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Naoto Ohshima (大島 直人 Ōshima Naoto?) is a Japanese artist and former Sega employee who most notably designed and helped form the characters of Sonic the Hedgehog and Dr. Eggman.
History[edit | edit source]
Ohshima gained notability at Sega for creating characters and playing integral roles in the development of games like Phantasy Star, Sonic the Hedgehog, NiGHTS into Dreams..., Burning Rangers and Sonic Adventure. He used to be credited under the nickname "Big Island," which is a literal translation of his family name.
After leaving Sonic Team in 1999, Ohshima formed an independent game company with former Sega employees called Artoon, and later Arzest, of which he is currently vice president. During his time at these companies he has been involved with various games including Blinx: The Time Sweeper and its sequel, Yoshi's Island DS, the Nintendo 3DS version of Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, and Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey. He also remained a fan of the Sonic series himself, having enjoyed games released after his departure from Sega like Sonic Colors, Sonic Generations, Sonic Mania, and Sonic Frontiers.[1]
On July 23, 2020, it was announced that Ohshima was working with Yuji Naka, and they had founded Balan Company, Square Enix's action game brand. Ohshima was the character designer of Balan Wonderworld, with Naka as director, and with Arzest as developer. It marked the first time since Sonic Adventure that Ohshima and Naka had worked together on developing a videogame.
On June 8, 2023, it was announced that Ohshima and Arzest would co-develop Sonic Superstars alongside Sonic Team, making his first contribution to the main series since Sonic Adventure. A "mysterious new adversary" designed by Ohshima appeared, the first Sonic character designed by him since Vector the Crocodile.
Notable non-Sonic works[edit | edit source]
- Phantasy Star — Design
- NiGHTS into Dreams... — Director, visual designer, character designer
- Blinx 2: Masters of Time and Space — Director
- Yoshi's Island DS — Producer
- Balan Wonderworld — Character designer
Credits[edit | edit source]
Games[edit | edit source]
Character designer[edit | edit source]
- Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
- Knuckles' Chaotix (1995) - Original character concept
- Sonic Superstars (2023)
Direction[edit | edit source]
- Sonic the Hedgehog CD (1993)
- Sonic 3D Blast (1996) - Advisor
- Sonic R (1997) - Graphic advisor
- Sonic Jam (1997) - Supervisor
- Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (2016) - Supervisor
Production[edit | edit source]
- Sonic Adventure (1998) - CG movie producer
- Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr.'s Journey (2018) - Production Management
- Sonic Superstars (2023) - Development Producer
Animation[edit | edit source]
- Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie (1996) - Co-production director
Special thanks[edit | edit source]
- Sonic Eraser (1991)
- SegaSonic the Hedgehog (1993)
- Sonic Generations (2011)
Trivia[edit | edit source]
-
Ohshima’s Sonic Mania artwork.
-
Ohshima's Sonic Forces artwork.
- For unknown reasons, any mention of Naoto Ohshima was removed from the credits of Sonic Adventure when the game was ported to other platforms as Sonic Adventure DX Directors Cut (which Naoto had no involvement with, as he had left Sega after Sonic Adventure was completed). Curiously, he was the only staff member of the game to have his name retroactively removed.
- Before their 2017 releases, Naoto Ohshima devoted fan artwork to both Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces on his Twitter page.
External links[edit | edit source]
- Naoto Ohshima on Twitter
- Naoto Ohshima on Instagram
- Naoto Ohshima at the Internet Movie Database
- Naoto Ohshima at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Producers | Akinori Nishiyama · Takashi Iizuka · Yuji Naka · Yoji Ishii |
|---|---|
| Programmers | Takahiro Hamano · Takeshi Sakakibara · Tetsu Katano · Yuji Naka · Yoshihisa Hashimoto |
| Designers | Eitaro Toyoda · Hirokazu Yasuhara · Kazuyuki Hoshino · Makoto Yonezu · Manabu Kusunoki · Naoto Ohshima · Nobuhiko Honda · Hiroshi Miyamoto · Sachiko Kawamura · Shinichi Higashi · Shiro Maekawa · Shun Nakamura · Takashi Yuda · Yasushi Yamaguchi · Yoshitaka Miura · Yuji Uekawa |
| Directors | Hiroshi Nishiyama · Kenjiro Morimoto · Morio Kishimoto · Takashi Iizuka |
| Sound engineers | Hideaki Kobayashi · Jun Senoue · Kenichi Tokoi · Mariko Nanba · Masaru Setsumaru · Naofumi Hataya · Takahito Eguchi · Tatsuyuki Maeda · Teruhiko Nakagawa · Tomoya Ohtani |
| Other | Tomoko Kanemoto · Yui Karasuno |
de:Naoto Ōshima fr:Naoto Ōshima ja:大島直人 nl:Naoto Ohshima pl:Naoto Ohshima ru:Наото Осима
- ↑ Shea, Brian (July 25, 2023). Game Informer. pp. 28-39. Archived from the original. Retrieved on July 25, 2023.