Takumi Shibano (柴野 拓美 Shibano Takumi, October 27, 1926-January 16, 2010), also known by his pen name of Rei Kosumi (小隅 黎 Kosumi Rei), was a Japanese science fiction translator, writer, and science fiction researcher and critic.
He was also famous for his talent in training amateur writers to become professionals. In regards to his work at Tatsunoko, he was their designated sci-fi consultant on shows that would deal with such topics, serving as so from 1965 to 1980.
Bio[]
Born in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture. His father, Tameichi Shibano, was an army officer, poet and painter, who wrote and composed many military songs and was involved in the founding of the Manchuria Film Association.
In June 1950, he graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Since his father was an army colonel, he had mixed feelings about the military. At first, he considered going to the University of Tokyo, but his father, worried about his poor health, advised him to go to Tokyo Institute of Technology, which was close to his home.
In 1957, Shibano would found Uchujin, Japan's first science fiction fan group (originally called the Science Creation Club), which gathered together a group of volunteers from the Japanese Flying Saucer Society, and he served as the editor-in-chief of a fan magazine of the same name. It became a legendary magazine, producing over 100 science fiction writers, and won the 1982 Nebula Award Special Prize. Shibano was also in charge of organizing the first Japanese science fiction convention, MEG-CON, in 1962 and founded the United Conference of Science Fiction Fan Groups in 1965. At the same time, he also established the Science Fiction Fandom Award (which was replaced by the Seiun Award five years later).
During his rise in fame in the sci-fi community, he would also translate and write under the pen name Rei Kosumi (the origin of this name is from "Cosmic Ray "). In using that alias, he would also be responsible for the science fiction research of many anime works produced by Tatsunoko. In the company's debut work Space Ace, he was able to provide a coherent explanation for the depictions in the work even though the film had already been completed.
In 1968, at the suggestion of Sakyo Komatsu, Shibano participated in the formation of the "SF Fan Science Study Group" with Fujio Ishihara and Nobumitsu Omiya . He was also close friends with science fiction writers in English-speaking and Chinese-speaking countries.
By 1982, he established the Takumi Shibano Award to honor individuals who had made outstanding contributions to Japanese science fiction fandom, inheriting the spirit of the Japan Science Fiction Fandom Award. He personally would select the winner and announce them at each Japan Science Fiction Convention every year (until 2007). Later, using the remaining membership fees for Uchujin as a fund, the Takumi Shibano Award was established in 2015 to recognize fan activities.
He died of pneumonia on January 16 , 2010 at 83 years old.
Organizations[]
- Mystery Writers of Japan
- Japan Science Fiction Writers Club
- Space Writers Club
- SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America)
- WORLD SF (International SF Organization)
Anime Involvement[]
- Space Boy Soran (Television Corp. of Japan/Eiken, 1965) - Screenplay writer
- Space Ace (Tatsunoko, 1965)- SF Research
- Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (Tatsunoko, 1972) - SF Research
- Neo-Human Casshan (Tatsunoko, 1973) - SF Research
- Tekkaman the Space Knight (Tatsunoko, 1975)- SF Research
- Gatchaman II (Tatsunoko, 1978) - SF Research
- Gatchaman Fighter (Tatsunoko, 1979) - SF Research