Meta:Kaoru Hasegawa
| Kaoru Hasegawa 長谷川 薫 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Information | |
| Date of Birth | 1971 |
| Place of Birth | |
| Works | Artist |
| Social media | |
| YouTube | None |
| None | |
| Bluesky | None |
Kaoru Hasegawa (Japanese: 長谷川 薫), born 1971, is a Japanese game artist, and part of Spike Chunsoft's affiliation. Since 1994, he contributes to the company, with the Mystery Dungeon franchise as the main character designer for the Shiren the Wanderer series since its first title in 1995, and as an artist for other video game titles.
Career
Before working in the Mystery Dungeon franchise, Hasegawa contributed to Banshee's Last Cry as an artist. He later participated in the production of Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer for the Super Famicom. In an interview with Chunsoft, they wanted someone who could work on the then sequel of Torneko's Great Adventure: Mystery Dungeon, but he was not familiar with the title, nor the roguelike genre at the time of the interview. After being interested in the genre by playing the aforementioned game and being employed in the company, he was able to work on the game. The game was set in feudal Japan, as the game's scenarist, Shin-ichiro Tomie decided to set the game in this theme instead of a western setting, like Akira Toriyama's Dragon Quest. Many drafts were made for the silent protagonist of the eponymous game, and its mascot monster the Mamel, but the majority of them were lost.[1] Since then, he has contributed in the series as a character designer, occasionally as an art director like in Shiren the Wanderer 2.[2]
Hasegawa has participated in a few events related to the series. In 2012, during the first Nico Nico Game Master event, he and Tomie appeared in the finale of a real-time attack of the first Shiren the Wanderer game.[3] For the 20th anniversary of the Shiren the Wanderer series, he appeared in an exhibition of the series' artworks and performed a live painting on July 11, 2015.[4] Likewise for the series' 25th anniversary, another exhibition was held featuring his works, and he participated shortly in the event.[5] Additionally, he has contributed a new artwork for the Steam and Nintendo Switch port of Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate.[6]
Unrelated to the Mystery Dungeon franchise, he would contribute as an artist in other video games and media. One such was a towel featuring both Shiren the Wanderer′s Koppa and Danganronpa′s Monokuma during an exhibition of goods from the company, and the release of Kenka Bancho Otome.[7] Another artwork was made for the PlayStation's 20th anniversary, along with many other video game artists.[8]
Works
Mystery Dungeon Franchise
Other Media
| Year | Title | Role | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Shiren the Wanderer: Flowers Dancing in the Golden Town Amteca | Character artist | |
| 2006 | Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Team Go-Getters Out of the Gate! | Special thanks | |
| 2020 | Joshin Web Shop Interview with Shiren 5 2020 Staff Members | Interviewee | [12] |
| November 2020 Nintendo Dream Interview with Kaoru Hasegawa | Interviewee | [13] |
See Also
| Mystery Dungeon Franchise Development Staff | ||
|---|---|---|
| Hideyuki Shinozaki • Kaoru Hasegawa • Keisuke Sakurai • Koichi Nakamura • Seiichiro Nagahata • Shin-ichiro Tomie • Yoriki Daigo | ||
| Artists | Akira Toriyama • Shigehisa Nakaue | |
| Composers | JERO • noisycroak (Keisuke Ito) | |
| Producers | Frank "Bo" deWindt II • Tsunekazu Ishihara | |
| Programmers | Masayasu Yamamoto | |
| Voice Actors | 
|
Shinichiro Ohta |
| Writers | Masato Kato | |
| Other | Kaneko Osamu • Kaori Manabe • Nob Ogasawara • Taori Hiromu • Tomoya Shinozaki • Yuji Horii | |