YÅ ichi Kotabe (å° ç"°éƒ¨ 羊一, Kotabe YÅ ichi, born September 15,
1936), is a Japanese animator and character designer. He has worked on
several anime films from the 1960s and 1970s, on 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. At that time, he began to
work as a freelancer for the anime and video game industry, including
for Nintendo again.Kotabe became interested in animation after
watching the short film MomotarÅ 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 in watercolors, he
adopted the nihonga, or Japanese†style, of painting, and began
studying at the Tokyo University of the Arts which had a
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 along with Miyazaki and
Takahata in order to work at A Pro, and they began work on an
adaptation of Pippi Longstocking. That project was eventually
canceled, and work began on the two-film series Panda! Go, Panda!.
1936), is a Japanese animator and character designer. He has worked on
several anime films from the 1960s and 1970s, on 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. At that time, he began to
work as a freelancer for the anime and video game industry, including
for Nintendo again.Kotabe became interested in animation after
watching the short film MomotarÅ 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 in watercolors, he
adopted the nihonga, or Japanese†style, of painting, and began
studying at the Tokyo University of the Arts which had a
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 along with Miyazaki and
Takahata in order to work at A Pro, and they began work on an
adaptation of Pippi Longstocking. That project was eventually
canceled, and work began on the two-film series Panda! Go, Panda!.
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