This is the first part in my retrospective article series about the Enix-published Sega Saturn video game Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari. I published a video on this subject on Youtube earlier this year, but these articles will use a slightly revised and updated text. In these articles I hope to thoroughly detail the origins and development history of this unique game.
One particularly exciting moment in '97 gaming news was when a particular publisher, Enix, officially announced that the next installment of their extremely popular - at least in Japan - Dragon Quest franchise would be moved from the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive (a story in itself for another article perhaps) to the new "Console King" of the era: The Sony Playstation.
On January 17th of 1997, IGN wrote the following:
Stock in Sony Corp and Enix Corp rose significantly in Japan yesterday due primarily to Enix's announcement that it would develop Dragon Quest VII for the Playstation.
And so, the Playstation started to sell even more console units than it already was in '97 in anticipation for a Playstation Dragon Quest game, because that was just how big Dragon Quest was at the time - again, at least in Japan.
In '97, the PS1 was leveling up from a gaming console underdog to the "top" one in Japan. Sony was not exactly a startup, but they were the relative newcomer in the console gaming industry taking on the veterans that were Nintendo and Sega. One reason for the PS1's success was due in part to the release of RPGs like Final Fantasy VII - a big business genre in Japan at this time - so Enix announcing the next Dragon Quest title on the PS1 further cemented it as the "RPG powerhouse" console of '97. It was a big move, but this was not the only announcement Enix made concerning publishing games for a 32-bit console that year.
Also in '97, Enix announced that they would begin to publish Sega Saturn games as well. Some Saturn fans became hopeful that this would be a sort of injection for the Saturn after Sega had started to lose the "console wars". However, Enix did not say at the time exactly what they were going to publish for the Saturn - leading, naturally, to wild, baseless speculation (the best kind). Speculation that included the idea that one of the games Enix would publish might, in fact, be a Dragon Quest title.
Concerning the status of a Dragon Quest title for the Saturn, there were conflicting reports. Some discounted the idea entirely as "wishful thinking", but other console game enthusiasts were more...enthusiastic. Here is GamePro magazine getting it, as they often did, confidently wrong:
There is some good news on the Playstation front. Longtime Japanese software company Enix, creators of Ogre Battle and Brainlord for the SNES, is developing a Dragon Quest game for the Japanese Playstation and the game could possibly come to the US in 1998. This action represents a radical departure for Enix, which has traditionally made games for Nintendo systems only. A Dragon Quest game for the Japanese Saturn is also on the way, but no specific release dates for Enix games were available at press time. - GamePro Issue 103 April 1997
In the end, the first game Enix would publish on the Saturn ended up being neither a main-line Dragon Quest title nor a Dragon Quest spin-off. Oh, there was a dragon in this game all right, but the dragon didn't look like this:
Instead, it looked like this:
Rather than a Dragon Quest title, the first Enix-published Saturn game was something else entirely. A something with a very unique vision and pedigree, designed with some sort of...grotesque dignity.
The name of the game was Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari, or "The Story of the Island of Seven Winds" - but due to collective anticipation for Saturn Dragon Quest news amongst Saturn owners, the announcement of Nanatsu Kaze did not sound like a dragon's roar, but instead a whisper in the wind.
Released in Japan on November 27th, 1997, Nanatsu Kaze is an offbeat 2-d adventure* game (more on this in a later part) in which you play as Garp, a Dragon on a Quest - and it was developed by a company going by the name of Givro Corporation.
Before I write about Nanatsu Kaze in detail, I would first like to focus a bit on the team of programmers, developers, sprite artists and so forth that worked on it at Givro, to better convey what makes it such a special game.
Actraiser is a hybrid side-scrolling hack 'n slash slash God simulation game where in the overhead sim portions you lend an angelic hand to human civilization - your "children" as it were - so that humanity can survive and thrive through the ages. Yoneda's first work as a director at Almanic was also a game related to civilization growth, and actually came out months before Actraiser did...and that game was 46 Okunen Monogatari ~The Shinka Ron~ (or "4.6 Billion Year Story: The Theory of Evolution") released in 1990 for the PC-9801 computer system and published by...again, Enix.
Enix would be a major publisher for games developed by Almanic/Givro, and one reason for this is explained by then-Givro president Noriyuki Tomiyama in the June 6th, 1997 edition of Sega Saturn Magazine.
Tomiyama states:
Enix understands the importance of “making good games.” That’s why we ended up creating Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari. For example, while longer development periods tend to increase production costs, they told us, “Take your time and wait for a great result.” As a creator, that’s very much appreciated. - translated by my friend LapinVT (as are all subsequent interviews in this article)
Givro's first game's title, 4.6 Billion Year Story: The Theory of Evolution, sounds quite...ambitious. And "ambitious" is a word I would use to describe nearly all Givro games, whether it be the titles that had to be rushed out or the ones that were allowed decent development time.
46 Okunen is basically a turn-based RPG, and its premise is that "you" begin life as a lowly aquatic critter and are tasked with evolving through a survival of the fittest world until you become a bipedal being capable of reaching and colonizing the stars.
One "through-line" in some Givro games is "learning" or "evolving". More than a couple are about growth, evolution...metamorphosis.
This aspect is evident not just in 46 Okunen, but also in its SNES/Super Famicom counterpart, also directed by Yoneda: the side-scrolling action adventure title EVO: Search for Eden, published by Enix in 1992 in Japan and 1993 in the United States. The aspect of growth occurs again in Givro's Wonder Project J series, also published by Enix - and both games in the J-series are also directed by Yoneda. In these games you help teach Pinnochio-esque robots how to be more human-like and oversee their growth, their evolution.
And so it is no surprise that the idea of metamorphosis is also present in traces of Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari. The opening game-play sequence even involves our lead character, Garp, breaking out of an egg (with a little help from the player, of course) and into a "new form"...and into a new world. But also present in Nanatsu Kaze is another Givro "trademark" or "calling card": multi-joint animation.
Those are supposedly words relayed by Enix in regards to assigning Givro to the development of Nanatsu Kaze, according to an interview with Tomiyama in the June 6th, 1997 edition of Sega Saturn Magazine. As for why Enix was pursuing the Nanatsu Kaze project in the first place, I'll explain that in a bit. First, let's look at the interview a little more in regards to Givro's "multi-joint animation" specialty. Tomiyama states:
The biggest challenge was how to make the characters move. That’s when Hayakawa suggested, “How about animating with separate parts?”
Hayakawa is Naoyuki Hayakawa, and at Givro he was, again according to the Saturn magazine issue...
...in charge of animating the movements of the characters and objects on screen. He is particularly focused on the multi-joint action, which gives the characters an incredibly lifelike, realistic motion. He encourages players to pay attention to this aspect of the animation.
Hayakawa states in the same issue, about this technique:
It’s a type of “multi-joint” animation. We used this technique to animate large characters in Mazin Saga. I thought that, with this technique, we could animate even illustrated characters smoothly and beautifully.
Mazin Saga is another Givro game. The article explains further:
The Know-How of Multi-Joint Animation Dates Back to Those Days:
During the interview, the topic of Mazin Saga for the Sega Mega Drive came up. This was a game based on the popular manga Mazinger Z by Go Nagai, released by Sega in 1993. The game used multi-joint technology for the protagonist’s movements, which was quite innovative at the time. The realistic, almost biological motions became a huge topic of discussion.
Here you can see Diehard Gamefan magazine praising Givro's multi-joint skills in their November 1994 issue...
...while reviewing Givro's Sega 32X fighter Cyber Brawl (in Japan) / Cosmic Carnage (in the US), another game that used the multi-joint technique (and which also features a cybernetic snake lady with an ojousama laugh, just to illustrate a bit of the oddball but charming nature of Givro) and a very interesting game in its own right.
So, Givro had a reputation for its multi-joint sprite work. Check this out, so you get a better idea of how it works:
Realistic Movements with Multi-Joint Characters by Combining Parts!
Unlike traditional cel animation, which uses a large number of overall patterns, multi-joint animation divides the body into smaller parts and animates the joints. Looking at the breakdown diagram below, you can see just how detailed the approach is. Not only the joints but even the soft parts of the body (like long ears or belly fat) sway, creating incredibly smooth and lifelike movements.
Hayakawa further explains:
We prepared separate parts for each angle—front, side, and back. So even when the character changes direction, the movement remains smooth.
Another Givro employee, Norihiro Sawada, continues:
Especially for Garp, since he’s the main character, we made sure to have parts for almost every possible angle, up to 360 degrees. In terms of attention to detail, we focused on making sure that the character’s left side was properly lowered…
Why all this focus on smooth movement? Well, that has more than a little something to do with Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari's director. And despite Nanatsu Kaze being a game with thematic ties to growth and metamorphosis, and being a culmination of Givro's work sharing largely the same programmers, it was not directed by Yoneda as the EVO and Wonder Project J games were, even if it seems like he would have been a natural fit in that role. Instead, Yoneda receives only a "Special Thanks" credit in Nanatsu Kaze, as the game was directed by someone else instead, someone who had actually never worked with Givro before...and that someone was Keita Amemiya, monster creator mastermind and special effects extraordinaire.
As a boy, Amemiya was a big fan of Ultraman and Kamen Rider, and also a fan of Akira Kurosawa and Star Wars.
It is really easy to notice an Amemiya design - with their flowy, calligraphic, asymmetrical stylings, they are quite distinct.
As an artist, Amemiya is a stand-out, distinct even amongst his peers - and he is in good company in that regards. He went to Asagaya Art College in 1978 and while there he met other talented Asagaya students that would go on to become renowned - artists like Takayuki Takeya, Katsuya Terada, Yasushi Nirasawa, and Masakazu Katsura, among others. Many of these artists, generally underclassmen to Amemiya, would go on to work on various projects with him over the years (sometimes at CROWD, Amemiya's production studio).
His artworks definitely look impressive, powerful and bold. He's got style and he's a special effects guru - but what is his relationship with Enix and Givro?
He's a film director, but how did he end up as a game director for this 1997 Sega Saturn exclusive title, which looks...quite different...from what is being displayed currently?
At least in terms of the fearsome look of the designs...or lack thereof in Nanatsu Kaze's case. Compare these above to Garp, the fat dragon whose wings can barely lift him off the ground.
Ok, I will explain. Amemiya did not limit applying his visionary skills to just television and film - he also has quite an affinity for video games.
I play games almost every day, and the ones I spend the most time on are games whose atmosphere I fall in love with. - Keita Amemiya is quoted as saying in an issue of Famitsu magazine, July 2013.
Amemiya's interest in special effects work and games sort of collided in regards to the 1989 movie Mirai Ninja, Amemiya's first feature film directorial job.
During his early designing days, Amemiya had done the character designs for Namco's side-scrolling hack 'n slash title Genpei Toma Den, a 1986 arcade game, in which the player controls a sort of "ghost samurai" seeking vengeance. In addition to the designs, Amemiya also gained some experience with directorial work at the same time, directing an unconventional live-action trailer for the game. Genpei Toma Den ended up as an arcade success story in Japan, so it was natural that Amemiya was rehired by Namco to do the designs for their upcoming arcade game Mirai Ninja. Somewhere along the line, Namco decided they wanted a tie-in movie to go with the Mirai Ninja game and Amemyia ended up being chosen to direct the live action film to coincide with the arcade game's release - likely due to his work on the prior Toma Den live-action trailer. Amemiya's stylish direction on the Mirai Ninja film, and also his design and special effects work, got him noticed for more work in the film and television industry - thus his art career in the game industry has always been intertwined with his film and television career, and he has bounced back and forth between them over the years.
You've probably seen some of Amemiya's designs in video games before, whether it be his work from Onimusha 2, Clock Tower 3, the PS2 Dororo game, Genji - or maybe you've seen his Shin Megami Tensei IV designs.
One of my favorite gaming visual design work Amemiya did is for the Super Famicom game Hagane, which bears a resemblance to Mirai Ninja as it also features a cybernetic ninja protagonist.
Another fun Super Famicom title Amemiya was involved with is Treasure of Rudras, an RPG released in 1996 by Square.
But even with his forays into gaming, generally what Amemiya is most known for these days is his tokusatsu work, particularly GARO. Disturbing monsters and demons are staples of Amemiya's art. Many of his tokusatsu designs are of the bipedal variety - with generally human shape due to the nature of them being related to practical effects in live-action shows or movies, where a human being will be wearing the costume - lending a "cool factor" to the look even with all that grotesqueness in design.
And yet, there is another side to Amemiya's work - a side a far cry away from those brutal bio-technological demons he is so adept at designing. A side that is instead very whimsical, soft and calming, painterly...fairytale-esque. Or, storybook-esque. And this other side of his art is why Givro spent so much time getting those smooth multi-jointed sprite animations perfect for Nanatsu Kaze - and why Amemiya was chosen as the director of the game the first place.
Welcome, to the other side...
...another world. To the world of the Seven Winds, the world of...
...which translates to something like...Record of Foreign Lands or Memoir of Foreign Lands.
So that's what Iho Kembunroku means, but what Iho Kembunroku is, is a series of illustrations Keita Amemiya created over a span of years - highly intricate fantasy artworks paired with a bit of text that tell the tale of a particular chubby little dragon professor you have already become acquainted with: Garp. Or more formally known as Professor Garp, who will eventually go on to become the star of the Nanatsu Kaze Sega Saturn game. But before we get to Nanatsu Kaze, let's take one last detour and focus on Iho Kembunroku, the predecessor to Nanatsu Kaze, and a perfect example of Amemiya's "other-side" fairytale art style - a style that Givro will later emulate, successfully in my opinion, in sprite form in Nanatsu Kaze.
Please insert Disc Two to continue reading...
(And yes, there will be more about an "actual" Dragon Quest Saturn game in a later part.)
1997
1997 was a landmark year in gaming. Even non-retro gamers generally know the big console titles released that year: Final Fantasy VII, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Goldeneye, Star Fox 64...well, I won't list them all, because the rest of this article will be long enough without such an inventory. The point is, 1997 A.D. was an exciting time to be a video game hobbyist.One particularly exciting moment in '97 gaming news was when a particular publisher, Enix, officially announced that the next installment of their extremely popular - at least in Japan - Dragon Quest franchise would be moved from the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive (a story in itself for another article perhaps) to the new "Console King" of the era: The Sony Playstation.
On January 17th of 1997, IGN wrote the following:
Stock in Sony Corp and Enix Corp rose significantly in Japan yesterday due primarily to Enix's announcement that it would develop Dragon Quest VII for the Playstation.
And so, the Playstation started to sell even more console units than it already was in '97 in anticipation for a Playstation Dragon Quest game, because that was just how big Dragon Quest was at the time - again, at least in Japan.
In '97, the PS1 was leveling up from a gaming console underdog to the "top" one in Japan. Sony was not exactly a startup, but they were the relative newcomer in the console gaming industry taking on the veterans that were Nintendo and Sega. One reason for the PS1's success was due in part to the release of RPGs like Final Fantasy VII - a big business genre in Japan at this time - so Enix announcing the next Dragon Quest title on the PS1 further cemented it as the "RPG powerhouse" console of '97. It was a big move, but this was not the only announcement Enix made concerning publishing games for a 32-bit console that year.
Also in '97, Enix announced that they would begin to publish Sega Saturn games as well. Some Saturn fans became hopeful that this would be a sort of injection for the Saturn after Sega had started to lose the "console wars". However, Enix did not say at the time exactly what they were going to publish for the Saturn - leading, naturally, to wild, baseless speculation (the best kind). Speculation that included the idea that one of the games Enix would publish might, in fact, be a Dragon Quest title.
Concerning the status of a Dragon Quest title for the Saturn, there were conflicting reports. Some discounted the idea entirely as "wishful thinking", but other console game enthusiasts were more...enthusiastic. Here is GamePro magazine getting it, as they often did, confidently wrong:
There is some good news on the Playstation front. Longtime Japanese software company Enix, creators of Ogre Battle and Brainlord for the SNES, is developing a Dragon Quest game for the Japanese Playstation and the game could possibly come to the US in 1998. This action represents a radical departure for Enix, which has traditionally made games for Nintendo systems only. A Dragon Quest game for the Japanese Saturn is also on the way, but no specific release dates for Enix games were available at press time. - GamePro Issue 103 April 1997
In the end, the first game Enix would publish on the Saturn ended up being neither a main-line Dragon Quest title nor a Dragon Quest spin-off. Oh, there was a dragon in this game all right, but the dragon didn't look like this:
Instead, it looked like this:
Rather than a Dragon Quest title, the first Enix-published Saturn game was something else entirely. A something with a very unique vision and pedigree, designed with some sort of...grotesque dignity.
The name of the game was Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari, or "The Story of the Island of Seven Winds" - but due to collective anticipation for Saturn Dragon Quest news amongst Saturn owners, the announcement of Nanatsu Kaze did not sound like a dragon's roar, but instead a whisper in the wind.
Released in Japan on November 27th, 1997, Nanatsu Kaze is an offbeat 2-d adventure* game (more on this in a later part) in which you play as Garp, a Dragon on a Quest - and it was developed by a company going by the name of Givro Corporation.
Before I write about Nanatsu Kaze in detail, I would first like to focus a bit on the team of programmers, developers, sprite artists and so forth that worked on it at Givro, to better convey what makes it such a special game.
GIVRO
Givro was a game development company originally founded under the name Almanic Corporation in 1989. The company name would be changed to Givro Corp in 1995. Among other titles, Givro founder Takashi Yoneda worked on Quintet's Actraiser, which was published by, you guessed it, Enix.Actraiser is a hybrid side-scrolling hack 'n slash slash God simulation game where in the overhead sim portions you lend an angelic hand to human civilization - your "children" as it were - so that humanity can survive and thrive through the ages. Yoneda's first work as a director at Almanic was also a game related to civilization growth, and actually came out months before Actraiser did...and that game was 46 Okunen Monogatari ~The Shinka Ron~ (or "4.6 Billion Year Story: The Theory of Evolution") released in 1990 for the PC-9801 computer system and published by...again, Enix.
Enix would be a major publisher for games developed by Almanic/Givro, and one reason for this is explained by then-Givro president Noriyuki Tomiyama in the June 6th, 1997 edition of Sega Saturn Magazine.
Tomiyama states:
Enix understands the importance of “making good games.” That’s why we ended up creating Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari. For example, while longer development periods tend to increase production costs, they told us, “Take your time and wait for a great result.” As a creator, that’s very much appreciated. - translated by my friend LapinVT (as are all subsequent interviews in this article)
Givro's first game's title, 4.6 Billion Year Story: The Theory of Evolution, sounds quite...ambitious. And "ambitious" is a word I would use to describe nearly all Givro games, whether it be the titles that had to be rushed out or the ones that were allowed decent development time.
46 Okunen is basically a turn-based RPG, and its premise is that "you" begin life as a lowly aquatic critter and are tasked with evolving through a survival of the fittest world until you become a bipedal being capable of reaching and colonizing the stars.
One "through-line" in some Givro games is "learning" or "evolving". More than a couple are about growth, evolution...metamorphosis.
This aspect is evident not just in 46 Okunen, but also in its SNES/Super Famicom counterpart, also directed by Yoneda: the side-scrolling action adventure title EVO: Search for Eden, published by Enix in 1992 in Japan and 1993 in the United States. The aspect of growth occurs again in Givro's Wonder Project J series, also published by Enix - and both games in the J-series are also directed by Yoneda. In these games you help teach Pinnochio-esque robots how to be more human-like and oversee their growth, their evolution.
And so it is no surprise that the idea of metamorphosis is also present in traces of Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari. The opening game-play sequence even involves our lead character, Garp, breaking out of an egg (with a little help from the player, of course) and into a "new form"...and into a new world. But also present in Nanatsu Kaze is another Givro "trademark" or "calling card": multi-joint animation.
MULTI-JOINT ANIMATION
Only Givro can pull this off.Those are supposedly words relayed by Enix in regards to assigning Givro to the development of Nanatsu Kaze, according to an interview with Tomiyama in the June 6th, 1997 edition of Sega Saturn Magazine. As for why Enix was pursuing the Nanatsu Kaze project in the first place, I'll explain that in a bit. First, let's look at the interview a little more in regards to Givro's "multi-joint animation" specialty. Tomiyama states:
The biggest challenge was how to make the characters move. That’s when Hayakawa suggested, “How about animating with separate parts?”
Hayakawa is Naoyuki Hayakawa, and at Givro he was, again according to the Saturn magazine issue...
...in charge of animating the movements of the characters and objects on screen. He is particularly focused on the multi-joint action, which gives the characters an incredibly lifelike, realistic motion. He encourages players to pay attention to this aspect of the animation.
Hayakawa states in the same issue, about this technique:
It’s a type of “multi-joint” animation. We used this technique to animate large characters in Mazin Saga. I thought that, with this technique, we could animate even illustrated characters smoothly and beautifully.
Mazin Saga is another Givro game. The article explains further:
The Know-How of Multi-Joint Animation Dates Back to Those Days:
During the interview, the topic of Mazin Saga for the Sega Mega Drive came up. This was a game based on the popular manga Mazinger Z by Go Nagai, released by Sega in 1993. The game used multi-joint technology for the protagonist’s movements, which was quite innovative at the time. The realistic, almost biological motions became a huge topic of discussion.
Here you can see Diehard Gamefan magazine praising Givro's multi-joint skills in their November 1994 issue...
...while reviewing Givro's Sega 32X fighter Cyber Brawl (in Japan) / Cosmic Carnage (in the US), another game that used the multi-joint technique (and which also features a cybernetic snake lady with an ojousama laugh, just to illustrate a bit of the oddball but charming nature of Givro) and a very interesting game in its own right.
So, Givro had a reputation for its multi-joint sprite work. Check this out, so you get a better idea of how it works:
Realistic Movements with Multi-Joint Characters by Combining Parts!
Unlike traditional cel animation, which uses a large number of overall patterns, multi-joint animation divides the body into smaller parts and animates the joints. Looking at the breakdown diagram below, you can see just how detailed the approach is. Not only the joints but even the soft parts of the body (like long ears or belly fat) sway, creating incredibly smooth and lifelike movements.
Hayakawa further explains:
We prepared separate parts for each angle—front, side, and back. So even when the character changes direction, the movement remains smooth.
Another Givro employee, Norihiro Sawada, continues:
Especially for Garp, since he’s the main character, we made sure to have parts for almost every possible angle, up to 360 degrees. In terms of attention to detail, we focused on making sure that the character’s left side was properly lowered…
Why all this focus on smooth movement? Well, that has more than a little something to do with Nanatsu Kaze no Shima Monogatari's director. And despite Nanatsu Kaze being a game with thematic ties to growth and metamorphosis, and being a culmination of Givro's work sharing largely the same programmers, it was not directed by Yoneda as the EVO and Wonder Project J games were, even if it seems like he would have been a natural fit in that role. Instead, Yoneda receives only a "Special Thanks" credit in Nanatsu Kaze, as the game was directed by someone else instead, someone who had actually never worked with Givro before...and that someone was Keita Amemiya, monster creator mastermind and special effects extraordinaire.
AMEMIYA
In simple terms, Keita Amemiya is an artist and designer - and also a film and television director with decades of experience. He's worked on and directed special-effects-heavy cult films like Zeiram and Zeiram 2, Mirai Ninja, Moon over Tao, as well as tokusatsu television projects like GARO. He created designs for the Metal Heroes television franchise during his early days, worked on Sentai shows (like Jetman), and directed Kamen Rider movies for the Toei Super Hero Fair events (Kamen Rider ZO in '93 and Kamen Rider J in '94) and also directed the centerpiece installment of the Fair in '95: the Mechanical Violator Hakaider film, an atmospheric spinoff of Kikaider with a troubled but very interesting production history (that also spawned a sequel in the form of a Hakaider Sega Saturn game in late '96 - so Amemiya was familiar with the Saturn).As a boy, Amemiya was a big fan of Ultraman and Kamen Rider, and also a fan of Akira Kurosawa and Star Wars.
It is really easy to notice an Amemiya design - with their flowy, calligraphic, asymmetrical stylings, they are quite distinct.
As an artist, Amemiya is a stand-out, distinct even amongst his peers - and he is in good company in that regards. He went to Asagaya Art College in 1978 and while there he met other talented Asagaya students that would go on to become renowned - artists like Takayuki Takeya, Katsuya Terada, Yasushi Nirasawa, and Masakazu Katsura, among others. Many of these artists, generally underclassmen to Amemiya, would go on to work on various projects with him over the years (sometimes at CROWD, Amemiya's production studio).
His artworks definitely look impressive, powerful and bold. He's got style and he's a special effects guru - but what is his relationship with Enix and Givro?
He's a film director, but how did he end up as a game director for this 1997 Sega Saturn exclusive title, which looks...quite different...from what is being displayed currently?
At least in terms of the fearsome look of the designs...or lack thereof in Nanatsu Kaze's case. Compare these above to Garp, the fat dragon whose wings can barely lift him off the ground.
Ok, I will explain. Amemiya did not limit applying his visionary skills to just television and film - he also has quite an affinity for video games.
I play games almost every day, and the ones I spend the most time on are games whose atmosphere I fall in love with. - Keita Amemiya is quoted as saying in an issue of Famitsu magazine, July 2013.
Amemiya's interest in special effects work and games sort of collided in regards to the 1989 movie Mirai Ninja, Amemiya's first feature film directorial job.
During his early designing days, Amemiya had done the character designs for Namco's side-scrolling hack 'n slash title Genpei Toma Den, a 1986 arcade game, in which the player controls a sort of "ghost samurai" seeking vengeance. In addition to the designs, Amemiya also gained some experience with directorial work at the same time, directing an unconventional live-action trailer for the game. Genpei Toma Den ended up as an arcade success story in Japan, so it was natural that Amemiya was rehired by Namco to do the designs for their upcoming arcade game Mirai Ninja. Somewhere along the line, Namco decided they wanted a tie-in movie to go with the Mirai Ninja game and Amemyia ended up being chosen to direct the live action film to coincide with the arcade game's release - likely due to his work on the prior Toma Den live-action trailer. Amemiya's stylish direction on the Mirai Ninja film, and also his design and special effects work, got him noticed for more work in the film and television industry - thus his art career in the game industry has always been intertwined with his film and television career, and he has bounced back and forth between them over the years.
You've probably seen some of Amemiya's designs in video games before, whether it be his work from Onimusha 2, Clock Tower 3, the PS2 Dororo game, Genji - or maybe you've seen his Shin Megami Tensei IV designs.
One of my favorite gaming visual design work Amemiya did is for the Super Famicom game Hagane, which bears a resemblance to Mirai Ninja as it also features a cybernetic ninja protagonist.
Another fun Super Famicom title Amemiya was involved with is Treasure of Rudras, an RPG released in 1996 by Square.
But even with his forays into gaming, generally what Amemiya is most known for these days is his tokusatsu work, particularly GARO. Disturbing monsters and demons are staples of Amemiya's art. Many of his tokusatsu designs are of the bipedal variety - with generally human shape due to the nature of them being related to practical effects in live-action shows or movies, where a human being will be wearing the costume - lending a "cool factor" to the look even with all that grotesqueness in design.
And yet, there is another side to Amemiya's work - a side a far cry away from those brutal bio-technological demons he is so adept at designing. A side that is instead very whimsical, soft and calming, painterly...fairytale-esque. Or, storybook-esque. And this other side of his art is why Givro spent so much time getting those smooth multi-jointed sprite animations perfect for Nanatsu Kaze - and why Amemiya was chosen as the director of the game the first place.
Welcome, to the other side...
...another world. To the world of the Seven Winds, the world of...
IHO KEMBUNROKU
...which translates to something like...Record of Foreign Lands or Memoir of Foreign Lands.
So that's what Iho Kembunroku means, but what Iho Kembunroku is, is a series of illustrations Keita Amemiya created over a span of years - highly intricate fantasy artworks paired with a bit of text that tell the tale of a particular chubby little dragon professor you have already become acquainted with: Garp. Or more formally known as Professor Garp, who will eventually go on to become the star of the Nanatsu Kaze Sega Saturn game. But before we get to Nanatsu Kaze, let's take one last detour and focus on Iho Kembunroku, the predecessor to Nanatsu Kaze, and a perfect example of Amemiya's "other-side" fairytale art style - a style that Givro will later emulate, successfully in my opinion, in sprite form in Nanatsu Kaze.
Please insert Disc Two to continue reading...
(And yes, there will be more about an "actual" Dragon Quest Saturn game in a later part.)
Last edited:
