Akira Watanabe was an art director at Sega. He was responsible for the majority of production and game artwork in Sega games from the late 1980s to early 1990s. His most famous work was the original Sonic the Hedgehog. After completing his work on OutRunners for the Mega Drive, he was transferred to Sega's AM1 department.
Watanabe's first work with Sega was in 1987 on the anime Zillion. He also contributed to the 16-bit versions of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Pengo, Turbo Outrunners, WaveRunner, and Motor Raid. His final work was on the arcade version of The House of the Dead 2 in 1998.
Credits
Games
- Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
- Japanese character artwork and cover design
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2
- Japanese character artwork
- Sonic the Hedgehog CD
- Japanese character artwork
- Sonic Chaos
- Japanese character artwork