is a Japanese

video game artist Game art design is a subset of game development involving the process of creating the artistic aspects for video games. Video game art design begins in the pre-production phase of creating a video game. Video game artists are visual artists inv ...

. She is best known for her work with

Square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90-degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length adj ...

(now

Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, production enterprise and entertainment conglomerate, best known for its ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', ''Star Ocean'' and ''Kingdom Hearts'' role-playing video game ...

), in particular with the ''Final Fantasy'' series.

Biography

Shibuya was born in 1965. While in middle school, she began creating illustrations and animations inspired by anime series including ''

Space Battleship Yamato is a Japanese science fiction anime series produced and written by Yoshinobu Nishizaki, directed by manga artist Leiji Matsumoto, and produced by Academy Productions. The series aired in Yomiuri TV from October 6, 1974 to March 30, 1975, ...

'' and ''

Galaxy Express 999 is a Japanese manga series. It is written and illustrated by Leiji Matsumoto, later adapted into a number of anime films and television series. It is set in a spacefaring, high-tech future in which humans have learned how to transfer ...

''. As a high schooler she enrolled in a technical school to study animation and worked part-time for animation studios on popular anime including ''

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms, suc ...

'', ''

Area 88 is a Japanese manga series by Kaoru Shintani serialized between 1979 and 1986. The story is about a young pilot named Shin Kazama and his experiences at Area 88, a mercenary air force base secluded in the desert of a war-torn country. Shin ...

'', and ''

Obake no Q-taro and are a class of ''yōkai'', preternatural creatures in Japanese folklore. Literally, the terms mean ''a thing that changes'', referring to a state of transformation or shapeshifting. These words are often translated as "ghost", but primari ...

''. In 1986, as she was losing interest in animation work, she was recruited by video game company Square. Shibuya's first work for Square was providing illustrations for ''

Alpha Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἄλφα, ''álpha'', or ell, άλφα, álfa) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter aleph , whic ...

'' game manual and graphics for several games in development. In 1987, prompted by the success of

Enix was a Japanese video game publisher that produced video games, anime and manga. Enix is known for publishing the ''Dragon Quest'' series of role-playing video games. The company was founded by Yasuhiro Fukushima on September 22, 1975, as . Th ...

's ''

Dragon Quest previously published as ''Dragon Warrior'' in North America until 2005, is a franchise of Japanese role-playing video games created by Armor Project (Yuji Horii), Bird Studio (Akira Toriyama) and Sugiyama Kobo (Koichi Sugiyama) to its publi ...

'' the previous year, Square released ''

Final Fantasy is a Japanese video game, Japanese science fantasy anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi and developed and owned by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and ...

''. Shibuya created graphics including characters, spells, monsters, fonts, menus, and the game's opening bridge scene. By ''

Final Fantasy II * is a fantasy role-playing video game developed and published by Square in 1988 for the Family Computer as the second installment of the ''Final Fantasy'' series. The game has received numerous enhanced remakes for the WonderSwan Color, the P ...

'', she was one of two designers creating all the pixel art for the game. Shibuya went on to design graphics for other Final Fantasy games, most notably the iconic chibi versions of characters, monsters, fonts, and menus. She was the primary pixel artist for many well-known games including entries in the ''SaGa'' series and ''Mana'' series (of which she created all the graphics for the first game). In 2019, during a lecture at Japan Expo Paris, Shibuya was invited by Women in Games to be a member of honour.

Notable works

* ''

'' (manual illustration) * ''

King's Knight is a 1986 scrolling shooter co-developed by Square and Workss, and published by Square for the Nintendo Entertainment System and MSX. The game was released in Japan on September 18, 1986, and in North America in 1989. It was later re-released ...

'' (graphics) * '' Suishou no Ryuu'' (graphics) * ''

Rad Racer ''Rad Racer'', known as in Japan, is a racing video game developed and published by Square for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1987. In this game, players drive a Ferrari 328 or a generic Formula One racing machine through a ...

'' (graphics) * '' The 3D Battles of WorldRunner'' (graphics) * ''

'' (graphics including opening scene and user interface) * ''

'' (graphics and user interface) * ''

Final Fantasy III is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the Family Computer. The third installment in the ''Final Fantasy'' series, it is the first numbered ''Final Fantasy'' game to feature the job-change system. The story revolve ...

'' (graphics) * ''

Final Fantasy Adventure ''Final Fantasy Adventure'', known in Japan as or simply and later released in Europe as ''Mystic Quest'', is a ''Final Fantasy'' spinoff and the first game in the ''Mana'' series. Published by Square in 1991 on the Game Boy, it saw a North Am ...

'' (graphics) * ''

Final Fantasy IV known as ''Final Fantasy II'' for its initial North American release, is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix) for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Released in 1991, it is the fourth main instal ...

'' (package design) * ''

Final Fantasy V is a fantasy role-playing video game developed and published by Square in 1992. It is the fifth main installment of the ''Final Fantasy'' series. The game first appeared only in Japan on Nintendo's Super Famicom (known internationally as the Su ...

'' (chibi character graphics, package design, opening and closing scenes) * ''

Final Fantasy VI also known as ''Final Fantasy III'' from its initial North American release, is a 1994 role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the sixth main entry in the ''Final Fantasy'' s ...