, known by his
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
ZUN, is a Japanese composer and video game developer best known for developing and self-publishing the ''
Touhou Project
The , also known simply as , is a bullet hell shoot 'em up video game series created by one-man independent Japanese ''doujin'' soft developer Team Shanghai Alice. Since 1995, the team's member, Jun'ya "ZUN" Ōta, has independently developed ...
'' video game series through the
dojin group
Team Shanghai Alice
, formerly known as ZUN Soft, is a Japanese ''dōjin'' game developer. Since 1995, the sole member of the group, Jun'ya "ZUN" Ōta, has independently developed and self-published the '' Touhou Project'', a bullet hell shoot 'em up series, as w ...
, of which he is the only member. In 2010, the
Guinness World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
called the ''Touhou Project'' "the most prolific fan-based shooter series" ever created. ZUN is also known as the Hakurei
Kannushi
A , also called , is a person responsible for the maintenance of a as well as for leading worship of a given .* ''Kannushi'' (in Japanese), Iwanami Japanese dictionary, 6th Edition (2008), DVD version The characters for are sometimes also re ...
(博麗神主), which is also the name he uses for his
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
account.
Early life
ZUN was born in
Hakuba
is a village located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. , the village had an estimated population of 9,007 in 4267 households, and a population density of 48 persons per km2. The total area of the village is . Hakuba is an internationally renowned s ...
on March 18, 1977, and described himself as a "normal countryside kid." His first exposure to video games was in 1982-1983, when he played the
Game & Watch
The Game & Watch brand ( ''Gēmu & Uotchi''; called ''Tricotronic'' in West Germany and Austria, abbreviated as ''G&W'') is a series of handheld electronic games developed, manufactured, released, and marketed by Nintendo from 1980 in video gam ...
and arcade games from Hakuba ski resorts.
Later, his parents bought him a
Famicom Disk System
The commonly shortened to the Famicom Disk System or just Disk System, is a peripheral for Nintendo's Nintendo Entertainment System, Family Computer home video game console, released only in Japan on February 21, 1986. It uses proprietary flopp ...
(an add-on for the
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...
exclusive to Japan). ZUN claimed that
''SonSon'', ''
Super Mario Bros.
is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The successor to the 1983 arcade game '' Mario Bros.'' and the first game in the ''Super Mario'' series, it was first released in 1985 for ...
'' and
''Street Fighter II'' were the games that left the greatest impression on him during this period. As ZUN was born shortly after his grandfather's death and his parents spent most their time working, ZUN was mostly raised by his grandmother, who was particularly strict, and heavily regulated the time he could spend playing video games.
ZUN's first interest in developing video games came during his high school years. While most
shoot 'em up
Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs
) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of chara ...
games utilise a military or science fiction theme, ZUN wanted a game with a
miko
A , or shrine maiden,Groemer, 28. is a young priestess who works at a Shinto shrine. were once likely seen as shamans,Picken, 140. but are understood in modern Japanese culture to be an institutionalized role in daily life, trained to perfor ...
main character and a
Shinto
Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...
aesthetic. ZUN was part of his school's orchestra club, and originally wanted to create music for video games. As he did not know anybody else who was making games that he could put his music in, he made his own games for this purpose. Around 2001, he applied to
Comiket as a music group under the name of ''Shanghai Alice Ensemble'', but was rejected.
In 2012, ZUN married a
mobile game
A mobile game, or smartphone game, is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet, PDA to ...
programmer,
whom he has a son and daughter with.
ZUN likes to drink beer, and has said that he drinks at least once a day. He has created his own beer (sometimes called ''Touhou'' beer), and written reviews for beers in ''
Comptiq
is a Japanese computer game magazine, first published in 1983, by Kadokawa Shoten. The name "Comptiq" came from combining the words "computer" and "boutique". Originally a PC magazine, its focus shifted from computers to computer games. As of S ...
''.
His favourite brand is
Kirin.
Career
ZUN attended
Tokyo Denki University
is a private university in Adachi, Tokyo, Japan. The predecessor of the school was founded in 1907 as . It was chartered as a university in 1949 with Yasujiro Niwa as first president. Denki (電機) means an electric device in Japanese, and the ...
, where he majored in
mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
, and it was during university that he created the first ''Touhou'' game, ''Highly Responsive to Prayers.'' The first five ''Touhou'' games were developed for the
PC-9800
The , commonly shortened to PC-98 or , is a lineup of Japanese 16-bit and 32-bit personal computers manufactured by NEC from 1982 to 2000. The platform established NEC's dominance in the Japanese personal computer market, and, by 1999, more th ...
series of computers, of which ZUN owned the PC-9821 model.
While ZUN did make a few games before this, the first one being a copy of ''
Puyo Puyo
''Puyo Puyo'' (ぷよぷよ), previously known as ''Puyo Pop'' outside Japan, is a series of Tile-matching video game, tile-matching video games created by Compile (software company), Compile. Sega has owned the franchise since 1998, with games ...
'', these were never published, and are assumed to be
lost
Lost may refer to getting lost, or to:
Geography
*Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland
* Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US
History
*Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...
.
After university, ZUN worked as a programmer at
Taito
is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, toys, arcade cabinets and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the importing vodka, vending machines and jukeboxes into Japan. It b ...
from 1998-2007. He got the position by showing his interviewer the ''Touhou'' games he had created, after which, he was hired immediately. During his career at Taito, ZUN helped work on ''Greatest Striker'', ''
Magic Pengel: The Quest for Color'', ''
Bujingai'', ''
Graffiti Kingdom
''Graffiti Kingdom'' is an action role-playing game developed by Taito for the PlayStation 2 console in 2004, and is the sequel to '' Magic Pengel: The Quest for Color''. The game's soundtrack was composed by Yasunori Mitsuda, better known for hi ...
'' and ''
Exit
Exit(s) may refer to:
Architecture and engineering
* Door
* Portal (architecture), an opening in the walls of a structure
* Emergency exit
* Overwing exit, a type of emergency exit on an airplane
* Exit ramp, a feature of a road interchange
...
'', as well as some other games that were ultimately cancelled. He left as he did not enjoy working at the company, and ''Touhou'' was already successful enough for him to make a living from it.
However, he did not initially plan for ''Touhou'' to become his life work.
While the ''Touhou'' games were initially created as a passion project, ZUN found that they were very successful – the first games he sold were ''Highly Responsive to Prayers'' and its sequel, ''The Story of Eastern Wonderland'', at the 1997
Comiket. He brought a combined total of 80 copies, and was surprised when he was able to sell all of them. ''Touhou'' games were sold through Comiket until 2004, when the
convention Reitaisai
The , also known simply as , is a bullet hell shoot 'em up video game series created by one-man independent Japanese ''doujin'' soft developer Team Shanghai Alice. Since 1995, the team's member, Jun'ya "ZUN" Ōta, has independently developed ...
was founded. The same year, ZUN wrote ''Curiosities of Lotus Asia,'' short stories that appeared in various magazines, which were then put together in a 2010
anthology
In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors.
In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...
. This was the first of several pieces of in-universe ''Touhou'' literature. ''Silent Sinner in Blue'', the first official ''Touhou''
manga
Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...
, was published in 2007. Literature continues to be produced, with the latest being the on-going ''Cheating Detective Satori'' and ''Lotus Eaters''.
Design philosophy
ZUN has voiced criticism of the
video game industry
The video game industry encompasses the development, marketing, and monetization of video games. The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide.
The video game industry has grown from niches to mainstream. , ...
, saying that games have become easier and less mechanically complex when they try to appeal to a wider audience. However, he noted that the
dojin game market has allowed for ''danmaku'' and other niche genres to still thrive.
ZUN works alone, and each ''Touhou'' game was created from the ground up, including the engine. The only exception to this are the
fighting games
A fighting game, also known as a versus fighting game, is a genre of video game that involves combat between two or more players. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as blocking, grappling, counter-attacking, and chaining attac ...
, the first of which was ''
Immaterial and Missing Power'', created in 2003 with dojin group
Twilight Frontier
, known as Tasofro for short, is a Japanese ''dojin'' game developer. They are best known for their collaborations with Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN), which include seven official games in the '' Touhou Project'' series.
Productions Games
Music C ...
. In the game's afterword, ZUN mentioned that he disliked having to manage other workers, and that he produced things "six times more comfortably" when doing so alone.
ZUN has acknowledged that while the ''Touhou'' characters have elaborate stories, little detail is given to them in-game, saying that "''danmaku'' is how the story and characters are communicated." Additionally, he has claimed ''danmaku'' is meant to be beautiful and aesthetically pleasing, which is also the main reason why the majority of ''Touhou'' characters are female. ZUN believes there is a feminine charm to ''danmaku'', which would be lost with male characters, and that the presence of female characters should not be interpreted as
fan service.
References
External links
ZUN's blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:ZUN
1977 births
Japanese video game designers
Japanese video game directors
Japanese video game programmers
Living people
People from Nagano (city)
Touhou Project
Video game composers
Video game developers
Taito people
Mythopoeic writers