Have you unlocked Zombie Mode in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game yet? Press Down, Up, Right, Down, Up, Right, Down, Up, Right, Right, Right. Anyways, PixelDrip continues its look at the people behind this great game. Today, I bring to you my interview with pixel animator, Jonathan “Persona” Kim!

Mark Batalla: Let’s get things rolling, Jonathan. Where are you based?

Jonathan “Persona” Kim: Here’s the little blurb I use for film festival submissions: “A Korean-American animator based in Los Angeles, Jonathan Kim fuses video games, pop culture, and rock to make his movies. He likes to pet puppies and listen to old Sega music on his free time.”

MB: How long have you been doing art?

JPK: I’ve been drawing since childhood. I remember drawing crude versions of Metal Man and Crash Man a lot as a five-year-old because I thought their visors and arms were the coolest. I also drew lots of Sonic since that came out when I was around six. That kind of messed me up for a decade though because I never got used to normal human proportions and had trouble drawing necks on people. The lesson here is to not let kids draw Sonic.

MB: Would you consider yourself self-taught or did you develop more from classes?

JPK: Both? Neither?

MB: Which video games are you into at the moment?

JPK: Valkyria Chronicles 2 is coming out so I borrowed my friend’s PS3 to try and beat the first game before the second one comes out. I only played the original for a week, speed running the game because I only had access to a PS3 for that long. I only got a little over halfway through the game. Now I can finally complete it and enjoy it before hopping on to the PSP sequel.

Besides that, I’ve been playing Dragon Quest IX, the Phantasy Star Portable 2 demo, Persona 3 Portable, and Mamotte Knight (Protect Me Knight).

MB: Who are your some of your favorite artists?

JPK: I’m a fan of the Capcom artists like Akiman, Kinu Nishimura, CRMK, and Taksuya Yoshikawa. Also, cool guys on Pixiv like JNTHED, しむろ, CHANxCO, and FGZ. There’s PSO artist Akikazu Mizuno, mangaka Kiyohiko Azuma, “Megaten” artist Kazuma Kaneko, mecha designer Hajime Kataoki, and Yoji Shinkawa.

MB: That’s quite the list. Do you feel that they influenced your style or are you merely a fan of their work?

JPK: Unfortunately, I’m an idiot and don’t learn from their styles.

MB: Do you prefer doing illustration or animation?

JPK: I like doing comics the most because it’s the most direct way to have storytelling and characterization portrayed in a clear way. Unfortunately, I seem to waste my medium drawing video game parodies instead of good original work.

MB: You’ve done animation work on the Scott Pilgrim game. How did you get involved with that project?

JPK: I’m friends with Paul Robertson so when the game needed animators that could do pixel animation, he brought me on board. Thankfully, the timing worked out because I had just graduated so I could move to Canada and work on it.

MB: How do you enjoy being part of creating a video game as opposed to just playing the final product?

JPK: It feels nice to know what the inside is like. It’s kind of like being inside a car rolling off the cliff as it plummets into a fiery explosion as opposed to just watching it on Youtube. It’s also interesting to see how fantastically skewed the fans’ perception of game development is compared to the actual work environment and reality of budgets and schedules.

MB: So how did you go about picking “Persona” as your online name?

JPK: I picked it initially because it was short for “Persona non grata.” I thought that communicating on the Internet felt a lot like putting on facades and left me feeling alienated. This was back when the Internet was still clunky and awkward and not nearly as integrated into our daily lives, where communication only consisted of AOL chatrooms between people whose usernames were just mashes of their personal name and random digits. Everything felt more ambiguous and awkward and it was an odd alienating sensation trying to feel out other people through a computer.

MB: Wow, I just had a flashback of Xanga, and Tripod, and GeoCities.

JPK: Now kids have their asses on Facebook since birth. There’s no division between self and the Internet, so this idea is probably completely foreign to them.

MB: So do you go by Persona anywhere else?

JPK: Actually, when I first went to Ubisoft to work on the game, the producer wanted to call me Persona because there were already two other Jonathans working on the project. So for a few weeks they called me Jonathan until it grew confusing. Paul would just call me Jon and others would call me Jo (which is how they shorten Jonathan in French), and so it just became whatever people wanted to call me. In the game, I asked to be credited Jonathan “Persona” Kim, which was pretty nice.

MB: How do you feel about the Atlus’s franchise of the same name?

JPK: I only got into the Persona series because someone pointed out there was a game series with the same name. I got curious so I picked it up. I started with the PlayStation version of Persona 1 and enjoyed them ever since because of their dark atmosphere, modern day setting, and compelling storytelling. “Megaten” games are really the only JRPGs worth playing. Actually, people shouldn’t be playing JRPGs at all.

MB: I’m going to have to agree with you there. The genre got really stagnant for me after Final Fantasy IX. Atlus is the only reason I’m still playing JRPGs. Like, I can’t play games as much as I want due to my schedule, but I couldn’t put Persona 4 down. I actually ended up playing the game in real time (the story takes place over a span of one year).

JPK: If you enjoyed Persona 4 and haven’t played Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, you should really get on that. Nocturne and P4 are the best “Megaten” games, though they’re kind of on opposite ends of the spectrum.

MB: Any thoughts on their upcoming Catherine game?

JPK: I like the character models. They’re really well modeled and do damn good justice to Soejima’s art style. Also, the style reminds me a lot of the No More Heroes character models, which is a pretty good thing. Then again, the Atlus 3D modelers are pretty great in general. I love their renditions of Kaneko’s artwork, especially Raido Kuzunoha, Serph, and the Demifiend. A lot of times, I feel like the 3D models look a lot better than the actual character art.

As for Catherine as a game, I’m not too interested. My friend drew an awful picture of Cathy (the newspaper comic strip) as Catherine and it’s kind of ruined whatever future enjoyment I could get from the game for a while. Still, I have no doubt it’ll be a great game because the Persona team can do no wrong at this point.

MB: You’ve also participated in the 24 Hour Comic Challenge. Do you plan on doing so again this year? What’s your experience like with that challenge?

JPK: Yeah, the 24 hour comic challenge is great. I plan on doing it every year if I can. The experience of trying to think of a plot and characters, then rushing to finish as many pages as possible while still keeping together a coherent story is pretty engaging. Also, the crowd that gathers is always real friendly and it’s fun to see what they come up with. It’s like 24 hours of camaraderie in creativity.

MB: I’ve done it twice myself. I think that creative environment really helps once the delirium kicks in around hour 15.

JPK: On a related subject, my friends and I have been printing our own fancomics for the last six years or so for anime conventions, and the experience is pretty similar. It’s pretty fun to buckle down and work together to produce something that people can enjoy.

MB: So what projects are you currently working on now?

JPK: I’m working on some stuff for a next-gen 2D fighting game along with Kinuko a.k.a Mariel Cartwright. There should be news on that in the coming months. I also started a weekly webcomic on a bet with a friend. The idea is to see who’ll have the more popular webcomic after a year. Mine is called “Instruction Space” and his is called “The English Space Brigade.”

MB: I tried doing a contest like that with fellow PixelDrip artist, Megan Horejsi. I lasted a month. Well, at least she stopped doing her comic shortly afterward so it was a small victory.

JPK: I’m also working on a Phantasy Star Online trade comic with Matt Braly a.k.a. Radrappy. We do two pages at a time and then trade it with each other without talking about any details or anything in-between. It’s in anticipation of the PSO 10th anniversary which is coming up in January 2011, but really it’s just an excuse to draw lots of PSO stuff.

MB: What’s the best way to keep up to date on what you’re up to?

JPK: I haven’t updated my site in a while but you can check the MECHA FETUS Visublog and my deviantART. You can also follow personasama on Twitter and subscribe to the PersonaSama Youtube Channel.

MB: Do you have any friends with projects you’d like us to check out?

JPK: There’s Jo Lavigne’s ninja platformer, Ninja Senki. I just want to pressure him to release it so I can play it already.

MB: When I talked to him, he said it’ll be ready on PC by the end of the year.

JPK: I also have a friend that’s head of the translation team for Segagaga on the Dreamcast. The project has seen its down time but now but apparently they’re back in action and I hope it’s for good. Segagaga is the ultimate Sega fanservice game and everyone who has a dream of Opa-Opa in his heart or hears the scream of Dragonland should pick it up.

MB: Count me in! Thanks again for taking some time to talk with us, Jonathan. Hope to hear more from you soon.