Sōji Yoshikawa (吉川 惣司, Yoshikawa Sōji; February 22, 1947 in Tokyo) is a Japanese anime director, scriptwriter, animator, character designer, as well as a stage director and novelist. He has occasionally worked under the aliases Kazumi Takahashi (高橋 和美, Takahashi Kazumi), Kyōdō Oda (小田 経堂, Oda Kyōdō), and Haruka Kyō (京 春香, Kyō Haruka).
His best known works as a director are Lupin the 3rd: The Mystery of Mamo and Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, as a scriptwriter are Future Boy Conan and Armored Trooper Votoms, and as a character designer is Fang of the Sun Dougram.
He has played most of the roles in anime production, from animator, episode director, storyboard artist, scriptwriter to director, and has directed each production process.
In addition to anime, he also created the original story, wrote the script, directed the play, and served as general director for the Theater Company Hikōsen. This began when Masaaki Ōsumi, the director of the 1969 anime TV series Moomin, asked him to help out with the troupe.
He also worked as a novelist, mainly on novelizations and spin-offs of animation works.
In an interview with Yasuo Ōtsuka for the Lupin III Perfect Book: Complete Collector's Edition, he cites Yoshikawa as a representative member of the Japanese anime world, along with Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, and Osamu Dezaki.
Contents
Early life
He was a big anime fan from the beginning, making animation with an 8mm camera. He was also a fan of manga artist Osamu Tezuka. He has been a fan of science fiction since he read Shōnen Shōjo Sekai Kagaku Bōken Zenshū by Kodansha when he was a kid.
Career
A fan of Osamu Tezuka's works, when Yoshikawa was a sophomore in high school, he saw a "Mushi Production's first batch of animators wanted" news article and applied for the job, which led him to enter the anime industry.
He originally planned to go to art school, but dropped out of high school to join Mushi Productions.
He then worked as an animator on Japan's first anime television series Astro Boy.
In 1964, Yoshikawa participated in the founding of Art Fresh with Gisaburō Sugii and Osamu Dezaki.
After becoming independent, he continued to participate as an animator in Mushi Production's Works, which Art Fresh was involved in, such as Gokū no Daibōken.
After that, he began to participate not only in works produced by Mushi Productions, but also in works produced by Tokyo Movie and A Production, where Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata worked. He has worked as an episode director and storyboard artist on works directed by Tadao Nagahama, Masaaki Ōsumi, Dezaki, Miyazaki, etc., including Star of the Giants, Moomin, Ashita no Joe, Lupin the 3rd Part I, and Future Boy Conan, and made his directorial debut with Tensai Bakabon.
In 1978, at the age of 31, he directed the first Lupin III film, The Mystery of Mamo. While Miyazaki's second Lupin film, The Castle of Cagliostro suffered at the box office when it was released, this film was a huge hit with distribution revenue of 900 million yen. However, due to the low social status of animation in Japan at the time, this hit did not lead to an increase in his subsequent work. Later, with the rise in popularity of Miyazaki and Cagliostro, this film became neglected, but with the spread of the Internet, the film began to be reevaluated through word-of-mouth and gained a reputation equal to that of Cagliostro.
Yoshikawa participated in and provided scripts for many Sunrise robot animations directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino and Ryōsuke Takahashi in the late 1970s and 1980s.
Works
Anime television series
Astro Boy (1963 TV series) (1963-1966) - Animation
Shin Takarajima (1965) - Animation
Son Gokū ga Hajimaruyō Kōfū Daimaō no Maki (1966) - Animation
Gokū no Daibōken (1967) - Animation
Fight Da!! Pyūta (1968) - Episode director/Animation
Star of the Giants (1968-1971) - Episode director/Storyboard
Moomin (1969 TV series) (1969-1970) - Storyboard
Ashita no Joe (1970-1971) - Episode director
Tensai Bakabon (1971 TV series) (1971-1972) - Director of the first half of the series
Lupin the Third Part I (1971-1972) - Storyboard (ep. 1 and the last ep. 23)
Kunimatsu-sama no Otoridai! (1971-1972) – Episode director
Anime Documental: Road to Munich (1971-1972) - Animation director
Doraemon (1973 TV series) (1973) – Storyboard
Little Wansa (1973) - Episode director
Kōya no Shōnen Isamu (1973-1974) - Storyboard
Zero Tester (1973-1974) - Script
Karate Master (1973-1974) - Storyboard
Anime films
Lupin the 3rd: The Mystery of Mamo (1978) - Director/Script/Storyboard/Character design (partial)
Lensman (1984) - Script
Mother: Saigo no Shojō Eve (1993) - Script
Short anime films
Garon (2013) - Director/Script
OVA
Armored Trooper Votoms: The Last Red Shoulder (1985) - Script
Armored Trooper Votoms - The Red Shoulder Document: Roots of Ambition (1988) - Script
Umi no Yami, Tsuki no Kaze (1989) - Dramatization
Armored Trooper Votoms: Shining Heresy (1994) - Script (all episodes)
The Silent Service (1995-1998) - Script
Armored Trooper Votoms: Pailsen Files (2007-2008) - Head writer/Script
Stage
Star Guardian (1986) - Original story/Script/General director
Tanoshii Moomin Ikka - Script
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - Script
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Director/Script
