Yoshihiko Umakoshi

Twitterhttps://twitter.com/ushimou730 Wiki jphttps://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ A highly prolific and respected character designer. Originating from Monsieur Onion where he spent his inbetweening days studying under Hirotoshi Takayahttps://anilist.co/staff/117473/ and Junichi Hayamahttps://anilist.co/staff/140660/. In 1991 he moved to Studio Cockpit with Hisashi Kagawahttps://anilist.co/staff/120432/ and Tatsufumi Tamakawahttps://anilist.co/staff/109607/. A few years later he debuted as a character designer on Grappler Bakihttps://anilist.co/anime/1859/ in 1994. He is said to be a very fast and efficient worker and according to himself he much rather participates in TV productions than theatrical ones. Close friends with Hiroshi Nagahamahttps://anilist.co/staff/99346/ whom he often works with. They first worked together on Juubeichan 2https://anilist.co/anime/636/ for which Umakoshi provided the designs for and served as the chief animation director on all 13 episodes. The following year the duo teamed up again for Mushishihttps://anilist.co/anime/457/ whichs production quality was unusually high for a TV production. Umakoshi designed the characters and worked as the chief animation director on all 26 episodes of the series and hit a burnout. After this he took a step back on major roles for a few years. Both him and Nagahama reprised their roles on Mushishis revival in 2014. In 2016 Umakoshi was appointed as the character designer on My Hero Academiahttps://anilist.co/anime/21459/ and has since been highly involved with the series production as both an animation director and animator.