🎨Designed by: Ikumi Nakamura & Mai Mattori
🎨Rendered by: Inko Ai Takita
🎨3D by: Rachel Noy
Pinky☆ is angry. Shunned by a world that doesn’t think a severed pinky-finger is ‘conventionally cute’, a world that can’t appreciate her passion for violence, and worst of all, a world that doesn’t respect mascots. She has a small but fierce circle of friends in town, most of whom she’s helped out of a tight spot (she will do LITERALLY ANYTHING for her pals), but her mischief and superstar personality have proven too much for some townsfolk to handle.
She is the original owner of the mascot agency business, entrusted to her by Matriarch Shimazu, but it soon became clear her strengths lay elsewhere. So her business licence was soon revoked by Mayor Maeda (a crusty old geezer who can’t take a joke) after an unfortunate incident at the mayor’s granddaughter’s birthday party. As a last resort, Pinky converted the agency into a love hotel to keep a roof over her head. A severed finger has to do what she has to do!
When Michi moves into town to take over the business, he is super lucky to have Pinky☆ become his assistant manager (he’d be lost without her 💖) With Michi having to come to terms with operating in a civilian space post-yakuza, and Pinky☆ just needing someone to take a chance on her, together these unlikely besties help each other navigate the world, and fulfil their dreams ✨
Developer Insights:
Michi is a fish very quickly out of water in the game, so we needed a character that would be a guide for players throughout their journey. When we asked our artists to design us a mascot assistant to work with Michi, we knew we wanted her to have big Pop Team Epic and Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! Energy, so that was the main inspiration for her design.
The idea of the character that almost ends up completing Michi and complementing him so well, being a severed finger, after he had to cut off his own in atonement for his actions, was something that we really loved and felt profound. With this in mind, our art director, Rachel really strongly established the theme of characters keeping pinky promises to each other. We knew we wanted the game to be about chasing dreams, no matter who or what you are, and keeping promises naturally fed into that.
Pinky☆ is my favourite character to write. She’s witty and sarcastic, but she means well and has so much heart. She teases Michi constantly, but would do anything to support him. Pinky☆ is one of those people that just needs an opportunity and some support to achieve great things.
Oli Clarke Smith, Game Director
