Satoru Homma (Japan Country Manager and Producer of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners) was kind enough to give us an interview via email.
Anime Herald: What is your origin story? How did you first enter the industry?
Satoru Homma: I started my career in the video game industry as a localization producer at the Japanese video game publisher Spike Chunsoft. During my time there, I was responsible for localizing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt into Japanese. In 2017, I became Japan Country Manager at CD PROJEKT RED and soon after, became one of the founding members of the anime production team.
Anime Herald: The Cyberpunk universe provides a lot of different avenues for storytelling. What was behind the decision to keep Edgerunners to a single season?
Satoru Homma: We originally envisioned David’s arc as being standalone, and were absolutely blown away by the response to the story we created. However, we always knew there are plenty of more stories to explore in Night City, and we’re excited to do just that with Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2, which will feature a new story and cast of characters.
Anime Herald: What are the current projects you can talk about?
Satoru Homma: I’m currently working as one of the producers for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2. I’m also involved in other projects, but unfortunately, I can’t share any details about them yet. CD PROJEKT RED is a fantastic company because it provides opportunities to work on exciting new projects, even though I’m working remotely, far, far away from Warsaw in Poland.
Anime Herald: Can you share a story about working for CD PROJEKT RED that shows how their company culture works?
Satoru Homma: Everyone at CD PROJEKT RED is deeply passionate about what they do. If someone is a story writer, they truly love crafting narratives. The same applies to artists, sound engineers, and everyone else. This passion can sometimes lead to disagreements when working with external collaborators, such as story writers or creative professionals involved in external productions like Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. However, we’ve proven that working together on joint solutions ultimately pays off and leads to amazing results.
Anime Herald: How did you end up working with Arc System Works to put a character into Guilty Gear?
Satoru Homma: Miyauchi-san, the producer of Guilty Gear -STRIVE-, reached out to me through a mutual acquaintance. Initially, they proposed including Geralt from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. While it was an intriguing idea, Geralt had already been featured in a fighting game before, and I had handled that project as well. It felt a bit like repeating the same process. At the same time, we hadn’t done any Edgerunners crossovers with video game IPs, so I counter-proposed the idea of working with Edgerunners instead. Thankfully, they were kind enough to take the suggestion seriously!
A Conversation With Satoru Homma of CD Projekt Red – Seth Burn