session. You don't have to bring in the studio technicians.

27:07 It's basically just an editing situation and some royalties. So there's a bunch of different ways to get around that. I'm not sure how they did it here. I'm assuming, based on what you've told me, because of the robust storyline, that it did require its own separate recording session was but the idea again once again, IP holders love it when you use their original voices because again just reinforces the reality of their brand and the last element that they gave an example of that I visited myself was the Halloween Pokemon Dance Party, And essentially this is just what it sounds. It's actually fairly long. It's like a thirty minute stage show that is a dance party, and it follows the classic Pokemon beats, like Pikachu's having a dance party. The Japanese version, a team Rocket breaks in and tries to take it over, and they summon Gangar, and then Gangar is like, no, we should actually party with them, and then Pikachu's like, you can party with us too, and it's a happy ending. But what's interesting about is they work directly with the Pokemon company to kind of come up with the storyline for it, so it's a storyline that happens throughout it, and also to choose characters, and they made original costumes for them. So Gangar is featured because he's the Halloween Pokemon, right, but it's like a DJ Gangar, right, and like there's a DJ Pokemon Pikachu. So then there's extensions of these characters. So you can go their dining experience that's right next door is you can get meals that feature DJ Gangar and DJ Pikachu. Right. You can buy them as plushies, so there are extensions of these characters, but these are original costumes

28:40 that were made for this Halloween stage show that's there at USJ. So it's it's very similar to the ju Jitsu Kaisen thing, but it's using Pokemon and you know, just customizing the characters to fit that. Yes, and the last thing I want to mention, which because I would be remiss if I did not mention, this is a big piece of their overall event. This has nothing to do with the IP or any of that, but a big piece of the overall event and usj's philosophy is crowd engagement, and that came up in my observations over and over and over again, and it basically is they're using choreography to engage guests. And as far as I can tell, this is a very uniquely Apac region thing, because I don't I've never really seen this in the US parks. Basically a big part of this, of all the seasonal activations, and not just say this part, but also at Hong Kong and around the other Asian region is like special dances. So there are dances that Universal has developed and there's like online guides that they've released and their characters try and teach you how to do the dance. So the big thing this year was in the scare zones, every like half hour or whatever, they're all this characters like stop what they're doing, they stop scaring it and they start dancing to this song, and if you know the dances, they will like pull you into the dance area and like dance with you if you know the choreography. And they do this for the whole duration of the

30:11 song and they just go back afterwards, they just go back to their normal secar acting thing. But it happens like park wide everywhere, and every year they have a song custom developed for Halloween, and this year it's Show by Ado and it plays like everywhere, not just in this but it plays in the Pokemon Dance Show, it plays in their other Halloween nighttime dance show. Like it just they just shove it everywhere they can and really try and teach the guests how to do it. And it's the same with their No Limit. There's a part in the No Limit Parade where they all just the parade just stops and the guests are invited into the parade route to dance with the characters using the choreography that they were were teaching you on the way over, and then the guests are told to leave and they all exit the parade route and the parade continues, which is a logistical feat that would be utterly possible in the US. It would be logistical nightmare. So it's funny. I have I have experimented with this. I did experiment with this several years ago for a summer event at a at a at a zoo actually, and we did do We did do well. We at the time, we did YouTube videos because TikTok was not as popular as it is now, to try to help teach the basic dance and get everybody to come out, and it did it. We had less success with it than one might than than obviously they're having there. So I think it is a cultural thing. It's also something that I think is unique to incorporate in a Halloween event. I think it

31:44 would. I think it might stumble and fall here, although with the with the growing popularity of TikTok dance videos, I could be wrong. I don't know, but it's clear. It's clear that it's a cultural thing and works very very well for them. Another thing that works very very well for us is making certain that we try to stay on our time limit. I mean, we ain't called Theme Park in thirty for nothing, and we are out of time for another week. So on behalf of Philipernandez with Gantum Lighting and the Haunted Attraction Network and myself Scott Swinson with Scott Swinson Creative Development. Thank you so very very much for tuning in yet again for another episode of Green Tag Theme Park in thirty and we will see you next week. Today's episode was produced and edited by me Philip Hernandez, with post production by David Swape and original music composed by Chris Thomas. We're counting down to Halloween with daily podcasts, videos, and events in our sixty one day Hantathon. Follow along at the link in our show notes. Our Hantathon is made possible through generous support from Gantum Lighty and Controls. Gantum illuminates attractions worldwide with the world's smallest intelligent spotlights. See what you're missing with a free demo. Sign up at dantum dot com slash demo. That's Gantum dot com slash demo. Our Hauntathon team includes Daryl Plunky, Emily Luis Rua, Megan Spells, Gavin Burns and omni Adventures. And our content partners for this year include Attractions Magazine, Creepy Kingdom, Freaks of Jgen, hont Topic Radio, Kevin Heinbach News TV,

33:14 Omniadventures, Scare Track, Sharp Productions, That Halloween Podcast, The Horror of Being, Emily, The Scare Factor, and This Weekend with Nick Pealiochini. The best way you can support us this Halloween season is by sharing our Haunted on with someone you think we'll enjoy it, and to follow along to our Haunted on, sign up for our weekly newsletter at hant Attraction Network dot com. We'll catch you back here tomorrow and every day until Halloween. Until next time, say scary. This is a Haunted Attraction Network