Yoji Shinkawa

Shinkawa was born in Hiroshima on 25 December 1971. He began working at Konami after graduating from Kyoto Seika University. He first worked as a debugger for the PC-98 version of Policenauts. He moved on to serve as the art director for later console ports of the game, and as the lead character and mecha designer for Metal Gear series, working alongside Hideo Kojima. He served as the art director for all Metal Gear Solid games, while providing character designs for Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. After Kojima left Konami in 2015, Shinkawa also left with him to become the lead artist and character designer for Kojima Productions, where he worked on Death Stranding and its sequel Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. In his work, Shinkawa was inspired by anime and manga artists like Yoshikazu Yasuhiko and Yoshitaka Amano, and western artists such as Frank Miller, Aubrey Beardsley and Willy Pogany. He drew inspiration from French artists such as Mœbius. Shinkawa used felt-tip pens, especially the Pentel Brush Pen, as well as Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter. He is a fan of heavy metal, and artists such as Megadeth, Rage, Killswitch Engage and Yngwie Malmsteen.

Urban Hercules (illustrations) Metal Gear Solid (cover illustration) Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (cover and interior illustrations) Metal Gear Solid Substance I: Shadow Moses (cover illustration) Metal Gear Solid Substance II: Manhattan (cover illustration) Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain (cover illustration) Point of Impact (cover illustration, 2013 Fusosha Mystery edition)

Frame Arms/Frame Arms Girl (mecha/character design for Byakko) Project M (mecha/character designer for Takara Tomy)

Magic: The Gathering – Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty (Satoru Umezawa) Magic: The Gathering – Special Guest: Yoji Shinkawa Secret Lair (Phyrexian Metamorph, Tezzeret the Seeker, Skullclamp, Solemn Simulacrum)