{"id":31912,"date":"2024-06-04T16:14:09","date_gmt":"2024-06-04T07:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=31912"},"modified":"2024-06-04T16:14:10","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T07:14:10","slug":"yoko-taro-iconic-nier-mask-made-it-hard-for-him-to-celebrate-his-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/yoko-taro-iconic-nier-mask-made-it-hard-for-him-to-celebrate-his-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"Yoko Taro&#8217;s iconic NieR mask made it hard for him to celebrate his birthday\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Although Japanese game director Yoko Taro\u2019s birthday isn\u2019t until June 6, his friends and co-workers decided&nbsp;to surprise him a few days earlier. After the NieR Orchestra Concert in Taipei on June 1, the orchestra (helmed by conductor Eric Roth) and singers Emi Evans and J\u2019nique Nicole surprised Yoko Taro and NieR composer Keiichi Okabe with a classical rendition of the Happy Birthday song. Okabe (who celebrated his birthday on May 26) recently turned 55 while Yoko Taro is about to be 54 years old.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">It was a surprise (seriously). <br>Thank you so su much everyone!<br><br>\u30b5\u30d7\u30e9\u30a4\u30ba\u3067\u8a95\u751f\u65e5\u306e\u304a\u795d\u3044\u3092\u9802\u304d\u307e\u3057\u305f\u2026\u2026\uff01(\u30de\u30b9\u30af\u3067\u3088\u304f\u898b\u3048\u306a\u304b\u3063\u305f\u306e\u304c\u6b8b\u5ff5\u3067\u3059) <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/oE1SXBD6us\">https:\/\/t.co\/oE1SXBD6us<\/a><\/p>&mdash; yokotaro (@yokotaro) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/yokotaro\/status\/1797110561681084667?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 2, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong>Post translation: <\/strong><em>I had a surprise birthday celebration&#8230;! (Unfortunately I couldn&#8217;t see well because of the mask.)\u00a0<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Yoko Taro took to social media to express his surprise and gratitude for the gesture but mentioned that his mask (which is based on the one worn by NieR character Emil) made it hard for him to see. The mask prevented him from fully experiencing the birthday festivities off-stage as well, as an afterparty video shows him having trouble blowing out the candles on the birthday cake:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u30de\u30b9\u30af\u306e\u9699\u9593\u304b\u3089\u706b\u3092\u6d88\u3059\u52aa\u529b\u3092\u3057\u3066\u3044\u307e\u3059\u2026\u2026\uff01\uff01 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7EQ4XW4Orv\">https:\/\/t.co\/7EQ4XW4Orv<\/a><\/p>&mdash; yokotaro (@yokotaro) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/yokotaro\/status\/1797110733928595880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 2, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong>Post translation:<\/strong><em> I&#8217;m trying to blow out the candles through the holes in my mask&#8230;!!\u00a0<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Yoko Taro attempted to blow out the candles through the holes in the full-face mask. Unfortunately, this wasn\u2019t enough, prompting Keiichi Okabe to do the honors for both of them. Yoko Taro\u2019s Emil mask provides him with a degree of anonymity, but it has also led to some humorous incidents. At <a href=\"https:\/\/kotaku.com\/yoko-taro-mask-nier-automata-emil-lost-anime-expo-2023-1850603039\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Anime Expo 2023<\/a>, he lost his Emil disguise and ended up wearing a creepy leprechaun mask instead.<a href=\"http:\/\/one%20such%20occurrence%20happened%20at%20anime%20expo%202023\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a> Although the Emil mask may look goofy, it is a core part of Yoko Taro\u2019s outfit and identity.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NieR series director Yoko Taro&#8217;s Emil mask caused some unforeseen issues at his surprise birthday celebration in Taipei on Saturday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":31922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-31912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Yoko Taro&#039;s iconic NieR mask made it hard for him to celebrate his birthday\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"NieR series director Yoko Taro&#039;s Emil mask caused some unforeseen issues at his surprise birthday celebration in Taipei on Saturday\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/yoko-taro-iconic-nier-mask-made-it-hard-for-him-to-celebrate-his-birthday\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Yoko Taro&#039;s iconic NieR mask made it hard for him to celebrate his birthday\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"NieR series director Yoko Taro&#039;s Emil mask caused some unforeseen issues at his surprise birthday celebration in Taipei on Saturday\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/yoko-taro-iconic-nier-mask-made-it-hard-for-him-to-celebrate-his-birthday\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-06-04T07:14:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-06-04T07:14:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/20240604-31912-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"506\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carlos &quot;Zoto&quot; Zotomayor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Yoko Taro's iconic NieR mask made it hard for him to celebrate his birthday\u00a0 - 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