Shigenori Soejima

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shigenori Soejima ( Japanese 副 島 成 記 , Soejima Shigenori ; born February 24, 1974 in Kanagawa Prefecture ) is a Japanese illustrator and graphic designer .

Biography and work

Soejima is from Kanagawa Prefecture and started drawing during elementary school where he drew stories about Doraemon . After school, after being rejected from an art college, he began training in drawing at the Tōkyō Design Senmon Gakkō (Tokyo Design School). After an already promised position at an advertising agency was withdrawn, he applied in the games industry, with Atlus first accepting it.

He had his first job with the software developed jointly by Atlus and Sega for the " Print Club " photo machine, which was released in 1995 , where it was initially only used for smaller tasks, including the animation of the Atlus mascot in the title screen. In Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner from the same year, he was part of the team responsible for coloring the demons. His proposed digital airbrush technique met with approval and was then used in the following games in the series. Since the team ended his work prematurely, he was then assigned to the game Megami Ibunroku Persona (1996), where he co-designed the opening and closing films, drew some characters and colored the accompanying publications and packaging. In Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers (1997) he was given the character design of the secondary characters on the personal recommendation of the character designer of the Megami Tensei series Kazuma Kaneko . He held the same position in Persona 2 (1999/2000). For Rebus (1998) he drew the graphics of the items. For the PlayStation remakes of Shin Megami Tensei , Shin Megami Tensei II and Shin Megami Tensei if ... , some of which were implemented outside of Atlus, he was responsible for controlling the work of the subcontractors and was the first to take on tasks outside of graphic design. In Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call (original title: Shin Megami Tensei III - Nocturne ; 2003) he was involved in the representation of the game world but also in the game events. Stella Deus (2004) turned out to be a stroke of luck for him . When this was in development and the external game developer commissioned with it asked Atlus for a freelance illustrator, Soejima volunteered and was then responsible for the character design and the artistic direction (art direction) and thus shaped the visual style of the game .

Also in 2004, he expanded his activities outside of the game industry when he was offered the illustration for the short story Haisenjō no Aria ( 廃 線上 の ア リ ア ) by Takekuni Kitayama to be published in the literary magazine Faust Volume 4 . The works Ito no Mori no Himegimi ( 糸 の 森 の 姫 君 ; 2005) in Faust Volume 6 Side-B and Haritsuke no Arietta ( 磔 ア リ エ ッ タ ; 2008) in Faust Volume 7 by the same author were also illustrated by Soejima.

He then took on the same positions as in Stella Deus in Persona 3 (2006), and later Persona 4 (2008), replacing Kaneko as character and graphic designer in the Persona series. Outside of Atlus, he was also hired for the character design of Another Century's Episode 3: The Final game developed by From Software and produced by Banpresto . In 2009 he was also offered to create a character for the online mahjongg game Momoiro Taisen Pairon , in which each of the more than 100 characters was made by a different artist. In 2011 he worked as character designer and art director for Atlus ' Catherine , as well as character designer for Another Century's Episode Portable , and in 2012 and 2013 for the Persona 4 remake Persona 4: The Golden and the beat' em up spin -offs Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena and Persona 4: The Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Shigenori Soejima. Art Works 2004-2010 . Udon Entertainment, Richmond Hill 2011, ISBN 978-1-926778-32-7 , pp. 146-148 .
  2. ↑ Shigenori Soejima. Art Works 2004-2010 . Pp. 149-150
  3. ↑ Takekuni Kitayama: 廃 線上 の ア リ ア . In: Faust . Vol. 4. Kōdansha, Tokyo 2004, p. 234–235 ( online (PDF; 436 kB)).
  4. ↑ Takekuni Kitayama: 糸 の 森 の 姫 君 . In: Faust . Vol. 6 Side-B. Kōdansha, Tokyo 2005, p. 540-541 ( online (PDF; 831 kB)).
  5. ↑ フ ァ ウ ス ト 2008 SUMMER Vol.7 . In: 講 談 社 BOOK 倶 楽 部 . Kōdansha, 2008, accessed June 9, 2012 (Japanese).
  6. ↑ Shigenori Soejima. Art Works 2004-2010 . P. 150
personal data
SURNAME Soejima, Shigenori
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 副 島 成 記 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese illustrator and graphic designer
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1974
PLACE OF BIRTH Kanagawa Prefecture , Japan