The year 2025 marks 20 years since the release of the JRPG classic Tales of the Abyss. And is there any better way to celebrate this than to…run a full marathon wearing a Luke cosplay? Kenji Anabuki, the developer who worked on many Tales Of series titles and directed Scarlet Nexus, seems to agree. After all, this would be not his first, nor his second – but his third time running 42 kilometers in cosplay. In a special article he wrote for Denfaminicogamer, he talks about what Tales of the Abyss means to him, the chaotic truth behind the birth of Abyss’ mascot character Mieu, and why he ran the Tokyo marathon as Luke fon Fabre.
Even after 20 years, Tales of the Abyss still holds a very special place in Anabuki’s heart, and there is no doubt that Abyss wouldn’t be the game it is now if it wasn’t for him. At the time, he was working as the dungeon designer, creating and planning each of the dungeons in the game. He had previously worked on the designs of some of the dungeons for Tales of Symphonia, although he admits in the article that the dungeons he made for it were “exhausting to the players”; which is why he tried to make them a bit more balanced for Abyss. However, one of the “features” he proposed for Tales of the Abyss had completely changed the course of the game’s development.
Apparently, Tales of the Abyss was never supposed to have a mascot character. During the game’s development, Anabuki came up with the idea to have a cute character carry the Sorcerer’s Ring – a key item for dungeon exploration that appears multiple times throughout the Tales Of series. He believed that attributing the features of the ring to a cute animal-like character would result in the game being a much more fun and engaging experience for the players. The screenwriter, Miyajima Takumi, who had already started writing the script at that time, was in for a shock when Anabuki came and casually told her “This time, the sorcerer’s ring will be an animal.” This proposal had caused much chaos as it was required for the script to be completely rewritten, but Miyajima managed to push through – and thus, the character of Mieu was born. Miyajima later confessed in an interview that the model and main inspiration for Mieu was Anabuki himself!
Anabuki has participated in the Tokyo marathon three times, and each time, he cosplayed one of his characters – the first time it was Yuito Sumeragi and the second time it was Kasane Randall, both characters being from Scarlet Nexus. In a dubiously official Q&A gathering of the creators of Tales of the Abyss on X Spaces, held every year on its anniversary day, he decided that he will be cosplaying as Luke at the 2025 Tokyo marathon, as it would be the perfect way to celebrate the game’s 20th anniversary. He believes that it is important for developers to openly show love for their character, as that’s also a way to express gratitude towards all the people who played the game and still love the characters to this day.
