Amin Abbas

Ariga Hitoshi, is a Japanese manga artist and video games illustrator who worked on various manga series like Rockman, The Big O and Yokai Torimonocho Sarawa reta nopperabo. He also worked as a character designer for various Pokémon games.

In an exclusive interview with Arab News Japan, Hitoshi shared how his passion for video games began “when an older friend, who I used to go to the arcade with a lot when we were students offered to get me an interview for a job as a video game artist.”

Hitoshi typically plays “action games and fighting games” as well as RPGs, simulation games, and shooters. 

Hitoshi asserts how “Japanese culture itself is a natural part of me, so I don’t often think about it, but I like the Japanese sense of morality and manners.”

About the establishment of his career as an illustrator, Hitoshi said: “When I was in high school, I would take files containing all my illustrations to a publishing company, show them to the editor, and ask for advice; after a few times doing this, they offered me a job.”

“I worked for quite a few publishers over a relatively short period of time, and I don’t remember exactly how long it took between me sending in my illustration and the product being released, but I think the oldest would probably have been the Dragon Quest 4 guidebook, released by Enix’s publishing division,” he continued. 

He also did illustrations for Futabasha’s game guides, as well as new product showcases in Kadokawa’s Famicom magazines.

About the challenges that he faced during his projects, Hitoshi said: “There are several, but the jobs that demand a lot of work with a short deadline are always tough.” 

He explained that working on illustrations for video games or manga “the work might be broken up among a team. When I was the team member ultimately in charge of the project, there were a lot of incidents where I was busy checking everyone else’s work, and ended up with less time to do my own illustrations,” but now he works with a much smaller team.

Regarding his opinion of the Middle East region, Hitoshi shared how he was invited to participate in a gaming event in Kuwait, and visited twice.

“The event was attended by people from the countries around Kuwait; everyone I met there was very kind and polite, and I had a wonderful time. Another thing that stuck out to me was how good the food was.”

Regarding his upcoming projects, Hitoshi said: “Out of the projects I can talk about publicly, one is a children’s book I’m currently working on called Yokai Torimono-cho, which is about Yokai, and drawn in a manga style.”

About his recommendations for those who wants to be an illustration artist for manga and video games, Hitoshi shared how “working in entertainment, like illustrations and games, is a fun and exciting job. You should be open minded enough to become interested in a wide range of things, and be able to enjoy lots of different things,” he said. 

Hitoshi also encourages them to take interest in new experiences, cultivate curiosity and enjoy it.