NIS President Niikawa considering more anime in games, more games as anime

Nippon Ichi Software President Sohei Niikawa told Joystiq his company may try to introduce more anime cut scenes to games like Disgaea, and spoke about the reverse possibility of a new Disgaea anime. Talking with us at the Tokyo Game Show, Niikawa said he's been able to build closer contacts within the anime industry in his relatively recent dual role as the president of both NIS and NIS America.

"I believe that until recently NIS and NISA were completely different entities on their own," Niikawa explained. "NIS would make games, NISA would sell games. Having worked with both companies, being president for both companies, I believe that we could make a more intertwined relationship.

"NISA has been doing anime before NIS, and because of that I've personally been able to meet more people working with anime, not just games. I originally met the anime industry people as the president of NIS America, but using that connection I gained by being the NISA president, I want to use that for NIS [Japan] as well."

Niikawa's desire to turn NIS games into anime isn't restricted to Disgaea, but the tactics series was the one he namechecked. Anime Makai Sengeki Disgaea graced Japanese TV back in 2006, however, as Niikawa put it, "it didn't do too well."

"The biggest problem was the actual drawings of the anime, it didn't get the reception that we wanted. That being said, I would love to try again [with a Disgaea anime] once. We would love for it to have beautiful pictures compared to before."

When it comes to the games themselves nothing is set in concrete, but Niikawa has ideas in mind for how much anime he'd be looking to add.

"We would love to do opening scenes of a new episode, critical scenes ... and, outside of that, in event scenes we would like to include more illustrations, branching off anime but not quite anime."

Whether or not that translates into what we'll see with the eventual Disgaea 5 remains to be seen. In the meantime, Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness comes to the west in the next few weeks, while in Japan Disgaea 4 Return is due on January 30, 2014.