{"id":6537,"date":"2021-11-24T16:21:53","date_gmt":"2021-11-24T07:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=6537"},"modified":"2022-05-13T18:08:48","modified_gmt":"2022-05-13T09:08:48","slug":"20211124-6537","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20211124-6537\/","title":{"rendered":"FFXIV sound director\u2019s commemorative horse race was a big success for fans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Publication date of the <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/articles\/newsjp\/20211122-183271\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">original Japanese article<\/a>: 2021-11-22 14:25 (JST)<br>Translated by. Nick Mosier<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>On November 20, \u201cThe Soken\u2019s Return Commemoration Special\u201d (\u7956\u5805\u3055\u3093\u5e30\u9084\u8a18\u5ff5\u7279\u5225) was held at the Kochi Racecourse in Japan to celebrate Masayoshi Soken, <em><strong>Final Fantasy XIV<\/strong><\/em>\u2019s sound director, seeing his cancer go into remission. The race was sponsored and named by Japanese <em>FFXIV<\/em> player Inary Kinchuck and was broadcast live on YouTube to the amusement of many Warriors of Light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The race was an individually sponsored event in honor of Masayoshi Soken, who continued his sound director duties from his hospital bed after being diagnosed with cancer last year. An individually sponsored race is where a person who pays a sponsorship fee gets to name a horse race. Among the numerous regional horse racing tracks in Japan, Kochi Racecourse is especially popular for \u201cita races\u201d in celebration of idols and fictional characters and commentary from their announcer, Koji Hashiguchi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When it was posted on horse racing news websites that The Soken\u2019s Return Commemoration Special was happening at the Kochi Racecourse, word quickly spread on social media (<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20211118-6237\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">related article<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u9ad8\u77e5\u3051\u3044\u3070\u4e2d\u7d99\u30002021\/11\/20\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4QSKl_Hj9AY?start=16705&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When the corral was being shown, even Soken made a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SOKENsquareenix\/status\/1461996764425342977\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tweet<\/a> in reference to the race. The commentators on Kochi Racecourse\u2019s live broadcast, which gives betting predictions and shows the race, reacted to the tweet. Race reporter Yoko Oe came across the tweet during the broadcast and said, \u201cLet\u2019s retweet this!\u201d while retweeting it from her personal account. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Comments from <em>FFXIV<\/em> players could be seen saying this was their first time watching horse racing, which the commentators picked up on as they carefully explained their predictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before the race began, a message from the race\u2019s sponsor was read, along with a comment from Hashiguchi, the announcer, saying, \u201cAfter facing the pain and worry of your hospital stay, congratulations on your return.\u201d As a staple of the Kochi Racecourse, many fans were likely looking forward to Hashiguchi\u2019s words. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hashiguchi ended with, \u201cThis race is brought to you in cooperation with the Warriors of Light who stand against the Final Days,\u201d and is reminiscent of <em>FFXIV: Endwalker<\/em>, which is launching on December 7.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" src=\"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/20211122-183271-001.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-6540\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/20211122-183271-001.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/20211122-183271-001-600x338.jpg 600w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/20211122-183271-001-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/20211122-183271-001-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/20211122-183271-001-150x84.jpg 150w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/20211122-183271-001-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/20211122-183271-001-696x392.jpg 696w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/20211122-183271-001-1068x601.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/20211122-183271-001-747x420.jpg 747w\" \/><figcaption>From the Kochi Racecourse\u2019s official YouTube channel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>After tying things up with such a nice comment, it seemed like the race was about to get underway. Then Hashiguchi had one more pleasant surprise up his sleeve when giving an outline of the race. He said, \u201cfourteen-hundred meters,\u201d in English, alluding to <em>FFXIV<\/em> and how in Japan, the XIV in <em>FFXIV<\/em> is pronounced in English. Even the commentators giving their betting predictions couldn\u2019t help but be impressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the race itself, Killer Mountain, the favorite, finished in first. Micky Fountain, the third favorite, finished in second. And Kotobuki Rhea, the second favorite, finished in third. You could say it wasn\u2019t a race with any dramatic upsets. While Soken\u2019s bets were off the mark, Inary, the race\u2019s sponsor, was <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/oinari3an_ff14\/status\/1462008217484120066\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">right on target<\/a>, but still ended up down 50 yen (around $0.50). The combination of horse number 1 and number 4 for <em>FFXIV<\/em> was also a popular bet, but unfortunately, it was also a miss.<br><\/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\">\u30ad\u30ec\u30a4\u306b\u6563\u3063\u305f\u30fc\u30fc\uff01\uff01 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QExpPPHl3k\">pic.twitter.com\/QExpPPHl3k<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u30cb\u30fc\u7956\u5805 (@SOKENsquareenix) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SOKENsquareenix\/status\/1462003791503323136?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 20, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><figcaption><font size=\"2\"><strong>Tweet Translation:<br><\/strong>That went nothing like how I expected!!<\/font><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>*The image in Soken\u2019s above tweet was taken from <em>Final Fantasy XIV Letter from the Producer LIVE Part VI.<\/em><br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Between Soken mentioning the race and courteous commentary from Koji Hashiguchi, The Soken\u2019s Return Commemoration Special was a race <em>FFXIV <\/em>fans are sure to remember. <em>FFXIV<\/em>\u2019s <em>Endwalker<\/em> expansion is scheduled to release on December 7.<br><br><br><br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\">\u00a9 2010 \u2013 2021 SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FFXIV sound director\u2019s commemorative horse race was a big success for fans. Between Soken mentioning the race and courteous commentary from the announcer, it was a race FFXIV fans are sure to remember. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":6539,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,3],"tags":[36,17],"class_list":["post-6537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-final-fantasy","category-news","tag-final-fantasy","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>FFXIV sound director\u2019s commemorative horse race was a big success for fans - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"FFXIV sound director\u2019s commemorative horse race was a big success for fans. 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