Tomino, Yoshiyuki

Birth place: Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

Yoshiyuki Tomino is a Japanese anime director, screenwriter, songwriter and novelist best known for creating the Gundam anime franchise.

Tomino joined Osamu Tezuka's company, Mushi Productions, on March 2, 1964, where he was originally a part of the production department and worked as a production assistant. Soon after, Tomino began drawing storyboards and writing screenplays for Astro Boy. He made his directorial debut with 1972's Triton of the Sea.

Tomino later became one of the most important members of the anime studio Sunrise (now Bandai Namco Filmworks), going on to direct numerous anime through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Tomino is best known for his transformation of the "Super Robot" mecha anime genre into the "Real Robot" genre with 1979's Mobile Suit Gundam.

Tomino is known for using numerous pseudonyms for miscellaneous staffing roles that he performs in his works, including Minami Asa and Minoru Yokitani, which are used to credit himself for screenplays and storyboards he creates, and Rin Iogi, which he uses to credit himself for theme song lyrics he writes.

In 2021, Tomino received the Person of Cultural Merit title, which is an official Japanese recognition and honour which is awarded annually to select people who have made outstanding cultural contributions.

(Source: Wikipedia)