Souji Yoshikawa

吉川惣司

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 was planning to go to art college, but was invited to join Mushi Pro, so he quit high school and joined the company. He participated as an animator for the first Astro Boy series. In 1967, he participated in the founding of Art Fresh with Gisaburou Sugii and Osamu Dezaki. After working as an animator on Mushi Production's Gokuu no Daibouken, which Art Fresh participated in, he worked as a freelance animator before becoming a senior director and board member of Dyna-Method Inc.

In addition to serving as episode director, storyboard artist and writer, he also worked as a director. He has participated in Tensai Bakabon, Star of the Giants, Ashita no Joe, Moomin, Lupin III, Invincible Super Man Zambot 3, Invincible Steel Man Daitarn 3, and Future Boy Conan.

In addition to anime, he created, wrote and directed Star Guardian with Airship Theater Company, wrote the screenplays for Tanoshii Moomin Ikka and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and wrote and directed The Wizard of Oz. It all started when he was asked by director Masaaki Oosumi to help with the screenplay of Aladdin for Airship Theater Company's Aladdin when he was working on the TV adaptation of Moomin. In addition, he has worked on commercials, events, performances and novels. He has been a fan of science fiction since he read Shounen Shoujo Sekai Kagaku Bouken Zenshuu by Kodansha when he was a kid.

One of the reasons that the 100th episode of the Kirby: Right Back at Ya! anime contained some problems, inconsistencies, and heavy-handedness in the plot and development is that Yoshikawa, who wrote the final episode, learned that his wife was in critical condition at the time and had to rush through the script and leave it in incomplete form in order to be present for her dying moments.

Yasuo Ootsuka cited in an interview for the Lupin III Perfect Book: Complete Collector's Edition, that Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, Osamu Dezaki, and Yoshikawa as representative members of the Japanese anime world.

(Source: Wikipedia)