Hidekazu Yukawa (Kanji: 湯川 英一, Rōmaji: Yukawa Hidekazu), most commonly known as Mr. Yukawa or Mr. Sega, was the Senior Managing Director of Sega during the Dreamcast era. He is a prominent character in the What's Shenmue? demo that was released exclusively in Japan, where Ryo Hazuki has to search for him in Dobuita. He also makes cameo appearances in the first Shenmue. In the real world, Mr. Yukawa passed away on June 20th, 2021.
What's Shenmue?[]
Yoshio Goto asks Ryo Hazuki to look for Mr. Yukawa by 7:00 pm to protect him. Once he finds him, Yukawa runs away thinking he is the attacker that wants the "disk" so Ryo chases him and they eventually end up at You Arcade. Ryo then saves him from the attacker. After that, Ryo and Yukawa talk for a bit then Yukawa wakes up and realizes it was all a dream. His desk is surrounded with unsold Dreamcasts. He looks up and sees a poster of Shenmue on the wall and then makes a big effort to help sell the Dreamcasts.
Shenmue[]
Ryo can obtain Mr. Yukawa capsule toys as prizes from the raffle at the Abe Store. Third prize is "Mr. Yukawa Suit" (1/10 chance of winning) and second prize is "Mr. Yukawa Happi" (1/50 chance of winning). Once he obtains them both then goes to Takara Sushi on the 9th of any month after 8:00 pm he will encounter Yukawa there and they will talk about their last encounter. This dialogue was removed from the English versions of the game. Also on the day after Nozomi Harasaki tells Ryo how she feels about him, after 11:00 pm, Ryo can see Yukawa at Bar Yokosuka having a drink. He can also be seen on battery boxes at the Tomato Convenience Store in Dobuita and on the newspaper that's lying on the counter Yuji Nito is standing behind at You Arcade.
Etymology[]
- The name Hidekazu means "excellent, fine" (英) (hide) and "one" (一) (kazu).
- Hidekazu's surname Yukawa means "hot water, bath, hot spring" (湯) (yu) and "river, stream" (川) (kawa).
Trivia[]
- Yukawa's zodiac sign is Taurus and he has a B blood type.
- In What's Shenmue? and the Japanese version of Shenmue, Mr. Yukawa is voiced by himself. In the English version of Shenmue, he never speaks so he has no English voice actor.
- Strangely, having any duplicates of the Mr. Yukawa Suit and Mr. Yukawa Happi capsule toys will not trigger the scene where Ryo meets Yukawa at Takara Sushi. It is crucial to only have one of each toy for the scene to trigger.
- When transferring a cleared Shenmue I save to Shenmue II with the Mr. Yukawa capsule toys in your inventory (Which can only be done in the original Dreamcast versions and Shenmue I & II.), the Mr. Yukawa toys are mysteriously missing in the collection. They also cannot be obtained in Shenmue II.