Kazuko Shibuya

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Kazuko Shibuya
渋谷 員子
Born (1965-09-04) September 4, 1965 (age 58)
Japan
Occupation
Video game artist
Years active1986–present
EmployerSquare Enix
Notable workFinal Fantasy, Romancing SaGa, Mana

Kazuko Shibuya (

Final Fantasy
series.

Biography

Shibuya was born in 1965. While in middle school, she began creating illustrations and animations inspired by anime series including

Obake no Q-taro. In 1986, as she was losing interest in animation work, she was recruited by video game company Square.[1]

Shibuya's first work for Square was providing illustrations for Alpha's game manual and graphics for several games in development. In 1987, prompted by the success of Enix's Dragon Quest the previous year, Square released Final Fantasy.[2] Shibuya created graphics including characters, spells, monsters, fonts, menus, and the game's opening bridge scene. By Final Fantasy II, she was one of two designers creating all the pixel art for the game.[1]

Shibuya went on to design graphics for other Final Fantasy games, most notably the iconic

chibi versions of characters, monsters, fonts, and menus. She was the primary pixel artist for many well-known games including entries in the SaGa series and Mana series (of which she created all the graphics for the first game).[3]

In 2019, during a lecture at Japan Expo Paris, Shibuya was invited by Women in Games to be a member of honour.[4]

Notable works

See also

References

  1. ^
    4Gamer (in Japanese). Archived
    from the original on July 25, 2019. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
  2. ^ Fujii, Daiji (2006). "Entrepreneurial Choices of Strategic Options in Japan's RPG Development" (PDF). Okayama University. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 30, 2008. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
  3. ^ Agossah, Iyane (July 5, 2019). "Final Fantasy Pixel Artist Kazuko Shibuya Comments on Her Career and the JRPG Series' Early Days". DualShockers. Archived from the original on August 28, 2019. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
  4. ^ Audureau, William (July 9, 2019). "Kazuko Shibuya, la reine des pixels des premiers " Final Fantasy "" [Kazuko Shibuya, the queen of the pixels of the first "Final Fantasy"]. Le Monde (in French). Archived from the original on August 27, 2019. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 4Gamer (March 1, 2013). "Kazuko Shibuya – Square Developer Interview". Shmuplations.com. Archived from the original on May 18, 2016. Retrieved May 13, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ Osborn, Alex (December 17, 2015). "Final Fantasy 6 Advance Coming to Wii U Virtual Console in Japan". IGN. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  7. ^ Gantayat, Anoop (July 26, 2010). "Final Fantasy Legends Detailed". Andraisang. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved May 13, 2020.
  8. ^ Sato (October 26, 2017). "Final Fantasy Dimensions II Is Finally Headed Westward With A November 1 Launch Date". Siliconera. Retrieved May 13, 2020.
  9. ^ Sato (February 4, 2016). "Adventures of Mana Is Now Available, Producer Shares A Message For Fans". Siliconera. Retrieved May 13, 2020.