Kimitoshi Yamane

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Kimitoshi Yamane (山根 公利, Yamane Kimitoshi; born 1966) is a Japanese mecha designer.[1] He was born in Kawamoto, Shimane Prefecture, and lives in Hamada, Shimane Prefecture.[2][3] His representative works include Cowboy Bebop, Infinite Ryvius, The Vision of Escaflowne and the Gundam series.[3][1]

Yamane's designs are characterised by a sense of industrial product, designed with motifs from real vehicles and weapons, or from war and science fiction films.[2][4] While Yamane has a deep knowledge of tanks and ships, he has little interest in robot in human form.[1][5] In the Gundam series, he sometimes designs the main robot Gundam, but his work is basically focused on naval vessels, aircraft and vehicles.[4][5]

His hobbies include fishing, working on cars, and riding motorcycles.[1][6] He owns several old cars and would like to try his hand at designing real cars if he gets the chance.[7]

After graduating from high school, Yamane moved to Tokyo and attended the Animation Department of Chiyoda Technical Art College in Tokyo for two years while working as a newspaper scholarship student.[8][9]

Yamane belonged to Artmic,[a] whose main business is planning anime works, where he worked on mecha designs for animation, mainly OVAs, while receiving guidance from Shinji Aramaki, Hideki Kakinuma, and Kenichi Sonoda.[8][10] He participated in co-productions with foreign countries such as the United States and France, and spent some time in Paris.[8] He was also involved in the remake of Tatsunoko Production's Casshan and Science Ninja Team Gatchaman.[10]

Around the time Artmik went into financial difficulties, Yamane decided to become a freelance designer in 1994, as he began to work for Sunrise on Mobile Fighter G Gundam and made contacts.[8][9][10]

Yamane designed the main robot for the first time in The Vision of Escaflowne.[8][10] However, although his title was main designer, it is more correct to say that he co-designed the robot based on director Shōji Kawamori's first draft.[11]

Yamane participated in Cowboy Bebop from the planning stage.[12] After passing the audition, Yamane was entrusted with the mecha design by director Shinichirō Watanabe, making it his first work as a designer to create a mecha from concept.[9][12][13] In episode 19, Wild Horses, he went beyond the position of mecha designer and proposed the plot of the episode.[14] This work was a huge hit, and he also gained recognition as a mecha designer.[9]

Yamane also participated in the next work, Infinite Ryvius, from the early stages, and was involved in creating the concept for the work.[15]

Yamane subsequently worked on Argento Soma, designing a human-shaped mecha to symbolize the work, as well as most of the aircraft and facilities.[16]

However, after those ambitious works, mecha design became increasingly fixed in the Japanese animation industry, and Yamane's free-thinking designs found it difficult to gain approval.[2][9] Feeling stuck in a rut at work and a sense of entrapment in the industry, he began to think about leaving Tokyo and returning to his hometown to reconsider himself.[2][9] He then returned to his home town of Shimane in 2000 at the age of 34, got married and found a large plot of land in Hamada City where he built a house.[2][9] He thought it would be a good place to build a garage for tinkering with his car, so he could use his hobbies in his work, and it would also be a turning point for his career.[2] At first, he was prepared to lose his job in anime, but the internet infrastructure made it easier to exchange image data, and he continued to receive offers of work from Tokyo.[2][9]

Main works

TV series

Anime films

OVA

Video game

Web animation

Sources:[18][19][20][21][22]

Art books

Notes and references

External links

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