Shin chan sequelShiro and the Coal Townbuilds on the ideas established in the first game and adds new ones to the mix.Like Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation, it values the enjoyment found in everyday life, exemplified by its wonderfully realised Unbent Village, but its titular Coal Town introduces an opposing element.
Where Unbent Village is all green landscapes and clean air, Coal Town is towering buildings and smoke-filled streets. Where Unbent Village is peaceful and worry-free, Coal Town is being changed against the citizen’s will. Producer Akira Nagashima tells me that he considers this “contrast” to be the game’s main theme.
“The era we live in now, with the advancement of technology and changes in ideology, has brought us a very convenient and rational lifestyle,” Nagashima says. “However, I also feel a kind of loneliness, as if we’ve forgotten something important from the past. I wanted to depict that ‘contrast’.”
The Difference Between The Two Towns
The “contrast” between Unbent Village and Coal Town is more than just aesthetics; Unbent Village represents rural life witha strong connection to nature, while Coal Town depicts an industrialised community that’s now struggling with its coal production. Nagashima explains how he came up with this idea:
“As a counterpart to the everyday world where Shin chan and his friends live, I envisioned a fictional town modeled after a period when the fossil fuel industry flourished. Discardson represents an important character who symbolizes the frustration of not being able to adapt smoothly to the rapid changes of the times, despite understanding them.”
As the antagonist, Discardson wants to streamline Coal Town’s coal production by eliminating ‘waste’ in all other areas, but doesn’t see how the current production method is flawed.
The existence of two “worlds”, as Nagashima calls them, compared to just the one in Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation, meant the game required “a new action-management system” to facilitate progress between them.
This resulted in a proper quest log, something that wasn’t present in the first game, where you keep track of progress with the main objective and sub-missions.
Cleverly, the sub-missions play into the “contrast” and ”something important from the past” that Nagashima wanted to highlight, as the NPCs in Coal Town often request items that are only available in Unbent Village, such as butterflies, which are rare in Coal Town.
Trolley Racing Highlights The Contrast
Coal Town’s trolley racing subculture also harkens back to the differences between the two locations, as such an energetic activity would never become popular among Unbent Village’s easygoing residents.
Interestingly, Nagashima says it originally wasn’t going to be such a big part of Coal Town’s identity. “Since young children would also be playing, I initially requested a simpler ‘slot car’ type of gameplay, but thanks to the passion and effort of the development team, it evolved into something much more robust.”
He didn’t expect it to go further than a basic minigame, but thanks to how it changed, it became an important part of the game’s ending too. “I requested a special event [involving the trolley racing] for the story’s climax to be added.” Including the trolley racing in the story’s ending took it from just being a minigame to showing why it’s significant to the people of Coal Town, so this was certainly the right decision.
Another huge draw of the Shin chan games is its art style and character designs, which draw directly from Crayon Shin-Chan,the manga and anime the games are based on. Whether unintentional or not, they also play into the theme of contrast Nagashima focuses on - the character models are cel-shaded, while the backgrounds are more flat and painting-like. Nagishima explains the process of achieving this unique style:
“Shiro and the Coal Town, like the previous game, was developed with respect for the animation production techniques that have become a part of Japan’s cultural tradition. We created visuals resembling a TV anime by layering cel-shaded 3D models, which move with our unique motion control technology, over hand-drawn background art.”
The combination of the cel-shaded characters and flat, watercolour-like backgrounds convey both the quirkiness of the characters and the atmosphere of each location. Nagashima says that these two opposing elements had to be balanced during production. “The art was meticulously crafted by professionals who have supported Japan’s animation industry for years, and the characters' simple but uniquely timed movements, based on limited animation techniques, were carefully balanced to harmonize with the intricate background art.”
The Future Of Shin Chan
Since I enjoyed Shiro and the Coal Town so much, I couldn’t help but ask if there was any possibility for another Shin chan game in the future. Nagashima’s answer was elusive, but it seems he has plenty more ideas for Shin chan’s adventures:
“I can’t make any promises, but I always have ideas in mind so that we can start creating whenever the opportunity arises. Although I can’t share details yet, I’m determined to keep working on producing a unique game that only we can create — or rather, only we would dare to create.”
Hopefully Shin chan’s world will be expanded even further in the future.
