Shigenori Soejima

• Name — Shigenori Soejima • Native Name — 副島 成記 • Born — 24 February 1974 • Birthplace — Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan • Employer — Atlus • Occupation — Character artist • Years Active — 1995–present • Notable Works — * Persona • Catherine

Shigenori Soejima was born in Kanagawa Prefecture on February 24, 1974. His family moved quite often during his childhood due to his father's office work: a month after his birth, his family moved to Machida, Tokyo, and in future moves relocated to Fukuoka Prefecture, then back to Machida and then to Suginami. During his time in Fukuoka, Soejima attended kindergarten school. While there, he developed a taste for drawing and practiced his skills by copying the characters from Doraemon, a manga series of which he was fond. As his family went through further moves while he was attending first-grade elementary school, he found the frequent changes in his environment unsettling, and became slightly introverted due to not being able to make friends. His drawing became a conciliatory activity during this period. For these early drawings, Soejima used a notepad and ballpoint pens. Eventually, he made some friends in elementary school, who shared his enthusiasm for Doraemon and encouraged him in his pursuit of a career as a cartoonist. During junior high, Soejima developed a love of video games of the time: one of the games he saw was Shin Megami Tensei II, which was recommended to him by a friend. This, and seeing the detailed animation in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, helped influence his future ambitions and character design. Upon recommendation, he entered Tama University after completing his junior high education, earning high marks. While there, he began experimenting with painting alongside his cartoons, now wanting to pursue a career as an animator and character designer. In his second year, he was working part-time and used his wages to buy his first PC to play games, which would prove a great influence for him. During his third year in high school, he began dedicated training in painting at Tokyo University of the Arts, then later gained a place at the Illustration Department of the Tokyo Design Academy after failing to qualify for a place at an arts college. It was at this point that he decided to pursue a professional career in illustration.

He was hired by Atlus upon graduation after impressing Kazuma Kaneko, the studio's art director, during an interview. His first job at Atlus was creating pixel art for Purikura Photo Booth. Soejima's next several projects involved minor work under Kaneko. In this capacity, he worked on Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner, Revelations: Persona and Kartia: The Word of Fate, alongside minor roles in overseeing the PlayStation ports of the first three Shin Megami Tensei games. He acted as sub-character designer for Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers, the Persona 2 games Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment, and was involved in graphics work on Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne. His first job as art director and character designer was on Atlus' PlayStation 2 strategy game Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity. Having eagerly pursued the job after hearing about it from rumors within the company, he was initially overwhelmed as he had a large amount of work to do on the title and had yet to refine his drawing style. By looking back at the days when he drew for fun, he managed to establish his drawing style. For Persona 3, Kaneko put Soejima in charge of art direction for the Persona series, as Kaneko wanted Soejima to grow as a designer. In a later interview, Soejima said that while he respected and admired Kaneko, he never consciously imitated the latter's work, and eventually settled into the role of pleasing the fans of the Persona series, approaching character design with the idea of creating something new rather than referring back to Kaneko's work. Soejima felt a degree of pressure when designing the characters as he did not want to disappoint the series' fanbase. The goal was to make Megami Tensei fans feel gratified that they had supported the Persona series. Soejima returned to design the character Metis for Persona 3 FES. He returned in these roles for the several Persona spin-off games, as well as Catherine (2011) and Metaphor: ReFantazio (2024).

• Year — Title — Role(s) — Ref. • 1995 — Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner — Pixel art • 1996 — Revelations: Persona — Art, cutscenes • 1997 — Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers — Character portraits, item graphics • 1998 — Kartia: The Word of Fate — Background art • 1999 — Persona 2: Innocent Sin — Character portraits, background art • 2000 — Persona 2: Eternal Punishment — Character portraits, background art • 2001 — Shin Megami Tensei — Quality control • 2002 — Shin Megami Tensei II — Supervisor • Shin Megami Tensei If... — Supervisor • 2003 — Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne — Setting concept, event production • 2004 — Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity — Art director, character design • Haisenjyou no Aria — Illustrations (novel) • 2006 — Persona 3 — Art director, character design • 2007 — Persona 3 FES — Art director, character design • Another Century's Episode 3: The Final — Character design • 2008 — Persona: Trinity Soul — Character design • Persona 4 — Art director, character design • 2009 — Persona 3 Portable — Art director, character design • Momoiro Taisen Pairon — Character design • 2011 — Catherine — Art director, character design • 2012 — Persona 4 Golden — Art director, character design • Persona 4 Arena — Art director, character design • 2013 — Persona 4 Arena Ultimax — Art director, character design • 2014 — Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth — Art director, character design • 2015 — Persona 4: Dancing All Night — Art director, character design • 2016 — Persona 5 — Character design • 2018 — Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight — Character design • Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight — Character design • 2019 — Catherine: Full Body — Character design • Persona 5 Royal — Character design • Sakura Wars — Character design (Hakushu Murasame) • 2020 — Persona 5 Strikers — Character design • 2024 — Metaphor: ReFantazio — Character design • 2025 — Persona 5: The Phantom X — Protagonist design

Shigenori Soejima is recorded as illustrator, video game artist, graphic designer and television producer.