Yōichi Kotabe

Template:Nihongo is a Japanese animator and character designer. He has worked on several anime films from the 1960s and 1970s, the Super Mario video game series, and the Pokémon series in television and film. He was an employee at Nintendo for two decades doing illustrations, character designs, and supervision from 1985 to 2007. After that, he began to work as a freelancer for the anime and video game industry, including for Nintendo again.

Biography

Kotabe became interested in animation after watching the short film Momotarō no Umiwashi as a child. He was fascinated with how the fighter moved in the film. His father, who was an oil painter, also influenced his decision to work as an artist. Kotabe found oil painting to be difficult, so he instead worked in watercolor painting.

In order to continue working with watercolors, he adopted the nihonga, or Japanese-style, of painting, and began studying at the Tokyo University of the Arts in the Japanese-style painting department. While attending, he was impressed by the film The Tale of the White Serpent and the animator Yasuji Mori, and immediately applied to work at Toei Animation.

His first project there was Hols: Prince of the Sun where he met Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. He left Toei amid a labor dispute along with Miyazaki and Takahata in order to work at A Pro, where they began work on an adaptation of Pippi Longstocking. The project was eventually canceled, and work began on the two-film series Panda! Go, Panda!.

Kotabe then worked as character designer on two anime television series from Nippon Animation: Heidi, Girl of the Alps, and 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother, with Miyazaki working on scene design and layout and Takahata working as series director and storyboard artist.

In 1985, he was scouted by Nintendo and assumed the position of game development advisor, where he created package illustrations for Super Mario Bros. This was his introduction to video games. He left Nintendo in 2007, although he had originally only intended to stay at the company for one or two years at most.Template:Unreliable source

Works

Year	Title	Crew role	Notes	Source
Template:Dts	Magic Boy	Animator
Template:Dts	Alakazam the Great	Animator
Template:Dts	Template:Nihongo3	Animator
Template:Dts–65	Template:Nihongo3	Animation director (mid-term)
Template:Dts	Doggie March	Key animation
Template:Dts–65	Shōnen Ninja Kaze no Fujimaru	Animation director, key animation	Also film
Template:Dts–66	Template:Nihongo	Animation director, key animation
Template:Dts–67	Template:Nihongo	Animation director
Template:Dts–68	Sally the Witch	Animation director
Template:Dts	The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun	Key animation
Template:Dts	Puss 'n Boots	Key animation
Template:Dts	Flying Phantom Ship	Animation director
Template:Dts	Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves	Key animation
Template:Dts–73	Akado Suzunosuke	Animation supervisor assistant
Template:Dts	Panda! Go, Panda!	Animation director
Template:Dts	Panda! Go, Panda!: The Rainy-Day Circus	Animation director
Template:Dts	Heidi, Girl of the Alps	Character design, animation director	Also related films
Template:Dts	3000 Leagues in Search of Mother	Character design, animation director, animation
Template:Dts	Rascal the Raccoon	Animation
Template:Dts	Tatsu no ko Taro	Character design, animation director
Template:Dts–83	Jarinko Chie	Animation director , Character design	film and TV series
Template:Dts	Serendipity the Pink Dragon	Anime character design
Template:Dts–85	Template:Nihongo3	Key animation
Template:Dts	Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind	Key animation
Template:Dts–85	Adventures of the Little Koala	Animation director
Template:Dts–86	Bumpety Boo	Animation director
Template:Dts	Sango-sho Densetsu: Aoi Umi no Erufii	Character design	TV special film
Template:Dts	Pokémon: The First Movie	Animation supervisor	Also Pikachu's Vacation short
Template:Dts	Marco: 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother	Original character
Template:Dts	Pokémon 3: The Movie	Animation supervisor
Template:Dts–13	Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes! Season 2	Animation supervisor
Template:Dts–16	Pokémon XY	Animation supervisor
Template:Dts	Pokémon the Movie: Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction	Animation supervisor	Also Pikachu short
Template:Dts	Pokémon the Movie: Hoopa and the Clash of Ages	Animation supervisor

Awards and nominations

• Animator/Animation Director award, Tokyo Anime Fair 6th Annual Awards of Merit, 2009.
• Special Achievement award, 19th Japan Media Arts Festival Awards, 2015.

External links

• Template:Anime News Network
• Yoichi Kotabe anime at Media Arts Database Template:In lang