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Super Smash Bros./Kirby Creator Masahiro Sakurai's Life Inspires Manga
posted on by Alex Mateo
The manga covers Sakurai's childhood with games, the birth of Kirby, the beginning of Super Smash Bros., Sora Ltd.'s founding, his legacy, and looking towards the future. Sakurai is listed as a supervisor. East Press is publishing the 160-page book.
Sakurai formed his own company Sora Ltd. in September 2005. Through his studio Project Sora, he created the Kid Icarus: Uprising game for Nintendo 3DS in March 2012. His latest entry in the Super Smash Bros. crossover series Super Smash Bros. Ultimate shipped for Nintendo Switch in December 2018. The game includes all previous playable characters and supports eight-player battles.
In August 2022, Sakurai launched his YouTube channel about game development, titled "Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games" and styled after his Mr. Sakurai Presents video presentations. In his finale video, Sakura explained that while waiting for the new team was to be assembled, he decided to start the YouTube channel. Until his most recent videos, he had filmed all of the footage for his channel two and a half years ago.
Sakurai teased in a 46-minute finale special for his YouTube channel in October 2024 that he had received a request to write a game proposal in July 2021, which he had finished at lightning speed. He was able to move forward with production with a target timeframe starting April 2022, but he needed time to assemble a team. Thus, he started planning his YouTube channel about game development during that time. He stated that assuming he is able to get the game made, it should be announced "sooner or later."
The Japanese government's Agency for Cultural Affairs awarded Sakurai with the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's Art Encouragement Prize for the 75th annual awards.
Sources: Masahiro Sakurai's X/Twitter account, Famitsu.com
