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Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
Yoshiyuki Sadamoto at J-Popcon in Copenhagen, 2007
Born	(1962-01-29) January 29, 1962 (age 62) Tokuyama (now Shūnan), Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Occupation(s)	Character designer, manga artist
Known for	Neon Genesis Evangelion (manga)

Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (貞本 義行, Sadamoto Yoshiyuki, born January 29, 1962, in Tokuyama (now Shunan), Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese character designer, manga artist, and one of the founding members of the Gainax anime studio.

Career

When Gainax was originally founded as Daicon Film, Sadamoto served as animator on the second animated project, the Daicon IV opening animation. His first assignment as a character designer for Gainax was the film Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise, released in 1987, he continued to design characters for Gainax with the series Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, Neon Genesis Evangelion, FLCL, and Diebuster. The official manga adaptation of Evangelion, published between 1994 and 2013, was fully written and illustrated by Sadamoto. He also collaborated with director Mamoru Hosoda to provide character designs for the films The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, and Wolf Children.

According to Yasuo Otsuka, who guided Sadamoto as a newcomer, there are only three people whom he regarded as more skillful than himself that he has met during his career. One of them is Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. The other two are Sadao Tsukioka who became a visual creator, and award-winning director Hayao Miyazaki. When Otsuka met the three men, he seems to have felt that he was taking off his hat to them at once. However, he thinks that only Miyazaki completely mastered a genuinely superior animation technique at present. He guesses, "A too excellent person might despair in the group work".

In a 2013 interview with Japanese Entertainment website Nihongogo, it was revealed that Sadamoto is a stickler for details and wouldn't feel comfortable illustrating anything too unfamiliar to him. "In general, I don’t want to draw something that I have to study further in order to draw. For example, I could not draw a medical manga because it’s impossible for me to make a lie about medicine. Also things like Soccer and Baseball. I am unfamiliar with these worlds so it would be too difficult to show the actual plays." When asked about dream collaborations he revealed an interest in working with Robert Westall and Philip K. Dick but apologized "These are all deceased people, sorry."

Criticism

On August 9, 2019, Sadamoto criticized on Twitter a statue featured in the “After ‘Freedom of Expression’?” historical art exhibition at the Aichi Prefecture Museum of Art, Statue of Peace (2011), by Kim Seo-kyung and Kim Eun-sang memorializing comfort women, girls who worked in wartime brothels in World War II for the Japanese military. The statue was first installed by its creators in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul as a form of political protest. He also criticized a movie in the exhibition that showed a picture of the Emperor of Japan being burned and then stomped underfoot, he referred to it as "indistinguishable from a certain country's style of propaganda". Sadamoto said "I wanted it to be an art event with academic contemporary art at its core...Remove the crazy -affirming media and the exhibition could still be redeemed." he follows "I'm not going to completely reject the act of turning propaganda into art, but honestly speaking, it did not speak to me at all on an artistic level." His comments have been criticized by some Koreans and English speakers who replied to his tweet with displeasure of his views.

Later, Sadamoto claimed he merely disliked the statue's design, but liked Korean idols and even had Korean friends. According to Gainax co-founder Toshio Okada, Sadamoto's feelings towards Koreans were already a factor of animosity during the production of Nadia, during which he blamed outsourced Korean animators for oscillations of quality during the series' "Island Arc" and would go on angry tirades disparaging their work, leaving the studio on his motorcycle. Anno believed this was part of miscommunication in the production process, and Okada attributed it to cultural differences.

After 3.0, Sadamoto did not returned to work on the final Rebuild movie, Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon A Time, and has had a diminishing role in the tetralogy. Character design, as well as authorship for the spin-off manga Evangelion 3.0 (-120 min.), was instead handed to Hidenori Matsubara for most of the Rebuilds, with Sadamoto being credited instead as "original character design" in 2.0, 3.0 and 3.0+1.0, with diminishing involvement in a supervisory role for 2.0 and 3.0. He was also not interviewed for the last two films. Many fans, primarily Korean ones, protested at Sadamoto's statements, and asked if he was still involved with the new Eva movie. Sadamoto denied this and stated he had completely resigned from Khara and had "no involvement whatsoever".

Works

Artbooks

• Sadamoto Yoshiyuki Art Book ALPHA (Published April 1, 1993) ISBN 4-04-852385-6
• Sadamoto Yoshiyuki Art Book DER MOND (Published September 30, 1999) ISBN 4-04-853048-8
• Sadamoto Yoshiyuki Art Book DER MOND (Published January 31, 2000) ISBN 4-04-853031-3
• Sadamoto Yoshiyuki Art Book CARMINE (Published March 26, 2009) ISBN 978-4-04-854275-3
• Sadamoto Yoshiyuki Art Book CARMINE (Published August 26, 2010) ISBN 978-4-04-854480-1
• Yoshiyuki Sadamoto CD-ROM art collection (GAINAX sale in 1993)

References

1. David Chang (September 11, 2013). "Yoshiyuki Sadamoto x Nihongogo Interview @ Japan Expo USA 2013 1st Impact". nihongogo.com. Archived from the original on August 11, 2017. Retrieved April 6, 2016.
2. Morrissy, Kim (August 12, 2019). "Evangelion Character Designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto Attracts Criticism Over 'Dismissive' Tweet about Korean Comfort Women Statue". www.animenewsnetwork.com. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
3. Sadamoto, Yoshiyuki (9 August 2019). "韓流アイドルも好きだし綺麗なモノは綺麗と正直に言ってます" (Tweet). Retrieved 6 December 2023 – via Twitter.
4. Okada, Toshio (15 July 2021). 某国外注の絵が酷すぎた…庵野ブチギレ「どこにナディアが描いてあります？」「我々は紙芝居を作っているのではない」「ラーメン入れるのやめて下さい」『ふしぎの海のナディア』【岡田斗司夫切り抜き】【庵野秀明】 (in Japanese).
5. Sadamoto, Yoshiyuki (9 August 2019). "コミケは夏、冬、お休みです。" (Tweet). Retrieved 6 December 2023 – via Twitter.
6. Sadamoto, Yoshiyuki (9 August 2019). "見たけりゃ見ればいいし" (Tweet). Retrieved 6 December 2023 – via Twitter.
7. Eng, Lawrence. "Daicon III and IV Opening Animations - Trivia". Cornell Japanese Animation Society. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
8. "Character Designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Rock Band The Pillows to Return for FLCL Sequel Series". Anime News Network. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
9. Toole, Mike (October 16, 2003). ".hack//Sign Review". Anime Jump. Archived from the original on September 26, 2007. Retrieved January 20, 2007.
10. "Gaina Announces Uru in Blue Anime for 2022, New Top o Nerae! 3 Anime Project". Anime News Network. September 7, 2018. Retrieved October 23, 2018.
11. "Gainax President Hiroyuki Yamaga unveils artwork from Wings of Honneamise sequel and upcoming free-diving series". ani-gamers.com. June 4, 2015. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
12. "Gaina Announces Uru in Blue Anime for 2022, New Top o Nerae! 3 Anime Project". Anime News Network. September 7, 2018. Retrieved October 23, 2018.
13. "WIT Studio Announces Great Pretender Anime for 2020". Anime News Network. July 5, 2019. Retrieved July 5, 2019.

• Yuki, Masahiro. "The Official Art of .hack//Roots". (May 2007) Newtype USA. pp. 101–107.

External links

• Yoshiyuki Sadamoto at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• An interview with Sadamoto, translated in Animerica in Vol. 6, issue No. 8
• Interview in Der Mond
• Interview in Anime News Network
• Sadamoto judges in a Twilight contest
• The Rose review of Der Mond
• Yoshiyuki Sadamoto on Twitter
• Sadamoto interview, on eva.onegeek.org, firstly published on Animerica, vol. 6, n.8; eva.onegeek.org. (archived 4 November 2009)
• Interview on Der Mond, on eva.onegeek.org.

v t e Gainax
Founders	Hideaki Anno Hiroyuki Yamaga Shinji Higuchi Takami Akai Toshio Okada Yasuhiro Takeda Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
Television series	Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (1990–1991) Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995–1996) Kare Kano (1998–1999) Modern Love's Silliness (1999) Oruchuban Ebichu (1999) Mahoromatic: Automatic Maiden (2001–2002) Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi (2002) Mahoromatic: Something More Beautiful (2002–2003) Petite Princess Yucie (2002–2003) This Ugly yet Beautiful World (2004) Melody of Oblivion (2004) He Is My Master (2005) Ani*Kuri15 (animated sequence) (2007–2008) Gurren Lagann (2007) Shikabane Hime: Aka (2008) Shikabane Hime: Kuro (2009) Hanamaru Kindergarten (2010) Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt (2010) The Mystic Archives of Dantalian (2011) Medaka Box (2012) Medaka Box Abnormal (2012) Stella Women's Academy, High School Division Class C3 (2013) Magica Wars (2014) Wish Upon the Pleiades (2015)
OVA/ONAs	Appleseed (1988) Mahjong Hishō-den: Naki no Ryū (1988–1990) Gunbuster (soundtracks) (1988–1989) Beat Shot (1989) Circuit no Ōkami II: Modena no Tsurugi (1990) Honō no Tenkōsei (1991) Money Wars (1991) Otaku no Video (1991) K.O. Beast (1992–1993) Casshan: Robot Hunter (1993–1994) FLCL (2000–2001) Anime Tenchou (2002) Mahoromatic: Summer Special (2003) Re: Cutie Honey (2004) Diebuster (2004–2006) Mahoromatic: I'm Home Special (2009) Wish Upon the Pleiades (2011) Masamune Datenicle (2016–2018)
Films	Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise (1987) Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water (1991) Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth (1997) The End of Evangelion (1997) Revival of Evangelion (1998) Gunbuster vs. Diebuster (2006) Gurren Lagann The Movie: Childhood's End (2008) Gurren Lagann The Movie: The Lights in the Sky are Stars (2009)
Video games	Princess Maker (1991–2007) Alisia Dragoon (1992) Musashi: Samurai Legend (2005)
Related	Gaina Khara Trigger Shouji Saeki Daicon III and IV Opening Animations Kaiketsu Noutenki Daicon Film's Return of Ultraman Yamata no Orochi no Gyakushū Uru in Blue
Category

• Anti-Korean sentiment in Japan
• Japanese animators
• Anime character designers
• Gainax
• 1962 births
• Living people
• Manga artists from Yamaguchi Prefecture
• Tokyo Zokei University alumni