SUDA51

Suda Goichi

Goichi Suda (須田剛一) is a Japanese writer, video game director and the chief executive officer of Grasshopper Manufacture. Beginning his career as a scenario writer for Human Entertainment, Suda departed five years later and formed Grasshopper in Suginami, Japan. He is popularly known as Suda51, a pun on his given name Goichi, where go means five in Japanese and ichi means one. Suda's roles in the games made at his studio have varied over the years, however he has not limited his work only to Grasshopper titles. During his career, Suda has also lent his talents to other video games such as Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Liberation Maiden SIN and Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day.

Biography

Goichi Suda was born in the city of Nagano, in the Nagano Prefecture of Japan on January 2, 1968. Much of his early life has not been discussed publicly. In the early 1990s, Suda worked as a funeral director, though the stench disagreed with him and he continued to search for job openings elsewhere. One of the advertisements Suda responded to was for a position at video game studio Human Entertainment, where work was beginning on Super Fire Prowrestling III: Final Bout. Suda was convinced his knowledge and passion for wrestling would guarantee him the job, however his excitement weakened after weeks passed without a reply. Suda did eventually receive a response from Human, who hired him as a scenario writer largely because they needed more designers with wrestling knowledge. Suda promptly left his job as a funeral director.

Suda wrote scenarios for Super Fire Prowrestling III: Final Bout and Super Fire Prowrestling Special, the latter shocking players with an ending where the hero commits suicide. His somber themes flourished even greater when he had the opportunity to direct as well as write Towairaito Shindoromu: Kyuumeihen, Towairaito Shindoromu: Tansakuhen and Moonlight Syndrome. These were the only five titles Suda worked on with Human, as following the release of Moonlight Syndrome in 1997, he left the company to form a studio of his own.

Grasshopper Manufacture Inc. opened its doors on March 30, 1998 in Suginami, Japan. Suda was joined at first by only three other designers forming Grasshopper's programming, art and sound departments. Severely restrained by a lack of manpower and resources, Grasshopper combatted this by developing a game engine which would make their text adventure stand out from traditional ones. Suda also wrote a story connecting it with his last game with Human, Moonlight Syndrome. Securing a publisher in ASCII Entertainment, Grasshopper released its first video game, The Silver, on October 8, 1999.

The Silver carried over some trademarks from the Syndrome series, as well as establishing several new ones which continue to echo through the games Grasshopper releases today. The Silver itself received spiritual sequels in the form of Flower, Sun, and Rain and killer7, with all three games collectively forming a body of work dubbed by players as Kill the Past. killer7 brought significant attention to Grasshopper and Suda in 2005, as its affiliation with Capcom and Shinji Mikami garnered extensive media coverage including making the cover story for the April 2005 issue of Nintendo Power. While not commercially successful, the game exposed audiences outside Japan to Grasshopper for the first time, and is believed by many to be Suda's magnum opus.

Trademarks

Many of Goichi Suda's games developed under Grasshopper Manufacture exhibit similar trademarks such as:

• Deliberate pixelation of menu screens, or other elements (The Silver, Flower, Sun, and Rain, No More Heroes and No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle).
• A backdrop showing the Moon (The Silver, Flower, Sun, and Rain, killer7, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle and Killer Is Dead).
• A video game within a video game (the virtual killer7 game in killer7; Dragon & Dragon and F-1 Racer in Contact; Pure White Giant Glastonbury in No More Heroes; Bizarre Jelly 5 in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle; Acts 4-2, 4-4 and 4-6 in Shadows of the DAMNED; the playable arcade cabinets in Lollipop Chainsaw).
• Assassins as main characters (Garcian Smith in killer7; Travis Touchdown in No More Heroes; Travis Touchdown, Shinobu and Henry in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle; Garcia Hotspur in Shadows of the DAMNED; Mondo Zappa in Killer Is Dead).
• Characters who break the fourth wall (Sumio Mondo, Sue Sding and Shoutaro Kai in Flower, Sun, and Rain; Travis Touchdown, Jeane, Henry and Sylvia Christel in No More Heroes; Travis Touchdown and Sylvia Christel in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle; Johnson in Shadows of the DAMNED; Mondo Zappa in Killer Is Dead).
• Disembodied heads (Kyoko Kazan in Moonlight Syndrome; Susie Sumner in killer7; Death Metal and Speed Buster in No More Heroes; Bishop Shidux in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle; Johnson in Shadows of the DAMNED; Nick Carlyle in Lollipop Chainsaw
• Excessively long passages (beneath Eleki Island in Flower, Sun, and Rain, the Senton Splash Tunnel in No More Heroes, the housing complex in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle; darkness voids in Shadows of the DAMNED; Mondo Zappa's dreams in Killer Is Dead).
• "Film Window" style of editing text in cutscenes (The Silver; killer7; Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked; Killer Is Dead).
• Frames dedicated to a single character (character and enemy introductions in killer7; the Professor's top screen in Contact; the splash screens that load when the player reaches the location of an Extreme Murder Battle Stage in No More Heroes; splash biographies that appear each time a Dark Purveyor is encountered).
• Heavy dialogue with various meanings or interpretations (particularly Flower, Sun, and Rain, killer7 and Killer Is Dead).
• Luchadore characters or other lucha libre imagery such as wrestling masks (El Crasher in Flower, Sun, and Rain; MASK De Smith in killer7; Mask of the Legendary Wrestler trading cards in No More Heroes).
• Music playing a strong part of the story and scenes (chapter names' theme in Flower, Sun, and Rain; the Dominican Republic singer's song in killer7; the song sung by Dr. Peace in No More Heroes; Margaret Moonlight's tune in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle; Justine Divangelo's operatic vocals in Shadows of the DAMNED).
• Pop culture and film references (conversations throughout Flower, Sun, and Rain; the pigeon names in killer7; the pop idol in Contact; countless cultural references in No More Heroes and Lollipop Chainsaw).
• Some plot element with the suffix -man (the Decoyman stage in The Silver; the Cloudman stage and the Handsome Men in killer7; the character Destroyman in No More Heroes; the characters Million Gunman and New Destroyman in Desperate Struggle).
• Stages with a series of forks in the road, where taking the wrong path causes the player to be returned to the beginning of the path. Someone or something usually accompanies the player, giving them hints on which is direction is the correct one (Step Sding at the Randelman Garden in Flower, Sun, and Rain; music in the Dominican Republic in killer7; Thunder Ryu in the Forest of Bewilderment in No More Heroes; Act 5-4 in Shadows of the DAMNED).
• The death of a mentor (Thunder Ryu in No More Heroes; Morikawa in Lollipop Chainsaw).
• The inclusion of a boss fight in which the player has no control over the outcome (the Handsome Men in killer7; the CosmoNOTs' show in Contact; Letz Shake and Dark Star in No More Heroes; in the case of No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, there are 14 unseen ranked assassins who are killed before they can be formally challenged).
• The prominent inclusion of hotels or motels (the Flower, Sun, and Rain hotel in Flower, Sun, and Rain; the Union Hotel in killer7; the Motel "NO MORE HEROES" in No More Heroes and No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle and in the latter, the Destroy Resort).

Works

• Super Fire Prowrestling III: Final Bout – scenario writer
• Super Fire Prowrestling Special – scenario writer
• Towairaito Shindoromu: Kyuumeihen – director, writer
• Towairaito Shindoromu: Tansakuhen – director, writer
• Moonlight Syndrome – director, writer
• The Silver – director, writer
• Flower, Sun, and Rain – director, writer, lyricist
• Shining Soul – producer
• Shining Soul II – project manager, story creation, scenario writer
• Michigan: Report from Hell – director, original planning, editor
• killer7 – director, writer, designer
• Shirubaa Jiken 25 Ku – director, writer
• Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked – director, writer
• Contact – producer
• Blood+: One Night Kiss – writer
• Yakuza 2 – voice actor
• No More Heroes – director, writer, lyricist
• Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen – director, scenario writing
• Flower, Sun, and Rain: Murder and Mystery in Paradise – supervisor
• No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle – executive director, writer, designer
• Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP – voice actor
• Frog Minutes – executive producer, original concept
• Shadows of the DAMNED – executive director, writer
• Sdatcher – writer, voice actor
• Evangerion Shin Gekijōban -Saundo Inpakuto- – producer
• Sine Mora – executive producer
• Diabolical Pitch – design
• Liberation Maiden – producer, writer
• Lollipop Chainsaw – creative director
• Black Knight Sword – executive producer, writer
• Killer Is Dead – executive director, writer
• Liberation Maiden SIN – writer
• Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day – writer

Trivia

• Franz Kafka is among Suda's favorite authors.
• Suda has been quoted as saying "One day I wanted to make a character cuter than Mario."
• The lyrics heard in the theme from the original PlayStation 2 version of Flower, Sun, and Rain: Murder and Mystery in Paradise, "F.S.R. (Anata no Tameni)", were written by Suda. Years later, he also wrote the lyrics for the No More Heroes song "The virgin child makes her wish without feeling anything", which were translated into English by Kan Andrew Hashimoto.
• Suda's favorite film is Paris, Texas, which features Harry Dean Stanton in the lead role of Travis Henderson. Suda has named a character "Travis" twice in his scripts. The first, Travis Bell appears in killer7. The second and more popular character, Travis Touchdown, appears in No More Heroes and its sequel.
• Suda's favorite video game is Out of this World.
• Suda is a major fan of lucha libre wrestling. He became somewhat famous for wearing a luchador mask at killer7 promotional events, and can also be seen wearing one in the trailer for No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle.
• Suda once appeared on the Kojima Production's Report and Hidechan Radio.
• Many of the biggest influences of Suda51 come from Mexico.
• In the Japanese release of the Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP he voiced the charcter Logfella
• He also voiced as a Masked Yakuza is the PS2 game Yakuza 2

External links

• Formula 51 - A look at Suda 51
• GO3 2007 Keynote Write-Up
• Suda51 at the Internet Movie Database