toco toco - Season 2 Episode 1 SUDA51, Game Creator

In today’s episode, we spend a day with SUDA51, a world renowned video game creator famous for No More Heroes, killer7 or Lollipop Chainsaw, games produced by his studio, Grasshopper Manufacture. Our first stop is the Jingu Batting Dome, a batting center located in the heart of Tokyo, that SUDA51 visits from time to time. The batting center setting is featured in The Silver Case, SUDA51’s first game with Grasshopper Manufacture, where it is used as a secret meeting place between two detectives. We will then visit Grasshopper Manufacture, SUDA51’s workplace where he will tell us more about his work, and the philosophy behind his studio. For a brief lunch break, we will head to Megumi-ya, a close-by soba noodles restaurant. Megumi-ya, compared to other traditional noodles restaurants, is themed around the rock universe and plays rock music - which is quite unusual for this type of restaurant. Later in the afternoon, SUDA51 will take a few of his colleagues for drinks to Kawakami, a restaurant nearby, where Kazuki Morishita, president of the Gung Ho group, who acquired Grasshopper Manufacture, is a regular. Our night will end in Shinjuku Golden-Gai, famous for its narrow streets and bars, we will head to the bar plastic model (bpm), where SUDA51 is a regular. The bpm was featured in No More Heroes, and its bartender, Mr. Sekine often plays music from the game, among other of his records from the eighties.