Katsuya Kondou

近藤勝也

Famous for his character designs on numerous of Studio Ghibli's films, which are considered the epitome of the Ghibli style.

After graduating from high school, he began working for Osamu Dezaki and Akio Sugino at their Studio Annapuru. Under the direction of Shinji Ootsuka, Kondou worked as a key animator of the TV anime series Cat's Eye. He then worked as a free agent on such shows as The Mighty Orbots, Rainbow Brite and Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears. His first work with Studio Ghibli was as a key animator on Castle in the Sky. After working on the Gainax film The Wings of Honneamise and multiple OVAs around late '80s, Kondou began to be known for the high quality of his work.

He has also collaborated with Kenichi Sakemi on a manga retelling of the Joan of Arc story, as well as doing the character designs for the Jade Cocoon video game series.

(Source: Wikipedia)