Naoto Oshima grants your heart's desire

[Ritz]

If you could ask the man anything, what would it be? This is that time. This is that place.

Actually, the time was about 5 hours ago and the place isn't at all accessible because the site was conceived and delivered in a tumble dryer. I don't even think they've mentioned the interview anywhere. Great thinking! No transcripts available just yet, but they apparently botched the IRC interview and they're collecting questions now for a more formal approach.

Only questions anyone over at Retro can come up with revolve exclusively around the beta, which is only going to hit a dead end anyway. So I figured, why not get the Sonic Illuminati involved to keep this from being a total waste? To think they had the arrogance to proceed without The GHZ's blessing. I don't know what the deadline is, but knowing these guys, it's going to be unrelentingly prompt. Come up with something and I'll link this thread somewhere.

[Dr. BUGMAN]

I'm assuming this thing is through?

Anyway I'd personally love to know how much influence American culture, especially the 1920-50s (i.e., Great Depression era), had on the franchise. What cartoons in particular inspired him.

What involvement did he have with Sonic the Screensaver? What does he think of the artwork? Who did the artwork? (I could never read that signature. "D. Mwto"?)

Was Mighty a prototype/contender to Sonic before becoming a character of his own? Did Oshima design him?

[G.Silver]

These days Oshima is often listed as a producer or executive producer. Does he still do character design or artwork in that role? Does he do any work outside of games?

[Ritz]

Does he do any work outside of games?

That's actually one of the questions I asked. Somewhat related, he did a doodle just for us:

[Radrappy]

dat nose

[Farmer]

It's a nice doodle, but why is it made with the airbrush tool from Paint?

[David The Lurker]

I'm assuming this thing is through?

Anyway I'd personally love to know how much influence American culture, especially the 1920-50s (i.e., Great Depression era), had on the franchise. What cartoons in particular inspired him.

Well he said Walt Disney was a big inspiration for him. And we already know about comic books, Michael Jackson, and Bill Clinton. So there's that.

Was Mighty a prototype/contender to Sonic before becoming a character of his own? Did Oshima design him?

Oh man I got to ask him that. And he answered even though it took a while for translators to translate. No, he did not design Mighty. He said that the progression to what became Sonic was "Rabbit --> Armadillo --> Hedgehog," but at the same time said that Mighty was an original character. Which means that while he did draw up an armadillo, the character wasn't Mighty. He was designed by someone else...the name escapes me at the moment.

[Radrappy]

was it this guy?

http://segaretro.org/Takashi_Thomas_Yuda

[P.P.A.]

I hope someone asked the obvious “What did Round 2 look like?”-question.

[Crazy Penguin]

This was the armadillo. Don't blink!

[David The Lurker]

was it this guy?

http://segaretro.org/Takashi_Thomas_Yuda

No no, that is the guy who created Knuckles. Manabu Kusunoki is the guy who designed Mighty, who also happens to still work with Ohshima. Crazy how these things work, huh?

This was the armadillo. Don't blink!

wait wait is that

are you

hold on a second I thought those were just random drawings that GameTap decided to throw in there. I mean, they have footage of someone drawing early Sonic, even though that's not real footage.

On a completely unrelated note, I can not stand Madeline Schroeder in that video. Mother of Sonic my foot. She takes credit for removing things she had absolutely no part in. She didn't get rid of the band. She didn't get rid of Madonna. I'm guessing she saw the images when they were drawn, but that was the same group of people in America who wanted to get rid of Sonic outright.