安彦良和

An animator turned mangaka, Yasuhiko was born in Hokkaido in December 1947, he dropped out of Hirosaki University in 1970 to work for MushiPro as an animator. In the 70s he became a freelancer and worked on TV anime. Some of his most famous work as a character designer or director are "Space Battleship Yamato", "Brave Raideen", "Combattler V" and "Mobile Suit Gundam". In 1979, he made his debut as a mangaka with "Arion" serialized in the newly founded magazine "Ryu". Following this, Yasuhiko alternated between the Anime and Manga worlds with works like "Kiba - The Legend of White Fang", "Crusher Joe", and "Giant Gorg", and "Star of the Kurds", "C-Court", and "Venus Wars". These worlds would overlap, when his manga "Arion" would get adapted into an anime film in 1986 with the title "Neo Heroic Fantasia: Arion". Following this, he would adapt his SF Military Chronicle "Venus Wars" into an anime film in 1989. The anime film adaptation for "Venus Wars" came at an unfortunate point for Yasuhiko, and the film was sealed, preventing it from being made readily available on home video formats in Japan (though still made accessible overseas). He turned to manga completely and had gained a respectable reputation as a history mangaka with works focusing on both Japanese history with "Jinmu", "Namuji", "Yamato Takeru" and European history with "Alexandros", "Joan", and Theology with "Jesus". In 2001 he adapted the First Gundam anime into a manga with "Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin" and was colossally popular, being serialized for 24 Tankoban volumes. With over 50 years worth of experience across multiple mediums of entertainment and showing no signs of stopping, Yasuhiko's terrific worldview continues to touch the hearts of many around the world. In 1981, he won the Seiun Award in the Art category. In 1992, he received the Japan Cartoonists Association Award for his work "Namuji". From 1979 to 1982, he ranked first in the Anime Grand Prix for Character Design. In 2000, he won the Japan Media Arts Festival Excellence Prize in the Manga category for "Ōdō no Inu". In 2012, he won the Seiun Award in the Best Comic category for "Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin". In 2015, he received the Animation Kobe Special Award.