Christmas 2016 showtape (Japanese Isles) (Johnsonverse)

Cast

 * Aaron Fechter as Billy Bob, Looney Bird, Rolfe DeWolfe, and Earl Schmerle
 * Stephanie Sheh as Yui Hirasawa
 * Shelby Lindley as Tsumugi "Mugi" Kotobuki
 * Cassandra Lee Morris as Ritsu Tainaka
 * Cristina Valenzuela as Mio Akiyama
 * Christine Marie Cabanos as Azusa Nakano
 * Xanthe Huynh as Ui Hirasawa

Summary
Ho-kago Tea Time returned for the Christmas 2016 showtape, with a new Center Stage setup: Azusa Nakano (voiced by Christine Marie Cabanos) rejoined the band as the rhythm guitarist, now standing between Yui and Mugi; upon her introduction, the D code for failure modes was reassigned to Azusa, while Mio gained the new E code. Subsequent showtapes have depicted Rolfe appearing on the Cyberstar monitors, begging to come back, only for Earl to hurl scathing insults his way; during one of these instances, Looney Bird pulled the plug on the monitors. In the June 2017 showtape, it is revealed that Rolfe was innocent, and that Chuck E.'s rival Mike Wolf was masquerading as Rolfe to discredit ShowBiz as a whole and get everyone to go to his restaurant, Banjo Billy's Pizza. After Looney Bird exposes Banjo Billys' wanton plagiarism of Rock-afire Explosion material (not to mention the performers are disgruntled ex-Pizza Time Theatre performers who also committed identity theft by taking the names of Rock-afire band members), Mike Wolf is arrested, and Rolfe's name is cleared; he chooses not to come back to the Japanese isles, stating Ui is a much better comedian than he is, in a rare moment of clarity. In November 2017, the Magic Night Redux showtape was released, in which the entire tape (including "Everything Little Thing She Does is Magic") went off without a hitch, this time with Azusa and Ui as part of the proceedings.

When asked about the third member of Azusa's group, Jun Suzuki, Azusa states that Jun (voiced by Michelle Ann Dunphy) was playing gigs with Munch's Make-Believe Band, a setup that was trialed at several smaller ShowBiz locations using the CU-1 Stage alongside Jasper T. Jowls, Helen Henny, Mr. Munch, and Pasqually P. Pieplate (all utilizing latex masks); these tests were unsuccessful, and the setup was replaced by a standard 3-Stage setup (as Jun was actually an Azusa animatronic with different cosmetics, her mech was retained for the transition, while the Jasper, Helen, Munch, and Pasqually animatronics, which were surplus Beach Bear, Mitzi, Fatz, and Dook animatronics that Department 18 still held, were sent back to CEI to regain their old identities in anticipation of ShowBiz's expansion to Canada). Jun had the J failure mode identifier, which was changed to D when the animatronics were retrofitted as Azusa.