Eba Kyouka’s Trio Clears Level 14 After 40 Minutes and Finishes Ten Bombanana Stages

BRAVE GROUP — Eba Kyouka, Shirase Shirakawa and Chise Itsuki got through level 14 of the cooperative bomb-defusal game Bombanana after about 40 minutes on it, then carried on to meet their goal of ten stages for the night. The three streamed the session at the same time, each from their own channel.

In Bombanana, each player is cut off from something: one could not hear, one could not speak and held the manual, and the one working on the bomb could not tell colors apart. The three traded roles through the night. They had stopped at level 10 last time, with 20 of the game’s 30 levels left, and picked up at level 11 with four bombs on a four-minute clock. The first try ended in an explosion; they started over and cleared it.

“Once we figured out where we’d gotten stuck, it went pretty smoothly. I think this is proof the teamwork is growing.” — Eba Kyouka, after the others signed off

Level 14 gave them three bombs and three and a half minutes, and one module held them up: a circle of four colored buttons whose manual page none of them could make work. Several attempts failed. Swapping roles and trying again, they worked out the rule: what mattered was the color of the button at the spot that lit up, not the color of the light, and each round repeated the presses from the one before. Chise took the seat working on the bomb and finished the last inputs with about 20 seconds left. Chat filled with applause and congratulations.

The rest of the night moved faster. Twice later on, a bomb went off with one second left on the clock, and both times the group cleared the stage on the next try. The last stage of the night included a module they had not met before, and they said the approach they had found on level 14 gave them the key.

Afterward the three spent time on what to call one another. Chise offered three candidates for Eba, among them Kyon-taro and Kyon-chan, and the pick was handed to Shirase. After a run of taro-style variants, they settled on Kyon-taro for Eba, Chise-jiro for Chise and Shira-saburo for Shirase, and agreed to take on the rest of the game as ‘three brothers.’

During the wrap-up Eba announced that Palette Project, the idol group she belongs to, will hold a one-man live at Shinagawa Intercity Hall on Dec. 26, its first with eight members instead of seven. After the others signed off, she said the next session would aim for the final stage, and that she was nervous about a bomb whose manual she had never handled.