Akira Kitamura

{{Infobox person

| name = Akira Kitamura

| native_name = 北村玲

| native_name_lang = Japanese

| pronunciation =

| nationality =

| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1965}}

| birth_place = Japan

| citizenship =

| years_active = 1985–1994

| employer = Capcom (1985–1989)

| known_for = Designing Mega Man

| notable_works = Mega Man, Mega Man 2

}}

Akira Kitamura (born 1965) is a Japanese video game designer and artist.{{cite web|title=Akira Kitamura Video Game Credits and Biography - MobyGames|url=http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,394855/|work=MobyGames}} He is the creator of the Mega Man series and the eponymous character.{{cite web|title=Companions Through Life and Death: The Story of Inti Creates and Mega Man|url=http://www.usgamer.net/articles/companions-through-life-and-death-time-and-again-the-story-of-inti-creates-and-mega-man|work=USgamer.net}}{{cite web|title=Ominous Mega Man poster hints at dark days of future past|url=http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/346998/scitech/geeksandgaming/ominous-mega-man-poster-hints-at-dark-days-of-future-past|work=GMA News Online}} He worked on the first three games in the series as a planner and artist. He is also the director of the 1991 game Cocoron, which was released only in Japan.

Due to the prominent practice of only using pseudonyms for credits, Kitamura is variously credited as "Famicon Akira" or "A.K" on many of the games he worked on.{{cite video game|title=Mega Man|developer=Capcom Co., Ltd.|publisher=Capcom U.S.A., Inc.|date=December 1987|scene=staff credits}}

Career

He worked as an artist, and overall director for Mega Man (known as Rockman in Japan) for the Famicom. He created the original static pixel art sprite for Mega Man. This was to ensure that the sprite could be properly seen against the game's backgrounds, and could work in the game. After that, the pixel art was handed over to artist Keiji Inafune who created a refined illustration of the character.{{cite web|title=Keiji Inafune dropped mad Mega Man secrets on me|url=http://www.destructoid.com/keiji-inafune-dropped-mad-mega-man-secrets-on-me-261362.phtml|work=Destructoid}}{{cite web|author=Hirohiko Niizumi|date=23 September 2007|title=TGS '07: Mega Man celebrates 20th anniversary|url=http://www.gamespot.com/news/6179759.html|accessdate=1 February 2011|work=GameSpot|publisher=CBS Interactive Inc.}}{{cite book|title=Mega Man: Official Complete Works|date=23 December 2009|publisher=Udon Entertainment Corp.|page=6}} Inafune refers to this process as "like a reverse character design" as it is the opposite of what typically occurs, where artists create concept art which is then translated into game's graphics.

At a special event during the 2007 Tokyo Game Show, Inafune commented on his and Akira's role in the creation of Mega Man. "I'm often called the father of Mega Man, but actually, his design was already created when I joined Capcom,". "My mentor (Akira Kitamura), who was the designer of the original Mega Man, had a basic concept of what Mega Man was supposed to look like. So I only did half of the job in creating him."

He again worked on Mega Man 2 as the game's director.{{cite web|title=Akira Kitamura|url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4013465/|work=IMDb}} He left Capcom during the development of Mega Man 3. He joined the game design company Takeru.{{cite web|title=Little Samson (NES)|url=http://thegaminghistorian.com/the-gaming-historian-little-samson/|work=The Gaming Historian}} There he directed a game called Cocoron which bore similarities to Mega Man.{{cite web|title=Hardcore Gaming 101: Cocoron|url=http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/cocoron/cocoron.htm|work=hardcoregaming101.net}}

Despite his retirement from game development in the 1990s, he announced his return to the profession in 2024, working with Brave Wave Productions; one project unrelated to the company's music releases is related to the Mega Man series.{{Cite web |last=McFerran |first=Damien |date=2024-03-07 |title=After 36 Years, Mega Man Creator Akira Kitamura Is Working With The Character Again |url=https://www.timeextension.com/news/2024/03/after-36-years-mega-man-creator-akira-kitamura-is-working-with-the-character-again |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250318180711/https://www.timeextension.com/news/2024/03/after-36-years-mega-man-creator-akira-kitamura-is-working-with-the-character-again |archive-date=2025-03-18 |access-date=2025-04-24 |website=Time Extension |language=en-GB}} In June 2025, he started a Patreon-funded blog named Kitamura's Blueprints, detailing the development of Mega Man.{{cite web |url=https://www.timeextension.com/news/2025/06/the-creator-of-mega-man-launches-new-online-blog-kitamura-blueprints |title=The Creator Of Mega Man Launches New Online Blog 'Kitamura Blueprints' |last=Yarwood |first=Jack |website=Time Extension |date=June 11, 2025 |access-date=June 12, 2025 |archive-date=June 12, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250612063711/https://www.timeextension.com/news/2025/06/the-creator-of-mega-man-launches-new-online-blog-kitamura-blueprints}}