I'll be doing bits and pieces from here whenever I feel like it. I think Janet Hsu translated a few parts on the Capcom US blog.

Episode 9 — Me and a Small Story 2

On Valentine's Day, chocolate arrived from our fans. If I think, "Have I also got this far?" [?], the final rankings would be be as follows:

1. Atmey, 2. Godot, 3. Phoenix

I'm not convinced by this selection...
I'll thank you on their behalf.
Thank you so much!

Well, continuing on from the story in the last entry, we'll have a character story.

As I said last time, playing around with the characters is complicated, but with the minor characters that appear in just the character files, it's a different story.
Takumi-san's oversight was quite light for the minor characters, that's why I was better able to express my own preferences in them.

On the left is Mitsurugi Shin-san [Gregory Edgeworth], who appeared in AA1.
He's the father of Nick's rival, Miles Edgeworth.
Throughout the Ace Attorney series, he has nothing to make him stand out from the other characters, but the idea came together while working on him, of a stylish, middle-aged man.
(A slight wrinkle in his brow, defined cheekbones, elegant silver hair, etc.)

On the right is AA2's Fujimino Isao-san [Juan Corrida].
This character was based on a real-life model (an action film actor). He's a sultry type of hunk!
His lips are quite full!
He has an awful lot of hair!
So I drew him with quite a biased opinion, but I wonder how many people picked up on that?

As you can see in the examples above, there were times when I could easily add in my own preferences, but there were times when the minor characters didn't come out so well.

"Sarumage-don" [Mr Monkey]
He appeared in AA1's third story, "Turnbout Samurai". He was Global Studio's character mascot, but... I don't suppose everyone will remember him.
Even I myself forgot that his fur was red. This guy didn't come out so well.

Iwamoto: He's a proboscis monkey*, isn't he?!
He's cute, isn't he?!!

Takumi: He's not cute!

*Proboscis monkey. It's a monkey native to Borneo. Its big nose and protruding tummy are cute.

The cute character that I drew didn't seem to go down well with Takumi-san, or maybe it didn't go down well with people in general...
After all, I kinda pushed that design through, and Takumi-san didn't seem too pleased.

It's not obvious, but these "minor characters" are the foundation for the stories.
The minor characters appearing in AA3 are heavily influenced by my own tastes. I think they were my favourite part of working on the series.

Episode 10 — Me and Capcom

Last time, when we released the Valentine's chocolate rankings, we received a honmei chocolate from a person who said, "Prosecutor Edgeworth not getting one is funny!"
Because Prosector Edgeworth can't actually thank you himself, I'll say it on his behalf.

Iwamoto: Thanks! It was delicious!"

*I'm the one who does Prosecutor Edgeworth's voice (boast)

This time, I think I'll tell some of my own stories about working for the Capcom company.

Originally, I'm a Kantō person, so going to Kansai just to find a job was a big deal for me.
When I arrived for the interview, I thought, "If you lose this chance to work for Capcom, you won't be able to go to Ōsaka again," so I did a bit of sightseeing on the side.

...So that's the trouble I went through to get the job.

My personal career after joining Capcom:

A certain game's character design (development)
↓
"Ace Attorney"
↓
GBA software "Granbo" (I joined in the last three months)
↓
"Ace Attorney 2"
↓
"Ace Attorney 3"

When I lay it out from start to finish like this, it looks like the only game I had anything to do with was the Ace Attorney series, huh? Speaking for myself anyway, if I say Capcom = Ace Attorney, it's not really an exaggeration.
All the titles I worked on were 2D!
Due to that, in the games industry, one of the most sought-after workers has become the "dotter"* [pixelator].

~ Trying to render the usual trio in pixels ~

*It means the person rendering the dots [pixels].
The way this is called worldwide is unclear. They're the tiniest elements that the screen is composed of. This tile's shape is made of dots.

Up till now, we had so few of these people at our company, but originally, I wished for more 2D work, so I was happy to do it myself.
When making AA1, honestly, up till then, I wasn't expecting it to be a long job.
I drew until I ended up developing tendonitis, I drew young characters like Harumi-chan [Pearl]... Since my hobby is drawing, all my life I'd experienced nothing else, but it was a huge learning experience for me.

Thanks to the fast pace during the first year of production, Granbo became my fourth game.
I thought I stood out among all the people working there at the time I joined. Every game is my sweet, beloved child.

And so, giving birth is a gruelling experience...
I was only working on these games, but I was glad I'd come to Capcom.
Like Ace Attorney (to put it bluntly, I'm biased), making such a sharp game was possible because of the culture at Capcom.

This column has gone on for two months now, so next month's will finally be the last. Please enjoy it!