For many fans, Tekken Series Director Katsuhiro Harada is one of the most open and communicative fighting game developers in the world. This is further emphasized with his consistent presence on Twitter along with his web show, Harada's Bar. This show, in particular, has him interviewing and speaking with various fighting game developers in a laid-back setting, as opposed to a formal interview. Two guests that he desired to bring on board were former Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate director Masahiro Sakurai. While Harada considered both of these guests to be a pipe dream, the latest episode of Harada's Bar sees him and Sakurai talking together.
The episode itself has some relatively good timing, seeing as that Tekken's own Kazuya Mishima joined Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's roster not too long ago, with fighting game fans enjoying his addition. Harada himself was surprised that Sakurai was able to come onto his show, in-between both of their busy schedules and Sakurai's usual tight-lipped professionalism. As a result, the episode was more light-hearted in nature, with content that most fans wouldn't come to expect, like their reaction to certain memes.
In the middle of the episode, Harada shows Sakurai some classic memes that float around the fighting game community, in-regards to how both developers handle fan expectations and requests. The first of which is Harada's classic response to when he was asked regarding information towards any of his games, contrasted with a response that Sakurai had in an official Nintendo Direct. The other one that was shown to Sakurai was the infamous "Never ask me for anything ever again" meme, to which Sakurai remarked that fans should stop using his image and face to represent their own values. This has happened before, such as the Masahiro Sakurai parody Twitter account.
His sentiment isn't surprising, as the language barrier and culture of memes between a Japanese Developer and an English-speaking audience can be lost in meaning and context. A similar frustration was expressed by Sakurai in regards to when he talks about other games, where many fans will usually try and create connections between him and the games he is playing, with the hopes that it would be related to the next character added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Despite that, the first episode of the show was a huge hit with fans, as evidenced by the comments. Many were thrilled to see the two developers just relax and talk about something in a casual manner, while enjoying both of the developers' humor and the show celebrating Masahiro Sakurai's birthday. As this is listed as the first episode, the Tekken Director clarified on Twitter that even more episodes will be coming in the following weeks. Fans can expect more conversations between the two, Tekken related or not.
Source: YouTube