Silent Hill Designer Reveals Robbie the Rabbit Inspiration

KY, aka Yasunori Kanetake, is a senior lead designer at Konami Digital Entertainment who was involved in the silent Hill series since Silent Hill 2.

In a recent interview with GameSpark, translated by Automaton Media, the veteran designer reveals that he was the first to introduce Robbie the Rabbit for Silent Hill 3. Tasked with designing the game’s atmospheric backgrounds, KY decided to visit real-life ruins in order to gather reference material for the game.

During the process of finding suitable locations, KY recalled that inspiration for Robbie struck him when he saw a rabbit mascot handing out balloons in a children’s area atop a train station in Japan. Robbie was created based on this observation, with the intention of portraying the “abnormal within the normal” through the character. In other words, he took a normal, even cute, part of everyday life and made it seem like it was “not supposed to.”

KY said he was pleasantly surprised by the overwhelming fan response to Robbie the Rabbit, noting the mascot’s popularity among fans and its enduring presence in various silent Hill merchandise.

Kanetake can be seen in the Production of Silent Hill 3 video explaining how the design of the game’s church was drawn by the son of a friend of one of the designers. He is credited in-game under “Background Design and Modeling”.

It is not yet known whether Konami plans to remake Silent Hill 3. This decision will most likely be made after seeing to what extent the next SH2 the remake does.

Silent Hill 2 releases on PS5 and PC on October 8, 2024. You can pre-order the game now via PSN and Steam. Digital Deluxe versions of the game are also available on both platforms.

(Source)