Katsuhiro Harada

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Katsuhiro Harada
Katsuhiro Harada.jpg
Origin Osaka(not have a authoritative source), Japan
Born June 10, 1970 (47)
Occupation Game Designer, Producer, Director
Hobby Game development, Fighting Game, PC GAME, FPS, MMO, Drinking, Music, Yacht Racing[1].
Likes Yoshinori Ono, Jokes, Tequila

Katsuhiro Harada (ja. 原田勝弘 Harada Katsuhiro) is a game producer and Tekken creator from Namco Bandai Games. He is best known as a Game Director/Chief Producer of the Tekken series, since 1994. Currently, Harada is the leader of the Tekken Project. He is often seen in interviews alongside Michael Murray who translates for him.

Born in Osaka(not have a authoritative source), Japan and grew up in Nara Prefecture. He later moved to Tokyo, Japan after completing his university studies there and eventually became a game promoter. He attended Waseda University along with Dead or Alive creator Tomonobu Itagaki. He holds a degree in psychology.

He voiced Forest Law in Tekken 3 and Tekken Tag Tournament, Marshall Law from Tekken until Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, Yoshimitsu from Tekken until Tekken Tag Tournament and Kunimitsu in Tekken.[2][3][4][5]</small>.

Known for his sense of humor, such as comical friendship and rivalry with Street Fighter director, Yoshinori Ono, and jokes around about the character Leo in Tekken 6 because of her ambiguous gender. He first met Ono at the Tokyo Game Show 2000, where Ono was the music director for Street Fighter III. When Ono became the director for Street Fighter, he began talking numerous times with Harada about the possibility of a crossover around 2007. The talks would result in the crossover games; Street Fighter X Tekken and Tekken X Street Fighter.

Harada is also a member of Project Soul (the team behind Namco's Soul Calibur franchise). He makes an appearance in Soulcalibur V as a Bonus Character in a Quick Battle challenge. He uses the Character Creation exclusive Devil Jin style from the Tekken franchise, the Mishima Style Fighting Karate. His BGM is called "Antares" which is also used in Tekken 5 stage Cathedral. In the game, he use his special outfit, the Heihachi Mishima's Tiger Gi.

Harada maintains fairly active Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Career[edit]

This section is not complete. You can help by expanding it.

Katsuhiro Harada was born on June 10, 1970[1].

During his childhood, videogames were often viewed with a great deal of suspicion within the Japanse community which may have influenced Harada's parents' refusal to buy him a home console and, as a result, he resorted to sneaking off to play video games at the arcades, which often resulted in him being caught and getting dragged away - a pattern which went on for a while. Through working hard at school he ended up securing himself a place at a Waseda University. After graduating from the university, he ended up joining an arcade, taking up a job as a promoter of the arcade.

During his first year working in Namco's arcade, Harada-san smashed the arcade's sales record two months in a row, for which he received an award of commendation from Namco’s president. Thanks to this award, Harada-san now had a platform to approach management and request that they move him into game development. So towards the end of his first year at Namco, they gave him a position on the first Tekken[6] game.

Work[edit]

Image Gallery[edit]

Trivia[edit]

  • Among his fans and colleagues, he is well known to enjoy tequila.
  • He has studied judo, karate and a little bit of taekwondo in the past.[9]
  • During his university studies, he took a few Chinese language courses. Although, he found it very difficult.[10]
  • In Tekken Tag Tournament 2, during a loading screen in the Fight Lab mode, Harada can been seen sitting by the pool being sketched by Violet whilst Combot sits at his feet like a dog.
  • His theme music in the Soul Calibur V is "Antares", the same theme of the Cathedral stage from Tekken 5.
  • Prior to the Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Global Championship, Harada showed some fondness for the Philippines' representative, AK, and gave the competitor a gift on the day before the tournament for his birthday. Harada later went on to state on his note after the tournament that AK "drew the most enthusiastic support from the crowd", and that he "brought back memories of the love of the game when one first starts playing the game".[11]
  • Upon revealing his job as an arcade promoter to his parents, they were devastated and burst into tears.[12]
  • On June 5, 2013, he was reported missing for a week by the Tekken Project team via his twitter account.[13]
  • Harada is revealed to actually love the Philippines' biggest fast food chain, Jollibee.
  • There is a ghost data of Kuma in Tekken Tag Tournament 2 whose username is named after Harada's Twitter account.
  • Harada is also well known as a big fan on Iori Minase, an idol from "The iDOLM@STER" series
  • According to Harada, he was informed of Street Fighter 5 prior to the Las Vegas teaser. He was reportedly contacted by a furious Ono, who was surprised with the leak.
  • A Tekken 4 Tekken Force member is named "Director Harada".
  • He is mentioned by Segata Sanshiro in Project X Zone 2, during a dialogue in the presence of Jin and Kazuya. Humorously, Jin notes that the name is "familiar"

References[edit]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Katsuhiro Harada Facebook Page. Katsuhiro Harada.
  2. Harada talking about character's voice acting pt1. Twitter (2010-10-16). Retrieved 30 October 2010.
  3. Harada talking about character's voice acting pt2. Twitter (2010-10-16). Retrieved 30 October 2010.
  4. Harada talking about character's voice acting pt3. Twitter (2010-10-16). Retrieved 30 October 2010.
  5. Harada talking about character's voice acting pt4. Twitter (2010-10-16). Retrieved 30 October 2010.
  6. Harada was interviewed by the video game magazine Edge.. Edge Online Magazine (2013-09-23). Retrieved 10 December 2013.
  7. Katsuhiro Harada Confirms Soulcalibur V Discussion! | 8WayRun.Com - Soulcalibur. 8WayRun.Com. Retrieved 11 February 2012.
  8. Tekken characters appearing in Urban Reign. GameSpot (2005-07-20). Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  9. Harada talks about your learnings in judo, karate and taekwondo.. Twitter (2013-04-12). Retrieved 10 December 2013.
  10. Harada's tweet about Chinese language.. Twitter (2013-04-06). Retrieved 10 December 2013.
  11. AK, the child prodigy whose talent blossomed.. OKWave (2013). Retrieved 10 December 2013.
  12. When Harada first revealed what he was doing, their parents were devastated.. Edge Online Magazine (2013-09-23). Retrieved 10 December 2013.
  13. Harada was reported missing for a week by the Tekken Project team via his twitter account.. Twitter (2013-06-05). Retrieved 10 December 2013.