The "Charamen" - The Unsung Heroes of Capcom Fighting Games

[Anonymous No.4343327]

For decades Capcom's fighting games have been known for their casts of unique and colorful characters. Characters who despite often being based on standard archetypes, always had their own distinct twists, visual flair and personality. But when it comes to the people behind these characters, many misconceptions abound, with few players knowing what actually went on in the development process, and who made what. I myself only learned about this recently and felt like sharing in the hopes of spreading information that fellow Capcom fans would find interesting.

[Anonymous No.4343347]

When it comes to Capcom fighting game artists, the names you'll hear people mention the most often are Kinu Nishimura, Bengus, Ikeno, Edayan and Akiman (more on him later,) with art like this often being touted as "concept art," and terms like "design" and "designer" being used. Overall people seem to get the impression that these artists are the ones who created the characters, and that the in-game graphics are based on this art. However, this is not true.

[Anonymous No.4343354]

>>4343327
So who's the author of that Morrigan pic?

[Anonymous No.4343361]

As Akiman rather bluntly explains: https://twitter.com/akiman7/status/300012276491116544
>The charamen would spend two years holed up in Capcom HQ, pouring their hearts and souls into these characters. But because of artbooks and such, the players would go "Oh, it's gotta have this illustrator, or it'll suck." Illustration and character design are two completely different skillsets.
So who are these "charamen?" In the old days, Capcom company culture had a habit of assigning formal job titles ending with "-man" (although of course there were women among them.) The directors were "projectmen," programmers were "softmen," sound designers were "soundmen," background artists were "bakgroundmen," and the character artists were "charamen."
Akiman further explains the role of these charamen: https://twitter.com/akiman7/status/300014637825523712
>Capcom had a group of spriters, and they were the ones who made everything. They had the skills of both an animator and an embroider, and they would draw pixel by pixel using a keyboard. They were the ones whose effort developed these characters' ideas, and it took several months to several years of work. But the customers cared more about some artwork that was drawn in a couple of days.

[Anonymous No.4343390]

>>4343354
I'll get to that soon enough.
>>4343361
>formal job titles
Make that "informal job titles," typo.

The aforementioned illustrators are often credited as "designers" in artbooks, and their department is known as the "Capcom Design Room." But as Akiman explains: https://twitter.com/akiman7/status/300604599046393856
>The "design" in Capcom Design Room" is in reference to the traditional field of graphic design (i.e. promotional material.) It has nothing to do with the design of anything in games themselves. I believe the name was a holdover from the Capcom Tokyo Design Team.
So these artists. as great as their work is, had little to do with the development of the games themselves. Akiman replies to a query about Kinu: https://twitter.com/akiman7/status/300046158917672960
>Kinu-san sprited Slam Masters' Gunloc, but aside from that I believe she was exclusively an illustrator.

[Anonymous No.4343394]

>>4343361
>keyboard
WHY THE FUCK did they not use digitizers.

[Anonymous No.4343397]

Like with Pokémon, characters were created by a team. Them Akiman, the art director, cleaned them up and illustrators did the promotional artwork.

[Anonymous No.4343398]

>>4343394
looks cumbersome.

[Anonymous No.4343415]

>>4343398
I'm sure it's still better than TYPING pixel art.

[Anonymous No.4343434]

So what was the actual process that created these characters like? In response to an analogy about cooking Akiman writes: https://twitter.com/akiman7/status/300017614841856000
>The director would be the one who comes up with the general idea for the dish, the charamen would be the ones who experiment with the recipe until they get it just right, and the illustrator would be the one who cooks the dish that gets photographed for the menu.
A good example of how vital the role the charamen played was the character of Vega in Street Fighter 2. SF2 director Akira Nishitani has stated that when combining various nationalities and fighting styles for SF2 character concepts, two that were left unused late in the process were "Spain" and "Ninja," and he decided to combine those, thinking it was just crazy enough to work. From a concept as odd and vague as "Spanish Ninja" various concepts were drawn, most of which were more knight-like. But the beautiful and narcissistic masked, claw-wielding, snake-tattooed ninja matador we all know today was primarily the work of one relatively unknown charawoman. As Akiman explains: https://twitter.com/akiman7/status/379457277897347072
>I might have contributed a little bit, but Vega was almost entirely the work of a designer named Kageyama.

[Anonymous No.4343448]

From what can be gleamed from interviews, the design and development process has several phases, but the charamen were key in all of them. Different individuals might have worked on different phases of a character, but in everything from early brainstorming to nailing down the basic design and image to concepts for moves and animations to the production of the finished sprites themselves, the charamen were the driving force. And despite all of this, Akiman remains the only one to have really received any recognition. Granted he was essentially the top charaman and it was his guidance that helped develop the skills of the rest, but he himself acknowledges that these many unsung heroes were vital to the creation of Capcom's unforgettable casts of characters. From here I'll delve into some of the specific individuals and their contributions.

[Anonymous No.4343462]

The aforementioned Mizuho Kageyama. Akiman writes: https://twitter.com/akiman7/status/300770019619532801
>A woman named Kageyama who would bounce up and down when she was happy designed and spirited SF2's Vega. She also drew in a more manga-esque style at first, but unlike Nakamura it was more of a shoujo manga type of style and that's reflected in her work. In Darkstalkers she sprinted Victor.
A long-serving Capcom veteran, she has worked on everything from Nemo in 1990 to Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies in 2013. One other character she is confirmed to have worked on is Red Earth's Kenji.

[Anonymous No.4343476]

Eri Nakamura, another veteran charawoman. Akiman writes: https://twitter.com/akiman7/status/300623508386484224
>E. Honda was sprited by a woman named Nakamura, one of our earlier artists to draw in a more otaku-oriented style. She was involved with all the characters in Battle Circuit, Caption Commando's Ginzu, SF Alpha's Chun-Li, X-Men's Psylocke, Red Earth's Mai-Ling, and Vampire Savior's Red Riding Hood; a true genius.
As an interesting aside, Eri Nakamura actually married fellow charaman Takenori Kimoto, who I'll get to later. So I guess love can bloom in the game studio.

[Anonymous No.4343520]

Hiroshi Shibata got his start in Darkstalkers, where he created the base designs for two of its most beloved characters, Morrigan and Felicia and sprited eye-popping boss character Pyron. He was also involved with Cyberbots and Red Earth. In more recent years he's been involved with the Resident Evil series, Okami, and Bayonetta.

[Anonymous No.4343545]

On the charaman credited in-game as "Q," Akiman writes: https://twitter.com/akiman7/status/300019530334351361
>A person by the name of "Mori" who had served as an assistant to Maki Koushi, the manga artist behind Mecha Battler Gilfer and Metal K came to us and sprited Sf2's Sagat, Darkstalkers' Morrigan, and SF3's Elena. His own personal evolution had quite an influence on our early and middle-era fighting games.
In a column on the now defunct Darkstalkers Collection website, fellow charaman Takenori Kimoto recalls being impressed with Q/Mori's ingenious use of drills in Morrigan's attacks as a way to imbue her attacks with continuous movement without using up much ROM space.

[Anonymous No.4343563]

On Akemi Kurihara, another veteran charawoman, Akian writes:
https://twitter.com/akiman7/status/300539472246890496
>We had a woman named Kurihara, and she sprited Demitri, Captain Commando, Forgotten Worlds' Unknown Soldiers. She joined Capcom only a year after me, quite a veteran and made flawless sprites. She was important to use even before we got into fighting games.
As Akiman says, she had quite a history even prior to SF2, having worked on Side Arms, Forgotten Worlds, Strider Hiryu, Dynasty Wars, Willow, 1941 Counter Attack, Mercs, and Magic Sword. In the fighting game era she worked on everything SF2, Darkstalkers, Red Earth (spriting enemy character Ravange), MvC1 and 2 and SF Alpha 3.

[Anonymous No.4343593]

On Hitoshi Nishio, who was often credited as "Tanuki" in-game, Akiman writes: https://twitter.com/akiman7/status/300021334057054208
>There was a hot-blooded guy like Patlabor's Oota who was named Nishi, and he breathed life into SF2's Guile. he also sprited X-Men's Cyclops and SF3's Ibuki. He was a person with an incredible passion for making games, who was invaluable to Capcom.
His resume also includes Darkstalkers' Hsien-Ko. Akiman also notes that the look of Guile's iconic Flash Kick was largely Nishio's work: https://twitter.com/akiman7/status/547060900218171392
>I did his walk cycle, but the rest was all Nishio. He ended up making so many sprites that he was eating into Chun-Li's allotted memory, so I had to have him cut some. We had a general concept for the Flash Kick from the beginning, but even though Nishio's animation ended up being completely different from the concept drawing it was really cool.

[Anonymous No.4343595]

>>4343563
>Demitri sprited by a woman
God bless her for giving him such thicc pecs and such a huge ass

[Anonymous No.4343625]

>>4343595
And that bulge.

[Anonymous No.4343626]

Takenori Kimoto, usually credited as Kimo Kimo, got his start at Capcom with Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. His most famous work is likely Darkstalkers' Anakaris, a character known for standing out as bizarre even among that game's monstrous cast. Interviews with fellow developers have them noting that Kinoto was great at coming up with interesting and bizarre ideas, but getting those ideas to work from a gameplay perspective was often a challenge. He was also behind Red Earth's Tessa, and together with his wife Eri Nakamura both designed and sprited SF Alpha 3's Juli and Juni. Most recently he was the main character designer for Mighty No. 9.

[Anonymous No.4343628]

>>4343626
>Most recently he was the main character designer for Mighty No. 9.
Fucking lol. What a fall from grace.

[Anonymous No.4343631]

Tohru Takaoka was a key player in the development of the Darkstalkers cast, creating the base designs for Anakaris, Victor and Lord Raptor, then proceeding to animate Lord Raptor's sprites as well. He also sprited SF3's Dudley, and was even an animator for Street Fighter EX.

[Anonymous No.4343657]

Fujioka Kaname, more recently known as the director of the Monster Hunter series, started off as a charaman. He worked on the Darkstalkers series, doing a handful of animations for Donovan, Felicia and B.B. Hood, and was the main spriter for Red Earth's Kenji. He also sprited Jotaro and Dio in Capcom's beloved Jojo's Bizarre Adventure fighting game.

[Anonymous No.4343684]

On Makoto Ishii, Akiman writes: https://twitter.com/akiman7/status/632641603501355008
>The guy behind Hulk was also responsible for bulking up Bison in SF Alpha. He specialized in bulky characters. He works for Namco now.
SF Alpha's Blanka and Zangief were also Ishii's work.

[Anonymous No.4343717]

On the charaman usually credited as "Ball Boy" in-game, Akiman writes: https://twitter.com/akiman7/status/303541592113938434
>Hayashi-kun was responsible for Dhalsim's sprites. I think his base design came from a drawing by Ouji-kun, but I can't remember for sure. Hayashi-kun was the first of my juniors to be a core otaku type, so we really saw eye to eye. He was another flawless spriter, and went on to sprite Darkstalkers' Bishamon.
Ball Boy would return to Dhalsim for the Alpha series, as well as spriting SF3's Yun and Yang and Jojo's Joseph.

[Anonymous No.4343728]

Mizue Morimoto, who is still with Capcom as of 2016's Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice got her start spriting Darkstalkers' Sasquatch. She also sprited Alpha 3's Balrog and worked alongside Makoto Ishii on Alpha 3's Blanka.

[Anonymous No.4343810]

Which guy moved on and created Vanguard Princess? I recall he was a spriter for capcom. He's been dark for awhile.

[Anonymous No.4343828]

>>4343810
Dude's a nobody, he made sprites for GBA King of Fighters and Resident Evil 3.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanguard_Princess

[Anonymous No.4343948]

fantastic thread dude, I love to learn about production details like this

[Anonymous No.4343993]

>>4343948
It's something I had wanted to write about for a while because the information remains relatively unknown, especially outside of Japan. As beloved as Capcom's fighting games are, not many people seem to know about the developers behind them. It's gotten to where Yoshinori Ono is about the only name people will recognize in connection to Capcom fighting games, largely due to his antics at shows and such. And I find that a real shame.

Here's a little doodle by Toshikazu Matsumoto, who spirited Darkstalkers' Huitzil, Red Earth's Gigi, and also animated Tech Romancer's Bolon. Huitzil's sprites were made in a way that each frame of animation is actually built out of many separate parts. Hundreds of chests, heads, shoulders, arms, hands, hips, thigh, and legs were drawn in various angles and states of transformation. He comments in one guidebook that putting these pieces together for each frame of animation was like solving a jigsaw puzzle.

[Anonymous No.4344010]

>>4343394
Akiman has said that Capcom wasn't as big and hi-tech a company as Sega, so they might not have been able to afford fancy equipment like that. They didn't even have tablets when they started doing digital illustrations in the late 90s, they just colored with the mouse.

[Anonymous No.4344303]

Amazing thread OP, thanks for the insight

Know anything about Deejay? He was my go-to in SF2

[Anonymous No.4344326]

>>4343434

That's kinda cute and makes sense actually. Vega does seem like the work of some fujo type.

[Anonymous No.4344334]

>>4344303
Weren't DeeJay and T Hawk designed by yanks, as the legend goes?

[Anonymous No.4344382]

Nice thread, anon, thanks for sharing.

I'm writing a monograph on urban violence using beat'em ups as primary source and I'm kind tangled now with the interweaving history of them and fighting games. This development process is pretty interesting and hopefully will spark some light when I'm trying to put some words on paper. Sadly isn't in english but I may come around to do it later and share with you guys.

Will you publish it somewhere? I'd love to translate to my language and preserve this.

[Anonymous No.4344460]

Great thread, O, thanks for sharing

[Anonymous No.4344470]

>>4344334
>Dee Jay is the only character in the series to be designed by Capcom USA. He was designed by James Goddard, who modeled Dee Jay after martial arts film star and Tae Bo creator, Billy Blanks. Dee Jay's braided mohawk also resembles Blanks's role as Khan in The King of the Kickboxers.

Seems to be correct.

[Anonymous No.4344539]

Awesome thread, OP.
It's nice to see something like this instead of all the shitposting and repeated thread here on /vr/

Besides I love the old Capcom artists A LOT and it's always nice to know more about them.

[Anonymous No.4345491]

>>4344334
As >>4344470 has said, yes, Dee Jay was designed by James Goddard. http://www.capcom-unity.com/kramez/blog/2009/10/02/the_origin_of_dee_jay_straight_from_creator_james_goddard
The story goes that two of the 4 newcomers in Super SF2 were going to be Fei Long headswaps at first. When James saw this he felt it would be more interesting to replace one of the Fei Longs and have 4 unique characters instead. And the developers ended up liking his Billy Blanks-inspired character concept he pitched, so that's how Dee Jay was born.

[Anonymous No.4346075]

>>4343327
>The Unsung Heroes of Capcom Fighting Games

Cum historia mutat valde
Charamen revelat ipsum:
Primum artifex scelestus est.

[Anonymous No.4347178]

Fascinating stuff. These people sound like unsung heroes.