Kunio Okawara (大河原 邦男 Okawara Kunio, December 26, 1947-) is a Japanese mecha designer, best known for his work on Sunrise's Mobile Suit Gundam franchise as well as the Brave Series. Before that period though, he was most commonly associated with Tatsunoko Production.
In particular, the boom caused by Gundam made his name and the profession of "mechanical designer" known to society.
Bio[]
As his family had been in the machinery business for generations, Okawara grew up in an environment where construction machinery was a common sight. Since childhood, he has loved making machines and things; as a result, he spent his childhood making things using machine parts from the family warehouse instead of playing with them.
After graduating from Machida Municipal High School in Tokyo, he enrolled in the graphic design department of Tokyo Zokei University, and after one year transferred to the textile design department to study weaving and dyeing.
In 1972, after seeing a job advertisement in a newspaper, he applied to Tatsunoko and was hired as a background artist in the art department. The reason he joined was because he felt uncomfortable about being introduced as unemployed by the matchmaker at his wedding. The deciding factor for him to join the company was that it was close to his wife's parents' home. He had no interest in anime or manga, so he didn't know how anime was made at the time.
Soon after joining the company, he became a main staff member of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman , where he worked on the show's title logo. Then, his boss, Mitsuki Nakamura, who was in charge of mecha designs along with the art, asked him if he would like to try his hand at mecha design, and he was put in charge of all the enemy mechas, cars, and other vehicles aside from the main G-1 through G-5 mahines. In the credits for the show, he and Nakamura are jointly credited as "mecha designers," making him the first mecha designer in the anime industry.
In 1976, he left Tatsunoko and founded Design Office MECAMAN with Nakamura. After going freelance, he was in charge of designing the main mecha for Gowapper 5 Godam and was in charge of all mechas (except for the main one designed by Nakamura) for the second Time Bokan series, Yatterman. Since then, he was put in charge of all works in the series.
Okawara later began to participate in Sunrise productions in earnest, starting with Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3. He then participated in Mobile Suit Gundam, which became a social boom due to the huge success of its plastic models. In Fang of the Sun Dougram and Armored Trooper VOTOMS, he worked with director Ryosuke Takahashi to pursue realistic military robots. He also designed heroic super robots such as those in the Brave Series.
Body of Work[]
Mecha Design (Tatsunoko)[]
- Science Ninja Team Gatchaman - Galactor mechas and vehicles besides G-1 through G-5
- Neo-Human Casshan (uncredited, though he lent help to others in the department)
- Hurricane Polymar
- Tekkaman the Space Knight- Waldastar mechas
- Time Bokan - Designed the Yagomarin
- Gowapper 5 Godam
- Time Bokan Series: Yatterman - Guest mechas, as well as Yatter-King and the main mechas after him
- Take Off! Machine Hiryuu
- Gatchaman II
- Time Bokan Series: Zenderman
- Gatchaman Fighter
- Time Bokan Series: Time Patrol Otasukeman
- Muteking the Dashing Warrior
- The Great Undersea War: 20,000 Miles of Love
- Time Bokan Series: Yattodetaman
- Golden Warrior Gold Lightan
- Time Bokan Series: Gyakuten! Ippatsuman
- Future Policeman Urashiman
- Time Bokan Series: Itadakiman
- Time Bokan 2000: Phantom Thieves Kiramekiman
- Yatterman (2008)
- Yatterman: The Big Decisive Battle in the Land of Toys
- One Hit! Devander
- Time Bokan 24
- Time Bokan: The Three Villains' Counterattack
Trivia[]
- In the 59th episode of Gatchaman, the characters Dr. Ogawara and his assistant Nakamora, who are based on Okawara and Nakamura, appear with their positions as boss and subordinate reversed from the real world.
- Okawara, a sales representative from Time Lease, appears in episode 38 of Gyakuten! Ippatsuman.
- In the 59th episode of the remake of Yatterman , Okawara himself appears in an illustration, introduced in the commentary as "a representative mecha designer in the Japanese anime world, a great man who designed the Yatterman and Time Bokan series as well as that nationally popular robot ." Boyacky calls him Okawara-chan and asks him to design the final battle mecha over his cell phone. In response, he faxes two drawings that he has made that cannot be shown on TV because they are "mosaic processed" (Boyacky calls them " white robots with horns", in reference to Gundam) and "self-censored" (Doronjo calls them " Dora〇〇n "), leading Boyacky to get angry and ask, "Kunio , are you trying to make the Japanese anime world your enemy?"
- In designing mechas, he was careful not to have a negative impact on children's development. From his experience at Tatsunoko, he had learned to avoid designs that were too grotesque or extreme, and instead to create mecha that would excite children.