Veteran Atlus artist and character designer Kazuma Kaneko has left the Japanese company. Kaneko departed in 2023, ending a tenure that lasted 35 years, joining Tokyo-based publisher and developer COLOPL. He revealed the same in an official interview recently published by his new employer.
In the interview, when asked about his decision to leave Atlus and join COLOPL, Kaneko revealed that he was introduced to the opportunity by a career agent. With COLOPL working on a new IP, Kaneko felt that “planning and releasing a game from scratch was very much in line with my work.”
“I’m good at creating IP from scratch, so I thought that was a good match,” he said.
Kaneko joined Atlus in 1988, and across his 35-year tenure, he worked in a number of positions, including character designer, art director, creature designer, and more. His credits include major franchises such as Shin Megami Tensei, Persona, Devil Summoner, and more.
