Headgear is the collective name given to
Patlabor's creators. Usually a series will be credited to a
single person. In Patlabor's case it was credited to a creative
team. The main reason was to own the rights to the work and not
have the rights to be taken away by an animation studio or
producers. But to do this they needed to sell it as a whole
production team. This caused problems in itself, as to be taken
seriously and to be able to sell it as a package they also
needed to have a director. At that point Mamoru Oshii was
recruited. Once the main members came together, Patlabor became
a team effort rather than just an anime based upon Masami
Yuuki's manga. Another major reason to form Headgear was
publicity. According to an interview with Masami Yuuki, anime
magazines in Japan would only set aside two pages for an anime
based on another persons work such as a manga. If the manga
version was published first under Yuuki's name, there would be
less pages in anime magazines for Patlabor, hence the reason why
Patlabor is credited to Headgear, not just Masami Yuuki.
Patlabor was Headgear's only output. No other anime or manga was
released under the group's title, though some members of the
group worked together on other projects after Patlabor.
Below are profiles of the main members of Headgear.
Mamoru Oshii
Mamoru Oshii served as
director on the original OVA series, as well the
first two films. He has also provided the
screenplays for several TV episodes, several
episodes of the New OVA series, and Minipato.
Born in Tokyo on 8 August 1951, after graduating
from university he worked briefly as a radio
programmer. But soon moved into a career as an
animator in 1977 working at Tatsunoko Productions.
He gained recognition as a director of the TV series
"Urusei Yatsura" in 1981. During the 1980's, he
directed a number of anime projects including
"Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer", and "Angel's
Egg" (a surreal film co-created by Yoshitaka Amano).
He has also directed a number of live action films
including "Talking Head", "Red Spectacles", and
"Kereberos (Panzer Corps)", and wrote the "Kereberos
(Panzer Corps)" manga.
Oshii came to the attention of western fans with the
release of the 1995 film "Ghost in the Shell", which
he directed. Since then he has directed the live
action film "Avalon", wrote the screenplay for
"Jin-roh: the Wolf Brigade", provided the original
story and concept for "Blood: The Last Vampire",
directed the ".50 Woman" segment of the live action
film "Killers", directed and written the screenplay
for the second Ghost in the Shell anime film,
"Innocence", wrote and directed the
part-live-action, part-animated film "Tachigui: The
Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters", directed
the anime film "The Sky Crawlers"
as well the live action fantasy "The Last Druid:
Garm Wars".
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Masami Yuuki
Masami Yuuki conceived
the story of Patlabor in the early 1980's. Yuuki
wrote the manga version of Patlabor, which commenced
shortly after the first video release in April 1988.
The manga eventually ended in 1994, and totalled 22
volumes. Yuuki's manga story "Waste Product 13"
became the basis for the film "WXIII Patlabor the
movie 3".
Masami Yuuki was born 19 December 1957 in Hokkaido.
He originally began writing doujinshi (fan comics)
and parodies. His work, a parody of "Mobile Suit
Gundam" was first published in 1980 in "Out"
magazine. He has also written and drawn the manga
series "Birdy the Mighty", "Assemble Insert",
"Ultimate Superman R" (which have all been adapted
into anime series), "Ja Ja Grooming Up!" and "Kunie,
Daughter of Panage".
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Kazunori Ito
Kazunori Ito wrote the
screenplays for the original OVA series, the first
two films, and several episodes of the TV series and
New OVA series.
Ito was born 24 December 1954 in Yamagata. He has
written a number of screenplays for several anime
films and live action films including ".hack//SIGN",
".hack//Roots", ".hack//Liminality", "Creamy Mami",
"Maison Ikkoku, "Ghost in the Shell", "Gamera
(1995)", "Gamera 2", "Gamera 3", and "Avalon". He
was also the series director for
".hack//Liminality". He was married to Akemi Takada,
though I am unsure of their current marital status.
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Yutaka Izubuchi
Yutaka
Izubuchi developed most of the mechanical items in
the series including the Ingram AV-98, possibility
one of the best robot designs ever conceived for an
anime. He also provided screenplays for a number of
the TV and New OVA Series episodes, and was the
supervisor for "WXIII Patlabor the movie 3".
Izubuchi was born on 8 December 1958 in Tokyo.
He has also designed robots and other mecha for
anime series such as "Dunbine", "Gundam Char's
Counterattack", "Gasaraki", and "Rahxephon". He also
directed "Rahxephon", and provided the original
character designs for "Record of Lodoss War" and
miscellaneous designs for "Gundam Wing" and "Kamen
Rider Agito".
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Akemi Takada
Akemi Takada provided
the excellent character designs for all of the
Patlabor anime except "Patlabor WXIII the movie 3"
and "Minipato".
Takada was born 31 March 1952 in Tokyo, and began
her carer at Tatsunoko Productions, but soon became
a freelancer. An extremely well known and loved
character designer, she has provided designs for
seminal anime such as "Kimagure Orange Road",
"Urusei Yatsura", "Creamy Mami", "Licca-chan", and
"Fancy Lala". She
was married to Kazunori Ito, though I am unsure of
their current marital status. |
Besides the main unit of Headgear, there were other staff
involved in the creation of Patlabor. Below are their
profiles;
Kenji Kawai
Kenji Kawai wrote the music
for all the Patlabor anime. Kawai was born 23 April
1957 in Tokyo. A very talented composer, his credits
include "Ranma
½", "Maison Ikkoku", "Irresponsible
Captain Tylor", "Ghost in The Shell", "Innocence"
"Vampire Princess Miyu" and "Mobile Suit Gundam 00".
He has also scored many live action films including
"Ring", "Ring 2", "Chaos", "Dark Water", "Avalon",
"Princess Blade", "Le Samurai" and the live action
"Death Note" movie.
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Naoyuki Yoshinaga
Naoyuki
Yoshinaga directed the seventh OVA of the Patalbor
Original OVA Series, the TV series and New Series
OVA.
Yoshinaga has also directed "Parasite Dolls",
"Cleopatra DC" and episodes of "Maison Ikkoku" and
the "Kimagure Orange Road" OVA series.
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Takayama Fumihiko
Takayama
Fumihiko directed "WXIII Patalabor the movie 3". A
character based on him appears twice in Patlabor
anime; in the TV episode "The Underground Mystery
Tour" and in the New Series OVA episode "The Dungeon
- Again". Fumihiko also wrote and directed the OVA
series "Orguss 2" and directed "Gundam 0080: War in
the Pocket".
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Kenji Kamiyama
Kenji
Kamiyama directed "Minipato". He was born on 20
March 1966 in Iturup. Kamiyama has worked on
numerous Production I.G. productions but is most
famous for his work on the "Ghost in the Shell:
Stand Alone Complex" series. He directed both the
first TV series, the second TV series "2nd Gig" and
the TV special "Solid State Society". He also worked
on the scripts and storyboards for some sections of
the series. Kamiyama also worked on the screenplay
for "Blood: The Last Vampire" and was the director
for the "Guardian of the Sacred Spirit" and
"Moribito" anime TV series. His latest work is "009
Re: Cyborg", a big budget cinema retelling of
Ishinomori Shotaro's ("Kamen Rider") "Cyborg 009".
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Tori-Miki
Tori-Miki wrote the
screenplay for "WXIII Patlabor the movie 3". He was
born 23 February 1958 in Hitoyoshi city. Tori-Miki
works primarily as a novelest and manga artist. He
has written Tohku E Ikitai (Escaping), which won the
41st Bunshun Comic Award, and Dai-Honya (the Big
Book Store), for which he won the Seiun Award. Other
works include "Sound of the Mountain", "Terrible
Boys Club" and "Tori Miki's Peace of Mind". |
Information Main Page
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Development of
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