Junko Kawano
Junko Kawano (河野純子, Kawano Junko) is a writer, illustrator and video game producer. She is the character designer and illustrator for both Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes and Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising.
History
Early career
Junko Kawano is said to have first joined Konami in 1992. When fellow Konami newcomer Yoshitaka Murayama was picked to develop a game for Konami's planned video game console, she began collaborating with him. This game was scrapped in the early stages of development.
Kawano, Murayama, and ten other employees were instead assigned with developing Konami's first games for Sony's upcoming console, the PlayStation. With the pick of making a baseball game, a racing game or an RPG, Murayama and Kawano decided to reopen their RPG project.
An illustrator for Konami, Kawano performed illustrations for the first Suikoden as well as the illustrations for the series of Suikoden novels. She is stated to have been the lead designer for the original Suikoden in 1995. Following Suikoden, Kawano worked on Twinbee RPG as part of the planning team as well as the lead designer. In conjunction, she would serve as a cover illustrator for several Twinbee CD releases. She also worked on Dolphin's Dream (Diver's Dream in Europe) with both games seeing a 1998 release. Additional Kawano character designs were used for two sets of cards in the Genso Suikoden Card Stories CCG in 2001 and 2003.
Continued career with Konami
In 2001, Kawano worked on the game Shadow of Destiny (Shadow of Memories in Japan) as a planner, writer, 2D designer and character designer. She also made a credited cameo as the voice of a cat. Following the release, Kawano mentioned that she would like to form a series from the title, using different characters, but these plans never came to fruition.
2004 saw Kawano take the reins of the Suikoden series, being chosen for the producer spot for Suikoden IV as well as that of lead writer. She also held the same level of control over Suikoden Tactics She also held the position of Motion Capture Director for Suikoden IV. Since then, Kawano has been given a 'special thanks' from the US localization team for Suikoden V as well as being credited as a producer in the Japanese release. She has also worked on 2008's Time Hollow for the Nintendo DS as a character designer and director and served as director for the 2010 Nintendo DS title Zac and Ombra: Amusement Park of Illusion.
Post-Konami work
Kawano left Konami in 2015. In April 2019, she was announced as the lead character designer for the mobile game Arcalast: The World that Ends and the Fruit of the Diva, for Fuji Games.
On July 24th, 2020, Kawano was revealed as the lead character designer for the upcoming title Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. Following Murayama's passing in 2024, it was announced that she will take over as Representative Director.
Works
| Game | Role | Releases | Platform |
|---|---|---|---|
| Suikoden | Designer | 1995 | Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Microsoft Windows |
| Suikoden II | Other (Ending Theme "La passione commuove la storia") | 1998 | PlayStation, Windows |
| Twinbee RPG | Planner | 1998 | PlayStation |
| Dolphin's Dream | Planner | 1998 | PlayStation |
| Shadow of Memories | Writer, Director, Character Designer | 2001 | PlayStation 2, Windows, Xbox, PSP |
| Suikoden IV | Writer, Producer, Designer | 2004 | PlayStation 2 |
| Suikoden Tactics | Writer, Producer, Designer | 2005 | PlayStation 2 |
| Suikoden V | Special Thanks | 2006 | PlayStation 2 |
| Time Hollow | Writer, Designer | 2008 | Nintendo DS |
| Zack & Ombra: The Phantom Amusement Park | Writer, Director | 2010 | Nintendo DS |
| Arcalast: The World that Ends and the Fruit of the Diva | Designer | 2019 | Mobile devices |
| Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising | Character designer, illustrator | 2022 | Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5 |
| Suikoden I&II HD Remaster | Character designer, illustrator | 2023 | Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One |
| Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes | Character designer, illustrator | 2024 | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5 |