Until the mid-90s, Japanese developers from most companies in the industry were accustomed – or, more often, obliged – not to reveal their true identity and to use pseudonyms in the credits of the games they had helped to develop. Some of them made it even more difficult for future researchers by using several pseudonyms and then, when they finally had the chance to sign their real name, several surnames. Keiko Tanaka is a perfect example of these career paths, of which we only manage to catch snatches here and there, sometimes being credited as Keiko-chan, before presumably going by the name Yanbaru and then opting for a third pseudonym – Chuuko – after changing companies for the first time (she was still using the pseudonym Chuuko on Twitter in 2017). The general public discovered her on television in the early 2000s under the name Keiko Ijuu, before finally taking the name Keiko Tanaka a few years ago.

Having joined SNK in the mid-1980s, Keiko Tanaka became one of the faces of the brand at a time when she was no longer one of its employees and the brand itself had changed.
As was then customary for new SNK employees, she began by spending a month debugging, in this case on the game TANK / T.N.K III (1985), directed by Koji Obada. Obada followed this up with Ikari Warriors (1986), a game inspired by Rambo and on which Tanaka worked as a graphic designer. Ikari Warriors is one of the series to which she has been most attached. She worked on the backgrounds for the Arcade and Famicom versions of its first sequel – Victory Road (1986) – before directing the 3rd episode – Ikari III (1989). Almost two decades later, she was the one who asked for the inclusion of the series’ two main characters – Ralf and Clark – in Metal Slug 6 (2006).

Ikari Warriors, Victory Road, Ikari III and Metal Slug 6

Early in her career, in addition to her work as a graphic designer, she was sometimes called in to help out on SNK’s PCB production line, whose building was located opposite her own. She also took charge of recording digitised speech for certain games, as well as a demo of the song produced for Psycho Soldier (1987) and also used for the Famicom version of Athena, released shortly after. Later, she even sang on several songs in the Power Instinct series.

Athena and its cassette tape

In 1988, she moved up a level when she was given the task of planning her first game – Paddle Mania -, designed in part to sell off a stock of PCBs. She continued her work as director/producer (the credits are rather vague on this subject) on Ikari III, Sengoku I and II (1991-93), then left SNK to join Atlus, whose new branch had opened in Osaka.
She co-created and co-produced the Power Instinct series (1993), on which she lent her voice as well as designed some of the backgrounds. She was followed in her adventure by graphic designer Tama (with whom she worked on the Ikari trilogy) and composer Toshikazu Tanaka (known for Fatal Fury 1), who also made his debut on Ikari Warriors and has accompanied her on most of her projects ever since (even though he had left SNK about a year before her).

Paddle Mania, Sengoku, Sengoku II and Power Instinct

In 1998, she founded Noise Factory, a company that later became one of SNK’s development partners, a relationship that continued with SNK’s successor, Playmore. Noise Factory developed Dark Arms: Beast Buster for the Neo Geo Pocket Color, followed by Sengoku III (2001), Power Instinct Matrimelee (2003) and Metal Slug 4 (2002) for the Neo Geo. For the latter, Keiko Tanaka says that development lasted over a year and began before SNK went bankrupt. Her relationship with Mega Enterprise, the company that financed and co-developed the game, was difficult, so much so that she threatened to leave during development.

Dark Arms: Beast Buster, Sengoku III, Metal Slug 4 and Power Instinct Matrimelee

She also worked on the 3D adaptation of Metal Slug, as well as Metal Slug 7, both of which struggled to match the popularity of the first instalments. The same goes for the first 3D iterations of The King of Fighters series, Maximum Impact.

In the mid-2000s, she made several television appearances on behalf of SNK/Playmore to talk about Ikari Warriors and Metal Slug. Since the release of Gaia Crusaders (1999), an arcade game which is also the last known title on which she is credited as a graphic designer, she has mainly worked on other companies’ licences, as a producer or director.

Metal Slug 7, The King of Fighters: Maximum Impact, Gaia Crusaders

Noise Factory closed its doors in 2017, before Keiko Tanaka announced the creation of its spiritual successor in 2022: Noise Cor.