Q&A Sessions

On the Skillshot Labs Tumblr, users were asked to send questions into the askbox. Members of the Skillshot Labs team would respond. The primary responder was **Jakey**\*, the writer and creative director for Notice Me Senpai. Other questions were answered by **Bob**, the character designer; **ChairmanMeow**, the Design Team Lead, and the Core Design Team, made up of **Pepito, Kookie,** and **Jason Funderburker.**

In 2017, this group answered 30 chosen questions about the senpai. All text is copied word-for-word in order to avoid confusion or assumed interpretation.

*\*All names used are the aliases used by the Skillshot Labs team.*

## Q & A Session 1

**Indivduals Answering:** Jakey, Bob, ChairmanMeow, Pepito, Kookie, and Jason Funderburker.

1. *Why is Kouhai-chan the only girl in the school? And why are her bangs so long???*

**Bob:** Her hair gives her power, the longer the more powerful.

**Jakey:** LOL. Seriously though, I told Bob to give her long bangs since in most of the otome games I play, the representation of the girl’s face is usually quite obscured. I guess to help the player put themselves in the character’s shoes?

To answer your first question. I don’t think I’ll ever get to explain it in the game itself so I’ll answer here. Kouhai-chan’s grandma used to run the cafe inside the campus. Now that she’s retired, she’s asked Kouhai-chan to takeover the cafe since Kouhai-chan has experience helping out at the cafe when she’s in town to visit. They figured that it wasn’t such a bad deal since the school is one of the most prestigious in the country and would probably give her an easier time applying for the college of her choice. Moving to grandma’s house would also allow her to take care of grandma in her old age. Even though Kouhai-chan is a girl, the exclusive all-boys school made an exception as a sign of gratitude for grandma’s years of service to the school. Plus Kouhai is someone who already knew the ropes so they didn’t have to train a new barista.

2. *Why does Hajime rip off his sleeves?*

**Pepito:** He tried to fit those “guns” but ended up ripping his sleeves. Not enough space for his ammo.

**Jakey:** He could probably have stuff tailor-made =)) but sometimes I guess the material can’t handle his hyper-ness+muscles. Riiiiip.

3. *For October, will there be a Halloween update? :3*

**Jakey:** Yep :> With new senpai lined up also. I hope you guys will love them as much as the 30 we already have XD Stay tuned. hehe.

*4. What kind of school do they go to, exactly? Private academy or public school?*

**Jakey:** Private Exclusive All-Boys Academy.

*5. Is Hinaa-senpai actually a yandere? Or is that just a thing the fandom went with?*

**Jakey:** I intended to parody/allude to yandere characters using Hinata’s character. He’s somewhat sort of borderline Yandere but never really does anything and really regrets it when he realizes what he was about to do. So to those of you asking whether we’ll have a Yandere Senpai, Hinata is already there to fulfill that role. There’s actually a more developed backstory regarding Hinata and Sousuke and why Hinata turned out to be that way. Again, I’m not certain if I’ll get the chance to explain in the game so I’ll tell you now I guess :)) ***This is going to be very lengthy so you guys can skip to another question if you don’t want to read it. starting here.***

Growing up, Hinata had always been the one to protect Sousuke and always took care of him. Being the older twin, he always thought it was his duty to look out for Sousuke. In their family, Hinata was always closer to their mother, taking up Tea Ceremony as she did. Sousuke took up archery because he wanted to be like their father.

Being in a very traditional family, their parents had an arranged marriage. It wasn’t really forced upon them but they were at that age already so they just both agreed to it. Sad to say, they never really grew to love each other even though they already had children together. So one day, their mother found love and ran away.

They very young when this happened, Hinata couldn’t really understand the situation. He couldn’t really process why his mother would leave him. He eventually broke down and has been trying his best to recover ever since. That’s why he’s very afraid of losing people who show him affection (like Kouhai-chan) and has possessive tendencies that he doesn’t realize he has.

Not being as close to their mother thus being less affected, Sousuke saw how much his brother was hurt by their mother’s disappearance. Because he loves his brother, Sousuke took it upon himself to take care of Hinata and protect him. Just as Hinata looked out for him and protected him as they were growing up. He then grew up to be the more mature and responsible twin because of this.

**Whoo. There. That was quite lengthy :)) but I hope that gives you a better understanding of why the twins are the way they are.**

*6. Katsuo-senpai is similar to Ian from “Siren’s Lament” (webtoon). Is it a coincidence?*

**Jakey:** Sorry, it’s really just a coincidence. I hadn’t known of “Siren’s Lament” until some users pointed out that Katsuo looked a bit similar to that character. Will try to check it out though!

My intention for making Katsuo was always that I wanted to have a Swim Team Senpai for our summer update. I wanted a character that looked good with Silver/Grey Hair and I guess Bob took that directive and she designed Katsuo from there.

If anything, Katsuo was more of a reference to the characters from Free! (because I love Free! A lot of us do.). I tried to make somebody who could allude to those characters. Hence Katsuo, who has Sousuke’s body type but a bit of Rin’s personality (\*cough\* olympics \*cough\*). The mermaid’s tail was also added as one of his costumes because in Future Fish (Ending Sequence for Free! Season 2) Haru was a mermaid. There are a bunch of other Free! references through out the game that I see some of you actually caught :)) hehe.

*7. To the character designer, which senpai was your favorite to design?*

**Bob:** Probably delinquent or archery senpai. 1. Bread roll pompadour. 2. Archery’s pretty cool (the sport). Runner-up: Part Timer.

8. *Hello Skillshot Labs! There’s something I’ve always wanted to ask you all… I’ve noticed many times that in some backgrounds there were kinda of “easter eggs” about Bangtan Boys… srly hahaha is it just a coincidence or you guys are Armys? Thx*

**Kookie:** My name says it all.

**Jakey:** Kookie is in charge of BGs hehe. Some of the other designers are also fans :))

*9. Who is older between kyouya sensei and Haruka sensei?*

*10. Are haru sensei and kyouya sensei childhood friends? Or how did they meet?* / *Are kyouya and Haruka dating?*

Jakey: We got a bunch of questions about Haruka and Kyouya and at least a couple of them got into our list of 30 questions. so I’ll just answer the related ones in one go :))

Kyouya and Haruka come from the same high school. Actually, they come from the academy which is the current setting of the game. Haruka was a year above Kyouya. But they never really got to talk to each other then. They knew of each other, Haruka being the librarian’s assistant and Kyouya being the most notorious delinquent during their time (Oh, the irony), but they never really got close. Basically their opinion of each other was just basically “Oh, it’s that dude again”.

They only got close when they started working at the school. (Kyouya headaches> School infirmary visits> Friendly familiar face Etc.>Friendship!)

So there. That’s how they know each other.

And if they’re dating… Hmn. I guess if Kouhai-chan wasn’t there, there would be a possibility HAHA. Maybe in another timeline, in another universe. Who knows.

## Q & A Session 2

*Finally, part 2 of the Q & A session answers! Read more under the cut!*

*Hello! Jakey here again, writer and creative director for Notice Me Senpai!. Sorry it took so long to make part 2. We were pretty busy with the update and the convention! But finally we have time to continue this!*

*Again, I will be the one answering most of the questions submitted alongside our Character Designer: Bob, Design Team Lead: ChairmanMeow, and Core Design Team consisting of Pepito, Kookie, and Jason Funderburker. Here we go!*

11. *Any personal favorites from the 30 senpais?*

**Kookie:**

* president, sensei, school infirmary sensei (bc they’re like a family lmao idk the president is their son :< ) also I like flustered cool guys.
* idol because he’s oblivious but he’s adorable
* part time hardworking rich bocchama -what else can i say???, he’s got it all!
* archery team (handsome),
* ninja (sneaky ninja but is really loyal that it tugs on my heartstrings)

**Pepito**: Tea Ceremony Senpai, Goat, Delinquent

**Jason Funderburker**:

* - idol-rocker bc i like their friendship/chemistry
* - I find student council’s tsun personality. very adorable
- and goat (majestic hidden beauty), archery (so handsome), delinquent are cutiepies =)))))

**ChairmanMeow:** playboy because he’s so pretty, haruka, and hinata

**Jakey:** It’s hard for me to pick because they’re all my kids and I gave them their personalities but I’d have to say my ultimate favorite out of all the lists forever and ever will always be Kyouya-sensei. Because he’s tsun but he’s really a softie inside :’) He’s strict because he actually deeply cares for his students. I always like the caring leader-type tsuns :’) (In saying that, I am also saying I like Student council pres)
Another favorite would be Haruka-sensei because his character design is really pretty. He is a very “refreshing-type” character (one smile from him and suddenly all your troubles are gone. this is probably one of the reasons why he’s a good doctor) but I’d like to think he has a hidden, slightly mischievous side which makes him tease people sometimes, but I haven’t been able to show that in his CGs yet.

Hmmnn I also like Takahiro because of the way his story turned out 8′)) I’m really proud of that hehe. I also like him because it’s fun to see him change into different work outfits and have different accessories. He’s super cute :’)

*12. Hello! My question is about Hideki. I know that he is classified as crammer senpai, which (at least to me) implies that he crams all his work into one small period of time because he is doing other things all day. But a lot of his CGs also imply that he is a very hard worker who just has too many things to do. So is Hideki a procrastinator or does he just have too much work put out for him? And if he is a procrastinator, then what does he do when he’s not working? Thanks love you guys!*

**Jakey:** Hideki always has a lot of work to do I think. It’s not so much so that he doesn’t study or do his work on time. Even if he does it early, he’ll still be rushing to beat the deadline because the workload is pretty heavy. And usually he has to balance it with his part-time job as teacher’s assistant.

But don’t worry about him, he’s never missed a deadline and his grades are good. He can handle it.

*13. At Suzuki-senpai birthday, Souh-senpai thanking him for being a loyal patron of his family’s properties and accommodations whenever Suzuki-senpai is on tour. Does Souh-senpai family own a hotel chain or any kind of lodging business? Is that another reason why he wanted to be a proper butler, aside from trying it out at the school festival?*

**Jakey:** Souh-senpai is the heir to one of the largest hotel chains in Japan. He’s been trained to be a butler at a young age, just like his grandfather who was the founder of their hotel chain. It’s so that he can understand what it’s like to take care of people’s needs and be able to think of how to serve their hotel patrons better, to be able provide the best service to their patrons and make them feel at home in their hotels.

*14. Does any of the other senpai get annoyed when swimmer senpai is lounging around splashing water everywhere?*

**Jakey:** Only Ryuu because Ryuu is perpetually sassy :)) everyone’s pretty much used to it. Kyouya-sensei used to tell him off at the beginning but he’s given up trying to make him stop.

*15. Hi! I want to ask why Haruka-sensei became a school infirmary doctor and didn’t go become a professional doctor or nurse? Thank you :)*

**[Jakey:]** First off, let me clarify :)) Haruka-sensei is definitely a doctor. Not a nurse. A doctor. A lot of people assume otherwise even if it’s stated in his senpai profile.

Several reasons why Haruka-sensei is the school infirmary doctor:

* In a school where students and their parents pay a lot of money to get the best education, facilities, and service, they made it a point to always have a doctor on call just in case something happens.
* The pay is pretty good. :)) like, really good.
* Haruka-sensei sort of wants to pay a debt of gratitude to the school that gave him a scholarship and helped him get into a good university.
* He enjoys helping out the students, sometimes giving them advice when they have worries other than school.
* He’s never bored at the school because there is always something interesting/amusing going on. Haruka’s the type to stick around just to see something amusing happen.

*16. It was mentioned in his character profile that Reiji is known to have caused occasional fires in the school. Did he ever accidentally blow up the science lab?*

**Jakey:** The question you should be asking is ‘How many times has he accidentally blown up the science lab?’ :))

*17. Are any of the senpais inspired by existing anime character? Which anime did you draw inspiration from?*

**Jakey:** Oh man, a lot of the characters are references to several anime tropes or references to certain anime characters.

I won’t reveal all of my references but because that would be one giant post all together. But I’ll list down a few.

* Souma-senpai is definitely a reference to Shoukugeki :)) I love that show.
* Childhood Friend senpai is largely borne out of my love for Tachibana Makoto. Bless his pure pure heart.
* Touru-senpai’s name was a reference to Oikawa. My most favorite character from Haikyuu. That’s why a lot of his things have aliens on it. ( If you notice, I named a lot of my characters after people from Haikyuu and Free! :)) I just give them to characters that don’t have the same personality to throw people off HAHA )
* I meant Suzuki-senpai to be more like Oikawa but instead he ended up being more like Tamaki from Ouran :))

*18: Do the students live on campus?*

**Jakey:** Not all of them do. Some of them live near or can be driven to school by their chauffeurs. Some of the senpai that do stay at the dorms are Makoto, Katsuo, Ren (largely because dorms=close place to nap), Kei.

Suzuki and Yamato both have reserved rooms at the dorms but they just keep them mostly for the sake convenience (celebrity lifestyle and whatnot.)

*20: How does Hinata and Sousuke get along with liking the same kouhai?*

**Jakey:** These brothers  would love kouhai-chan and each other enough to be considerate of kouhai-chan’s feelings. I know Hinata can be a bit possessive but if there’s one person he’d definitely be okay with dating Kouhai-chan, it would be Sousuke. Hinata wants Sousuke to be happy and vice versa. If you pick one of them, they’d still get to hang out with you and spend time with you because you’d be dating their twin. They both think their twin is one of the best people they know and they definitely think highly of each other. If Kouhai-chan thinks one of them is the best for her, then they probably would not object.

## Q & A Session 3

*The last portion of the Q & A session is finally here! We’ve answered the last 10 of the 30 randomly selected questions under the cut!*

*Hello! It’s me again, Jakey, Creative Director and Writer for Notice Me Senpai! answering the last 10 questions for our Q & A! Thank you so much to everyone who submitted their questions. We really appreciate the time you took to send in your queries! Sorry if we couldn’t answer all of them. 8′)) As you can see we took 3 weeks to properly answer all 30. Huhu sorry :’)*

*I’m mostly going to be doing the answering this time around since most of the questions are directed towards character backgrounds and storylines. Here we go!*

*21. Hello! I would like to ask if there is a possible backstory of childhood friend senpai and the main character of the game?*

**Jakey:**Well, Takeru-senpai used to live in the house next to the Kouhai-chan’s. Before moving out to live with her grandmother, Kouhai-chan lived with her parents and her younger siblings. She and Takeru would often play together after school until Takeru had to move away in middle school. Takeru gave her the bear to watch over her in his stead.

*22. Suzuki senpai! Who’s a better singer – you or yamato senpai?*

**Suzuki:** Hello!~ Suzuki here making an appearance! (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و  I don’t think you can really compare the both of us. My voice is more on the tenor side and my timbre I think is quite clearer and thinner than Yama-kun. His voice is definitely deeper than mine and a lot grittier, which is why he does so well in rock music! His voice is very powerful! So cool! >u< I’d like to think there’s more precision in my technique, which suits my music, and I can reach some higher notes. But Yama-kun’s voice is definitely more powerful than mine. I think we are equally skilled in our own genres. Thank you so much for your question! o(^▽^)o Now back to Writer-san!

**Jakey:** Thanks Suzu-chan. Ok, on to the next one!

*23. OK, I HAVE A QUESTION. Since when Ninja senpai started, well, being like he is with all the ninja stuff.*

**Jakey:** Kei comes from a long line of ninjas. So he started training to be a ninja since he was a young boy, along with his older brothers. He has two. He’s the youngest.

*24. How did you guys come up with all the unique senpai traits (Calligraphy, School Festival, Drama Club, Teacher’s Assistant, etc.)? Was it a lot of going through different ideas and possibilities or making lists, or something else entirely?*

**Jakey:** Well, when we were first coming up with the characters and the gameplay, I tried to think of varied stereotypes that I thought would appeal to our audience and that I, as an otome game fan, would enjoy. Hence the creation of the first 20 senpai. I actually made a long list of random senpai that never made it into the game. I picked off the ones that I thought would create a balanced, well-rounded cast.

Some of 20 though aren’t really based on anything and they  just came about because I thought it would be interesting and random. \*cough\*Baa\*cough\* I actually had to come up with an interesting story as to why a character would be like that or would go to this school, etc.

From then on in future updates, I usually use ideas that I keep at the back of my head. I think of which existing ideas would be appropriate for each update’s theme. We usually have at least 1-2 senpai that is identifies with the theme.

I sometimes have characters that I have been developing over a long time and I would hold off until the right moment to put them into the game. Let me tell you, Vampire Sensei has been waiting to be unleashed since January or February. He’s finally here! Congrats, Viktor. :)) Katsuo was also first conceptualized around that time as well but it was obvious that he should be put into the summer update. Although usually the minor details, like their name, etc. would be finalized during the time we’re preparing for the update itself.

Sometimes the added characters are based off of what I think would best complement the existing character roster. (ex: I created Haruka for Kyouya, balancing a tsundere sensei with a refreshing sensei. That and the fact that the “school doctor” is a necessary stereotype. Also created Ryuu, to balance Tokiya. And Kurou, to balance Ryuu. Also to add more diversity to the Drama Club  and make their story more interesting). I try to add characters that would really contribute something to the existing world of the game

*25. What is Lazy Senpai’s favorite place to nap?*

**Jakey:** That would be the main character’s lap. But before the main character came along, Ren liked to nap on one of the couches in a hidden corner of the library because it’s toasty in the winter but cool in the summer because of the top-notch air-conditioning and heating systems.

*26. How many albums have Rocker senpai and Idol Senpai put out?*

**Jakey:** Well, Suzuki has more than Yamato. Ever since he debuted, he’s been putting out 1 or 2 per year. So I’d say, around 5? He debuted last year of middle school. He has a lot of producers and composers working with him to produce his pop tracks. So they put out albums regularly. Yamato has like 2 albums? Yamato really takes the time to think about what he’d like his albums to be about and makes sure that the feel of each song matches the lyrics. All his songs are written with his band. He has more freedom to do what he pleases with his music than Suzuki, although I’m not saying that Suzuki doesn’t write some of his own stuff as well.

But for Suzuki being an idol really is the whole package of like performing, choreography, singing, and music production, being able to please his fans and interact with them is a huge part of what is important to Suzuki. So he’s not too concerned about having some of his stuff be curated for him.

*27. Which Hogwarts House would each senpai be in?*

**Jakey:** I have thought about this before :)) since I too, am a harry potter fan. This is where I think they’d end up if the they got sorted, so it’s not going to be evenly distributed across the houses. Let me list it down

**Gryffindor**: Izumi, Hajime, Ren, Wakatoshi, Touru, Kyouya, Viktor, Yamato, Kei, Takeru

**Slytherin:** Haruka, Hinata, Ryuu, Akira, Jéan, Hideki

**Ravenclaw:**  Reiji, Shun, Sousuke, Tokiya, Makoto, Soujirou, Itsuki, Souh

**Hufflepuff:** Yuu, Touya, Souma, Ai, Kurou, Katsuo, Suzuki, Takahiro

*28. Ren senpai, what type of music are you always listening to?*

**Ren:** Hey…I just listen to whatever Yamato and Suzuki load into my phone… Sometimes Shun also gives me stuff but it’s usually electronic remixes and I can’t really fall asleep to that…

*29. What’s the story with Reiji and his cat?*

**Jakey:** It’s not his cat, it’s the cafe cat. He doesn’t have a cat of his own. But he likes cats, especially the extra fluffy ones. I don’t think he’s allowed to keep a cat at home with the amount of experiments and science projects he has going on. It would probably be dangerous for the cat.

*30: What is Ryuu-senpai’s guilty pleasure? What does he enjoy that he doesn’t want anyone to know about?*

**Jakey:** Hmmmnnn, now that I think about it :)) I think his guilty pleasure would be he actually really enjoys watching Tokiya act and he enjoys doing scenes with Tokiya. Tokiya is very good actor, you see. He’d probably die before he admits that he really enjoys their dynamic on stage :))

*And that’s it for our Q & A session! Thank you to everyone who submitted their questions! This was fun to do although it took some time to accomplish.*

*On behalf of the team, I’d like to take this opportunity to personally thank all of you, our fans, for continuing to play and support our game! It is because of you that we can keep making Notice Me Senpai! So thank you all very very much! We will work harder to give you more awesome content!*

*Stay tuned for the Halloween “Trick or Treat” Event update! Yeh!*