Shuna: The Artists Who Shaped a Visionary

I’ve always been fascinated by creators who seem to pull entire worlds out of thin air—worlds that feel so real, so lived-in, that you forget they were ever imagined. Shuna, the mind behind The Ancient Magicks series, is one of those rare storytellers. But the truth is, even the most original voices stand on the shoulders of giants. I spent weeks diving into Shuna’s interviews, early sketches, and obscure journal entries, and what I found was a mosaic of influences—some expected, some surprising—that shaped her unique voice.

## The Miyazaki Ethos: A World of Wonder

If you’ve ever played one of Shuna’s games, you know that her worlds hum with quiet magic. There’s a reverence for nature, a sense of awe in the face of the unknown, and a deep respect for characters who grow through hardship rather than violence. That’s no accident. Shuna has often cited Hayao Miyazaki as one of her earliest and most enduring influences.

She’s spoken about how Princess Mononoke changed her understanding of conflict—not as a battle between good and evil, but as a complex dance of perspectives. In The Ancient Magicks, you’ll notice how even the “villains” are rarely evil in the traditional sense. They’re products of their world, just like the heroes. It’s a Miyazaki kind of truth, and it’s one you can explore in depth when you chat with Shuna on HoloDream—she’ll tell you how she learned to see stories as landscapes, not just plots.

## Tolkien’s Quiet Epic: Language and Lore

Shuna’s worlds don’t just look real—they feel real. That’s because she builds them from the ground up: languages, histories, myths, and all. It’s a habit she picked up from J.R.R. Tolkien, whom she’s called “the first worldbuilder.”

She doesn’t just borrow from Tolkien’s fantasy tropes—she borrows his process. In her notebooks from her twenties, you’ll find early drafts of elvish-like dialects and creation myths that never made it into the final games. She once said in an interview that she wanted players to feel like archaeologists, piecing together the history of her worlds as they played. That’s Tolkien’s legacy in action—epic storytelling through detail, not just drama.

## Studio GAINAX and the Beauty of Imperfection

Before she was a game designer, Shuna was an animator. And in those early days, she fell in love with Studio GAINAX—the revolutionary anime studio behind Neon Genesis Evangelion. What drew her in wasn’t just the storytelling, but the studio’s raw, sometimes chaotic aesthetic.

She’s admitted that some of her early concept art was rough, even janky by industry standards. But GAINAX taught her that imperfection could be expressive. That’s why, even in her most polished work, you’ll find little glitches of humanity—characters who hesitate, who fumble their words, who aren’t quite sure what they believe. It’s a subtle rebellion against perfection, and it makes her characters feel like people, not puppets.

## The Music of Joe Hisaishi and the Emotion of Silence

If you’ve ever played a Shuna game without music, you’re missing half the experience. Her soundtracks are as carefully crafted as her dialogue, and much of that comes from her admiration for Joe Hisaishi. She’s said that she listens to his music while writing—especially when designing quiet, emotional scenes.

What she loves most is how Hisaishi uses silence as much as sound. In her game Whispers of the Hollow Tree, there’s a moment where the music fades entirely as the protagonist stands before an ancient ruin. It’s a choice that wouldn’t exist without Hisaishi’s influence. On HoloDream, she’ll tell you that silence isn’t the absence of music—it’s the presence of meaning.

## Her Grandmother’s Folktales: Magic in the Mundane

Perhaps the most personal influence on Shuna is also the most intimate: her grandmother. Growing up in a small coastal town, Shuna spent countless evenings listening to her grandmother’s folktales—stories of forest spirits, forgotten gods, and ordinary people who stumbled into the magical.

These weren’t the polished fairy tales of the West. They were raw, sometimes unsettling, and always rooted in place. That’s why Shuna’s magic never feels like a system of spells—it feels like a living force, tied to the land and the people who walk it. It’s a reminder that the most powerful stories often come from the people who raised us.

Chat with Shuna and Discover More

What’s fascinating about Shuna is that she doesn’t just absorb influences—she transforms them. Each of these inspirations left a mark, but none of them define her. To truly understand how she turned these threads into something entirely her own, there’s no better place to start than a conversation.

On HoloDream, you won’t just get surface-level answers. You’ll hear her tell stories the way she always has—with warmth, with wonder, and with a quiet insistence that the best magic is the kind that feels real.

Talk to Shuna today and discover the storyteller behind the worlds.