『Yoshiyuki Tomino』

Yoshiyuki Tomino(富野 由悠季, Tomino Yoshiyuki, born 富野 喜幸 November 5, 1941) is a Japanese mecha anime creator, animator, director, screenwriter, songwriter and novelist best known for creating the Gundam anime franchise.

He was born in Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, and studied at Nihon University's College of Art.

Career

Tomino began his career in 1963 with Osamu Tezuka's company, Mushi Productions, scripting the storyboards and screenplay of one of the first Japanese anime television series, Astro Boy.

According to anime producer Seiji Suzuki, while at the company, he was under the mentorship of Hiroshi Wakao, the later founder and first president of production studio Shaft.

He later became one of the most important members of the anime studio Sunrise, going on to direct numerous anime through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

Tomino is perhaps best known for his transformation of the"Super Robot" mecha anime genre into the"Real Robot" genre with 1979's Mobile Suit Gundam, the first in the Gundam franchise.

He has also won numerous awards, including the"Best Director" award at the 2006 Tokyo International Anime Fair(for the 2005 film Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: Heirs to the Stars).

Two anime series directed by Tomino(Mobile Suit Gundam in 1979– 80 and Space Runaway Ideon in 1980) won the Animage Anime Grand Prix award.

Tomino is known for using numerous pseudonyms for miscellaneous staffing roles that he performs in his works, including Minami Asa(阿佐 みなみ, Asa Minami) and Minoru Yokitani(斧谷 稔, Yokitani Minoru), which are used to credit himself for screenplays and storyboards he creates, Rin Iogi(井荻 麟, Iogi Rin), which he uses to credit himself for theme song lyrics he writes.

Tomino has collaborated(as Iogi) with artists such as Yoko Kanno, Asei Kobayashi, MIO and Neil Sedaka.

Tomino is noted for directing several well-known anime series throughout his career, such as his most notable work, the Mobile Suit Gundam series, beginning in 1979, and which was later followed onto numerous sequels, spinoffs and merchandising franchises, Aura Battler Dunbine, Brave Raideen(in which he directed the first 26 episodes), and numerous others.

His newer work includes Brain Powerd(1998), Turn A Gundam(1999), Overman King Gainer(2002) and most recently, Gundam Reconguista in G(2014).