Harada Appears Where You Least Expect Him

If you're one of the few people who hasn't heard about this, Katsuhiro Harada has recently announced that this will be his last year at Bandai Namco. Following the health issues and the tragic departure of his longtime colleague, Tomunobu Itagaki, Harada decided that it's time to move on to something else.

While he's still at the company for now, it seems like he's already indulging a bit more in his personal interests and having a good time.

His latest appearance turned out to be quite a suprise, as it happened during a VTuber Debut for Fuzuki Miki. Apologies for not being too well-versed in VTuber lore, but from my understanding, Miki first started her career in 2020, and possibly attracted Harada's attention when she streamed Tekken 7, a game she enjoyed a great deal. However, she announced her retirement after only 11 months, until making her second debut just yesterday.

During this debut stream, she called in a "person in sunglasses" to ask any question they might have, which led to Harada appearing in a pre-recorded video, donning Minnie Mouse ears and Dallas Payday mask (fans will remember that Harada is a huge Payday fan).

He had two questions for Miki, first one was about her unusual name, which combines a fairly normal "Miki" with "Fuzuki," a surname that sounds Japanese but probably doesn't actually exist as a real surname. His second question was more personal, what should Harada do in 2026, now that he left Bandai Namco?

The first one the fans might want to hear for themselves, as it's some very deep and meaningful lore that you're better off hearing directly from the source.

As for the future of Harada? Miki had some interesting suggestions that she presented as a list:

You should be Miki's great fan.
You should stay a fan for the rest of your life.
Do cool and great stuff in the future, which Miki thinks goes without saying, as her fans have many talents and will be doing just fine.