User:Unclebenny 713/Kazuma Kaneko

Kazuma Kaneko (金子 一馬, Kaneko Kazuma, born September 20, 1964) is a Japanese video game artist and designer for Japanese video game company Atlus. Kaneko is best known for his work in the Megami Tensei series of video games, acting as a character designer across multiple games. Kaneko is often referred to as the "Demon Artist" due to his work ethic and artistic ability to represent otherworldly and demonic forms. During his professional career, Kaneko has also done freelance work for videogame companies Capcom and Konami, designing Dante and Vergil's Devil Trigger forms in the video game Devil May Cry 3, as well as designing the characters Inhert and Lloyd in Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner.

Contents

• 1Childhood
• 2Career
• 3Artistic Process
• 4Notable Works
• 5Works
• 6References

Childhood[edit]

Kaneko was born on September 20, 1964 in the neighborhood of Shimokitazawa, located in Tokyo, Japan. His parents owned a sushi shop where he would occasionally work at, and his residence was located close to the property. As an only child, Kaneko spent a lot of time watching television (specifically kaiju shows and films like Kamen Rider) and studying mysterious anomalies, which further expanded into the analysis of religious literature and cultures. Kaneko was a gifted artist as a child, being able to draw figuratively with ease. Kaneko won many art competitions and awards thanks to his natural talent.

Career[edit]

Kaneko initially started off his professional career as an animator, but due to low pay rates across Japan, he was hesitant to continue. After playing the video game Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei on the Nintendo Famicom, he was enthralled with how the game had a darker tone compared to other role-playing video games at the time and its interweaving of order and chaos. Kaneko then applied to and joined Atlus in 1988.

One of his first projects was working on the game King of Kings as a character designer. most notably designing the Lucifer demon featured in the game. Kaneko has stated that working on the project is what helped inspired his future designs for the Shin Megami Tensei series.

Whenever Kaneko made professional appearances on television and published interviews, he always wore black clothing with sunglasses to represent his dark personality and his interest in fashion, specifically influenced by the film Saturday Night Fever. He occasionally would be mistaken for a member of the Japanese yakuza.

Later in his career, Kaneko would act as a mentor to newcomer artist Shigenori Soejima, who joined Atlus in 1995 and would later take Kaneko's position as the acting art director for the company.

Artistic Process[edit]

Whenever Kaneko designs characters and demons for a game, he takes inspiration from all forms of mythology as well as artifacts left behind from ancient civilizations. Kaneko takes a lot of inspiration from particularly Native American mythology. Kaneko's artistic inspirations include close friend and manga artist Hirohiko Araki and Suehiro Maruo. Kaneko's character designs usually include modern day fashion and motifs that stray away from the standard fantasy trope in RPGs. This artistic decision was made to make the characters feel more relatable to players. Kaneko also considers the personality traits and backstories of characters during the design process which helps him decide on aspects such as the clothes they wear. Kaneko's demon designs take a more serious approach, where there is more focus on the historical context and mythologies of the figures being represented. Kaneko draws his designs on paper first, then transitions to scanning them onto a computer, where coloring and additional details are added. There were cases where Kaneko's designs would receive scrutiny from higher-ups at Nintendo, requesting him to censor certain aspects. At first, Kaneko struggled finding his own unique style and means of expression but eventually was able to solidify his artistic works.

Notable Works[edit]

Kaneko has been credited on working on a majority of Atlus' game catalog, as both a character designer and a scenario writer, but his personal favorite project to work on was the PlayStation 2 RPG Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, a game he shares a deep connection with. After presenting the original concept behind Nocturne to Atlus staff, Kaneko acted as the character designer and worked as a co-producer along with Atlus founder Kouji Okada. Nocturne represented a turning point for not only Atlus, but Kaneko's artistic career as a whole.

The Vortex World represented within Nocturne was designed by Kaneko, and ties into the teachings of Gnosticism and cosmology.

Works[edit]

Year	Game	Role(s)
1988	Erika to Satoru no Yume Bōken	Character designer
	King of Kings
1989	Dungeon Explorer	Assisting role
1990	Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei 2	Character designer, demon designer, sprite artist
	Maniac Pro-Wrestling: Ashita e no Tatakai	Graphic designer
	Cosmo Tank	Debugger
	Bikkuriman World: Gekitō Sei Senshi	Supporting role
1991	Somer Assault	Character designer
	Rockin' Kats	Original planner
1992	Shin Megami Tensei	Character designer, demon designer, sprite artist
	Quiz Marugoto the World 2: Time Machine ni Onegai!	Special thanks
	Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible	Coordinator
1994	Shin Megami Tensei II	Character designer, demon designer, sprite artist
	Majin Tensei	Coordinator
	Shin Megami Tensei If...	Character designer, demon designer, sprite artist
1995	Majin Tensei II: Spiral Nemesis	Special thanks
	Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible III
	Kyūyaku Megami Tensei: Megami Tensei I ・II	Character designer
	Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner	Character designer, demon designer
1996	Revelations: Persona	Character designer, Persona designer
1997	Giten Megami Tensei: Tokyo Mokushiroku	Character design
	Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers	Character designer, demon designer, art director
1998	Kartia: The Word of Fate	Artistic supervisor
1999	Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers (PlayStation 1 version)	Art director
	Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible II (Game Boy Color version)	Character producer
	Persona 2: Innocent Sin	Character designer, Persona designer
	Maken X	Art director
2000	Super Robot Wars Alpha	Mecha designer
	Persona 2: Eternal Punishment	Character designer, Persona designer
	Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children - Aka no Sho	Graphics supervisor
2001	Maken Shao: Demon Sword	Art director
	Shin Megami Tensei (PlayStation 1 version)
	Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children - Shiro no Sho	Graphics supervisor
2002	Shin Megami Tensei: Nine	Demon designer
	Shin Megami Tensei II (PlayStation 1 version)	Art director
	Shin Megami Tensei If... (PlayStation 1 version)
2003	Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner	Character designer
	DemiKids: Light and Dark Versions	Graphics supervisor
	Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne	Character designer, demon designer, creative director, art director
2004	Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga	Character designer, demon designer, art director
2005	Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2
	Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening	Special guest character designer (Dante and Vergil's "Devil Trigger" form design)
	3rd Super Robot Wars Alpha: To the End of the Galaxy	Mecha designer
	Sangokushi Taisen	Character designer
	SBK: Snowboard Kids	Special thanks
2006	Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army	Character designer, demon designer, art director, writer
	Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3	Original demon design
2007	Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine	Demon designer
	Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES	Original demon design
2008	Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4
	Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon	Character designer, demon designer, art director, writer
2009	Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor	Supervisor, devil designer
	Shin Megami Tensei: Persona	Art director
	Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey	Producer, creative director, character designer, demon designer
	Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable	Original demon design
2011	Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds	Dante's "Devil Trigger" form design
	Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 2 - Innocent Sin (PlayStation Portable version)	Original character and Persona designer
	Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2	Demon designer
	Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor - Overclocked	Supervisor, devil designer
	Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3	Dante and Vergil's "Devil Trigger" form design
2012	Devil May Cry: HD Collection
	Persona 4 Golden	Original demon design
2013	Shin Megami Tensei IV	Scenario concept, demon designer
	Persona 4 Arena Ultimax	Original demon design
2014	Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth
2015	Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 - Record Breaker	Demon designer
	Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition	Packaging artwork
2016	Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse	Scenario concept, demon designer
	Persona 5	Demon modelling supervisor, demon designer
	Persona 5: The Animation – The Day Breakers	Demon designer
2017	Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux	Scenario concept, demon designer
	Puzzle Fighter	Special thanks (Guest character designer)
	Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite
2018	Persona 5: The Animation	Demon designer
	Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner - M∀RS	"Inhert" and "Lloyd" designs
	Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth	Original devil design
2019	Persona 5: The Royal	Demon modelling supervisor, demon designer
2020	Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne - HD Remaster	Series devil design
2021	Shin Megami Tensei V
2022	Soul Hackers 2	Original demon designs

References[edit]

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11. ^ "Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne from 1UP.com". web.archive.org.