Shōji Kawamori

Shōji Kawamori

Taken during the 14th edition of Japan Expo in 2013 organised at the 'Parc de expositions of Villepinte near Paris in France.
Born (1960-02-20) February 20, 1960
Toyama City, Japan
Nationality Japanese
Other names Eiji Kurokawa,
Occupation Anime creator
Producer
Screenwriter
Visual artist
Mecha designer
Employer Satelight
Known for Macross
The Vision of Escaflowne
Shōji Kawamori in his studio, in May 2011

Shōji Kawamori (河森 正治 Kawamori Shōji, born February 20, 1960) is a Japanese anime creator and producer, screenwriter, visual artist, and mecha designer.

Personal life

Shoji Kawamori was born in Toyama, Japan in 1960. Later in his youth he attended Keio University in the late seventies and in the same years as Macross screenwriter Hiroshi Ōnogi and character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto, where they became friends and founded a Mobile Suit Gundam fan club called "Gunsight One", a name the group would use years later during the development of the fictional world of the Macross series.[1]

Anime creation and production

Shoji Kawamori occasionally used the alias Eiji Kurokawa (黒河影次 Kurokawa Eiji) early in his anime career when he started as a teenage intern at Studio Nue and worked as assistant artist and animator there during the late seventies and early eighties. Later on his career Kawamori created or co-created the concepts which served as basis for several anime series such as The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, The Vision of Escaflowne, Earth Maiden Arjuna, Genesis of Aquarion, Macross 7, Macross Frontier and Macross Delta. His projects are usually noted to contain strong themes of love, war, spirituality or mysticism, and ecological concern. Kawamori is currently executive director at the animation studio Satelight.

Mecha design

Shoji Kawamori is also a visual artist and a mecha designer — projects featuring his designs range from 1983's Crusher Joe to 2005's Eureka Seven. Also, each and every variable fighter from the official Macross series continuity has been designed by him.

In 2001, he brought his mecha design talent to real-life projects when he designed a variant of the Sony AIBO robotic dog, the ERS-220.[2] Kawamori also helped to design various toys for the Takara toyline Diaclone in the late 1970s and the early 1980s, many of which were later incorporated into Hasbro's Transformers toyline.

During the late seventies and early eighties Shoji Kawamori helped to create several of the original Transformers: Generation 1 toy designs. Among them the first Optimus Prime ("Convoy") toy design, Prowl, Bluestreak, Smokescreen, Ironhide and Ratchet. Over 20 years later, he returned to Transformers by designing both the Hybrid Style Convoy and the Masterpiece version of Starscream for Takara.

Videography

Macross

Note: Macross II is the only animated Macross project in which Kawamori had no involvement.

Other anime

Movie (live action)

Video games

Other Works

References

  1. ↑ "Translation & Cultural Notes". The Super Dimension Fortress Macross Liner Notes. AnimEigo. 2001-12-21. Retrieved 2012-02-12. According to the liner notes of the AnimEigo DVD release of the Macross TV series Gunsight One was also the fanzine title of the Gundam fan club that creator Shoji Kawamori, character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto, and writer Hiroshi Oonogi (members number 1, 2, and 3 of said club) founded while they were students at Keio University in Japan...
  2. ↑ Hara, Yoshiko (2001-08-11). "Sony robot goes to pieces for owners". EE Times. Retrieved 2015-11-07.
  3. ↑ "Shoji Kawamori: The Man, the Myth, the Mecha". Anime Jump. Archived from the original on 6 November 2007.
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