{"id":53607,"date":"2025-11-05T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=53607"},"modified":"2025-11-04T18:41:26","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T09:41:26","slug":"dragon-quest-creator-yuji-horii-awarded-order-of-the-rising-sun-on-the-same-day-as-the-manga-artist-he-once-applied-to-work-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/dragon-quest-creator-yuji-horii-awarded-order-of-the-rising-sun-on-the-same-day-as-the-manga-artist-he-once-applied-to-work-for\/","title":{"rendered":"Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii awarded Order of the Rising Sun on the same day as the manga artist he once applied to work for"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As the legendary creator behind Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger, Yuji Horii\u2019s contributions to the game industry have made him the first developer to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/YujiHorii\/status\/1985155510870663457\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">receive Japan\u2019s Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette<\/a> &#8211; a prestigious <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/games-used-to-be-blamed-for-crime-but-now-theyre-finally-recognized-as-culture-dragon-quest-creator-yuji-horii-celebrates-award-from-japanese-government\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">award granted by the government<\/a>. After receiving the award on November 3, 2025, Horii shared the story of how he met one of his role models, manga artist Go Nagai, who just so happened to receive the same reward on that day. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">50\u5e74\u4ee5\u4e0a\u524d\u3001\u9ad83\u306e\u590f\u4f11\u307f\u3001\u6f2b\u753b\u5bb6\u5fd7\u671b\u3060\u3063\u305f\u30dc\u30af\u306f\u63cf\u304d\u304b\u3051\u306e\u539f\u7a3f\u3092\u6301\u3063\u3066\u3001\u30a2\u30b7\u30b9\u30bf\u30f3\u30c8\u306b\u3057\u3066\u3082\u3089\u304a\u3046\u3068\u6c38\u4e95\u8c6a\u3055\u3093\u3092\u8a2a\u306d\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002\u5927\u585a\u306e\u99c5\u524d\u304b\u3089\u96fb\u8a71\u3057\u3066\u7a81\u7136\u306e\u8a2a\u554f\u306b\u3082\u95a2\u308f\u3089\u305a\u89aa\u5207\u306b\u5bfe\u5fdc\u3057\u3066\u304f\u308c\u3066\u3001\u30a2\u30b7\u306b\u306f\u306a\u307e\u305b\u3093\u3067\u3057\u305f\u304c\u30b5\u30a4\u30f3\u307e\u3067\u3057\u3066\u304f\u308c\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002\u305d\u3093\u306a\u6c38\u4e95\u8c6a\u3055\u3093\u3068\u540c\u6642\u53d7\u8cde\u3002\u611f\u7121\u91cf\u3067\u3059\u3002 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/qARIUmvmFm\">https:\/\/t.co\/qARIUmvmFm<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u5800\u4e95\u96c4\u4e8c (@YujiHorii) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/YujiHorii\/status\/1985163193233314175?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 3, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Post translation:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This was over 50 years ago, during my final year of high school summer holidays. I was an aspiring manga artist, and with an unfinished manuscript in my hand I visited Mr. Go Nagai, hoping to become his assistant. Despite my sudden visit after phoning from Otsuka station, he kindly received me. Though I didn&#8217;t become his assistant, he was nice enough to give me his signature. I am profoundly moved to receive this award alongside him today.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the post, Horii applied as Go Nagai\u2019s assistant back around 1975. Nagai had already made a name for himself then, providing the art and story for works such as Devilman, Mazinger Z, and Cutie Honey. Though Horii\u2019s application was unsuccessful, he would go on to become a freelance writer for several publications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"681\" height=\"597\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 681px) 100vw, 681px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251104-536070001.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-53611\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251104-536070001.jpg 681w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251104-536070001-380x333.jpg 380w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Horii would eventually create Love Match Tennis, a Japanese home computer title, for a programming contest hosted by Enix. Love Match Tennis netted him a job at the company and inspired him to become a game creator. He would go on to create several titles, chief of them being Dragon Quest. While Horii didn\u2019t make it as Nagai\u2019s manga assistant, the rejection guided him down another path that would lead him to create some of the most iconic JRPGs of our time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Related:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/if-you-play-the-three-dragon-quest-hd-2d-remakes-in-chronological-order-there-will-be-a-new-surprise-at-the-end-according-to-yuji-horii\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>If you play the three Dragon Quest HD-2D remakes in chronological order, there will be a new \u201csurprise\u201d at the end, according to Yuji Horii <\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/dragon-quest-series-creator-yuji-horii-is-70-years-old-but-has-no-plans-to-retire-yet\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Dragon Quest series creator Yuji Horii is 70 years old, but has no plans to retire yet<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii shares the story of how he applied to work for Go Nagai, only for the two to get the same award on the same day 50 years later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":53608,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-53607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii awarded Order of the Rising Sun on the same day as the manga artist he once applied to work for - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii shares story of how he applied to work for Go Nagai after the two creators were awarded Order of the Rising Sun on the same day.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/dragon-quest-creator-yuji-horii-awarded-order-of-the-rising-sun-on-the-same-day-as-the-manga-artist-he-once-applied-to-work-for\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii awarded Order of the Rising Sun on the same day as the manga artist he once applied to work for - 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