director
Masayoshi Kikuchi
菊池正義
A city is not a backdrop. It breathes, it makes noise, and it is someone's entire world.
About
Masayoshi Kikuchi is a Japanese game director who served as director of Jet Set Radio (2000) at Sega's AM6 / Smilebit division. Jet Set Radio was a groundbreaking Dreamcast action game set in a cel-shaded Tokyo, with a soundtrack blending hip-hop, funk, and J-pop. The game is credited as among the first to use cel-shading as a primary visual style and was praised for its artistic originality. Kikuchi was interviewed for the 2019 Dreamcast 20th anniversary documentary alongside other key Dreamcast-era creators.
In Masayoshi's Own Words
Real interview footage, not paraphrase. Each line links back to the exact moment in the video so you can hear it for yourself.
“At the time, I was working on Panzer Dragoon Saga. Back then, there was Ryuta Ueda, an artist who had joined the same year as me, he was on the same team.”
“We thought of including game elements that weren't made yet in gaming. We were looking for things that looked cool for teenagers or people in their twenties at the time.”
Timeline & Works
Career milestones and all 1 game in the museum they worked on — in the order they happened.
- 2000
Explore the work
Each title has its own page — history, trivia, and collector's notes.