Yamaguchi, Yasuo

Yamaguchi Yasuo is an animation planner and producer.

He started his career in 1963 as an assistant director at Toei Douga's Tokyo Studio and later transferred to the Production Department where he conducted planning on future series. He planned titles such as "Wolf Boy Ken", "Ge Ge Ge no Kitaroo", "Getter Robo" , "King Kong", and became an anime picture producer, producing titles including "Candy, Candy", "Story of Maple Town" and "Tatsu no ko Taro". As chief of the production section, he produced "Sailor Moon".

He was one of the founders and for a short time the second representative director of the Toei Animation Research Center in the early 1990s. In 1996 he started researching the digital anime making process for the Japanese government. He is also an adjunct professor at Tokai University.

Yamaguchi is currently the executive director of The Association of Japanese Animations (AJA).

Yamaguchi, is otherwise known as the man behind the famous anime Candy Candy. Although initially reluctant to be involved in the TV series, which was adapted from the comic book by Mizuki Kyoko and Yumiko Igarashi, he became the producer of the 115-episode series only after a colleague at Toei Douga, originally in charge of the project, was hospitalised.

Yamaguchi said: "Like other men, I didn't like shoujo manga, but there were no other relief producers, so I had to take over the project."

He was later glad he did, for the series laid the groundwork for his future chick-lit cartoons, such as Hana no Ko Lun Lun and Sailor Moon.

Candy Candy also went on to become one of the most popular anime of all time and was translated into many languages over the world.

As the executive director of AJA, which has 48 members - all animation production houses and agencies - Yamaguchi now works to familiarise the world with the anime industry. His experience in most animation fields and the research he did on Japanese animation and its development make him to a well regarded figure in the field of Japanese animation. He has also written several books on the topic.

(Source: AniDB)