Yōichi Kotabe

Kotabe became interested in animation after watching the short film Momotarō 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 with watercolors, he adopted the nihonga, or Japanese-style, of painting, and began studying at the Tokyo University of the Arts in the Japanese-style painting department. While attending, he was impressed by the film The Tale of the White Serpent and the animator Yasuji Mori,^[6][7] and immediately applied to work at Toei Animation.

His first project there was The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun where he met Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. He left Toei amid a labor dispute^[8] along with Miyazaki and Takahata in order to work at A Pro, where they began work on an adaptation of Pippi Longstocking. The project was eventually canceled, and work began on the two-film series Panda! Go, Panda!.

Kotabe then worked as character designer on two anime television series from Nippon Animation: Heidi, Girl of the Alps, and 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother, with Miyazaki working on scene design and layout and Takahata working as series director and storyboard artist.

In 1985, he was scouted by Nintendo and assumed the position of game development advisor, where he created package illustrations for Super Mario Bros., which was his introduction to video games. He continued working as a character designer and illustrator on the Super Mario series, contributing to the design of Yoshi by drawing inspiration from a chameleon sticking out its tongue, which was adapted into Yoshi's character. He would also work on games in The Legend of Zelda and Pokémon franchises. His work on the Kuru Kuru Kururin series was his last role as a character designer at Nintendo. He left the company in 2007, although he had originally only intended to stay at the company for one or two years at most.^[9][10]

Film and television

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Crew role	Notes	Source[11]
1959	Magic Boy	Animator
1960	Alakazam the Great	Animator
1962	Sinbad no Boken (ja:アラビアンナイト・シンドバッドの冒険 (映画), Adventures of Sinbad)	Animator
1963–65	Okami-shōnen Ken (ja:狼少年ケン, Ken the wolf boy)	Animation director (mid-term)
1963	Doggie March	Key animation
1964–65	Shōnen Ninja Kaze no Fujimaru	Animation director, key animation	Also film
1965–66	Hustle Punch (ja:ハッスルパンチ, Hassuru panchi)	Animation director, key animation
1966–67	Rainbow Sentai Robin (ja:レインボー戦隊ロビン, Reinbō sentai robin)	Animation director
1966–68	Sally the Witch	Animation director
1968	The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun	Key animation
1969	Puss 'n Boots	Key animation
1969	Flying Phantom Ship	Animation director
1971	Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves	Key animation
1972–73	Akado Suzunosuke	Animation supervisor assistant
1972	Panda! Go, Panda!	Animation director
1973	Panda! Go, Panda!: The Rainy-Day Circus	Animation director
1974	Heidi, Girl of the Alps	Character design, animation director	Also related films
1976	3000 Leagues in Search of Mother	Character design, animation director, animation
1977	Rascal the Raccoon	Animation
1979	Tatsu no ko Taro	Character design, animation director
1981–83	Jarinko Chie	Animation director , Character design	film and TV series
1983	Serendipity the Pink Dragon	Anime character design
1983–85	Kojika Monogatari (子鹿物語, The Yearling)	Key animation
1983	Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind	Key animation
1984–85	Adventures of the Little Koala	Animation director
1985–86	Bumpety Boo	Animation director
1986	Sango-sho Densetsu: Aoi Umi no Erufii	Character design	TV special film
1998	Pokémon: The First Movie	Animation supervisor	Also Pikachu's Vacation short
1999	Marco: 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother	Original character
2000	Pokémon 3: The Movie	Animation supervisor
2001	Kirby: Right Back at Ya!	Animation supervisor
2012–13	Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes! Season 2	Animation supervisor
2013–16	Pokémon XY	Animation supervisor
2014	Pokémon the Movie: Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction	Animation supervisor	Also Pikachu short
2015	Pokémon the Movie: Hoopa and the Clash of Ages	Animation supervisor
2016	Pokémon the Movie: Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel	Animation supervisor

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Video games

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Source[9]
1986	Super Mario Bros. 2	Illustrator
1988	Super Mario Bros. 3	Illustrator
1990	Super Mario World	Illustrator
1991	The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past	Designer
1992	Super Mario Kart	Illustrator
1993	The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening	Designer
1996	Super Mario 64	Character design
1996	Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars	Character advisor
1998	Pocket Monsters Stadium	Character supervisor
1998	Mario Party	Character supervisor
1999	Super Smash Bros.	Character supervisor
1999	Pokémon Snap	Character supervisor
1999	Pokémon Stadium	Character supervisor
1999	Mario Golf	Character supervisor
2000	Mario Tennis	Character supervisor
2000	Pokémon Stadium 2	Character supervisor
2001	Kuru Kuru Kururin	Character design
2002	Kururin Paradise	Character design
2004	Kururin Squash!	Character design

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• Animator/Animation Director award, Tokyo Anime Fair 6th Annual Awards of Merit, 2009.^[1]
• Special Achievement award, 19th Japan Media Arts Festival Awards, 2015.^[12]