Yoshikazu Yasuhiko

Yoshikazu Yasuhiko (安彦良和), born December 9, 1947) is a well-known animator and mangaka in the anime industry.

Yasuhiko dropped out of Hirosaki University and was hired by Osamu Tezuka's Mushi Productions in 1970 as an animator. He later went freelance and worked on various animation productions for film and television. In 1981 he won the Seiun Award in Art category. He began working as a manga artist in 1988. In 1992 he won the Nippon Mangaka Kyokai (Japan Cartoonists Society) Award, and in 2000, an Excellence Prize in manga for Ōdō no Inu at the Japan Media Arts Festival. He is also known as a novelist and science fiction illustrator. Some of his most notable works as character designer and director are Brave Reideen, Combattler V, and Mobile Suit Gundam. Less well known is the fact that he was the original character designer for the Dirty Pair, long before their first anime or manga appearance, when he was illustrating the Haruka Takachiho short stories that became the 1980 fixup novel Great Adventures of the Dirty Pair.

In recent years he has branched out artistically, creating such works as Joan, a three-volume story of a young French girl living at the time of the Hundred Years' War, whose life parallels that of Joan of Arc ; and Jesus, a two-volume biographical manga about the life of Jesus Christ.

Yasuhiko signs his artwork as "YAS".

Animated works

 * Wandering Sun (Sasurai no Taiyō) (1971) (character design)
 * Zero Tester (1973) (Character Design)
 * Space Cruiser Yamato (1974) (storyboards)
 * Brave Raideen (1975) (character design, animation director)
 * Wanpaku Omukashi Kum Kum (1975) (Screenplay, Original creator, Character Design, Animation director)
 * Combattler V (1976) (Character Design)
 * Robokko Beeton (1976) (Character Design, Animation director)
 * Zambot 3 (1977) (Character Design)
 * The Adventures of the Little Prince (1978) (Character Design)
 * Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) (Character Design)
 * Shiroi Kiba White Fang Monogatari (1982) (Character Design, Animation director)
 * Crusher Joe the Movie (1983) (Director, Script, Screenplay, Storyboard, Character Design, Animation director)
 * Giant Gorg (1984) (Chief Director, Storyboard (ep 1,4), Original creator, Character Design, Animation director)
 * Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (1985) (Character Design)
 * Arion (1986 - Director, Character Design)
 * Kaze to Ki no Uta SANCTUS -Sei naru kana- (1987) (Director, Storyboard)
 * Venus Wars (1989 - Original Story, Director, Character Design)
 * Crusher Joe OAV (1989) (Character Design)
 * Mobile Suit Gundam F91 (Character Design)
 * Super Atragon (1995) (Character Design)
 * Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn (2009) (Original Character Design)

Manga works

 * Arion (1979–1984)
 * Kurd no hoshi
 * Nijiiro no Trotsky
 * Anton
 * Oudou no inu
 * Namuji
 * Zinmu
 * Venus Wars (1986–1990)
 * C kouto
 * Maraya
 * Joan (1995–1996)
 * Jesus (1997)
 * Waga nawa Nero (1998–1999)
 * Neo Devilman
 * Dattan typhoon
 * Nomi no Ou
 * Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin
 * Alexandros