SAKUMA Akira

Born in Tokyo, 1952. Game creator, radio personality, broadcast writer, singer, lyricist, and manga critic. He was one of the first graduates of KOIKE Kazuo’s Gekiga Sonjuku, a school for manga art and writing. He began writing while still a student at Rikkyo University. His contributions to the OUT anime magazine and the Jump Broadcasting Station readers’ page in Weekly Shonen Jump became popular. In 1987, he was involved in game production for the first time with Momotaro Densetsu (Peach Boy Legend), and in 1988 with Momotaro Dentetsu (Momotaro Electric Railway), a board game-style multi-player video game that became a popular series lasting to this day. He travels all over Japan for game creation and incorporates excellent products of his own choice into property stations in the game.

Momotaro Dentetsu (Momotaro Electric Railway, 1988) was modeled after TSUTSUMI Yoshiaki, the former owner of Seibu Group. SAKUMA apparently read through 200 books for this purpose, and that is why he uses the user name “President TSUTSUMI” when playing the game in earnest. SAKUMA is full of such interesting anecdotes, and he is undoubtedly an indispensable figure in discussing today’s Media Arts, worthy of the Special Achievement Award. (KAWADA Tom)