Kazuma Kaneko

Kazuma Kaneko (金子一馬, Kaneko Kazuma) is a Japanese art director, illustrator and employee at Atlus. While working for Atlus, he has also done freelance work for and among many others. Kaneko designed Dante and Vergil's Devil Trigger forms in and Inhert and Lloyd from . He also illustrates covers for several novels such as . He is, however, best known for his work in the Megami Tensei series.
== Early Life ==
Kazuma Kaneko was born on September 20th, 1964, in a sushi restaurant in , Tokyo. He was also an only child. His residence was above the sushi shop his parents owned, where he did work for a short time. As a kid, Kaneko was fascinated with mysterious phenomena and conspiracy theories such as the Loch Ness monster and UFOs; this fixation evolved into an interest in mythology and religion with Kaneko reading many religious texts for leisure, citing the among his favorites.
Kaneko said his skill of drawing three-dimensionally came naturally to him in his youth. Kaneko entered tons of contests as a child for his art and said he won quite a bit of prizes for his work. Kaneko said he won the competitions because he would consider the theme and was a calculated choice of style and approach. He said he figured it was because he had a mind for problem solving and guessing saying he at one point wanted to be a rock star or a detective.
He said he'd occasionally have painting teachers come to his home to suggest he take their classes because of his talent. He said this attention came as a surprise to him saying "Oh, I'm talented? It's not a big deal."
Kaneko improved his skill in art through practicing imitating things he liked. He said he would recall compositions he liked after looking at them and be able to competently reproduce them.
He said his art at the time was reminiscent of manga from that era, his favorite manga being . He also loved the work of and . He even had a piece he did of Kamen Rider on Cyclone put on display by his teachers when he was in the third grade. He said he'd buy one or two books at a time and ended up owning over 600 books at his home. Kamen Rider's manga would be something he'd get excited to talk about with his friends and he'd also buy western literature saying he read and and didn't like them.
By his teen years, Kaneko stopped watching anime and reading manga. He said this was an attempt to be popular with the girls. He also found himself getting into western music and culture and he would dress and act like in and eat hamburgers. Kaneko became infatuated with disco around that time as well.
In early adulthood, Kaneko had a somewhat active nightlife. Stating he idolized and wanted to be a dancer. He says he would dress like he was in and go dancing in . He said he'd get harassed a lot and was told he'd get put on the police's list as a yakuza member, and no venue would let him inside. He would also get into fights. Though, he wasn't a fighter and would often run away.
By the age of 20, Kaneko was an animator. He originally worked in animation with highlights of his work including and . Kaneko said this job proved to be valuable in improving the quality of his line work and the speed of producing art. The main detracting factor of animation was the low pay, and alternatively the gaming industry was starting to boom again in Japan.
After playing Megami Tensei, he decided to join Atlus and applied to work there in 1988.
== Working at Atlus ==
Kaneko first met Cozy Okada, who was a programmer and the founder of Atlus. He said his first memory of Cozy was seeing him in the back eating lunch while Kaneko was being interviewed. Kaneko said this all happened by chance. This is impressive because Kaneko never went to art school and was completely self taught. This played into a self-professed inferiority complex he says he held onto until the mid-nineties where he felt he lacked identity and things like color selection and use were a struggle for him. Kaneko praised Atlus for being unusual in its representation of mythology, where most fantasy games represented Greek myth. Megami Tensei featured Indian and Balinese gods and Kaneko said he was amazed that the games also had sex. His first project being King of Kings wherein his Lucifer design seems very reminiscent of his work later in Megami Tensei.
== Creative Process ==
Kaneko describes his early work as very forced and clumsy. He compared himself to that of a manga artist who won the newcomer prize and then gets better after doing all the work.
Kaneko said his designs would often include popular sneakers, T-shirts and clothes he loved but couldn't afford. This is something very apparent in his work, especially the later work such as in Persona, where popular brands can be seen recreated in his art. His art supply from this era were Copic markers. He also listens to dance music while he works, and continued to do this for his whole career.
Kaneko described that for his demons, he loved using natural phenomena as inspiration and reinterpreting the demons his own way that fits the game they will appear in. One thing Kaneko reveled in was giving shape to lesser known mythologies.The other face of the Demon Artist, Kaneko Kazuma
When designing a character, he typically works closely with the writer of a given game to understand better what the character is like. To Kaneko, it's important to design a person from a living world rather than a character from a video game, understanding who the person is and not wasting time on design elements that don't give out that info. He also said whatever emotion he's drawing on his character's face ends up being on his face too as a habit.
He says his work often reflects his likes and interests from childhood and that even in his lifestyle he reflects those influences, especially , and . Because no one really ever praised his work as a kid and growing up Kaneko attributes drawing well to drawing when no one can see and thus he was very secretive when drawing. When Shigenori Soejima was new to the company, he would often try to watch Kaneko draw, but Kaneko would shoo him away. Kaneko also says this is why he doesn't draw publicly or for fun and why he has trouble improvising.
He cited shows like , Eyeful Daisakusen and , which are all very reminiscent of Devil Summoner, a series he would consider his favorite. He generally liked how the shows he was most fond of would end in an apocalyptic way. He described how as a child he read manga like Devilman and then later would read religious literature like the Book of Revelations and see parallels between the two and appreciate how it was integrated into the manga. This left him motivated saying that in ten or twenty years he'd love for players to realize and say "Oh that's what they were trying to say" and that would satisfy him.
By 1996, Kaneko had transitioned to working on Mac and using a tablet as part of his design process. He would take a piece he'd done on paper, scan it, and then add lighting effects and filters to finish the images. Kaneko would even do stuff like that to images of himself in Photoshop. His art process at that time was as follows:
First he draws on A4 sized paper with pencil. He then takes several A4 which is roughly the size of standard printer paper in the west, and tape them together to complete a line drawing. He said the height of the image is generally about 3.2 feet tall or 1 meter. Once scanned, Kaneko continues to work in sections. He would add color and paint in painter and then finish the work in Photoshop. He used to struggle with the concept of "digital painting" but came to terms with the idea by saying "a painting is a painting" and that this was merely another way to finish a piece.
In 1999, Kaneko began using art assistants to work as colorists, or make art assets so Kaneko could focus on character and game design, shifting into the position of art director. By that time, Kaneko relied on a crew of an additional three to four people in order to complete work, he also gave some of the workload to other staff members to give them the spotlight.
==Quotes==
These are quotes from Kaneko in regards to a particular subject:
*On his favorite demon in the series:
:People ask me this question a lot, but having drawn many gods and demons, every myth is so fascinating and every demon is so dear to me that I just can't pick one demon as my favorite ... I'm sorry. - Escapist Magazine InteviewEscapist Magazine Interview Interview: Behind the Scenes of Shin Megami Tensei The Escapist Staff - 10 November 2010 2:00 pm
*On the design of his demons:
:Nintendo would complain about my designs a lot. "Why is this monster naked?" (laughs) Then I'd explain to them that it would be weird for this particular monster to not be naked, and they'd reply back, "Ok, we understand. Please remove the nipple then." I said, what is this now, a Go Nagai manga? (laughs) - Game Hihyou magazine InterviewGame Hihyou magazine, 1996, Translation by Shmuplations.com staff
::Go Nagai is a mangaka notoriously famous for having his works criticized by parents and teachers that deem his works are obscene and explicit that much of it was censored by publishers.
==Credits==
Below is a list of works within the series associated with Kazuma Kaneko.
Game Name 	Firstreleased	System 	Role(s)
Megami Tensei II 	1990 	NES 	Character Designer, Demon Designer, Sprite Artist, World Map Designer
Shin Megami Tensei 	1992 	SNES 	Character Designer, Demon Designer, Sprite Artist, World Map Designer
Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible 	1992 	GB 	Coordinator
Shin Megami Tensei II 	1994 	SNES 	Character Designer, Demon Designer, Sprite Artist, World Map Designer
Majin Tensei 	1994 	SNES 	Coordinator
Shin Megami Tensei: if... 	1994 	SNES 	Character Designer, Demon Designer, Sprite Artist, World Map Designer
Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei 	1995 	SNES 	Character and Boss Demon Redesigner
Devil Summoner 	1995 	Sega Saturn 	Character Designer, Demon Designer, World Map Designer
Shin Megami Tensei Fan Book Yakyo-no-Yakata Club 	1995 	N/A 	Artist
A Poem of Love: Hanoun and Daleth's Chapter 	1995 	N/A 	Artist
Revelations: Persona 	1996 	PlayStation 	Character Designer, Image Designer & Title Logo Designer
Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers 	1997 	Sega Saturn 	Main Character Designer, Demon Designer, World Map Designer
Persona 2: Innocent Sin 	1999 	PlayStation 	Main Character Designer, Principal Persona Designer, Boss Demon Designer
Maken X 	1999 	Dreamcast 	Character Designer
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment 	2000 	PlayStation 	Main Character Designer, Principal Persona Designer, Boss Demon Designer
Maken Shao 	2001 	PlayStation 2 	Character Designer
Shin Megami Tensei NINE 	2002 	Xbox 	Demon Designer
Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne 	2003 	PlayStation 2 	Character Designer, Demon Designer, Creative Director
Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 	2004 	PlayStation 2 	Character Designer, Demon Designer, World Map Designer
Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner 2 	2005 	PlayStation 2 	Character Designer, Demon Designer, World Map Designer
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army	2005 	PlayStation 2 	Character Designer, Demon Designer, Art Director, Original Scenario Designer, World Map Design
Shin Megami Tensei IMAGINE 	2007 	PC 	Demon Designer
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon 	2008 	PlayStation 2 	Character Designer, Demon Designer, Art Director, Original Scenario Designer, World Map Design
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 	2009 	Nintendo DS 	
Demon Designer
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey 	2009 	Nintendo DS 	
Character Designer, Demon Designer, Creative Director
Shin Megami Tensei IV 	2013 	Nintendo 3DS 	
Scenario Drafts, Series Demon Design
Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse 	2016 	Nintendo 3DS 	
Scenario Designer, World Setting Planner, Series Demon Designer
Persona 5 	2016 	PlayStation 3 / PlayStation 4	
Demon Design and Modeling Supervisor
==Gallery==
Kaneko with shades.png|Profile
Kaneko pose.JPG|
Kaneko Magazine.jpg|Shin Megami Tensei: Final Story novel (1993)
Kazuma-ddapocalypse1.jpg|Digital Devil Apocalypse (1999) (Out of print)
Kazuma-ddapocalypse2.jpg|Digital Devil Apocalypse (1999) (Out of print)
Kazuma-p2guide.jpg|Persona 2 guide
Kaneko frolicking.jpg|Persona 2 guide
File:Fanwithkaneko.jpeg|Kazuma Kaneko accepting flowers from a fan at Kaneko World Exhibition 2.
File:Yoji.JPG|Kazuma Kaneko with Yoji Shinkawa from the Z.O.E. 2 art book.
MXA Okada Hayashida Kaneko.png|Illustration of Cozy Okada, and Kazuma Kaneko from Maken X Another
==Trivia==
*Under the name Kaz, he appears as a S-Rank BattleNet opponent in DemiKids after winning 87 S-Rank battles. He is said to be an evil artist that uses ice demons. Said demons are Jack Frost and his kin with the exception of Lucifroz. He is the 90th opponent in the tournament.
*In the very beginning of Soul Hackers, his ID (complete with name) is the one that's overwritten to be replaced by the protagonist's for the Paradigm X beta.
*Kaneko made a small cameo in the Devil Summoner TV Drama.
*One of Kaneko's friends was Hirohiko Araki (creator of the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series, which fans have compared to Atlus' Persona series), and both are fans of each other's works to the point where they conducted an interview with each other in Weekly Shonen Jump.
*Design work for Kaneko allowed for much freedom for his creature art. Kaneko explained it like so: Nintendo would complain about my designs a lot. "Why is this monster naked?" (laughs) Then I'd explain to them that it would be weird for this particular monster to not be naked, and they'd reply back, "Ok, we understand. Please remove the nipple then." I said, what is this now, a Go Nagai manga? 
*Rei Reiho is also one of Kaneko's favorite characters, this list also includes Beth from SMT2, Yuko from Nocturne, Maki from Persona, Marie from Devil Summoner and Tamaki Uchida from SMT: if... 
*Kaneko's favorite colors are silver and gold.
*Kaneko's signatures when in collaboration would change depending on who else worked on them.
*Kaneko's favorite foods are pasta and pizza.
==References==
==See Also==
*Demon Painter
*Kazuma Kaneko Artwork
Category:Personnel
ru:Казума Канеко