Yōichi Kotabe

• Name — Yōichi Kotabe • Born — 15 September 1936 • Years Active — 1959–present • Education — Tokyo University of the Arts • Occupation — Animator, character designer

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, 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 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.

• Year — Title — Role — Source • 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