Junichi Masuda

Junichi Masuda

Junichi Masuda (Japanese: 増田順一 Masuda Jun'ichi) is one of the founding members of Game Freak and serves as the Director of the Board. He is best known as a game director and composer for the Pokémon games.

He runs his Director's Columns on Game Freak's website, with many recent entries translated into English. In it, he has talked about why he has done his work in the Pokémon series the way he has and also has given out news about the games he is working on. It was through this column that the Masuda method, a method of easily obtaining Shiny Pokémon, was first documented.

Early life and career

Junichi Masuda was born in the Kanagawa Prefecture, located in the real-life Kantō region, on January 12, 1968. His family would vacation in the Kyūshū region, which became the basis for the Pokémon world's Hoenn. As a teenager, he played the trombone and had interest in classical music, while also maintaining an interest in arcade games and their programming. He was working in a corporate office in 1989 when Satoshi Tajiri approached him and asked if he would like to join Game Freak, which was just beginning to form at the time. Masuda agreed and became one of the founding members of the company. 2009 marks his 20th anniversary with Game Freak.

The first game that Masuda worked on with Game Freak was composing the music for Mendel Palace, which was released in 1990. He also composed for Nintendo's Mario and Wario in 1993 and Sega's Pulseman in 1994. Recently, he co-produced the Game Freak title Drill Dozer.

Work with Pokémon

Video games

Masuda was the sole composer for the handheld games Pokémon Red and Green. He developed a program called "Sound Driver" in the early 1990s, which was used to play music and sound effects in Game Freak's titles. This program was later used to create all of the original Pokémon's cries.

He has composed the music for every main series Pokémon game to date. He also composed for Pokémon Stadium, Pokémon Stadium 2, and the e-Reader applications Machop At Work and Kingler's Day. He has also composed music for the Pokémon stages in the Super Smash Bros. series.

Gradually, Masuda began to take on duties other than composing. He was appointed sub-director for Pokémon Gold and Silver and has directed or co-directed every main series Pokémon game since Pokémon Crystal as well as Pokémon Box Ruby & Sapphire. He served as an adviser for Pokémon Stadium, Pokémon Stadium 2, and Pokémon Puzzle Challenge, and he was the supervisor for Pokémon Channel.

Masuda has also done design work for the Pokémon games. He designed the Hoenn region, and he was involved with game design that contributed to Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness, although he did not directly serve as a designer for that game.

Masuda has been known by fans for his important and noteworthy announcements relating to the games, among his firsts being the aforementioned Masuda method. In 2008, Masuda revealed diamond dust to players of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl through his director's column by asking them to play on January 12. The phenomenon first occurred on his fortieth birthday, and it was later discovered to appear on several other days in different years in different games. Slightly over two years later, Zoroark was first revealed by Junichi Masuda as a silhouette in the February 7, 2010 edition of Pokémon Sunday. Its full image was later revealed in the March 2010 issue of CoroCoro, alongside its pre-evolution, Zorua.

Masuda opened his Twitter account on October 4, 2011. Among his first tweets was a reply regarding remakes of Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, having fans abuzz due to various translations and interpretations of his reply. Soon after, Masuda gained the attention of fans once again because of his blog post that revealed information about the mysterious character N, including his name and its origin.

Anime

Masuda's music is rearranged for the Pokémon anime by Shinji Miyazaki. He has also done original design for the series since Advanced Generation series.

Masuda has also been involved with many of the Pokémon movies. Masuda was an original creator of the Pokémon movies Jirachi: Wish Maker, Destiny Deoxys, Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea, The Rise of Darkrai and Giratina and the Sky Warrior, as well as the The Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Team Go-Getters out of the Gate!, and Pikachu's Island Adventure anime specials. He also composed music for Mewtwo Strikes Back and The Power of One and contributed sound for Celebi: Voice of the Forest. In Pokémon Heroes, he was involved with character staging.

Others

On keyboards in the group ＭＴＭ, Masuda composed the song battle gene Ｍ after gaining a request from Shoko Nakagawa. The song is based on Cynthia's theme Battle! Shirona on the Pokémon Black & White Super Music Collection.

Discography

Masuda's work appears on the following CDs:

• Game Boy Pokémon Sound Collection CD
• Pokémon Gotta Catch the Sound
• Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire Music Super Complete
• Pokémon FireRed & LeafGreen Music Super Complete
• Pokémon Diamond & Pearl Super Music Collection
• Pokémon HeartGold & SoulSilver Music Super Complete
• Pokémon Black & White Super Music Collection

Trivia

• Masuda listens to alternative music and techno. He says that he is most inspired by the classical music composer Stravinsky.
• Masuda's favorite Pokémon is Victini, his favorite move is Surf, and his favorite type is the Water type.
  • However, his favorite Pokémon used to be Pichu.
• The character Barry's optional name Jun could be a possible reference to Masuda.
  • The anime character Vincent's Japanese name is Jun'ichi, another possible reference.
• Masuda occasionally competes online in Wi-Fi battles.
• The concept for the Global Terminal was Masuda's idea.

See also

• Director's Columns (Masuda's blog)
  • Awakening Power of Director Masuda (Japanese)
  • Hidden Power of masuda (English)
• Twitter

References

• Gamepro.com: Pokémon Platinum Developer Interview
• "Talking Pokémon." Nintendo Power Apr. 2009: 42-44. Print.

This article is part of Project Music, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on each Pokémon song, CD and musician.