Takaya Imamura was one of the most influential artists at Nintendo, as he was responsible for most of the art direction and character designs from games like F-Zero and Star Fox. He stayed with the company up until 2021, when he left to pursue his own projects, such as the upcoming comic Omega 6. Recently, Imamura was at Gamescom 2024, and Nintendo World Report got the chance to interview him.
During the interview, Imamura comments on several aspects of his time at Nintendo. Having always been a comic artist at heart, he says that some of the manga art samples he brought in to his initial job interview are what might have helped convince Shigeru Miyamoto to hire him in the first place. He also discusses why he thinks there haven’t been any recent sequels to either F-Zero or Star Fox, plus which Star Fox Command ending he considers to be canon.
Watch the full video above for some great insight into Imamura’s artwork, and what it’s like to work for Nintendo.
