Junichi Masuda (増田 順一 Masuda Junichi, born January 12, 1968) is a video gam… Read Full Bio ↴Junichi Masuda (増田 順一 Masuda Junichi, born January 12, 1968) is a video game composer, director, designer, producer, and programmer best known for his work on the Pokémon franchise. He is a member of the Game Freak board of directors, and has worked at the company since 1989. He helped compose the music for games like Mendel Palace and Smart Ball before beginning to work on the first Pokémon games. On Pokémon Red and Green he worked mainly as the soundtrack and sound effects composer, as well as contributing some of the programming.
With the development of new Pokémon games, Masuda took new roles in future projects. He began to produce and direct games, and became responsible for approving new character models. His style seeks to keep games accessible while still adding increasing levels of complexity. His work sticks to older mainstays of the series, including a focus on handheld game consoles and 2D graphics. His music draws inspiration from the work of modern celebrated composers like Dmitri Shostakovich, though he used the Super Mario series as a model of good video game composition. His video game ideas are generally drawn from everyday life and observation.
Life
Masuda was born January 12, 1968 in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. As a child, his family often vacationed in Kyūshū, where many of his relatives still live. There he spent his time catching fish and insects, an act that later influenced his video game design. Masuda modeled the Pokémon series' Hoenn Region after Kyūshū in an attempt to recapture his memories of summers there. In high school, Masuda played the trombone; he soon discovered classical music, and was drawn in by works like The Rite of Spring and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5.
Masuda attended the Japan Electronics College, a technical school in Shinjuku, Tokyo, where he studied computer graphics and C programming language using a DEC Professional. His daughter Kiri was born in September 2002; he named a character in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire after her.
Masuda has worked at Game Freak since the company's inception in 1989. Masuda has been involved in every title that Game Freak has ever produced, and was one of the original developers of the Pokémon series, beginning with Pokémon Red and Green. He now serves as a member of the Game Freak board of directors.
He was first hired to compose and program video games. His first game at Game Freak was Mendel Palace, a puzzle game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Next, he worked on Smart Ball, and then on Yoshi, the company's first collaboration with Nintendo. When the company first began releasing Pokémon titles, Masuda worked mainly as the composer, though he did minor programming work as well, and later began directing and producing them. His work on the first games included writing the program to play audio in the games, music, and sound effects. He directed and composed the music for Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, and produced Pokémon Platinum. He also produced Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver.
Masuda has been directly involved in the naming and design of many Pokémon. He has stated that one of the hardest aspects of design is making sure that a Pokémon's name and attributes will appeal to a global audiences. Since Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, Masuda has been one of the main employees who approve or reject designs for new Pokémon. Most characters take around six months to design, while more central ones take more than a year. His favorite Pokémon is Pichu, his favorite type is the Water type, and his favorite move is the Water type Surf. He also oversaw the composition of the Pokémon Stadium level music in Super Smash Bros Brawl.
With the development of new Pokémon games, Masuda took new roles in future projects. He began to produce and direct games, and became responsible for approving new character models. His style seeks to keep games accessible while still adding increasing levels of complexity. His work sticks to older mainstays of the series, including a focus on handheld game consoles and 2D graphics. His music draws inspiration from the work of modern celebrated composers like Dmitri Shostakovich, though he used the Super Mario series as a model of good video game composition. His video game ideas are generally drawn from everyday life and observation.
Life
Masuda was born January 12, 1968 in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. As a child, his family often vacationed in Kyūshū, where many of his relatives still live. There he spent his time catching fish and insects, an act that later influenced his video game design. Masuda modeled the Pokémon series' Hoenn Region after Kyūshū in an attempt to recapture his memories of summers there. In high school, Masuda played the trombone; he soon discovered classical music, and was drawn in by works like The Rite of Spring and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5.
Masuda attended the Japan Electronics College, a technical school in Shinjuku, Tokyo, where he studied computer graphics and C programming language using a DEC Professional. His daughter Kiri was born in September 2002; he named a character in Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire after her.
Masuda has worked at Game Freak since the company's inception in 1989. Masuda has been involved in every title that Game Freak has ever produced, and was one of the original developers of the Pokémon series, beginning with Pokémon Red and Green. He now serves as a member of the Game Freak board of directors.
He was first hired to compose and program video games. His first game at Game Freak was Mendel Palace, a puzzle game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Next, he worked on Smart Ball, and then on Yoshi, the company's first collaboration with Nintendo. When the company first began releasing Pokémon titles, Masuda worked mainly as the composer, though he did minor programming work as well, and later began directing and producing them. His work on the first games included writing the program to play audio in the games, music, and sound effects. He directed and composed the music for Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, and produced Pokémon Platinum. He also produced Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver.
Masuda has been directly involved in the naming and design of many Pokémon. He has stated that one of the hardest aspects of design is making sure that a Pokémon's name and attributes will appeal to a global audiences. Since Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, Masuda has been one of the main employees who approve or reject designs for new Pokémon. Most characters take around six months to design, while more central ones take more than a year. His favorite Pokémon is Pichu, his favorite type is the Water type, and his favorite move is the Water type Surf. He also oversaw the composition of the Pokémon Stadium level music in Super Smash Bros Brawl.
Rival Appears
Junichi Masuda Lyrics
We have lyrics for 'Rival Appears' by these artists:
増田順一 Oh yeah, yeah Whoa, oh oh We roll tonight To the guitar bite…
We have lyrics for these tracks by Junichi Masuda:
Opening Back in black I hit the sack I've been too long I'm…
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
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Nathan Nguyen
My preference is for jerk rivals, as it gives the character room for personal growth. Also, some wildly disparate thoughts on the subject:
1. having recently replayed leafgreen, I realized something. Blue isn't really a jerk. He's a tsundere. Seriously. He's a bit self-absorbed, but whenever you talk to characters they talk about how close you two are, and when you talk to him he seems to always say something nice before getting embarrassed and somehow reeling it back, b-b-b-baka.
2. I think people are being a bit too harsh on Masuda in the comments. sure he may have said some oddly out of touch things in interviews, but you gotta remember:
He's not the only one making decisions. Pokemon is a behemoth; its made by a large staff which are passionate and have input in the decisions and direction of the games (Masuda has even described them overturning his opinions on direction); Masuda has to answer to higher ups in the company as well.
There are higher powers which will dictate what they can do with pokemon, as it can effect the branding and approach-ability of the franchise.
3. I want them to explore more complicated relationships with their rivals. Some examples/ideas:
The rival is your sibling
The rival is your sempai and is overprotective and or nurturing
The rival is kind to you but an ass to others
The rival is someone who doesn't even acknowledge your existence, almost like you're the npc
The rival is too cool and awesome
There are others, but when I think about it, gamefreak has done a really good job at covering a lot of different relationships and feelings, and variety and roles with their rivals. I'm sure that with time we'll eventually get more cool rivals, or at least rivals that kids will like more than us old fogies. But seriously GameFreak, give me my sibling as a rival!
LimaLiamAndTheBigBean
Rivals don't have to be jerks, but they should still have some kind of personality. Look at Cheren and Bianca. Neither are jerks, but they're both interesting characters
Mikeywf
Cheren and Bianca are so underrated. Their character development through black and white was great but they get overshadowed by N cuz everyone loves him so much. Or they could make rivals like Barry whose your friend but is still an asshole
Connor McAdams
Also, completely agree, love Cheren and Bianca from gen 5
Connor McAdams
@The Baconator I mean, he was kinda like one essentially. Being a part of team plasma did kinda throw that off, but even so, he wasn't even really a villan
Chocolatewitchbunny
Eh, I thought Bianca was a little annoying in the begining because of her flakiness and lack of confidence (but I will admit she did have good character development). I liked Charon more because he was smart and had a lot of confidence.
fight_and_die 157
LucianoThePig Bianca probably more, since Cheren literally ends up questioning his existence. Bianca can’t find her true, I guess, passion as a trainer.
Nayrman214
I prefer jerk rivals because they're actually fun to beat in the game. If they're too friendly then beating them constantly doesn't feel rewarding, it feels more depressing really. That or if they're friendly they tend to have no discernible personality other than 'Go MC! You can do it! YAY!" and its....very shallow.
ChaddyFantome
Hi Ryan! I agree 100%. Pokemon , and really a lot of games in general, have a bad habit when it comes to copious amounts of player worship, and the direction of rivals in Pokemon seems to be a blatant example of this. Just once again, I'd like a rival that i actually wanna beat and who makes me wanna be stronger, as opposed to a group of cheerleaders that fight me to remind me how amazing i apparently am.
EMDANAL
Makes you feel so sorry for them you try to purpsely lose.
Eclipse Soluna
Indeed. Nowadays they're like a half-assed obstacle for the MC to crush beneath their heel, coming off more of a cheerleader than a "rival".