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Mel Kishida is an artist well known to fans of Gust’s JRPGs, having worked on Blue Reflection and the Atelier Arland series.
Of course, her work goes far beyond games, including cartoons like the popular Hanasaku Iroha series and novels like Red Data Girl and Heaven’s Memo Pad.
With the upcoming release of Blue Reflection: Second Light, we will soon be able to appreciate his work again.
Twinfinite sat down with Kishida-sensei for an interesting conversation about her work and her approach to creating the characters we know and love.
Giuseppe Nelva: At least in the west, you’re probably best known for your character designs done for the Atelier series, which means you’re often seen as a fantastic artist. However, you have also worked a lot on characters in modern settings like the Blue Reflection series or even slices of life like the Hanasaku Iroha anime. Do you have a tuning preference and approach them differently?
Mel Kishida: Indeed, much of the work I commission is pretty much fantasy or slice of life, and both are fun to work with, but if you ask what I do at my own pace, I often lean towards modern frames, representing people in the present day.
I have a different approach depending on the setting. Even if you look at fantasy, the Atelier series is kind of fantasy, but other work that I’ve been asked to do is other kinds of fantasy. It really depends on what I’m being asked to work on.
For example, with Atelier, a lot of the colors are bright and glittery. You watch it and it makes you happy. It fits in with Atelier and the Gust sensation, and it influences the kind of sensation I’m looking for in my illustrations for the series.
Giuseppe Nelva: At least in the video game arena, you’ve been associated primarily with Gust, who, as you said, usually has that cheerful, bright style. I was wondering, even considering that Gust explored new IPs, would you be interested in working on games that might be darker or have a different tone than what we’ve seen so far?
Mel Kishida: The Blue Reflection and Atelier games are different in their approach. Even though they have the brilliant style in common, there are some key differences between the two series.
Being able to work on both has been a new and fun experience. In terms of illustrations, I did a lot more for the Atelier series, but in terms of involvement from the start of production, even beyond the art, it happened more with Blue Reflection. I think, although my involvement took different forms, I was able to deploy more or less the same amount of energy on both series.
Would I like to try something different? While Atelier and Blue Reflection are fun, it might be worth trying to do something different. There is nothing specific that I am looking to do… It could be something darker or maybe something even brighter than the Atelier series. There are really a lot of ways to be creative in games and it would be interesting to try a different approach.
Giuseppe Nelva: In Blue Reflection we find a fairly common trope in Japanese animation and games, which transforms the characters. We’ve seen it many times in productions like Sailor Moon and many more. How do you go about designing characters that transform, still making them recognizable but flashier and cooler maybe?
Mel Kishida: Especially in the first game, the transformation was something that was mostly wanted by the producer. We wanted to portray school life, the interactions between the characters and the fact that they are growing up together with really nice visuals.
We wanted to follow some atmospheric elements of Japanese live action movies. The anime isn’t generally as realistic, and we wanted to go with a more realistic feel. That being said, we figured having just that wouldn’t be as appealing as a game. To make that easier, we needed something eye-catching. That’s when we thought about what girls transform and fight.
Many Japanese are used to transforming characters. It’s almost etched into our culture now, whether it’s girls or boys. Sailor Moon is, as you said, one of the best known, and there are many more. Yet we have tried to differentiate ourselves.
We thought about our own way of showing it, and that’s how we approached the first game. Since this is a sequel, the characters morph in Second Light as well, but we didn’t want it to be exactly the same as in the first game as it wouldn’t be as interesting for the player. We wanted to be able to put a little more action elements into the fights.
In the original Blue Reflection the style is a bit more glittery, but in Second Light we wanted to go for outfits that were more cool than cute. This is one of the big differences between the two games.
Giuseppe Nelva: When chatting with a few artists, a fairly common piece I’ve heard is that they find school settings a bit difficult for the characters to design. They are generally the same age group and wear the same uniforms all the time. Additional efforts must therefore be made to differentiate them. Is this a challenge you’ve also faced with Blue Reflection, and does the fact that many of the Second Light girls wear different uniforms help?
Mel Kishida: In Blue Reflection: Second Light, each girl has a different uniform, and some characters are also from different titles. In addition to this, the uniforms are also based on different seasons. I think it made it a lot easier. We didn’t have to pay special attention to making the characters more different than they needed to be, as they’re already different to begin with.
In the first game, the girls all went to the same school, so they all wore the same uniforms. We had to think a lot about how they looked, their different body types, and even how they wore their uniform to make sure we could tell them apart. It was indeed a bit of a challenge.
Giuseppe: Your work in video games has pretty much all been published in the West, so I guess you’re probably used to your art being appreciated around the world. That being said, how do you feel? Also, do you have a message to share with your western fans, who don’t get the chance to hear from you directly as often as the Japanese audience?
Mel Kishida: Hearing that makes me really happy. I’m based in Japan and haven’t really worked outside of my country so a lot of overseas returns don’t quite reach me. Being able to hear it through the media, that people appreciate my work, is new to me, and I’m happy that my art is seen by people who live so far away. It really makes me very happy and honored.
To the fans, I would like to say that I really appreciate everyone who enjoys my work and I hope you can enjoy my artwork and the games I am working on. It really makes me happy and I hope you will continue to enjoy it in the future.
Blue reflection: second light will release in North America and Europe on November 9, 2021, for PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC, just over a few weeks after the Japanese launch on October 21.
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