An animator which I've only recently become familiar with is Mr. Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. I noticed his work with the many postings by fans in newsgroups and pictures of the characters he has designed. A character designer whose work has appeared in the successful Japanese television series Nadia, also known as Nadia-The Secret of Blue Water. As an interesting side note, in Japan where polls of anime fans are taken to determine their favorite anime character, the character Nadia displaced Hayao Miyazaki's character Nausicaä as the favorite anime character of several years. His work has also appeared in the original movie release The Wings of Honneamise, also know by its Japanese title, Royal Space Force.

I use to think as animators as artists whose work could be easily recognized from one creation from another, much like recognizing a one's handwriting style, not so with Sadamoto. Sadamoto is an animator who has not restricted himself to one style. The character design of Nadia is very different from that of Honneamise. Although very good, Nadia represents the stereotypical Japanese style of anime, large eyes, exaggerated expressions. In Honneamise, Sadamoto uses a more proportional style in his character design. Although still considered as animation, the characters in Honneamise appear more human in facial expressions. An animation which copies human features exactly and leaves no impressionistic art form, would be no longer considered animation. Sadamoto in his character design of Honneamise maintains the impressionistic art form of animation, creating a unique style worthy of serious artistic study.

I wish I could write more about this guy. The more I learn about anime, the more I learn how much I don't know. When writing articles like this, I really wish I could read Japanese, then I could tell you more.

Some of the works of Yoshiyuki Sadamoto

Nadia-The Secret of Blue Water

The Wings of Honneamise