Yōichi Kotabe.

mangaka · animator

Japan, Born 1936

In short

Yōichi Kotabe (小田部羊一, Kotabe Yōichi; born September 15, 1936) is a Japanese animator and character designer, best known for his work on classic anime of the 1960s and 1970s, the Super Mario video game series, and the Pokémon franchise in television and film. He was an employee at Nintendo for two decades doing illustrations, character designs, and supervision from 1985 to 2007. After that, he began to work as a freelancer for the anime and video game industry, including for Nintendo again.