Shuho Imai

Overview

Shuho Imai (今井秋芳) is a Japanese creator that is known for directing and writing many titles in Japan, being most famous for the Tokyo Majin series. While Imai's games have a fan following in Japan, especially with female players in the case of Tokyo Majin, he is basically unknown internationally due to only a few titles in his gameography being available in English.

Career

Shuho Imai got his start in the game industry as a pixel artist at Atlus under the name "Akishi Imai". While at Atlus, Imai mainly worked on the company's PC Engine titles and wrote his first game scenario with Maniac Pro-Wrestling. Eventually, Imai left Atlus and did graphic work for several studios including Enix, Sega and Sony before founding Shout! Design Works in 1992.

After founding his company, Shuho Imai mainly did contract work for other studios until he made his directorial debut with Tokyo Majin Gakuen. The title was Shout! Design Works' first original game that premiered on the PlayStation in 1998. The game garnered a fan following over time and helped popularize what Shuho Imai classified as "juvenile fiction" video games, titles about teenagers facing bizarre super natural threats similar in style to a young adult novel. After several spin-offs and a sequel to the Tokyo Majin Gakuen series, Imai returned to Atlus to co-develop another "juvenile fiction" title for the PlayStation 2 called Kowloon High-School Chronicle in 2004 which became a cult classic. However, Shout! Design Works would eventually close its doors around 2008 and Shuho Imai moved on to work at Now Production, a development and outsourcing studio. While at Now Productions, Imai worked on mobile phone games for a few years before returning to creating console games in 2014 with Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters, a spiritual continuation of the juvenile fiction titles he was known for. Today, Shuho Imai continues to direct titles at Now Productions, such as Gal Metal, and assisting with the development of other games like Deadly Premonition 2.

Trivia

• Shuho Imai is known for never having his picture taken during interviews, instead being represented as a invisible figure, an empty chair or sometimes a plush toy.

External Links

1. Japanese Wikipedia Page
2. NIS America Profile on Shuho Imai
3. TOYBOX Meets... Vol. 2 Syuhou Imai (Toybox Games, 2014).
4. 4Gamer Interview with Shuho Imai and Tomio Kanazawa (4Gamer, 2104).