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nassekova

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So I got Vimana with original Japanese marquee art. Noticed later that the poster has some pen writing on it. I had my friends wife (she is Japanese) try to translate what it says. She was not complete sure, but guessed it might be signed by "Imamatsu". I then went to Wikipedia, but it seems that there was no "lmamatsu" (if that is a surname) working on Toaplan.

So perhaps you guys can help me with this one? Does it say "lmamatsu" and does any one know what that could mean?

Wikipedia lists these as a Toaplan staff:

  • Masahiro Yuge – One of the six original team members and frequent composer.[1][/sup][sup][7][/sup][sup][12][/sup][sup][13][/sup][sup][14][/sup] Later worked at Takumi Corporation and Eighting on several projects.[sup][6]
  • Tatsuya Uemura – One of the six original team members and frequent composer.[1][/sup][sup][7][/sup][sup][12][/sup][sup][13][/sup][sup][14][/sup] Later worked at Gazelle and Eighting on several projects.[sup][6]
  • Toshiaki Tomizawa – Music composer for Demon's World, Zero Wing and Vimana.[1][/sup][sup][14][/sup][sup][20][/sup] Co-founder of CAVE.[sup][6][/sup][sup][31]
  • Osamu Ōta – Music composer for Wardner, Rally Bike and Twin Hawk.[1][/sup][sup][14][/sup] Producer of Gekirindan at Taito.[sup][6]
  • Toshiaki Ōta – One of the six original team members and head of software development.[2][/sup][sup][6][/sup][sup][7][/sup][sup][12][/sup][sup][13][/sup] Co-founder of Tamsoft.[sup][6][/sup][sup][7][/sup][sup][13]
  • Naoki Ogiwara – Artist and designer for Truxton and Out Zone.[4][/sup][sup][9][/sup][sup][20][/sup][sup][14][/sup] Co-founder of CAVE.[sup][6][/sup][sup][31]
  • Kōetsu Iwabuchi – Artist for Guardian and Twin Cobra.[4][/sup] Later served as planning manager for Grind Stormer.[sup][32]
  • Yuko Tataka – Frequent character designer.[5][/sup][sup][6]
  • Sanae Nitō – Frequent character designer.[5][/sup][sup][6]
  • Tsuneki Ikeda - Programmer for Grind Stormer and Batsugun.[32][/sup][sup][33][/sup][sup][34][/sup][sup][35][/sup] Co-founder of CAVE.[sup][6][/sup][sup][13][/sup][sup][31][/sup][sup][35]
  • Junya Inoue - Designer for Dogyuun, Knuckle Bash and Batsugun.[36][/sup][sup][37][/sup] Later worked at Gazelle and CAVE on several projects.[sup][36][/sup][sup][37][/sup][sup][38]
  • Yusuke Naora - Graphic designer for Grind Stormer. Later worked at Square Enix on several projects.[36][/sup][sup][39]
  • Kenichi Takano - One of the six original team members and designer for Performan.[7][/sup][sup][8][/sup][sup][12][/sup][sup][13][/sup] Co-founder of CAVE.[sup][6][/sup][sup][13][/sup][sup][31][/sup][sup][35]
  • Yuichirō Nozawa - One of the six original team members and designer for Twin Hawk.[8][/sup][sup][12][/sup][sup][13]
  • Atsushi Kawaguchi - One of the six original team members and artist for Demon's World.[8][/sup][sup][12]
Here is the art with the "signature"
writing.png



I found that Visco Corporation had an programmer for NeoGeo named Kenichi Imamatsu but why would he sign Toaplan art...

It seems to be some rare kanji: 威馬松 , Google translates it as:Weimamatsu
 
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My Chinese friend told me that it might be Chinese.. Taiwanese or HK to be more exact. The first two symbols she can read 威马 the last one she doesn’t recognize, but she’s going to ask some other Chinese friends :)

she said that it “might” be a name :)

@edit: she told me that the last symbol is 拉

To her eyes that’s Chinese, not Japanese.

something like Weimala. A funny strange name (her words) :)
 
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by the way... I think we are over complicating things. I think the Chinese dude just wrote Vimana in Chinese...

at least the kanji’s are phonetically similar.

@edit: my Chinese friend just confirmed it, what you have writen is the chinese “translation” of Vimana
 
by the way... I think we are over complicating things. I think the Chinese dude just wrote Vimana in Chinese...

at least the kanji’s are phonetically similar.

@edit: my Chinese friend just confirmed it, what you have writen is the chinese “translation” of Vimana
So Occam’s razor cut in here and "the simplest solution is most likely the right one" :D


Thanks @deibit !
 
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