SonicJPNews archive blog: Yuji Naka
Showing posts with label Yuji Naka. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yuji Naka. Show all posts

2021/01/24

"Mr. Needlemouse" never existed?! Yuji Naka confused with Sonic's rumored code name

News from 2021.01.24 
Archived on 2021.01.24

Do you know the name "Mr. Needlemouse"?

"It's the code name of the blue hedgehog before he was named Sonic, right?" - You'd say.

Well today, this long-believed fact about Sonic's development code name was claimed to be wrong by creator of the Blue Blur - Yuji Naka-san!



The truth was unveiled today as Naka-san took the SEGA TEST, a special test which SEGA of Japan prepared as a part of SEGA 60th anniversary events for SEGA fans to test their knowledge about SEGA. Three tests were held in two days. 

Here, Naka-san stumbled upon one of the questions which asked about Sonic the Hedgehog's code name. 

Answer options were:
A. Mr. Needlemouse
B. Mr. Speedymouse
C. Mr. Rocketmouse
D. Mr. Bluemouse

And Naka-san... didn't know any of these!
 
"I regret the result of the last test so I tried it again, but this time I knew even less answers. I didn't get the question asking 'Sonic is the signature character of SEGA. Choose the name he had before he went public'. Even though I'm one of the creators."
- Naka Yuji

In response to his confusion, Yosuke Okunari-san, a Creative Producer at SEGA and one of the professors (i.e. SEGA employees) of SEGA TEST SEMINARS released beforehand, replied as follows:

"This refers to the English translation of "Mr. Harinezumi" which Ohsima-san wrote on his sketch by Americans, so to Japanese, and even to Sonic's creator himself, "Mr. Needlemous" causes so many questions, right? (laugh)"
- Yosuke Okunari

So as he states, the expression "Mr. Needlemouse" was never used by Japanese creators, but it is a result of mistranslation of the Japanese word for 'hedgehog' by English speakers.

Naka-san's reaction to this explanation:
"What, that doesn't make sense. Doesn't "Mr. Harinezumi" translate to "Mr. Hedgehog"? I wonder who started saying "Mr. Needlemouse"."
- Naka Yuji

Okunari-san further explains this misunderstanding by referring to a page from SonicRetro. 

"I think the source might be the image a North-American fan site picked from some magazine or video or something."

- Yosuke Okunari


Naka-san's response:

"If this is what fans are saying, isn't it strange that the question asks about the name before [Sonic] was made public, isnt' it? Well I guess they translated "Hari" and "Nezumi" separately, but seeing the word "Mr. Needlemouse" which was never used feels strange. I got the question correct anyway though."
- Naka Yuji

. . . . . 
To explain what happened more clearly, basically the word for hedgehog in Japanese is written like this:
ハリネズミ (harinezumi) = hedgehog

However, you could see this as a compound of two separate words, each with individual meaning:
ハリ (hari) = needle
ネズミ (nezumi) = mouse

It's likely that the person who spread the nickname Mr. Needlemouse picked these two words separately for literal translation (for whatever reason) instead of just taking the whole word meaning hedgehog.
. . . . .

...So yeah. After all these (30!) years, Naka-san finally got to know one of the standard knowledge of Sonic fans, just to deny its factfulness. Oh well.

I didn't know about it either, and for all this long I thought they were using a pun for Sonic's code name to give it a twist... but no, it was just one of those mistranslations agian. My life was a lie.

Knuttunk
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2020/08/20

Sonic the Movie in Japan, Digital Release on September 2, and Blu-ray™, DVD and 4K Ultra HD™ on October 21

News from 2020.08.20
Archived on 2020. 11.25

Sonic the Movie is seeing its success in its country of origin Japan too, and it will be released for stay-home-cinema there in two months!


Naka-san and Ohtani-san are excited about the news too! 

"It looks like it will be released in Japan too. I already bought the oveaseas version, what should I do? I guess it's best to buy it for commemoration?" 

- Yujia Naka

"I'm going to get it!" 

- Tomoya Ohtani



Tweets collected by: Tabiki
Texts by: Knuttunk

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2020/07/24

Balan Wonderworld - brought to you by Naka-san and Oshima-san!

News from 2020.07.23 
Archived on 2020.08.22

BIG NEWS!
After 20+ years, two of the initial creators of Sonic, Naka-san and Ohshima-san, are working together to create a brand new game!

Its name is - BALAN WONDERWORLD!

A musical-based action-platformer with 80+ different costumes with various abilities to explore the dreamy world of 12 troubled characters - and bring back balance to the world!

The world and character designs reminds us of NiGHTS!
Some essence of Sonic can also be found... check out the first trailer and the interview with the duo!

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2020/03/06

Sonic the Movie delayed in Japan, Japanese voice cast pray for success

News from 2020.03.09
Archived on 2020.05.17

 Japanese Sonic fans were patiently expecting the release of Sonic the Movie (Sonic the Hedgehog) in Japan on March 27th, but due to the current unforeseen and severe medical circumstances with SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, they are forced to wait longer when it was already behind the global release.

Official statements by SEGA Official and Sonic the Movie Committee:






Comments by current and former Sonic crews:

Kanemaru-san: "Let's wait for it!"
Ohtani-san:  "It's a pity, but it can't be helped. I'm looking forward to the new release date to be decided!"

Naka-san:



News of Japanese voice casts of Sonic the Movie praying for success:



Let's all hope that this difficult situation will be settled soon so that fans can watch Sonic's adventure on big screen!


Tweets collected by: Tabiki
Texts by: Knuttunk
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2019/09/17

Naka-san's birthday!

News from 2019.09.17
Archived on 2020.02.16

It was Yuji Naka-san's birthday on the September 17th!
His resolution and the birthday cake made by his children. So wholesome!





Tweets collected by: Tabiki
Texts by: Knuttunk
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2019/09/16

MEGA DRIVE MINI, before launch & pre-release party

News from 2019.09.15
Archived on 2020.02.16

The first console to be sold in the Reiwa-Era, MEGA DRIVE MINI launches!
Here is the summary of tweets by SEGA and contributing people around its release.

Pre-release excitement






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2019/08/31

Naka-san is happy to see Noah Lyles wearing Sonic socks

News from 2019.08.31
Archived on 2019.09.09

Naka-san found Sonic as he was watching a TV program featuring athletes!


Noah Lyles is a professional short track athlete who has beaten Usain Bolt's 200m record several times already, and is a favorite to win a gold at the Olympic Games taking place in Tokyo next year (Yahoo Sports).

He once showed his Sonic socks on his instagram once in 2018...


...And he also tagged Sonic in his tweet. The Blue Blur seems to be his favorite partner for sprinting!

It would be cool if he would wear this pair at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 to win a gold medal - in the country where Sonic, the fastest hedgehog ever, was born! Don't you think?

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2019/08/23

Did you know? Differences in Japanese and international SEGA logo

News from 2019.08.23
Archived on 2019.09.09

If you have ever played a game released by SEGA, you surely remember their iconic blue logo.
However, have you ever noticed that this logo looks a little different depending on the region your game was released in?


Gem Drop's head and game designer Yuichiro Kitao-san addressed this differences between SEGA logo used in Japan and international products, and this tweet gathered attention of many Twitter users and people from the gaming industry, including Naka-san.

↓　 ↓　 ↓　

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2019/06/25

Naka-san on an article about Michael Jackson and SEGA

News from 2019.06.25
Archived on 2019.07.23

The King of Pop passed away 10 years ago from this day. Upon reading an article about the close relationship Michael Jackson and SEGA had, Yuji Naka-san recalled his memory about him.




To add-on, in the article it is stated that as Naka-san realized what happened (and got kicked in the seat by somebody), he couldn't stand up from his seat for a while...
Well, the strict rule of 'clients first' must be followed... The article doesn't state any negative afterstory of this, so I assume MJ left SEGA happily despite this incident. Pfew!

Michael Jackson was known as a huge SEGA fan. Whenever he visited Japan, he'd visit SEGA HQ and let Hisashi Suzuki-san, who was a very good friend of him, show him new games in developments and give advices for making them better since he, too, was a creator and entertainer.
It is still very memorable that Michael Jackson brought his own project of making a game about himself and made it happen while actively contributing to it. (Fun fact: this game was once shown in a popular Japanese TV show「トリビアの泉 (Fountain of Trivia)」, in which trivias and not-so-useful facts of everyday life were posted by audience. So apparantly many people (at least, non-gamers) in Japan didn't know about its existence.) The rhythm game 'Space Channel 5' series also has his cameo appearance. And not to forget, he also worked on the music of Sonic 3.

His legacy in SEGA games shall be passed down the generations.



Tweets collected by: Tabiki
Texts by: Knuttunk
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2019/06/23

Amazing Sonic beach art made by JBen!

News from 2019.06.23
Archived on 2019.07.14

A Sonic fan and beach artist Jehan-Benjamin Tarain made a Sonic beach art to celebrate the blue hedgehog's 29th anniversary!

As Yuji Naka-san found about about it, he was amazed by its quality. Here is a thread!


"This Sonic beach art is amazing. From the pictures it seems like the art is actually being drawn on real ground, but I'd like to watch a timelapse video of the process. And have a look at it with my own eyes."
- Yuji Naka


The artist then noticed Naka-san's mention and they had a little conversation!




It's always cool that the creator of something you love notice and appreciate your fanart. Great work, JBen!

Visit his webpage and YouTube channel for more cool works he's done!
http://www.jbenart.com/en/home/


Tweets collected by: Tabiki
Texts by: Knuttunk
   
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2019/05/08

Naka-san on improved port of Space Harrier Mark III by a fan

News from 2019.05.08
Archived on 2019.05.13

Back then, Naka-san worked on porting Space Harrier to Mark III, but he couldn't remove the frame by programming. His boss told him that it doesn't bother them much so he could decide to release it, but it seems like the frame remained a worrying factor to him.

Today, he found someone who ported Space Harrier with some improvements (removing the frame, smoothing out zooming in/out) is amazed by the result!

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Naka-san on Sonic Adventure Production Presentation from 1998!

News from 2019.05.08
Archived on 2019.05.12

A few days ago, Kanemaru-san and Naka-san looked back on the unique advertisement for Sonic Adventure with Sonic plush.

Today, Naka-san recalled on the Sonic Adventure Production Presentation, which I also mentioned in the post above.

This exciting Presentation event was held in Tokyo International Forum on August 22nd, 1998.
Official announcement from back then...: http://sonic.sega.jp/sonicadv/info/happyoukai.html

SEGA invited fans and press to this once-in-a-life opportunity to have a sneak-peek into the latest work to Sonic series presented by Yuji Naka-san, the head of Sonic Team himself.

This event was initially planned to have two shows on this day, but since the number of people gathered to join the presentation exceeded the expectation of SEGA greatly, they had to add the third show on spot.
(from a report by MAYON)

The event included real-time gameplay of the product on Dreamcast with Naka-san's explanations, a video documentary on Sonic Team's business trip to mid-south America for collecting materials for ideas and aesthetics of the game, recording of 'Sonic!' call by the audience together with Segata Sanshiro, and live performance of 'Open Your Heart' with Jun Senoue-san.

What does Naka-san remember from the preparation for this memorable event?

Oh wow, so despite the hardware not having full memory. the Sonic Team did their very best to fit everything in to make the live-demo of the game happen! Hats off to them.

You can watch the summary of this presentation event including 'Sonic Team Story' (documentary of Sonic Team's business trip to mid-south America) in this VHS of the event which was distributed for the members of "SEGA Partners" back then.

Here is one Naka-san mentioned in his tweet & the one you can watch with English subtitles which I helped out a little bit.
Enjoy!




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2019/05/05

Naka-san watched Detective Pikachu! And he thinks about Sonic the Movie...

News from 2019.05.05
Archived on 2019.05.07

Naka-san watched Detective Pikachu! And his thought goes to Sonic the Movie, hoping that it will be as good as this one...

We really hope so too, Naka-san.

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2019/05/04

Kanemaru-san and Naka-san on unique TV commercial of Sonic Adventure!

News from 2019.05.04-06
Archived on 2019.05.06
It looks like it's a Look-back day on Sonic Adventure!

Kanemaru-san and Naka-san talk about their memories on Sonic Adventure's unique TV commercial!

Kanemaru-san recalled the bizzare but fun TV ad which was aired in Japan for promoting Sonic Adventure before its release.


Sonic really seems to have fun in the CM, and Kanemaru-san's voice acting is perfect for its comedic touch! I can't stop smiling while watching this one.

Then Naka-san found his tweet and responded to it too!

Oh wow, so they really did throw several Sonic plushies out of the plane, it's no CG at all...! I wonder what kind of adventures those Sonic are having in Australia now...


And Kanemaru-san replied Naka-san's comment!

"Find Sonic Tour in Australia!
I wish we could go there together, Naka-san!"
- Junichi Kanemaru


That would be another opportunity for cool documentrary!
I really love the Sonic Adventure Production Presentation event they had back then including 'Sonic Adventure Story', a documentary video on Sonic Team travelling to mid-south America for collecting materials for game development. It's really cool!

Here is a video with Japanese and English captions. (I helped out a little with Japanese one.)
Have a look!



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2019/05/03

Movie Sonic will get a redesign! Sonic creators' reaction

News from 2019.05.02-03
Archived on 2019.05.04

A couple of days passed from the 'Sonic the Movie trailer impact' - after seeing the first trailer featuring a blue furry creature we are totally not familiar with, most of the fans were mad or at least skeptical about the design of Sonic. Even the people who are involved in development of original Sonic series, and moreover the creators of Sonic himself - Ohshima-san the artist and Naka-san the game programmer - were confused and worried about the drastic change of their beloved son.

My energy was drained over these two days and I even had nightmare because of the design. It was already decided that I was to mourn over what they have done to Sonic forever. And I still will.

Yet, to our surprise: a Twitter account, which seems to belong the movie's director Jeff Fowler, posted following words:

Wow. I can't believe what I'm seeing here.
But I'd gladly take this offer.

No wonder they had to make some move after having this much of thumbs-down on the trailer.



The news spread like wildfire and reached the creators of Sonic quickly as well. Here are their reaction:

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Sonic creators' reactions to first trailer of Sonic the Movie

News from 2019.04.30 - 05.03
Archived on 2019.05.02

As rumored on the former day, Paramount dropped their first posters and a trailer for Sonic the Movie.

The official poster and the trailer

Woah it's finally there.
...and you know how the trailer looks like already, right?

In case you don't, and if you are 120% sure you are prepared to see anything on the screen, here is the video.

Not recommended for those who have very high and concrete ideal for Sonic's appearance and attitude.

*Please note that we do not take any responsibility or liability for any damage or loss caused through watching the following material.* ...

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2019/04/24

Old SEGA HQ in Ohtorii will be taken down from mid-May

News from 2019.04.24
Archived on 2019.04.26

Naka-san's sorrow over dismantlement of old SEGA HQ building, now decided to start after the long national holiday week of Japan.


Goodbye, SEGA HQ in Ohtorii. I wish I could have visited you at least once.

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2019/04/21

Naka-san on re-discovered Sonic 2 data by a fan

News from 2019.04.20
Archived on 2019.04.26

Naka-san on Sonic 2 Development Data being revealed by a fan who reverse-engineered Digitizer code to extract data from old disks.

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2019/04/19

MUSHA programmer thanks Naka-san for his progam

News from 2019.04.19
Archived on 2019.04.26

For porting MUSHA to MEGA DRIVE MINI, Yuichi Toyama-san, the programmer of the game, thanked Yuji Naka-san for his program he left for his fellow programmers to use.
"I was surprised to know that MUSHA is trending in Twitter while I was drinking.
MUSHA's great game design is the work of Kazuyuki Nakashima-san, its gameplay is that of Takayuki Hirono-san, good sound effects by Tokimi Wadamo-san, and the reason we could spare memory to put demo screen is because of Yuji Naka-san! Congratulations to its port to MEGA DRIVE MINI!"
- Yuichi Toyama

"Oh yes, this one. The nostalgic CMM.EXE. From the time stamp it looks like an older version, but it says Super Character Maker for MEGA DRIVE. I thought it stayed MarkV the whole time. I wonder if it works with current computers. Thank you for keeping it safe for this long. We could make a MEGA DRIVE software even now."
- Yuji Naka

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2019/04/13

Mystery of Sonic Statue in the mountains of Mie solved!

News from 2019.04.12
Archived on 2019.04.22

Big news! The mystery of the Sonic Statue in the mountains of Mie is finally solved!



Here is the article on J-Town Net which summarized the whole story:

 三重の山奥にある「謎のソニック像」　設置主の遺族が、すべての真相を語った 
https://j-town.net/tokyo/news/localnews/277903.html?p=all


I summarized the article in a few tweets as follows, but I might also do a complete translation of it later.

↓　↓　↓

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