Segata Sanshiro

Fujioka was impressed by Sega's ideas for the character and felt that Segata Sanshiro would send a strong message to children.

Hiroshi Fujioka, an actor famous for starring in Kamen Rider, was selected to play the role in advertisements.

In part because Fujioka bore a vague resemblance to Susumu Fujita, the actor who portrayed Sugata Sanshirō, the parody was obvious to a Japanese public audience.

Fujioka was also a skilled martial artist, experienced in multiple disciplines including karate, iaido, and judo, making him a close fit for the role.

The character of Segata Sanshiro was positioned as a martial artist who commanded people to play Sega Saturn games.

Fujioka was impressed by Sega's ideas for the character, stating "I thought it was good that they wanted to send a strong message to children in an age when young people had no direction.

[1] Other games advertised include Panzer Dragoon Saga, Shining Force III,[3] Saturn Bomberman Fight!

During production, Fujioka maintained a very serious focus on his performance of the character, even while doing tasks such as breaking ten roof tiles with his head or punching the buttons of a giant Saturn controller.

The song was written by Koji Ando, composed and arranged by Fumio Okui, and performed by Ichiro Tomita.

[1] At the end of 1998, the launch of Sega's next video game console, the Dreamcast, was approaching and Saturn development was slowing down.

He makes a cameo appearance in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed,[11] and is playable in Project X Zone 2 as a solo unit.

[6] Producer Kensuke Tsukanaka stated that it was a desire of Namco Bandai to include Segata Sanshiro in the latter game.

[14] When GamesTM interviewed Fujioka, they noted his reaction about the game indicated that he was happy that it was developed, but also aware that it was not of good quality.

[19] The Segata Sanshiro advertisements are given credit for helping to establish those sales, though Sega had failed to make the Saturn as successful in other regions.

Thomason amended that "it's just a shame his greatest skill – throwing opponents to make them explode – couldn't be translated to the game".

[21] Luke Plunkett of Kotaku called Segata the "Greatest Video Game Ad Man Of Them All" due to his strong personality citing examples such as how he yelled at children.