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David Liu reimagines SNES characters for the River City Girls Zero trailer

by Edward Hartley

16 September 2022
The main characters of River City Girls Zero, laughing as they skip school.

When classic games get ported, remade or reimagined for modern consoles, new generations of fans have opportunities to discover titles like the River City Ransom series. In 2019, WayForward Games and Arc System Works released new entries to the series in River City Girls and the upcoming River City Girls 2, where Misako and Kyoko rescue their kidnapped boyfriends. Due to the game’s popularity, a Super Famicom entry in the series, Shin Nekketsu Kōha: Kunio-tachi no Banka, was rereleased on modern consoles as River City Girls Zero.

Bringing these fan-favorite characters to life for the prequel were a team of animators headed by art director, animator and developer, David Liu. David directed the animated trailer for River City Girls Zero, inspired by ‘90s anime. Using Toon Boom Harmony and Storyboard Pro, his team of merry delinquents at Empty Cel Studio were able to deliver on the project with an efficient and collaborative production process. 

We spoke with David about the work that went into this project. He describes the research that went into the adaptation, from delving into archival material to watching Let’s Plays of the original games. He also shares his approach to storyboarding, the design of iconic characters Kyoko, Misako, Riki and Kunio. Skip class with us to read the full interview and watch the trailer below. 

Trailer for the Nintendo Switch release of River City Girls Zero. Directed by David Liu and produced by the team at Empty Cel, with additional animation from Future Club.

Hi David, thanks for making time to talk about River City Girls! Can you give a short introduction to the game for readers who might not be familiar?

This is actually a port of the original Super Famicom game, Shin Nekketsu Kōha: Kunio-tachi no Banka (1994), where Misako and Kyoko previously appeared. It is one of the more linear games in the series compared to the open-world nature in most of the games . It was ported over and brought back to life by WayForward Games, Limited Run Games, Arc System Works and Carbon.

Were you familiar with the River City source material before going into the project?

Most definitely, yes! I grew up playing a lot of SNES and arcade games back in the ‘90s. My favorite genres were beat-’em-ups, fighting games, shoot-’em-ups (shmups) and basically anything with an anime flair. 

Back then, importing games, or even just having the knowledge of these games’ existence, was all dependent on things like gaming magazine publications or import shops. Growing up in Texas, I didn’t see a lot of the import shops where I lived. I believe that was a more common thing for cities on the west coast in the US. I remember getting incredibly excited, flipping to the back pages of Electronic Gaming Monthly to see what games were available for import. 

There were these 1-inch by 1-inch, black-and-white thumbnails of super cool Japanese games on the SNES. The Kunio-Kun series was no different. Of course, I couldn’t really do too much as a 11-year-old kid, with no income, trying to import a game for $90.

Character designs and colour palettes for Kyoko (left) and Misako (right).

What was your research process like before beginning work on the trailer for River City Girls Zero? How did you get the feel of the older game’s world?

Since this was an older game, there have been fan-made translations to the original Japanese ROM. I was able to dig around and find one that fans archived online. There were also numerous YouTube videos where you could watch longplays of these old retro titles.

For the art style, I definitely pulled from the artwork of the era that spoke to me. And what I assumed spoke to the original developers. YuYu Hakusho was a big series at the time. It was a manga and anime featuring several ‘delinquent’ characters with spiritual powers. I actually had a few fans of the new trailer thanking me for the inclusion of that homage.

On top of that, my comfort food has always been ‘retro’ anime. I started getting serious as a fan in 6th grade, drawing artwork inspired by Ranma ½ and Dragonball Z. During this time, not many people knew or cared about what anime was about, because it had yet to hit the mainstream. 

Since then, it was a life goal of mine to work in the Japanese Animation industry. Being able to recreate a beloved animation style in our current day is a dream come true. Whenever I meet others now who have been complimentary of the work I’ve been a part of, I always think to myself: “Where were you when I was in high school?”

How does the animation in the trailer compare to the animation in the original game?

The cutscenes in these games feature a lot of still frame images with limited movement; due to the memory constraints and limitations of games on those consoles. It wasn’t until the CD gaming era where we started to see more fleshed out animation in these cutscenes. 

There has always been a ton of charm and ingenuity with what the artists were able to pull off. You’ll usually see something super simple like a character blinking their eyes and having flapping mouths, which helped sell the illusion of these being actual animations you’d see on TV.

How would you describe your storyboarding process?

Storyboarding has always been about preparation and timing as the key focus. I like to keep it very quick and simple for that reason. Using Storyboard Pro, I would create all the scenes needed for the animation and, usually, timed with a musical score. The artwork and movement would be my scratch notes, so I know what type of content needs to be in each scene. I sometimes do a bit of animation if some shots need that information indicated. In regards to preparation, I use the export for Toon Boom Harmony function which allows me to carry over the folder structure.

I know that the whole ‘storyboarding’ process is a bit different depending on who you talk to. Some studios like to knock out rough animation at the same time as storyboards. I personally believe storyboards are literally thumbnails meant to represent the progression of the animation which can then be put into an animatic. Usually, I am the one diving into the animation after a storyboard has been exported. There, I can add in the rough animation which I can then pass on to my other team members. 

Thankfully, in whichever storyboarding process you choose, you can do all of those things in Storyboard Pro. Being able to export to Toon Boom Harmony or a PDF format with director’s notes has been a huge boon in the production process.

River City protagonists from left to right: Riki, Kunio, Misako and Kyoko. Image provided by David Liu at Empty Cel.

Please introduce the cast members we see in the animatic, and tell us about their character design…

The main cast of the game is centered around our two favorite bad boys: Riki and Kunio. Their girlfriends are Kyoko and Misako, respectively. Their designs were an interesting mix from different sources. Firstly, I knew that whatever I was going to design would be based on my natural art style. Next, was the challenge of mixing the original designs from the SFC game with the updated art style in River City Girls 1 and 2. I was thankfully able to see production sketches and concepts from River City Girls 2, which has yet to be released this year. Since this game predates both of the newer games, I wanted to visually capture what the newer games were bringing to the table so that the audience could make that connection. 

Each of the four main characters have very distinct visual styles that separate them from each other. Usually it is centered around subtle differences like color palettes and hair since the video games of this era were working with memory constraints. So you would see Riki and Kunio sharing the same base character model but with subtle differences to save time and memory space on the cartridge. 

Kunio has always been the hot blooded main character always ready to get into the action while Riki is a fierce fighter with a quieter demeanor. Misako (in the later games, especially) has been shown to be strong and serious, while Kyoko is playful but has a penchant for fighting. It really is a fun mish-mash of character personalities, that you can play with in their designs. You’ll notice Riki is shown to be nonchalant and indifferent in many of the shots in the animated intro. He’ll give you a piercing glare while Kunio pumps his fists and grits his teeth. 

If you look at the shot featuring all four characters walking to school — or skipping school, actually — you’ll see Kunio laughing with glee as Misako tells him about an exciting encounter where she gave her opponent a one-two punch. Kyoko is a fast talker with plenty to talk about. You can see her giving Riki all the updates as he gives her an attentive stare. I love these character contrasts, because it sets up interesting interactions. I’m already envisioning how an episodic animated series could be with our four heroes. 

How does Storyboard Pro help working with action scenes, like in the animatic?

Storyboard Pro helps because of the ease-of-use with the tools provided in the program. I tend to lean more on the simpler side of the boarding process, but what I use is incredibly invaluable. For action sequences, it allows me to create dynamic camera movements with notations on export. I can see the first and last frame of the camera frame so I have constant reference when we get to the animation process. Also being able to create animation frames where I can key frame and tween movement has been so easy to implement. It takes no time or effort, and allows me to put my thoughts on the page as quickly as I want.

In regards to storyboarding and animation in general, I try to keep things pretty straight forward with frame-by-frame animation. I do use digital tools where I can copy, paste, warp or transform drawings. Also, having the ability to export scenes into Toon Boom Harmony is a huge time saver. Those are just about all the features I use. Having the same layouts and shortcuts across all different forms of Toon Boom has been a huge boon. I started using the program back when it was Toon Boom Animate 3!

To expand a bit more on my workflow, I would do everything in Toon Boom up to importing background assets and props, along with an animated camera. I would then export all my animation assets and begin assembly in compositing software, where I’d apply numerous editing effects and global filters.

What are some unique challenges about adapting video game material for animation?

When it comes to retro games like this, the biggest challenge is developing the look. Especially if you’re going to create new key art assets for a game that doesn’t have anything pre-established. Another example was in a previous title I worked on: Panzer Paladin. Their creative director has the gameplay and sprites already completed. But they didn’t need concept art to start creating their vision — they went straight into sprite animation. 

So very similar to River City Girls Zero, the challenge was taking their sprite artwork and trying to create key art that showcased what the game would look like on a box. Think about something that you’d see when browsing a gaming catalog or at your local store. You want to create designs that are eye-catching with mass appeal to a potential consumer. But at the same time you don’t want to mislead players with those visuals. 

These same principles apply for animation. You want to create a visual world from the small pixels of the game. It feels backwards because usually pixel artists will adapt hand drawn artwork and concepts into pixel form. Here we are doing the opposite: We try to imagine what a consumer may imagine when playing the game, because that’s what we had to do back in the day with 8-bit and 16-bit games.

What was the collaborative process with other artists and animators on the River City Girls Zero trailer?

It was approached in various steps. Quinn Taketa [previously featured on the blog] worked on this part-time with me for the entirety of the project. She and I have worked together previously on an announcement trailer for Going Under. A lot of our team, including myself, all work full-time jobs. This was a challenge in making the most effective use of our available weekend time.

After I put together a production schedule, reached out to the artists for availability, and configured my budget constraints. I then planned out when each of the team members would be able to work and what scenes to assign. After we were able to craft together a good rough animatic, we hired Future Club to help us handle clean up animation, color, and lighting. As we were getting assets back from them, Michael Doig and I started putting together the comps in After Effects. I handled the final editing and assembly.

Collaborating with artists from different timezones and countries is always a challenge. So I’d find myself responding to questions about the project at many different points of the day. Sometimes during my full-time job hours and others in the middle of the night. I had the pleasure of working with most of the artists and animators before so we were able to play into each other’s strengths and abilities. 

What are you most proud of about your work on the trailer?

I’m proud that we were able to finish it! The project was a big challenge juggling between full time work and other freelance gigs. I’m also proud of the fact that production was relatively smooth. In any production there is always a hitch. You try your best to mitigate and prepare as much as you can in anticipation of the worst, but something new always crops up under your nose.

I’m proud of the work my team put into River City Girls Zero and the final output. My goal was to create a piece of animation that proves we can have retro anime in the spotlight; in hopes that this special niche could reach more people. I’ve always been very passionate about the art style, on a personal level, because it was one of the things that inspired me to pursue art and animation as a career.

I’m honored and thankful that our makeshift crew at Empty Cel gave it their all and lended their talents to work on this with me. Special thanks to Quinn Taketa, Michael Doig, India Swift, Nas Pasha, Hardik Manktala, Caroline Miles, Deven Scott Posedel, and the animation team at Future Club. And big thanks to WayForward and Limited Run for giving us this opportunity and trusting our vision! 

Do you have any parting words of advice for our readers?

To share a cheesy quote from a comedy anime of the ‘90s: “Life is study!” Your artistic journey never ends so stay frosty and always ready. It’s easy to turn away from scary challenges and stay in your comfort zone. Don’t be afraid to step out and struggle for a bit. You will learn and it will come to you with time. And surround yourself with like-minded, goal-oriented friends. That way you can all push each other through the successes and the failures.

Promo art for River City Girls Zero provided by David Liu and Empty Cel.
  • River City Girls Zero is now available on Nintendo Switch, PS4/PS5, and Xbox Series S/X with the PC release expected for September 22nd. You can find more details on WayForward Games’ website.
  • Want to see more work from David Liu? Be sure to follow his account on Twitter as well as the talented team at Empty Cel.
  • Interested in starting an anime project of your own? Artists and animators can download free 21-day trials of Harmony and Storyboard Pro.

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