As discussed with the mod, PCSX2's 'turbo feature' was used to speed through the cutscenes (and it's greatly reduced the time from a 1:36 to a 1:02).

The turbo is only allowed to skip through cutscenes outside of battle. It was disabled as soon as I pressed 'O' to skip the pre-fight intro and was enabled again after pressing 'O' at the post-fight screen. Cutscenes which occur mid-fight were not turbo'd through.

The run itself went much better. I didn't lose to Mendoza or Rikiishi 3 but I did lose twice to Harimao. If that didn't happen then this would've been sub-hour.