Urusei Yatsura Family Tree - Part 5 - Kazunori Ito

September 28th, 2008 by Brack

The following is info from ANN, I suspect it’s somewhat short on a few projects. Note the gap between 1995 and 2002, for instance. Also I need to figure out his stint on UY. I suspect it matches the Oshii stint, but as I’ve not seen any of the Yamazaki directorial stint on the TV show yet, I’m not certain.

1981-1984 (85?,86?) Urusei Yatsura (TV) : Screenplay
1983 Urusei Yatsura: Only You (movie) : Literary Chief
1983-1984 Magical Angel Creamy Mami (TV) : Script, Original Manga (story)
1984 Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (movie) : Screenplay (first draft)
1985 Dirty Pair: Affair on Nolandia (OAV) - Script
1985 Kimagure Orange Road: Shonen Jump Special (OAV) : Screenplay
1986 Prefectural Earth Defense Force (OAV) : Script
1986 Urban Square - Kouhaku no Tsuigeki (OAV) : Screenplay
1986-1988 Maison Ikkoku (TV) : Series Composition, Screenplay
1987 Twilight Q (OAV) : Scenario, Script (ep 1), Original Work (ep 1)
1988-1989 Patlabor The Mobile Police (OAV 1/1988) : Script
1989 Patlabor: The Movie : Screenplay
1989-1990 Patlabor The Mobile Police (TV) : Screenplay, Planning
1990 Licca-chan Fushigina Fushigina Yunia Monogatari (OAV) : Screenplay
1990-1992 Patlabor The Mobile Police: The New Files (OAV 2/1990) : Script
1991 Licca-chan Fushigi na Maho no Ring (OAV) : Script
1992 Talking Head (hybrid movie) : Associate Director
1993 Patlabor 2: The Movie : Screenplay
1995 Ghost in the Shell (movie) - Screenplay
2002 .hack//SIGN (TV) - Scenario, Screenplay, Series supervisor, Soundtrack Supervision
2002-2003 .hack//Liminality (OAV) - Director, Script Composer, Soundtrack Supervision
2005 Digital Monster X-Evolution - Screenplay
2005 Zettai Shonen (TV) : Series Composition, Script (ep 1 - 5, 8, 10 - 13, 16,18-20)
2006 .hack//Roots (TV) - Screenplay

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Urusei Yatsura Family Tree - Part 4

September 20th, 2008 by Brack

It’s been a year since I touched this project, but here’s a redo of the last post I made on it after I was pointed to Akemi Takada’s website.

Akemi Takada handily has a very comprehensive list of works up to 2001 on her website. Doesn’t give the roles in the shows, but I’m expecting most are character design works.

1977 - Ippatsu Kanta-kun
1978 - Science Ninja Team Gatchaman II
1979 - Science Ninja Team Gatchaman F
1980 - Tondemo Senshi Muteking
1981 to 1986 - Urusei Yatsura
1981 - 海底大戦争 愛の20000マイル - Think this is called “The Great Navy Battle: 20000 Miles of Love” in English.

OK this one I’m a little stumped on, and so I now want to find out as much as possible about it.

It’s from Tatsunoko Pro (but seemingly missing on their English website). It’s listed as being originally created by Jules Verne. And I can’t see hide nor hair of it on ANN.

1981 - Maicching Machiko-sensei
1983-1986 - Magical Angel Creamy Mami
1983 - Future Police Urashiman
1985-1989 - Kimagure Orange Road
1985 - Honoo no Alpen Rose: Judy & Randy
1986 - Urban Square
1986 - Maison Ikkoku
1987 - Twilight Q
1987 - Red Glasses (Emblem Design)
1989 - Patlabor
1989-90 - Patlabor TV
1990 - Patlbor After TV OAV
1991-92 - Licca

After ‘92 her career is much more that of an illustrator, rather than anime character designer. Indeed her illustration credits are far more prolific than her anime ones. Her involvement with anime from this point is mainly illustrations for auxilary projects relating to titles above - particularly Patlabor and Creamy Mami, which are arguably the two shows were you get her design at it’s purest. Original characters rather than redesigning other people’s for anime or subsumed slightly in a house style. There is one notable exception though, a return to the magical girl genre.

1997-1998 - Fancy LaLa

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Urusei Yatsura Family Tree - Part 3

September 12th, 2007 by Brack

HEADGEAR MEMBER FILMOGRAPHY PART B - AKEMI TAKADA
GATCHAMAN II (1978) - Character Design
GATCHAMAN F (1979)- Character Design
URUSEI YATSURA (1981-1984) - Character Design/Animation Director
UY: ONLY YOU (1983) - Character Design
MAGICAL ANGEL CREAMY MAMI (1983) - Character Design
MAGICAL FAIRY PERSIA (1984) - Character Design
MAGICAL ANGEL CREAMY MAMI: FOREVER ONCE MORE (1983) - Character Design
UY: REMEMBER MY LOVE (1985)- Character Design
LOVELY SERENADE (1985)- Character Design *
HONO NO ALPEN ROSE : JUDY & RANDY (1985)- Character Design
MAGIC STAR MAGICAL EMI (1985)- Character Design
MAGICAL ANGEL CREAMY MAMI: LONG GOODBYE (1985)- Character Design
CREAMY MAMI VS. MINKY MOMO (1985)- Character Design
UY: LUM THE FOREVER (1986)- Character Design
UY: RYOKO’S SEPTEMBER TEA PARTY (1986)- Character Design *
CURTAIN CALL (1986)- Character Design *
MAGICAL IDOL PASTEL YUMI (1986)- Character Design *
MAISON IKKOKU (1986)- Character Design
PERFECT MEMORY (1987)- Character Design *
KIMAGURE ORANGE ROAD (1987) - Character Design
TWILIGHT Q (1987) - Character Design
MOBILE POLICE PATLABOR (1988) - Character Design
KIMAGURE ORANGE ROAD: I WANT TO RETURN TO THAT DAY (1988)- Character Design
KIMAGURE ORANGE ROAD OAV (1989)- Character Design
PATLABOR 1 (1989) - Character Design
PATLABOR TV (1989-1990) - Character Design
LICCA-CHAN FUSHIGINA FUSHIGINA YUNIA MONOGATARI (1990) - Character Design
LICCA-CHAN FUSHIGI NA MAHO NO RING (1991) - Character Design
LICCA-CHAN NO NICHIYOUBI (1992) - Character Design
EIEN NO FILENA (1992-1993) - Character Design
PATLABOR 2 (1993) - Character Design
FANCY LALA (1998) - Character Design
JIN-ROH (1998) - Capital Police Emblem Design

The asterisked titles are ones I’m unsure of

  • The correct title.
  • If Takada worked on them.

They are from IMDB which listed some of the Creamy Mami titles just by their subtitle, so I think something like “Perfect Memory” could well be an OAV of one of the many Magical Girl shows Takada worked on.

I also think Fancy Lala was an old oav before the nineties TV show, so I don’t know if Takada’s contribution on that was actually work from years earlier, as she doesn’t seem to have done much in anime since the early nineties. And as Jin-Roh is part of Oshii’s Kerberos saga, it’s possible that credit is for work years ago too.

This filmography probably needs more work done later, likely when I start to assemble details on the shows.

I may consider combining franchises that span multiple series/films/OVAs into one entry too. Not sure 3 Licca-chan OAVs need their own entries.

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Urusei Yatsura Family Tree - Part 2

September 11th, 2007 by Brack

HEADGEAR MEMBER FILMOGRAPHY PART A - MAMORU OSHII

YATTAMAN (1977-1979) - Episode Director
GATCHAMAN II (1978) - Episode Director
THE WONDERFUL ADVENTURES OF NILS (1980) - Director/Storyboard
URUSEI YATSURA (1981-1984) - Chief Director/Writer
DALLOS (1983) - Director/Writer
UY: ONLY YOU (1983) - Director/Writer
SPOON OBA-SAN - Writer/Storyboard
UY: BEAUTIFUL DREAMER (1984) - Director/Writer
ANGEL’S EGG (1985) - Director
THE RED SPECTACLES (1987) - Director/Writer
TWILIGHT Q (1987) - Director/Writer
MOBILE POLICE PATLABOR (1988) - Director
PATLABOR 1 (1989) - Director
PATLABOR TV (1989-1990) - Director/Writer
GOSENZO-SAMA BANBANZAI (1989) - Director/Writer
MOBILE POLICE PATLABOR - THE NEW FILES (1990) - Director
STRAY DOG (1991) - Director/Writer
TALKING HEAD (1992) - Director/Writer
PATLABOR 2 (1993) - Director
GHOST IN THE SHELL (1995) - Director
JIN-ROH (1998) - Writer
AVALON (2001) - Director
MINI-PATO - Writer
GHOST IN THE SHELL 2 (2004) - Director/Writer
WINDY TALES (2004) - Supervision
OPEN YOUR MIND (2005) - Director
AMAZING LIVES OF THE FAST FOOD GRIFTERS (2006) - Director/Writer
THE WOMEN OF FAST FOOD (2007) - Director/Writer
THE SKY CRAWLERS (2008) - Director

While Oshii is an obvious centre point for the tree, I want to avoid focusing too much on him. This is both to make sure I cover the other people equally, and because there’s plenty out there on Oshii already that’s going to be far more extensive than anything I’m likely to offer in this format.

One thing I’m not sure to include at the moment is Oshii’s live action films. I’ll have to see how much of a crossover there is with other UY staff.

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Urusei Yatsura Family Tree - Part 1

September 4th, 2007 by Brack

So as I said previously the UY staff featured three of the members of Headgear. Which raises the question - who are Headgear?

Headgear are/were the creative team behind Patlabor. The Schaft Enterprises website explains:

Schaft Enterprises - A Patlabor Website - Headgear:

Headgear is the collective name given to Patlabor’s creators. Usually a series will be credited to a single person. In Patlabor’s case it was credited to a creative team. The main reason was publicity. At the time anime magazines would only set aside two pages for an anime based on another persons work such as a manga. If the manga version was published first, their would be less pages in anime magazines for Patlabor. Another reason was to sell Patlabor as an anime, they needed to have a director and character designer. Once the main members came together, Patlabor became a team effort rather than just an anime based upon Masami Yuuki’s manga.

So Headgear were:

Mamoru Oshii
Masami Yuuki
Kazunori Itoh
Yutaka Izubuchi
Akemi Takada

Oshii, Itoh and Takada are the 3 who worked on Urusei Yatsura.

That Schaft Enterprises website mentions that Itoh and Takada were married. Which leads to my first unanswered question - are they still married?

They seem to stop working together at some point in the nineties. However that might not mean anything, as Takada seems to have done little anime work in the last 10 years. This post from 1992 on rec.arts.anime suggests they had been seperated, as does this messy list of “Did you knows…”. Hmm.

Mamoru Oshii was the first Chief Director on UY
Kazunori Itoh was a screenwriter on UY
Akemi Takada was the character designer and sometime animation director UY

Those are my key starting points, but I want to put in some thread of Izubuchi and Yuuki’s careers too. Likewise there’s other UY staff that have interesting careers worth noting:

Oshii’s sucessor Kazuo Yamazaki
Yuji Moriyama
Katsuhiko Nishijima

Those are the ones that catch my eye so far, for the sheer OVA-ness of their post UY career.

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ANIME FAMILY TREE PROJECT

September 1st, 2007 by Brack

What is the Anime Family Tree Project?

Well, it’s the idea I have for a panel/presentation thing for the next Amecon (or whoever else might have it). Casually borrowing the format from Pete Frame’s “Rock Family Trees”, I want to take a look at how the careers of a few anime professionals progressed and intertwined. And also see if there’s some progression/themes in the work they produced.

So I’m going to do my working out and notes here on the Awesome-Engine, because this is where it’s easiest for me to write, I can get feedback, and I’ll have something to show whoever is approving events for whatever con I want to do the panel at.

My current plan is to use Urusei Yatsura as my starting point.

The reason is threefold.

  1. It was the show that took me from someone with a passing interest to someone who wanted to actively know more and see more of this anime thing.
  2. It featured on it’s staff three of the five people who would go onto form “Headgear”.
  3. It featured a lot of animators who’d go onto to work on/create a lot of the OAVs that formed a lot of the material available in the UK in the mid-nineties.

I think that should be workable, but I have Giant Robo, Akira, The Hakkenden, and the anime segment of Kill Bill as backup ideas.

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