Who is Shigesato Itoi?

Shigesato itoi (糸井 重里) was born November 10th, 1948. He is widely known across Japan for being a high influence figure for many reasons. He has done many things in his career, which includes writing books, creating websites, film and television, song writing, even voice acting, most notably being the voice actor for the father Tatsuo Kusakabe, in the Ghibli Studio's animated film, My Neighbor Totoro. He is very known also as a famous essayist, and copywriter.

What he's really known for outside of his home country however is being a video game designer for a certain trilogy of games called the Mother series for the gaming company Nintendo. Even though only one out of the three of the games have had an official translation and outside release, which was Mother 2, or more known as it's english title, "Earthbound," fans of the game have much praise for its creator, enough to create an entire unofficial english translation for the third installment in the series.

When someone plays one of the Mother games, they get an insight on Itoi as well. Every single sentence in the games were written entierly by him. The characters and their creative quirky enviornments were also designed by him, making the series one of the most unique in Nintendo's library. His influences show as well, most notably The Beatles in some references in the games. He is also known to be the game designer for Shigesato Itoi's No. 1 Bass Fishing, which was also a Nintendo title, not as much known as the Mother series however.