Tomoharu Katsumata

Tomoharu Katsumata (勝間田具治) (born in 1938 in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese film director best known for his work on various anime works. A leading director at the Toei Animation studio during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, Katsumata worked as a director on several of Toei's TV anime adaptations of manga by Go Nagai, including Devilman (1972), Mazinger Z (1972), Cutey Honey (1973), Great Mazinger (1974), and Gaiking (1976, which later became part of Jim Terry's Force Five package on U.S. television).

Katsumata graduated from Nippon University's film school in 1960 and began working with the Kyoto division of the Toei Company that same year, cutting his teeth as an assistant director to Masahiro Makino, Eiichi Kudoh on his samurai dramas. After a few years, Katsumata moved to Toei Doga (Toei Animation) in Tokyo, working as a director on some of Toei's early television series, including Ken the Wolf Boy (1963) and the original Cyborg 009 anime (1968).

Among Katsumata's other credits for Toei as a director include the TV series Captain Future (1978), Fist of the North Star (1983) and Saint Seiya (1986), and the feature films Mazinger Z vs. Devilman (1973), The Little Mermaid (Anderusen Douwa Ningyo Hime, 1975), and Arcadia of My Youth (1982).