Chiyomaru Shikura has announced that he is stepping down from his role as chairman and representative director of Mages. He will continue to work at the company in a creative role and will serve as an executive producer on future titles, according to an announcement from Mages.

Shikura has been active in a wide range of creative roles, including game development and music production. After getting his start in the game industry as a programmer, his work as a composer helped to further his career. He then went on to form 5pb. and serve as its president and representative director. He continued in this role after 5pb. merged with AG-ONE and was reformed as Mages.

After the company became a subsidiary of Dwango, Shikura took up the role of chairman and representative director and also participated in Dwango’s business operations. In 2019, Mages became independent from Dwango, making Shikura president of the company once again. He later returned to the position of chairman after Mages was purchased by Colopl in 2020.

In addition to composing a multitude of anime songs, Shikura is best known for creating the Science Adventure series of visual novels. Popular titles in the series include CHAOS;HEAD, STEINS;GATE, ROBOTICS;NOTES, and OCCULTIC;NINE.

However, it appears that Mages has been going through some tough times on the business side of things, as the company’s recent financial report showed that when compared to the previous year, revenue had decreased, and the company’s deficit had increased substantially (gamebiz).

It’s possible that by stepping away from his role in managing the company, Shikura will be able to fully devote himself to his creative role as an executive producer. We’re eager to see what is next for Shikura as he adapts to his new position within Mages.

Written by. Marco Farinaccia based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2023-01-04 14:49 JST)

Ayuo Kawase

Related Posts