Shiro Maekawa is a former Sega and Sonic Team employee, known for being a writer in the Sonic the Hedgehog series.
Originally wanting to be an animator, Shiro Maekawa first worked in Sonic Adventure as a Game Designer, but following Sonic Adventure 2 he would become a writer in some of the games of the decade of the 2000s for Sonic. He was also involved in Sonic X as a supervisor.
By his own admission, he hasn't worked on anything after his departure from Sega.
His works include, in chronological order:
- Sonic Adventure (1998) (Visual Memory Game Designer, Field Designer, A-Life System Designer)
- Sonic Adventure 2 (2001) (Scenario Writer, Story Event Designer)
- Sonic Heroes (2003) (Director, Scenario Writer, Main Game Designer, Enemy Game Designer, Story Board Designer)
- Sonic X (2003-6) (Character Designer, Supervisor, Special Animation Director)
- Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) (2006) (Game Script)
- Sonic and the Secret Rings (2007) (Game Designer)
- Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (2008) (Game Mode Designer, Story Board Designer, Story Plotter)
- Sonic and the Black Knight (2009) (Uncredited story writer)
Shiro Maekawa provide examples of:
- Creator's Favorite:
- He likes Team Chaotix, finding writing Charmy's dialogue to be very fun, and would love to write them again.
- He considers Shadow the Hedgehog to be among his favorite characters, coming from the first game he ever wrote. He consistently reshares pictures of Shadow and Maria on his personal Twitter account.
- Creator's Favorite Episode:
- Sonic Adventure 2, being the first game he wrote for, has a special attachment to him. If he could rewrite it, he would add the scenes that were cut.
- Sonic and the Black Knight. He recalls how, despite its simplicity, he managed to convey the theme he wanted to in its short length. After the game came out, his wife played it and praised it for the first time.
- Inspiration for the Work:
- According to
an interview with Emi Jones, he was inspired by movies from Hayao Miyazaki and Mamoru Oshii, citing Ghost in the Shell and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind in particular. - He claims he was inspired by Please Save My Earth for the scene of Shadow and Maria looking at the Earth aboard the Ark in Sonic Adventure 2. He was more than pleased to know Yuri Shiratori, who voices Maria Robotnik, voiced Alice Sakaguchi in Save my Earth.
- According to
