My work often combines digital art with themes from folklore and industrial design. When creating the piece for Forza Horizon 6, I focused on how these influences naturally coexist. During a visit to Kyushu, I noticed how powerful natural forces like volcanoes and the sea exist side-by-side with factories and infrastructure – it felt like a continuous landscape, not a clash of opposites. I wanted to depict a hero born from that environment, where natural ‘fire’ and industrial ‘iron’ blend together. I see folklore as an energy within the land itself, and I layered industrial details on top of that to create a realistic world. It’s not about nature versus industry, but a single atmosphere where they’re intertwined, and that’s what I tried to capture in the artwork.
I’ve described my character as a “noble outsider,” someone who operates outside of traditional systems but with a strong personal code of ethics. Kyushu has a long history of cultural exchange, so I envisioned a character who doesn’t fit neatly into any one category. I chose a pirate as the central idea, inspired by Kyushu’s coastal location. While pirates are often seen as outlaws, they can also be viewed as individuals acting on their own beliefs, outside the usual rules. Historically, they sometimes protected those who fell through the cracks of society, engaging in trade outside the law to help others. Ideas of ‘justice’ are relative, so what’s considered ‘evil’ depends on the context. For the people they aided, these pirates might have been protectors, even heroes. This character is based on that kind of figure: an outsider with a sense of purpose and responsibility, not a villain.
