Farewell, Tao

The most recent blog post on the Route24 website appears to claim that Kenichi Nishi’s dog, Tao, has died.

Anyone who’s ever looked at Nishi’s blog will know, despite the language barrier, just how much Tao meant to him, thanks to the hundreds of photos adorning the website and we can only imagine how bad Nishi must feel right now.

Millions of game designers across the world probably own dogs that have died, of course, but few developers’ dogs are as well known to gamers as Tao. Immortalized in several games – Moon, Giftpia, Chibi-Robo and Captain Rainbow – Tao has a special place in the heart of many a Lovedelic fan, who I’m sure will join me in wishing Kenichi Nishi the sincerest sympathies today.

RIP Tao.

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Every Dog Has His Day

Bit of a weird one, this. Kenichi Nishi has linked to a project called ‘Dog Days’ on his blog. From what I can work out, using this Babelfish translated page, Dog Days seems to be a CD that you play to your dog to keep it happy. Interesting stuff. I know a lot of people who put the radio on when they leave the house so their dog doesn’t feel lonely and I guess this CD is a natural extension of that. Or maybe I’ve completely misunderstood the expalanation on the website. If anyone can shed some more light on this then please do.

But how does this relate to Nishi, you’re probably asking. Well, the dog on the website and, presumably, on the sleeve of the CD is Nishi’s much-loved pet, Tao. For those who don’t know, Tao features heavily on Nishi’s blog and has also appeared in many of his games including Chibi-Robo, Giftpia and Lack of Love. That makes him the most famous dog currently alive, in my opinion.

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