The bus drops us all off in central Osaka. From there, I rely on my phone to maneuver through the business district and arrive at Aizawa Productions.

The building’s a modern, two-story office space with just a touch of architectural flare. No one greets me at the front door.

In the lobby are two security guards and a receptionist. I approach the receptionist, who looks up at me and smiles.

“Hello, there!” She greets me in English. “Welcome to Aizawa Productions! Are you expected?”

“Hideyoshi Iida is expecting me. He’s giving me a tour of the building.”

“A tour? You must be a very important person to tour the studio. Mr. Hideyoshi will be with you shortly. In the meantime, you can have a seat in one of our comfortable lobby chairs.”

I do not find the lobby chairs to be so comfortable. Restless, leaning forward, my right leg jitters up and down.

Every minute or so, someone steps into the lobby and I peek up, but twenty minutes go by and nothing, until…

I hear my name from the building’s entrance.

Iida arrives and crosses the lobby toward me. I stand up and bow in respect. Iida catches my shoulder and grabs my hand, smiling as he vigorously shakes it up and down.

“Welcome to Aizawa Productions. Welcome to Japan! I was told your flight landed this morning. Is this true?”

I nod. “Yes. Yeah, I am very tired.”

“I apologize for-”

“But excited! This is a dream come true for me.”

“We are in crunch now, as you know. Aizawa-san’s schedule is extremely tight. Here, follow me and I can show you the development floor.”

Iida guides me out of the lobby. As we make our way deeper into the building, we casually by iconic memorabilia like it’s nothing. I want to stop every couple of feet like it’s a museum. We pass twin long-swords Saint & Sinner, landscapes of Castle Penetralia, the Nameless Land, and the Lonely Sea, and- no big deal- A life-size statue of the King of Secrets!

“Azuma works day-and-night, over one hundred hours a week. He is extremely passionate about finishing this project on time. It will be a first in company history.” 

Iida and Azuma had started this studio back in the 90s. Together, with the help of four other designers, they had created a masterpiece.

“I have seen your videos playing our game. Your mastery has surpassed all of us who worked on the original. Some people are not happy to see the levels finished so fast, but I think…”

Iida stops in front of me to collect his thoughts.

“I think about how thankful I am that something I helped to make is loved so much and is still loved… If you will follow me through here, this is our primary studio floor.” 

There is no fanfare, no dramatic crescendo, just light chatter across an open office. There are some dividers between the desks, but no cubicles, and plenty of bright computer monitors with levels and code and character models.

“Mio Shinoda, our technical art director.” 

“Ohayōgozaimasu.” 

I understand his greeting, but don’t say anything back, way too afraid of embarrassing myself.

“Masahiro Yamasaki, audio director and composer.” 

“Hello, how are you?” Masahiro greets me in English. 

“I’m fine, thank you.” 

As Iida guides me across the studio floor, personally introducing me to everyone working on the game, the elephant in the room just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

“Where’s Azuma?” I ask, catching Iida off-guard. 

A few people perk up at their desks and look over, returning to their monitors when Iida catches them. 

“Azuma remains our leader, and he remains the president of the studio, however...” Iida hesitates, scanning the studio floor. “Follow me.” 

  Without another word, I follow Iida out of the studio and all the way back down the hall. At the very end of the hall, across from the bathrooms, is what appears to be a maintenance closet.

Iida knocks on the door. 

“Ohairikudasai.” 

Iida opens the door to the maintenance closet and, sitting there in a steel folding-chair, is the Creator himself, Azuma Aizawa.