| Kei Nanameda | |
|---|---|
 Caricature as a soul holding a WACOM pen in Dengeki's article for Trillion. | |
|
Nationality |
Japanese |
|
Affiliation(s) |
Idea Factory (Currently) |
|
Field(s) |
2D CG Illustration, character design, creature design |
|
Known for |
Mugen Souls and Makai series |
Kei Nanameda (ナナメダケイ Nanameda Kei) is an artist belonging to Idea Factory and is known in Japan as the lead artist for the Mugen Souls. In the first Dengeki magazine article with news for Makai Shin Trillion. The artist drew caricatures of all the staff members working on the game and the article described the artist as having a very wide range skill, drawing anything from cute characters to creatures.
Style[]
Proportions of characters average about 5 heads tall and is colorful with very high saturation with very large eyes. Lines are drawn very thick as if they were painted lines instead of pencil.
This artist is very adept at drawing cute characters as well as well as designing monsters. Most of new character designed are debuted as silhouettes until the release of the game. It was first noticed since the original Mugen Souls and continued onto Trillion.
The word "Naname" means slanted which can be used to describe the style of eyes and the "Kei" at the end of the name can be used to mean style. Style of eyes can be slanted upwords really sharply, a flat horizontal line (no slant) or curved downwards.
Works
IF and CH artist's special farewell message for Gemaga. On the top left, Chou-Chou says, "It's going to be really lonely with Gemaga publications ending, you did a great job for a long time!"
The backcover of the last normal issue of Gemaga drawn by Kei Nanameda. This was April 2012's issue celebrating the release of Mugen Souls' on March 22nd. The magazine has been in service since 1984 and gets discontinued the following month.
Kei Nanameda does not have any history prior to 2011 and is currently working with Idea Factory and Compile Heart. The artist might have only worked on minor things such as creature design in the past which could explain the lack character artwork and a good amount of monsters in the official artbook.
Shortly after the first Mugen Souls was released in Japan on March 22nd 2012, the oldest gaming magazine called "Gemaga" got discontinued and all of Idea Factory and Compile Heart's artists, including Kei Nanameda who was very new to the team, gave them a special farewell for all of their hard work.
Mugen Souls series[]
The first game where the name Kei Nanameda appears as the Lead Artist and Character Designer was Mugen Souls. Most of the ingame CGs were done by this artist except for the erotic minigame CGs which were done by Hirano Katsuyuki who is an artist from Idea Factory who created the bath minigames.
In 2013, Hifumi Shobo released the official Mugen Souls and Mugen Souls Z artbook with every special image of the series as well as rough sketches and comments about their work from the two Mugen Souls artists. A spinoff light novel was also created around the same time.
Kei Nanameda was credited for the Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2 Post Card book.
Halloween themed Idea Factory 20th anniversary card, drawn by Kei Nanameda.
Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2 post card book[]
One of the first ever known mentions of Kei Nanameda was in the official Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk2 postcard book. There is a post card of Rom and Ram with comments from Kei Nanameda.
It is also a coincidence that the CPU Big Sis and CPU Little Sis Shampurus resemeble Rom and Ram. Some of the monsters that were in Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory originated in Mugen Souls and vice versa.
Makaishin Trillion[]
Also known as Destroyer Trillion (Makaishin Trillion 魔壊神トリリオン) has first been debut on September 30th 2013 as a mysterious Vita RPG that was originally scheduled to release on 2014. It has been officially delayed to May 20th, 2015 according the October 31, 2014 issue of Dengeki Playstation magazine, but delayed again to July 23rd, 2015. It features music composed by Tenpei Sato and artwork by Kei Nanameda who both worked on the Mugen Souls series and Masashiro Yamamoto as the director.
February 10, 2014 News has been given that Kei Nanameda will be designing the characters for this game.
October 31, 2014 In Dengeki Playstation vol. 577, the artist designed a Halloween themed picture of the characters to celebrate Idea Factory's 20th anniversary. The artist has also been interviewed about the design decisions for the atmosphere and characters on this issue.
- On the top we have Zeabolos the zombie who is pretending to be a mummy since he is wrapped in bandages.
- Faust is on the left with wolf ears and a tail since she's meant to be a werewolf.
- On the right we have Ruche who wears a witch's hat pretending to be one.
Uber Dimension: Blanc + Neptune Faction VS The Zombie Army[]
Called Uber Dimension: Blanc + Neptune Faction VS The Zombie Army (Gekijigen Taggu Buran + Neputyunu VS Zonbi Gundan 激次元タッグ ブラン＋ネプテューヌVSゾンビ軍団) according to the official Japanese website. Kei Nanameda has created some promotional illustrations and special shop goods for this game.
Kei Nanameda describes Blanc as a White Goddess, and Ruche as a prideful Demon Lord. Neptunia characters make an appearance as DLC in Makaishin Trillion.
Imai Asami, who did the voices for Levia and Noire (these characters), gave comments about how nice this illustration is.
Vert microfiber cloth, shops goods for Papyrus. Kei Nanameda's rough sketches tend to look drawn with a thick pen or marker in greyscale.
Noire extra large (120×45cm） tapestry for WonderGOO. Face towel in the works. Noire actually had a skill called "Naname" Blade in Neptune V2 spelled in Katakana just like their name.
Fanbase[]
Dengeki had interviews with this artists in some of the earlier articles. A Saimoe tournament based off of Chou-Chou's seven forms was held at Dengeki Online.
After the release of Mugen Souls, fans had a chance to win handrawn artwork signed by Kei Nanameda by filling out a survey. It is difficult finding them on the internet as they are one of a kind and are often considered treasures not to be shared to anyone else.
There is no easy way for fans to contact this artist since they do not have any blogs or use social media. This artist might feel comfortable being unknown or is waiting for the right moment to start one.
Mistaken identity in the west[]
Due to the lack of information about the artist in English at the time the first Mugen Souls was released, the large, non-Japanese fanbase of Disgaea and NIS America became interested in the series and follow the misinformation by word of mouth or misread articles about the artist of Mugen Souls and will deny Kei Nanameda's existance as the main artist. People who misidentify the main artist for Mugen Souls might not know that Hirano Katsuyuki contributed to the erotic bath minigame CGs and will credit someone else.
Nanameda drawing[]
Katsuyuki drawing[]
Westerners now know who Kei Nanameda is thanks to newer fans of Mugen Souls who don't know about the false information passed down during the time of the original game.
See also[]
- Fuwa Daisuke
- RYOJI
- Katsuyuki Hirano