What does Suda 51 actually do, anyway?

[Administrator]

Think of Grasshopper Manufacture and there's one person that comes to mind: Suda Goichi (aka Suda 51). The eccentric director of Killer7 and No More Heroes has received lots of accolades over his bizarre body of work. Whether it was the surreal nightmare of Killer7, the frenzied punk catharsis of No More Heroes, or the slapstick scatological humour of Shadows of the Damned, Grasshopper's bold, askew take on action, story and presentation is unmistakably from the house that Suda built.
Yet despite being the face of Grasshopper Manufacture, the studio he spawned, Suda perhaps isn't the maestro people think. In fact, the last game he directed was No More Heroes way back in 2008.
This hasn't stopped Suda from taking the limelight for Grasshopper's last several titles. The Suda 51 brand has a lot of critical cache, so it's little wonder to see it heavily flaunted in marketing materials for one Grasshopper title after another. Look closer, however, and you'll see that the actual directors of No More Heroes 2, Lollipop Chainsaw and Killer is Dead were all different people. In fact, Shadows of the Damned's director, Massimo Guarini, wasn't even credited for the game's Japanese release as he left the company between its western and eastern launch.
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