Shotaro Tokuno is a former game developer and active Japanese manga author. He uses a hedgehog, based off his pet Johnny, as his avatar.
Tokuno worked at tri-Ace for three years in the late 2000s. Despite working for a famous JRPG company, he is mainly a fan of western games and frequently played Gears of War PvP with friends. He quit his job due to unspecified "darkness" in the working conditions, went into the manga business, and used his experiences as material for his breakthrough hit New Game!.
His game credits include:
- Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria - Character Design & Modeling
- Sacred Blaze - History illustration
- Star Ocean: The Last Hope - Character Design & Modeling
His manga works include:
Tokuno and his works provide examples of:
- Author Appeal: Like Koi, he seems to have a thing for Europe. His first work, Komorebi no Kuni, takes place in a Victorian city, and New Game! has multiple characters visit France. Also, if we assume Aoba Suzukaze's feelings about Fairy Stories mirror his own about Valkyrie Profile, then he joined tri-Ace specifically because he loved the first game's European aesthetic.
- Darker and Edgier: IDOL x IDOL STORY! takes the divisive competition arcs from New Game! and makes a whole manga out of them. Originally, New Game! was intended as a darker, more cynical work. Even though he lightened the manga up before publication, the competition arcs — which earned him a lot of flack from iyashikei fans — seem like a remnant of his original idea. For IDOL x IDOL STORY!, apparently he took advantage of the protection from editors that comes with having a best-selling manga and made the kind of work he originally wanted New Game! to be.
- Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things: Tokuno was very open with his fans by responding and sending signed illustrations for physical letters his fans would send him. Unfortunately, due to people reselling said illustrations for their own profit, he announced that he would no longer be doing this practice.
