KANADA Yoshinori

Born in 1952 in Ikaruga-cho, Nara. KANADA Yoshinori graduated from Shizuoka Prefectural Kiga High School, and after entering Tokyo Designer Gakuin College in 1970, joined Toei Doga (currently Toei Animation). His first animation production was MACO, THE MERMAID in 1970. He left Toei Doga and moved to Studio Z, under the leadership of ARAKI Shingo, then Studio No. 1, whose president was NODA Takuo, and became an animation supervisor with Legend of Daikumaryu Gaikingu in 1976. He captured public attention with his robot animations, such as Mutekichojin Zambot 3 in 1977 and Mutekikojin Daitarn 3 in 1978. He drew important scenes for full-length theater animation films, including Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato in 1978, Galaxy Express 999 in 1979, and Genma Taisen in 1983.
KANADA Yoshinori joined Studio Ghibli to do Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind in 1984 then worked on Laputa, Castle in the Sky in 1986 and My Neighbor Totoro in 1988. Later, he took part in the production of Final Fantasy : The Spirits Within shown in 2001, and after joining Square Enix, became in charge of the opening animations for games including Hanjuku Hero vs. 3D in 2003.
KANADA Yoshinori nurtured many young animators for about forty years, and there are probably no animators who were not influenced by his works.
On July 21, 2009, he passed away at the age of 57 after suffering a cardiac infarction.
( 2009 )