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Kazuko Shibuya

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Kazuko Shibuya
Born
渋谷 員子

(1965-09-04) September 4, 1965 (age 58)
NationalityJapanese
Known forcharacter design, illustration, pixel art, user interface design
Notable workFinal Fantasy series, Romancing SaGa series, Mana series

Kazuko Shibuya (渋谷 員子, born September 04, 1965) is a Japanese pixel artist, character designer, illustrator, animator and user interface designer. She is best known for her work with Square (now Square Enix) on video games, in particular the Final Fantasy series.

Biography

Shibuya was born in 1965. While in middle school, she began creating illustrations and animations inspired by anime series including Space Battleship Yamato and Galaxy Express 999. As a high schooler she enrolled in a technical school to study animation and worked part-time for animation studios on popular anime including Transformers, Area 88, and Obake no Q-taro. In 1986, as she was losing interest in animation work, she was recruited by video game company Square.[1]

Shibuya’s first work for Square was providing illustrations for Alpha’s game manual and graphics for several games in development. In 1987, prompted by the success of Enix’s Dragon Quest the year previous, Square released Final Fantasy.[2] Shibuya created graphics including characters, spells, monsters, fonts, menus, and the game’s opening bridge scene. By Final Fantasy II, she was one of two designers creating all the pixel art for the game.[1]

Shibuya went on to design graphics for other Final Fantasy games, most notably the iconic chibi versions of characters, monsters, fonts, and menus. She was the primary pixel artist for many well-known games including entries in the SaGa series and Mana series (of which she created all the graphics for the first game).[3]

In 2019, during a lecture at Japan Expo Paris, Shibuya was invited by Women In Games to be a member of honour.[4]

Notable works



Notes and references

  1. ^ a b Inc, Aetas. "「最近目指しているのは，洗練された美しいドット絵，ですね」――FF誕生以前から，アルバム「FINAL FANTASY TRIBUTE ～THANKS～」までを，スクウェア・エニックスのデザイナー・渋谷…". www.4gamer.net (in Japanese). Retrieved 2019-08-28. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  2. ^ Fujii, Daiji (2003). "Entrepreneurial Choices of Strategic Options in Japan's RPG Development" (PDF). p. 14. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-30. Retrieved 2006-08-12. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |curly= (help)
  3. ^ "Final Fantasy Pixel Artist Kazuko Shibuya Comments on Her Career and the JRPG Series' Early Days". DualShockers. 2019-07-05. Retrieved 2019-08-28.
  4. ^ "Kazuko Shibuya, la reine des pixels des premiers « Final Fantasy »" (in French). 2019-07-09. Retrieved 2019-08-28.
  5. ^ "Kazuko Shibuya". Terra Battle Wiki. Retrieved 2019-08-28.
  6. ^ "Season of Mystery: The Cherry Blossom Murders for Windows (2009)". MobyGames. Retrieved 2019-08-28.


Category:Anime character designers Category:Final Fantasy designers Category:Japanese illustrators Category:Living people Category:Video game artists Category:1965 births

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