Tomohiro Nakata

Tomohiro Nakata (中田（ナカタ）智大（トモヒロ, ）, Nakata Tomohiro), previously known under the pen name S.N.X ^[1], is a Japanese illustrator that has been known to be working with SNK since 2016. He is best known as the main illustrator for The King of Fighters XV and for his promotional illustrations he has made for various SNK titles such as The King of Fighters All Star and The King of Fighters XIV Ultimate Edition.

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Tomohiro Nakata illustrating Raiden — Tomohiro illustrating a picture of Raiden

According to his "SNK Recruit" interview, Tomohiro has been a fan of SNK games all his life. Ever since he was young, he had always admired the illustrations created for their games and found them to be cool.^[2] Before being hired by SNK, Tomohiro had created an art account named S.N.X which he used to upload various fan artworks of SNK characters along with other well-known anime and manga properties. Tomohiro essentially started out as a fan artist, making illustrations for characters such as Terry Bogard and Iori Yagami and then uploading them to his Pixiv account. ^[3]

At some point in time, Tomohiro was hired by SNK to officially make illustrations for them. For years, Tomohiro still went by his old pen name S.N.X and remained mostly anonymous for the earlier part of his career. His real name wasn't known until it was announced by SNK's official twitter account that "Tomohiro Nakata" was to be the main illustrator for The King of Fighters XV and that he was the artist known as S.N.X. ^[1]

In his "SNK Recruit" interview, Tomohiro stated that he was happy to be drawing official SNK art now and that he feels joy when drawing the characters. Even as an official artist, he said he still has struggles he needs to overcome and that he wants to have a wide range of artistic capabilities. According to the interview, he devotes himself to his art everyday. ^[2]