Tokyo Encounter (東京エンカウント), or Tokyo Encount, is a 30 min show that airs two times every three months on AT-X's night programming in Japan. It's about seiyuu Tomokazu Sugita and Yūichi Nakamura playing video games. Unlike Shinya Arino in GameCenter CX, Sugita and Nakamura don't have to finish the games they're playing, so they spend most of the time riffing them and playing them with some of their seiyuu friends and co-workers.
The show started in May 2010 and initially ended February 2013. However, a special episode called Die... Tokyo Encounter aired in January 2014 and the second season, Tokyo Encounter Nii, has been airing since May 2014. Nii has featured two Gaiden episodes as an extension to the normal episodes, one for episode 30, and one for episode 48, both of which were aired one month later. Both Gaiden episodes had a major segment that took the majority of those episodes' time, the first featured Tokyo Encounter Dai-Nenpyou ("Tokyo Encounter: Big Chronology"), and the second featured Watashi no Takaramono Encounter ("My Treasure Encounter"). In June 2020, during the COVID-19 crisis, the show aired two Clip Show specials featuring the highlights of the series up to this point.
While the show is hosted by Sugita and Nakamura, sometimes guest players will appear and play with them. All players aren't professional, but they enjoy playing video games privately. During the show, they always talk either about the games they are playing or about their job or private life, which gives the show a homely atmosphere. The guest players appear in two episodes that are aired in the same month. The games vary in all genres, platforms and age. Also, between the main games, Sugita and Nakamura play minigames with each other that are prepared by the studio staff, where they can win prizes and/or points.
For the list of the seiyuu featured in this series, see this sheet here.
The show is associated with following tropes:
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Anti-Climax Boss: The gang encounters one while playing Dungeon Explorer during episode 14. Hiro Shimono's reaction during the whole thing just makes this trope even more poignant.(the trio enters the Boss Room and finds two gigantic masses of flesh, tentacles and eyeballs that start chasing them around the room)
Shimono: eeeeEEEEEHHH WEHHHH SCARY SCARY SCARY SCARY HUGE HUGE HUGE
Nakamura: GROSS!
Shimono: HUGE HUGE
(the bosses die within a few seconds, disappearing in an almost comically small puff of smoke)
Shimono: Ah--
Nakamura: They were weaker than expected. - Birthday Episode:
- Episodes 31 and 32 are more of a Christmas Episode in double pack, but in episode 31, it also serves as a delayed birthday episode of Uesaka.
- While episode 53 is aired in November 2017, it's apparently recorded in October 11, the birthday of Sugita, Sakaguchi and Nishiyama.
- Episode 57 celebrates Daisuke Ono's 40th birthday. Since his birthday happens to be in May 4, this might explain the one-month delay of the broadcast.
- Blatant Lies: When they refer something as "cute" games, those actually turn out to be zombie games.
- Bookend: The Clip Show specials start with the "2P Game Selection" segment in the first special and end with the "2P Game Selection" segment in the second special.
- Brick Joke:
- Sugita and Nakamura play Left 4 Dead 2 with Yuuki Kaji. Later, they play Left 4 Dead with Aoi Yuuki.
- During Aoi Yuuki's first appearance, she brings fluffy bear-ear jerseys for all players. This happens again over 31 episodes later.
- The Cameo: Mafia Kajita appears with Mr. Karate's tengu mask in episode 3 and brings the two hosts food and drinks, but he doesn't say anything.
- Christmas Episode: The episodes that get aired in February are recorded in Christmas. In fact, since Aoi Yūki, all guests who have been appeared on Christmas have been women. In July/August 2016, Mikako Komatsu is the first female guest who doesn't appear on Christmas since Yuko Sanpei and Ami Koshimizu back in May 2011.
- Christmas Miracle: What Nakamura seems to think, since they get all those impossible-to-get guests (Nana Mizuki in 2012, Yui Horie in 2015) at the end of the year.
- Clip Show: In June 5th and 19th, 2020, Tokyo Encounter Nii aired two specials that featured highlights of the entire show. The clips were categorized in following categories: "2P Game Selection" (which featured clips with no guests), "Retro Game Selection" (focusing on retro games), "Multiplayer Games Selection" (focusing on multiplayer games with at least three players; this category also took the majority of screentime in both specials), "Arcade Game Selection" (focusing on the Arcade Corner segments), and "Singleplayer Games Selection" (focusing on single-player games). Almost every guest appeared in these two specials, with the exception of Ayana Taketatsu (although her name was brought up a lot thanks to the Ikki Online clips). The second appearances of Aoi Yūki and Hiro Shimono were also not shown.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Especially with the older games they play as the AI is just perfect. Of course, this gives the cast quite a few laughs at how unfair it is.
- Double Knockout: In episode 22, when they play Street Fighter II, Nakamura and Eguchi knock each other out with Guile and Sagat, respectively.
- Early-Bird Cameo:
- The Play Station Vita shows up in episode 19 before it was released.
- Similarly, the hosts get the chance to play the Playstation VR in episode 41 before its release.
- Flat "What": In one episode while Aoi Yuuki gets herself caught up in a giggling fit looking at how utterly ridiculous Sugita and Nakamura in their (ridiculously undersized) animal hoodies Sugita responds with one of these. In English no less. Nakamura trying to reach for something on the table just makes her laugh harder.
- Gag Censor: Whenever one of them makes a joke where it has to be censored, usually when one of them says something really dirty or says the name of a famous person or copyrighted work deemed inappropriate to make fun of, the censored part itself is played with. A rather suggestive sounding "Yamete!" (Stop it!) is often used as the sound.
- Gag Penis: One of the characters Nakamura created in Soul Calibur V has a large front tail and huge balls infront of the crotch. Even funnier is that the character is supposed to be Sugita, complete with no pants and with Voldo as the basis.
- The Ghost: Since it's a show about seiyuu playing games, a lot of them are mentioned, but do not appear in the show.
- Houko Kuwashima is the most frequently mentioned seiyuu. Sugita very fond of her. In Die... Tokyo Encounter, she eventually makes an appearance in a video message.
- Norio Wakamoto is mentioned several times. He's even impersonated by Sugita, Nakamura and Sakurai. Sugita still impersonates him from time to time.
- Sphere, a unit between Aki Toyosaki, Haruka Tomatsu, Ayahi Takagaki and Minako Kotobuki, is often mentioned during the show. Sugita and Nakamura really want to have them as guests. Eventually, Tomatsu and Toyosaki do appear in episodes 51 and 52.
- When Sphere fan Eguchi shows up instead of one of the Sphere members, Sugita responds with Takagaki being not 180cm tall.
- Nobuyuki Hiyama is sometimes mentioned, mostly because of his roles in the games they play.
- Sugita jokes that the character Mezu from Savage Reign has the last name "Toyoguchi" because it sounds similar to "Megu".
- Shigeru Chiba is mentioned when Sugita, Nakamura and Sakurai play YuYu Hakusho.
- Hikaru Midorikawa (who would later become a guest himself), Masaya Onosaka, Takehito Koyasu, Fumihiko Tachiki and Kikuko Inoue are mentioned in the Okiayu episodes.
- Episode 68 features the game Deka Voice where Tachiki played the protagonist. Of course, the seiyuus pick this up immediately.
- During the Die... Tokyo Encounter special, Sugita compares Nakamura's depiction of the Neo-Geo logo as Yuu Kobayashi's drawing.
- Onosaka, Koyasu and Mitsuki Saiga are mentioned during the 30-sho Gaiden special and they apparently recommended Miyano to play Monster Hunter.
- Akio Ōtsuka in episode 10.
"Ore wa Charlie."- Hitomi Nabatame by Koshimizu and later by Sugita.
- Hōchū Ōtsuka is mentioned when Nakamura, Sugita and Shimono discuss if they are old and middle-aged men.
- When Sugita, Nakamura and Shimono play Ikki Online, Sugita makes a Pun of bamboo spear ("takeyari") and Taketatsu, and he keeps saying "Taketatsu" whenever he uses a bamboo spear. After the game, Sugita suggests he should probably write an apology letter to I'm Enterprise (Taketatsu's agency).
- Saori Hayami is mentioned a few times.
- Of course, at one point, Sho Hayami has to be mentioned.
- Kosuke Toriumi is mentioned in episode 15 because there is an enemy called "Kousuke".
- They call an enemy "Abe-san" in the same game.
- Toriumi is mentioned a few times again in episode 33.
- Miyu Irino is mentioned in episode 16 and in 30-sho Gaiden.
- Hiroshi Kamiya gave Sugita "Let's TV play" controllers from the Plug it series, which appear in episode 16. He is mentioned several times before and after that, too.
- Akira Ishida is described by Sugita, Nakamura and Yuuki as a man who is untouchable and has a strong AT-Field.
- Rie Kugimiya is mentioned by Sugita when he, Nakamura and Yuuki talk about Akira Ishida (see above). Sugita, Kugimiya and Ishida went on an udon shop; when Ishida ate nabeyuki udon and said "It's hot!", Kugimiya laughed. He mentions her sometimes later.
- Yukana and Shizuka Itō in episode 18.
- Mamiko Noto is mentioned a few times. Notably in episode 19, when Sugita tells Nakamura that she (and Nabatame) is(/are) in Strawberry Marshmallow.
Nakamura: "...Should I watch it..."- In episode 26, Nakamura mentions Yui Ogura, and Sugita responds with Kaori Ishihara. The two guys wonder if they invite one of them, would the other come along, too. (Both girls are members of the unit YuiKaori.)
- In 30-sho Gaiden, when they play Mach Breakers: Numan Athletics 2, Sugita picked an old man (Shigoku) who had very long hair that stood up in the air, with Nakamura commenting it's "Gon-san". Then Sugita calls the old man "Han-chan".
- Kenta Miyake and Fumiko Orikasa are mentioned when Sugita, Nakamura and Eguchi play Street Fighter II, since they are Eguchi and Sugita's senpais respectively and play Zangief and Chun-Li.
- In episode 37, Sugita imitates Daisuke Gōri and Yuusuke Numata. When playing Time Gal, Nakamura wonders if Reika Kishihara was voiced by one of the Dirty Pair seiyuus, Saeko Shimazu or Kyouko Tonguu. However, Sakaguchi eventually figures out that Reika was played by Yuriko Yamamoto.
- Aside from their seiyuu co-workers, Sugita often mentions his older brother or/and his cousin Kazuyuki.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: A variation involving a character's favorite activity (a la Ness's favorite food) shows up in episode 13 when Sugita and Nakamura are asked to show their gaming-related photographs. The moment also serves as a funny role reversal of their usual Boke and Tsukkomi Routine.Nakamura: I brought this one just in case, but I thought it might be a little inappropriate...
Sugita: What d'you mean, "inappropriate"?
Photograph: I do penis a lot. But I do it too much... The people in town don't think it's good.
Sugita: This is a dirty picture!! - Laugh Track: Subverted, since it is recorded with the studio staff around, and they laugh their asses off at any of the antics or jokes that Sugita and Nakamura pull out when playing the games.
- Last-Name Basis: Nobody calls someone by his/her given name, except for rare cases like Daisuke Sakaguchi.
- Let's Play: Unlike regular Let's Plays, Tokyo Encounter is about playing through games just for fun, so there are no walkthroughs or tutorials.
- Lethal Joke Item: When they played Ikki Online, they thought the bamboo spear was just a joke item because it only attacks forward and they thought it was useless. Once Nakamura found a good way to use it however, him, Shimono, and Sugita thought it was a One-Hit KO item.
- Overly Long Name: Some of the games have really long names.
- Episode 80 has the Wii game Zaidan Houjin Nihon Kanji Nouryoku Kentei Kyokai Kounin: Kanken Wii — Kanji-Ou Ketteisen, which is all written in kanji (except for "Wii").
- Product Placement: As Tokyo Encounter is a show about playing video games, this is pretty much unavoidable. However, there are a handful of notable products that show up in a few episodes (See Early-Bird Cameo), and Nakamura lampshades the show's SNK slant (particularly towards The King of Fighters) in episode 14.Nakamura: What is with this show? Are we getting money from SNK or something?
- Punny Name:
- The word "Die" in Die... Tokyo Encounter is a pun to "Dai", which means "Great" or "Big".
- In episode 5, when one of the characters is called "Mezu", Sugita jokingly says that Megumi Toyoguchi is in the game, only then to explain the "Mezu/Megu" pun when Kaji is looking up at the menu to check if it's true.
- In episode 76, when they are fighting against giant ants, Sugita calls them "Ozawa". Yashiro finally sees the connection when he says "ari" ("ant") and that Sugita was making a pun with Ari Ozawa's name. Nakamura catches the pun after Yashiro.
- Rule of Cool: When they play Metal Wolf Chaos, a game where you play as the President of the USA in a mecha suit while fending off against terrorists, this is their reaction.
- Running Gag:
- Anything about Sugita's adored Houko Kuwashima.
- The most common reaction to the question "What's up lately?" is "That's so blunt!".
- Sugita and Nakamura winning the same Mai Shiranui figure in the box game corner. Three times.
- Sugita and Nakamura tell some of their guest that they will play a "cute" game. Those games turn quickly out to be zombie games.
- Sugita and Nakamura imitating other seiyuus.
- Most of the time, when they see a bald character, they (usually Sugita) say it's Mafia Kajita.
- Shout-Out: It's amusing to go through many of them (there are tons to not only video games, but visual novels and anime and manga series, too), until the non-casual viewer remembers that, firstly, they are seiyuu who have worked with many, many others that had at least a role in many of those games or anime series; and secondly, that Sugita is a well-informed otaku who knows his stuff ever since he was a kid (when it is about videogames) and a teenager (when it is about anime).
- Title Drop: The episode titles are quotes from the episodes.
- World of Ham: All of them are pretty loud!
