{"id":54096,"date":"2025-11-20T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=54096"},"modified":"2025-11-19T15:21:33","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T06:21:33","slug":"i-want-to-live-a-modest-and-unassuming-life-masahiro-sakurai-was-initially-reluctant-about-approving-a-manga-about-his-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/i-want-to-live-a-modest-and-unassuming-life-masahiro-sakurai-was-initially-reluctant-about-approving-a-manga-about-his-life\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;I want to live a modest and unassuming life.&#8221; Masahiro Sakurai was initially reluctant about approving a manga about his life\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Given his years at HAL Laboratory\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/masahiro-sakurai-explains-why-his-company-doesnt-hire-employees-there-is-a-conflict-between-game-development-and-business-management\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sora Ltd<\/a>.\u00a0as\u00a0a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/smash-bros-creator-masahiro-sakurai-about-why-he-never-monetized-his-youtube\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">YouTube content creator<\/a>\u00a0and one of the\u00a0world\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/game-creators-cant-compete-with-what-doctors-do-but-they-have-the-potential-to-buff-peoples-lives-super-smash-bros-creator-masahiro-sakurai-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">most influential video game\u00a0developers<\/a>,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0quite surprising how little of\u00a0<strong>Masahiro Sakurai<\/strong>\u2019s life has been\u00a0told\u00a0in\u00a0an\u00a0official capacity. With the release of\u00a0the biographical manga\u00a0Masahiro Sakurai \u2013 Making the World More Fun Through Games\u00a0(unofficial translation), the Smash and Kirby creator\u00a0hopes not for a public\u00a0retelling\u00a0of\u00a0his accomplishments, but\u00a0for\u00a0the book to be\u00a0a catalyst that\u00a0may\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/masahiro-sakurai-says-there-is-a-shortage-of-all-rounder-game-directors-in-the-industry-with-devs-becoming-increasingly-specialized-in-narrow-fields\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">inspire future generations<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0game creators.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a\u00a0recent\u00a0interview with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamespark.jp\/article\/2025\/11\/18\/159625.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Game*Spark<\/a>, Sakurai revealed that he initially declined the offer to have a manga written about his life. Not only was he extremely\u00a0busy\u00a0at the\u00a0time\u00a0(this was about a year and a half ago), but\u00a0it seems\u00a0he\u00a0found the idea\u00a0at odds with his principle of\u00a0avoiding excessive public attention.\u00a0He\u00a0describes himself as a person who prefers to avoid promoting themselves,\u00a0going\u00a0so far as\u00a0to\u00a0frequently\u00a0turn down interview requests\u00a0that are centered around\u00a0him rather than the games he is working on.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHonestly, I still prefer to live a\u00a0modest, unassuming life.\u00a0You might be thinking\u00a0\u2018For real?\u2019 but I mean it. I\u00a0put\u00a0my all\u00a0into\u00a0promoting\u00a0my work and ideas, but\u00a0I&#8217;m\u00a0the type who prefers to avoid promoting or putting myself out there.\u00a0I&#8217;d\u00a0also rather not be become\u00a0the plaything of the Interne.\u201d Rather than being preoccupied with the personalities behind them, Sakurai considers\u00a0\u201cit&#8217;s best if people just play the games, regardless of who made them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What got Sakurai to change his mind was&nbsp;the&nbsp;enthusiasm&nbsp;of&nbsp;Rintaro&nbsp;Osumi, the&nbsp;manga\u2019s&nbsp;editor-in-charge. Osumi&nbsp;convinced&nbsp;Sakurai to give the&nbsp;biographical&nbsp;manga a try. Soon enough, the outline was finished, storyboards were exchanged between the two, and the project was completed.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1288\" height=\"849\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1288px) 100vw, 1288px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251119-54096-001.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-54106\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251119-54096-001.jpg 1288w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251119-54096-001-380x250.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20251119-54096-001-768x506.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>While Sakurai is a bit bashful about his\u00a0career\u00a0being turned into an educational manga, he hopes that readers will be able to learn a little more about\u00a0the\u00a0developer\u2019s side of creating games,\u00a0be\u00a0they\u00a0developers\u00a0themselves\u00a0or not.\u00a0Osumi Rintaro added to Sakurai\u2019s statement\u00a0by saying\u00a0that the manga was conceived with the goal of \u201cencouraging even a few more people to\u00a0aim for careers in the game industry\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sakurai\u00a0commented\u00a0that while the book has some\u00a0exaggerations typical of\u00a0Japanese\u00a0manga, it was his job to ensure\u00a0that the story was fundamentally based on\u00a0his knowledge,\u00a0as well as\u00a0facts he\u00a0has publicized\u00a0through his many columns and interviews.\u00a0Despite this, he\u00a0was surprised\u00a0at the\u00a0level\u00a0of detail\u00a0the manga ended up\u00a0depicting. One such example is the book\u2019s cover art, which features a similar\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/masahiro-sakurai-reveals-how-he-stores-his-impressive-game-collection-consoles-and-cat\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">layout to his actual home office<\/a>\u00a0\u2013\u00a0strewn\u00a0controllers\u00a0and\u00a0cat\u00a0included.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Though Sakurai was initially reluctant to have a manga written about himself,\u00a0it seems he was very meticulous about the project once he got on board, as Osumi\u00a0revealed. Sakurai reviewed every aspect of the manga, from its content and extra columns to the cover\u00a0art\u00a0and even the\u00a0dust jacket\u00a0that wraps around the\u00a0physical book.\u00a0Sakurai also provided\u00a0ideas of his own, which included concepts for the design as well as the overall writing style.\u00a0According to the manga editor, Sakurai consistently provided feedback the same day they sent\u00a0him review\u00a0materials. It just goes to show how committed Sakurai can be once he commits himself to a project, whether it be a game or a manga about himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Masahiro Sakurai \u2013 Making the World More Fun Through Games is a 160-page manga <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.jp\/%E3%81%BE%E3%82%93%E3%81%8C%E3%81%A7%E3%82%8F%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8B%E4%BA%BA%E3%81%A8%E4%BB%95%E4%BA%8B-%E6%A1%9C%E4%BA%95%E6%94%BF%E5%8D%9A%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B2%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A0%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AA%E3%82%A8%E3%82%A4%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%EF%BC%88%E4%BB%AE%EF%BC%89-%E6%A1%9C%E4%BA%95%E6%94%BF%E5%8D%9A\/dp\/4781624618\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">now available in Japan<\/a> for 1,430 JPY (roughly $9.45\u00a0USD). There are currently no\u00a0announcements about\u00a0an English translation.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Smash and Kirby series creator Masahiro Sakurai talks about his policy of avoiding excessive public attention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":54104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-54096","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>&quot;I want to live a modest and unassuming life.&quot; Masahiro Sakurai was initially reluctant about approving a manga about his life\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Smash and Kirby series creator Masahiro Sakurai talks about his policy of avoiding excessive public attention.\" \/>\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\/i-want-to-live-a-modest-and-unassuming-life-masahiro-sakurai-was-initially-reluctant-about-approving-a-manga-about-his-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;I want to live a modest and unassuming life.&quot; 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