Takaya Imamura

Imamura originally joined Nintendo in 1989 as a graphic artist, where his first project was F-Zero; in this title he designed the cars, the pilot racers and the comic that appeared in the game manual. Afterwards he also worked on Star Fox, where he handled non-polygonal graphics and character designs, including a few other titles.

On the Nintendo 64, Imamura became the main art director of Star Fox 64 and F-Zero X, following his work on the SNES titles. He was also the art director of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask, where he helped settle the dark atmosphere of the title and also designed characters such as Tingle, the Moon and the Majora’s Mask itself.

Since the GameCube era, Imamura became the main producer or supervisor of various F-Zero and Star Fox titles developed by outside companies. Later on, he became one of the main directors of the Nintendo EAD Group No. 5, where directed the Steel Diver series (where he also drew the captains) and Tank Troopers.