Interview, a wreck-it ralph fanfic

Chomp-Chain Online presents an interview with Fumi Hibiki, lead character designer for Sugar Rush! Mrs. Hibiki began her career in 1983, working as an enemy designer on Fix-it-Felix Jr. 2. From there, her career has crossed several mediums including manga, animation, and illustration. Celebrating 17 years of Sugar Rush, Mrs. Hibiki has graced us with an interview, talking about the starts of her work, the highs and lows and her hopes and dreams for the future!

Elanie Baine: Hello Mrs. Hibiki! I can only tell you what an honor it is to meet you!

Fumi Hibiki: I have to say the same thing. I've been following this site for a while and I'm really glad that I've finally gotten a chance to talk with you guys!

Baine: Really now? We're like on the far corners of the internet and you pick US out of all people?

Hibiki: What can I say? I loved your 'Countdown to the 80s' retrospect of games!

B: Yeah, we mentioned you and several of your other teammates on that list!

H: Goodness. It was a list of embarrassment there! All my early work! Wow, I had to go back through some of my old sketches and I can't believe how far I've gotten!

B: (laughs) I think we all feel that way when we look back on some of our ancient work. Stuff we wish we could forget!

H: (laughs)

B: So you've been working for TobiKomi for more than thirty years now!

H: Yeah! It's a second home for me!

B: That is such an accomplishment but we all want to know, where did it all begin and start?

H: Well, I had originally gone to school to be an illustrator but my older cousin Hiroshi Fumimora, who had graduated about five years ahead of me, had already gotten on the TobiKomi team working on some of their earlier titles. He really got me inspired to work with my drawings but I promised him I would never get into games!

B: REALLY?

H: Yeah, back then I thought it was silly! I was dead-set on becoming a children's book illustrator and I never thought of myself as a designer for games but then he got me into it when he asked me to bring some of my drawings for his coworkers to see. They then gave me all their old sketches and slowly hooked me into games.

H: So when did you join the team?

H: Not long after I had graduated but at the time, I was still doing freelance for small publications. I hadn't really made a name for myself but my cousin did.

B: With Fix-it-Felix Jr?

H: Yup! He worked on that game and came up with the original designs for Felix, Ralph, and the Nicelanders. He's been on the team since and has done design work for other version of the game, including the anniversary edition. In fact, I wouldn't have gotten in had it not been for him.

B: He got you onto the team?

H: Yes but it was for Fix-it-Felix Jr. 2. That game wasn't released in the US or the UK so very little people knew about it at the time.

B: So what was your job there?

H: I was given the task of designing some of the new enemies and obstacles. Hiroshi still did the designs for all the main cast. Ralph, Felix, and the Nicelanders. Those guys. He was given more leeway though in that game which is why they looked more detailed and the Nicelanders actually look like people in that game rather than thumbs.

B: When did your first real character design job come in?

H: That came in 1983. TobiKomi wanted to make another installment of their side-scroller Guardian Seed. A lot of people don't remember that it had two phases before it became a fighting game.

B: Oh yeah! It was a side-scroller and then it became a beat-em-up!

H: Yeah, that's when it got REALLY big and that's when I joined up.

B: So what was your job then?

H: Then, I was put on the staff when the second game was made. They wanted to add new characters and bosses so I was put in with the development team. Guardian Seed 2 was alright but Guardian Seed 3… let me tell you, this was the first big nightmare project I had.

B: How so?

H: For starters, I knew this was a big project. Guardian Seed 1 and 2 had done well and they wanted to expand on it. This was the big one; the one where they finally decided that the game HAD to be a beat-em-up and things were going to be BIG. Bigger levels, harder bosses and with that, I didn't know if my character design set was good enough but they put me together with one of my greatest friends, Koma Yobashi who had worked on the team before.

B: What about the original designer of the characters?

H: That was Yuji Takahara. He had left for Sumi Ink studios by that time but he would come back for Battle Pawz. With Yuji gone, it was up to me and Koma and as I said, it was a nightmare! We were put under a lot of pressure to come up with new designs but for the two main characters, Snapdragon and Mugwort, we had to be extremely careful. We had to handle them with kid gloves because TobiKomi didn't want us to update them TOO much.

B: Too much?

H: We could add SOME new details to them but we couldn't make them so unrecognizable that the fanbase would be upset about it. So Koma and I had to literally dance all over everything to make sure that it was perfect. At one point, I got so upset that I contacted Yuji myself about the designs and nearly cried about how I didn't want to upset him over ruining his characters!

B: Goodness! What did he say!

H: It was the funniest thing! He said I could have made Snapdragon a three hundred foot tall dragon but so long as she was still likable, heroic and spunky he would have loved it!

B: Ironic since she's a dragon anyway!

H: Yes, I know!

B: But when did the break through come? When did you know that you were getting somewhere?

H: That came when Koma and I were doing laundry. At the time, we were bunking together and one night we just had to get our laundry done since it was freezing and we feared we might be snowed in the next day for who knew how long. While we were doing it, Koma played Fix-it-Felix Jr. and I got to thinking 'What if the little man that Ralph throws got so mad he came back and fought Ralph!"

B: Really?

H: By this time, FiF2 had came out and we got a better look at the Nicelander so I took the one that Ralph throws and made him younger, made him a bit taller but still kept in some of his roundness. I also thought that since he hated Ralph so much, he should have the most BITTER and POISONOUS plant I could think of.

B: So that's how Belladonna was created?

H: Yes and when I showed the sketch….it was REJECTED!

B: So how did he end up in the game?

H: I had to do a lot of retooling but I still wanted to keep that homage of Ralph and the mayor in there since Mugwort reminded me so much of Ralph; they're both really big men who you kind of feel are misunderstood due to their power. Belladonna reminded me of the little guy because while he gets tossed about, I could imagine him getting his revenge and being a little nuts while doing it. So I redid his design again; made him a bit longer, made his nose smaller and added in a backstory where his transition to Guardian made his hair blond rather than its natural black but he would still hate Mugwort with a passion and get pleasure from torturing him throughout the game.

B: And you had to shave the mustache.

H: Sadly. I think Belladonna would have looked great with one.

B: But that design went through as we all know.

H: Yeah, though I did put in his bio that 'Belladonna may have a poisonous tongue but he lives for pure joy and pleasure. When he is not planning his next attack, he enjoys being the life of parties, garnering the attention of everyone he comes across."

B: Ha! He seems a lot more likable than the Nicelander!

H: But Belladonna wasn't the biggest hurdle we had during production.

B: Oh?

H: No, the biggest problem we had was the introduction of the newest playable character, Bina Nygo, or as everyone knows her better, Briar. I got the idea when I was waiting for my train and someone had dropped this magazine on a bench about cultural arts and one of the focuses was on ballet. It was printed in both English and Russian for some reason but there was an article about this 15 year old ballet dancer from Ethiopia and how much trouble she went through to get on the stage. I just kept reading and I loved her poses and grace and I thought 'That's it! This is our newest character!' I spent about a week drawing poses and forms of her but even with the final product, the crew said it was going to be hard. They weren't sure if players would warm up to her but after a lot of convincing, I finally got the green light to add her to the team!

B: So how did people take to Bina when she was introduced?

H: Well, here they liked her and I was very glad that they didn't see her as too odd, even for a game like Guardian Seed. But then….

B: Wait, let me guess.

H: You know about this.

B: They changed her into a man.

H: Yeah. A lot of American ports of the game retooled Bina as a man and even some of the American cabinet art featured Mugwort, Snapdragon, and this other 'person' on the side that WASN'T Bina! I was upset for a while but then I realized with the in-game design, it wouldn't be hard for people to be confused, especially since…well, you know.

B: (laughing) Yeah, the ending of Guardian Seed 3 is wonderful since it all threw us for a loop! But what about Guardian Seed: Rebirth? That was the one that really exploded right?

H: I was worried that I wouldn't be brought in for that one because of the entire Bina thing but when a third game was planned and I was put on LEAD designer, I was bouncing off the walls! I was given more control over the designs and with new bosses and levels, I was given more leeyway to be creative! Even better, I was able to add Belladonna to the roster of playable character and since then, he's been a good guy even though he still has a rivalry with Mugwort.

B: Some of the bosses in that game were really nuts though. What was your inspiration for them?

H: Well, since everyone was composed of a plant and an animal, I took a lot of inspiration from my childhood into it. I grew up near a beach and I would always love to see the plants and animals that lived around there. I took that and combined them and built humans up from them. Since there is so much you can do with a plant/animal cross, I got a bit more experimental with the designs for the bosses, since they were MEANT to be insane and scary.

B: I know! Venus gave me nightmares when I was little and I was never able to look at frogs the same way!

H: Good! Though of the new cast, I would have to say that Shark Tooth was my favorite of the bunch since I loved drawing him either posing with his guitar or smiling with all those teeth!

B: I also heard this was the game you decided to get back when the ports made Bina into a man. That's what inspired the circus stage.

H: Yeah! The team and I were talking about what would happen if they tried to make Bina a man again and someone said 'Why not have a stage where you have to play the entire game as your opposite gender?' and we pitched that idea and got a go!

B: I know a stage in Pro brought that back though you had to FIGHT rather than run through that time!

H: Yeah, and we laugh every time!

B: So what happened after Guardian Seed?

H: After the fourth game, there was a bit of a slow-down. By then, TobiKomi wanted to go a different route with them since homeports were doing well but there were a lot of questions being raised about the popularity of the series. Beat-em-ups were still going strong but TobiKomi had a feeling that Guardian Seed needed to expand. While I was waiting, I was put on the production team of Battle Paws, my first real taste at a fighting game.

B: What did you think of that experience?

H: Battle Pawz was a fun experience, just like the others but the most wonderful thing was that it was during this time that I met my husband, Ray.

B: Awww.

H: Yeah. It was so wonderful to work with Ray during the early parts, even though production on that game was hell as well. We were always bouncing ideas off of each other and for a time, we were stuck. It was Guardian Seed 3 all over again since we had to be careful with the designs but we were able to make it through!

B: It so sweet to hear you two inspired each other on that game!

H: It made things a lot easier, that's for sure! I don' think I could have escaped with my sanity without him!

B: So from there, that's when Guardian Seed became a fighting game?

H: No, it was after Guardian Seed Pitch was launched and did badly. I wasn't on the team for that one since it was actually put in the hands of another group but I didn't find it that bad. I mean, it was a side-scroller and it did have its problems but it wasn't the worst thing I had ever played. It was just disheartening that the characters had to be slowed down to much in that but I liked the main idea. There were a lot of bugs but for the studio it was the nail in the coffin for them and they were too scared to try another Guardian Seed beat-em-up after that. That's when it officially went fighting style and I was called back to do some upgrades of the designs. Ray and I worked on that since Ray did a lot of designs for fighting games before we met and we came up with a bunch of new designs for the returning fighters.

B: Sounds like you two had a blast!

H: It was worth it though. A lot of hardcore fans didn't like the idea of hopping a genre but with Battle Pawz' designer on board, it was a sure win. We didn't make it too much like Battle Pawz so it would feel like a clone with new skins. Everything was done so it would feel like a Guardian Seed game but with a new world to it.

B: But after the first game, who was the one who chose to go forward a few years?

H: That was TobiKomi again. They liked the original Guardian Seed characters but with so many of them they didn't want to rehash over and over again too many times so when Pro came out, we were told to age everyone up and add in their children, if they had any. After all, Guardian Seed has no real end set of characters since as the story goes, the number of seeds in the world is endless and people choose to be bad or good. When Pro was pitched, the studio wanted to keep the 'classic' characters but want to add in new ones so that's where the kids came in.

B: And as we all know, that did well too.

H: Yes, and it introduced a new generation to Guardian Seed. My only complaint is that we didn't bring Husk back enough as we should have. He was the original villain in the Guardian Seed series but he didn't come back for Pro or any of the games after that.

H: But what about for Omega? I heard a lot of the classic contenders are coming back for that one!

B: Can't tell. I might blow our cover!

B: So when did you get on with Sugar Rush?

H: In 1995, when development for the game original began, I was called back since in my spare time I was doing a lot of character design work for children's shows while working at TobiKomi. One of those shows was called Sweet Sugar Stars, an old magical girl show. It only lasted about a season but it had a decent following to it. They called me up when they saw what I had done for that and asked me to come up with the design for the kids. I was all on it when I heard the concept; racing with candy and food. I LOVED it!

B: So you just handled the character designs on that one?

H: Yeah, just the characters. Ko Tetsuya did the designs for the tracks and Uni (Harold Ushima) did the designs for the karts but we all had a great time doing it. Sometimes we would actually go out to different restaurants and order desserts and 'study' them to get the feel of the food we were making each character and kart based on!

B: Hope you guys didn't over indulge!

H: Ko did! He always complains that was the game that made him gain weight! I was pregnant at the time so hey, it didn't bother me! But working with Tobikomi and Sugar Cube on this were great and in the end when the game ended up being SO popular overseas, it was just a joy to see how many kids loved it. We started getting fan mail from all over the world telling us who was their favorite racer and a lot of people sent in their original racers! It was so sweet!

B: In that case, if you were a Sugar Rush racer, what would you be!

H: We had jokes about that all over the office! I love jelly beans so I would definitely be a jelly-bean themed racer! My special attack would be throwing exploding jellies on the tracks!

B: I know you and Ray like to sneak in little shots of your past work into Sugar Rush and as a lot of fans can tell, many of the Guardian Seed children worked their way in. Is that the case with all of the racers?

H: Not all of them. Some of them were original but with so many of them on the roster, we were able to add in a lot of references.

B: Is Vanellope a reference? She always reminded me of Foxglove.

H: No, Vanellope was a character we could not touch. The studio already had an idea for her and she was the one we absolutely COULD NOT do major changes to. We could alter things with her dress and tiny, tiny things but her design was more or less locked.

B: Aw, that's a shame. A lot of my friends still think she looks like Foxglove in ways though! A kid version anyway!

H: You think so? (laughs) Vanellope is much too sweet to be like Foxglove! I don't think anyone would want to be like Foxglove, even though I love her to bits.

B: For those that aren't aware of some of the references, what are they?

H: I don't want to give too much away!

B: Just some clues then?

H: Alright! There are five in the game, one of them being a Japanese exclusive so a lot of Americans and Europeans don't know about.

B: I think I might have an idea. But one in particular is EASY to spot! You can't hide her!

H: Yeah, lil Bloom! I always loved Bloom so much and I missed her design when Pro made her an adult. So when Sugar Rush came out, there was a little racer who was written to be on the ditzy side; she liked to eat a lot, always was curious and despite being a bit of an air-head, she always fought through and would surprise you in the end!

B: Like Bloom?

H: Like Bloom! So I thought to myself, what would Bloom look like if she were FOOD themed and I came up with that character.

B: I think the reason she's so popular on a lot of list is because people know who she is!

H: I wonder if people expect her to suddenly start floating or to suddenly reveal that she had 'other plans' the entire time!

B: And for the others?

H: Well, fans of Shark Tooth and Hibiscus should find it easy, considering his real name is Ray N. Bau. And Momiji's daughter is also in the game, sugar-fied and ready to race!

B: And finally….

H: And finally there is a little bit of Ladyslipper thrown in.

B: To be honest, I had no idea until a friend of mine mentioned it. Now that I know, I can't get the image out of my head! It's the eyes! She has Bina's eyes!

H: I did that intentionally. Some of the call outs were already very obvious so with that character, I added in tiny parts of both parents to her. It's just funny though since we were asked to come up with parents for the kids but the ones that were finalized were never used. I would have loved to see candy version of the Guardians though, especially from the ones I mentioned. They would fit right into the world….in their own odd little way!

B: The children race all day but the parents destroy things! Seems like a perfect family!

H: (laughs) It would very exciting, that's for sure!

B: You seem to have a knack for hiding Easter Eggs everywhere!

H: Yeah! I love doing stuff like that and when I played Sugar Rush for the first time, it was just so exciting to see how everything came together. It is one of my favorite games that I worked on; the colors, the racing and the rush just go together so well. I still find it a beautiful game after all these years and I just have to say that I was lucky and blessed to work on it.

B: I heard there was going to be a boss in that game? An evil king?

H: Yes, but after thinking about it. TobiKomi scrapped the idea. Hacks have been able to find his design in the game but more or less, he just didn't fit too well with the mood of the game.

B: Was that were Husk went?

H: Sort of. I did some work on a King version of Husk but he just looks so odd sugarfied! Plus since I had to shrink everyone down to size, he came out really scary looking. Husk was about six foot five in the original Guardian Seed game so it was laughable seeing him at only three feet tall with NO HAIR!

B: So after Sugar Rush, what did you work on?

H: I did some more Guardian Seed games but teams for that have always been back and forth, hence why the style is so different from game to game. But with the anniversary coming up, I'm getting back on the team! I can't wait for it!

B: I heard it's going to be an update of Guardian Seed: Rebirth.

H: And that's why I can't wait! I'm making updated versions of all the characters but they'll be fighting back in the original story of Rebirth. Imagine the likes of Mugwort, Snapdragon, Briar, and Belladonna in HD with new deigns!

B: Did you work on Hero's Duty? I know a lot of TobiKomi designers came back for that as well.

H: Yes, but not to the extent as my husband. He was one of the lead character designers of the team while I worked on enemy design again and on a few of the lesser known background characters. Making the Cybugs was a blast though since I love drawing creatures and monsters.

B: Were there any cameos from your early work in that game?

H: No, but I would like to think what would happen if some Sugar Rush kids got into the game! (laughs) Ray and I agree that Swizzle would have been one of the major techs in the game and he'd run through with this gun that's almost five times his size and shooting everything in sight!

B: And Minty would try to punch the bugs in the face?

H: Yes! She would try to do that!

B: With the anniversary of Sugar Rush this year, are you back on the team?

H: Of course! Like Guardian Seed, everyone is coming back for this one but the best part is that we're finally going to have a lot of the TobiKomi family race through this! So that means Felix and Ralph will have their own karts, the original four Guardians will drive and a lot of other people will be easy to spot and even unlocked as playable characters!

B: Oh, that sounds awesome!

H: It will be the year of Sugar Rush that's for sure and I hope for each anniversary I will be able to contribute something to it!

B: Everyone here hopes so too since we love your work!

H: So here's to the future?

B: Here's to the future!