TATSUYA KANDO
Director, The World Ends with You
Born in Kanagawa in 1969, Tatsuya Kando worked as a motion capture director for several other game companies before joining Square Co., Ltd. in 1996 (currently Square Enix). He has been involved with FINAL FANTASY VII, FINAL FANTASY VIII, and has worked as the animation director for the KINGDOM HEARTS series.
Hobbies:
Games, movies, manga, anime, karaoke, cooking, driving, traveling, comedy, dieting, sleeping, and many other various things.
“But, out of all of them, my favorite hobby is trying out ramen at different restaurants,“ says Mr. Kando. “Ramen is amazing!”
TOMOHIRO HASEGAWA
Co-Director, The World Ends with You
Born in Kanagawa in 1973, Mr. Hasegawa entered Square Co., Ltd. in 1996 (currently Square Enix). He has worked as a graphic designer on several projects including FINAL FANTASY VIII, IX, and X, the KINGDOM HEARTS series, and SaGa Frontier. As co-director on THE WORLD ENDS WITH YOU, Mr. Hasegawa was in charge of game planning and graphic-related issues.
Currently, he is a member of the FINAL FANTASY Versus XIII and KINGDOM HEARTS 358/2days development teams.
Mr. Hasegawa’s hobbies include cooking and collecting. His residence is literally overflowing with items such as skeletal models, minerals, and ores because he believes nature provides much of the inspiration for his designs. He recently finished reading the book “In the Blink of an Eye” by Andrew Parker, and highly recommends it to anyone interested in the evolution of species.
TAKESHI ARAKAWA
Planning Director,
The World Ends with You
Born in Kagoshima in 1975, Mr. Arakawa worked as a game designer before entering Square Co., Ltd. in 1998 (currently Square Enix). He was involved with FINAL FANTASY VIII, FINAL FANTASY X, and worked as the art director for the KINGDOM HEARTS series, where he was also in charge of game interface. As planning director on The World Ends with You, it was his job to document ideas from the other team members, and then determine how to implement those into the game.
He is currently a member of the FINAL FANTASY Versus XIII development team.
Favorite superheroes: Kamen Rider, Spawn
Hobby: Video games (makes games to play them, plays games to make them)
Personal motto: Freedom!
