Tadayoshi Yamamuro

Tadayoshi Yamamuro

This article is about the real world.

Tadayoshi Yamamuro (山室直儀) is a Japanese animator and character designer. He is the Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, and Dragon Ball Heroes character designer. He is known for his straight style, as opposed to Minoru Maeda's rounded style, and he is recognized as the best animator and illustrator for the Dragon Ball franchise.

Biography

Yamamuro at work

At a young age, Tadayoshi Yamamuro began learning martial arts in a Shaolin Temple. Years later, in 1984, he was hired in Mitsuo Shindō's production company and began working as an in-between animator for the TV adaptation of Akira Toriyama's Dr. Slump manga, Dr. Slump and Arale-chan. Tadayoshi Yamamuro gain fame working on animated movies such as Angel's Egg (1985) and Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986). He then worked as an in-between animator and key animator for Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z. He became a main character designer for Dragon Ball Z after Minoru Maeda left Toei Animation in November 1992, at the end of the Perfect Cell Saga, a role that he shared with Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru until the end of Dragon Ball GT in November 1997. Yamamuro has been animation director for the Dragon Ball Z episodes 122, 127, 133, 137, 143, 147, 152, 157, 162, 168, 173, 185, 200, 206, 232, 242, 249, 255, and 285. For the Dragon Ball GT episodes 13, 19, 25, 31, 40, 42, 48, 52, and 59. And for the new animation produced for Dragon Ball Kai and Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi.

Dragon Ball Kai poster, by Yamamuro

Tadayoshi Yamamuro worked on the movies Dragon Ball: Mystical Adventure and Dragon Ball Z: The Tree of Might, and he was the character designer for the Dragon Ball Z movies Broly - The Legendary Super Saiyan, Bojack Unbound, Broly - Second Coming, Bio-Broly, Fusion Reborn, Wrath of the Dragon, The Path to Power, Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!!, Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans, Episode of Bardock, and Battle of Gods. He also drew cover arts for the movie Dragon Boxes and for video games.

Outside of the anime adaptations of Toriyama's manga series, Tadayoshi Yamamuro worked on Beet the Vandel Buster, Casshern Sins, Digimon, One Piece Film Strong World, Superflat Monogram, and Toriko. He is the character designer and chief animation director of the 2008 GeGeGe no Kitaro anime adaptation.

Trivia

• Tadayoshi Yamamuro once said that his favourite character among those that he designed is Janemba.

Gallery

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External links

• Tadayoshi Yamamuro's biography (Japanese)
• Tadayoshi Yamamuro's work, at animenewsnetwork.com