Nobuyoshi HABARA
Japan Expo Sud is glad to welcome the animator, mecha- and chara-designer, and director Nobuyoshi HABARA: in a 30-year long career in animation, he’s worked on dozens anime, like Machine Robo: Revenge of Cronos to Broken Blade, and D.N.Angel. If you share his passion for animation, don’t miss this artist for panels and signings!
Biography
Born in 1963 in Hiroshima prefecture, Nobuyoshi HABARA got interested in animation as he was still a young child, and at the age of 10 already dreamt of becoming an animator. In high school, he made his first independent anime with friends. After graduating from high school, he decided to move to Tokyo to become an animator. He joined studio Ashi Productions (now called Production Reed) where he made his debut in the world that had always fascinated him.
As a fan of science fiction and robots (and of Mazinger Z since forever), he naturally started his career by working on anime with mecha, like Dancouga – Super Beast Machine God or Mobile Suit Z Gundam for instance, as an animator, animation director, mecha- or chara-designer. His career gained momentum with Machine Robo: Revenge of Cronos in the mid-80s, a series with androids and robots, broadcast for the first time in France in 1987.
He kept working in animation, at new positions like storyboarder and director. If he kept working on mecha series, such as Gekiganger 3, a 70s tribute to robot anime, it was not the only series he worked on and was also a chara-designer and animation director on a football anime, Ashita e Free Kick, or on D.N.Angel, the story of Daisuke Niwa, a boy doomed to transform into a ghost thief named Dark every time he is close to the girl he loves. To break the curse, he must experience shared love and reveal the existence of Dark to the one he loves.
After working for a while as a freelance artist, he contributed to funding a new studio in 1995, XEBEC, where he is the head of the animation department. There he worked on Gekiganger 3 and D.N.Angel, and more recently on Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Broken Blade, or Space Battleship Yamato 2199, joining a universe he knows well and had always been a fan of, the Yamato saga.
On top of a rich career in animation, Nobuyoshi HABARA has also taken part in web projects for the series Petit Eva, or in video games with Killer 7, and in live movies such as Gégégé no Kitarô.
Come meet Nobuyoshi HABARA everyday at Japan Expo Sud for panels and signings!
Selected works
Animation
- 1983 - Tokusô Kihei Dorvack
(mecha-designer, mecha animation director, and animator) - 1985 - Dancouga – Super Beast Machine God (Chôjû Kishin Dancouga)
(animation director) - 1985 - Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam
(key animator) - 1986 - Machine Robo: Revenge of Cronos (Machine Robo Chronos no Daigyakushû)
(chara-designer and animation director) - 1988 - Reina Kenrô Densetsu
(chara-designer, storyboarder, animation director, and director) - 1989 - Legend of Heavenly Sphere Shurato (Tenkû Senki Shurato)
(animation director for episode 16, eyecatch, and animator) - 1990 - Magical Angel Sweet Mint (Mahô no Angel Sweet Mint)
(original character conception) - 1991 – Jankenman
(chara-designer) - 1992 - Ashita e Free Kick
(chara-designer and animation director) - 1996 - Martian Successor Nadesico (Kidô Senkan Nadesico)
(storyboarder, director, and animator) - 1996 - Gekiganger 3
(chara-designer, mecha-designer, storyboarder, director, animator, and animation director, as Mamoru Konoe) - 1999 - Zoids
(assistant director, director, storyboarder, and animator) - 2003 - D.N.Angel
(director and storyboarder) - 2003 - Fullmetal Alchemist
(key animator) - 2004 - Fafner in the Azure (Sôkyû no Fafner)
(director, storyboarder, and animator) - 2005 - Negima! Magister Negi Magi (Mahô Sensei Negima)
(chief decorator, director, storyboarder, animation director, and animator) - 2006 - Busô Renkin
(animator and storyboarder of the opening, director, and animator) - 2008 - Michiko & Hatchin (Michiko To Hacchin)
(director) - 2010 - Broken Blade (Break Blade)
(director) - 2013 - Space Battleship Yamato 2199 (Uchû Senkan Yamato 2199)
(storyboarder and director) - 2015 - Sôkyû no Fafner Exodus
(director)
Web
- 2008 - Petit Eva
(visual works)
Live movies
- 2007 - Gégégé no Kitarô (storyboarder)
- 2011 - Saya Samurai (storyboarder)
Video games
- 2005 - Killer 7
(director and animator of animation scenes)