Tatsuo Yoshida

Tatsuo Yoshida (吉田 竜夫, Yoshida Tatsuo, May 6, 1932 – September 5, 1977) was a Japanese manga artist, illustrator, as well as anime pioneer who founded the animation studio Tatsunoko Production as a businessman and the original author of many anime works.

As the first president of Tatsunoko Production, Yoshida supported the dawn of Japanese animation by producing numerous hits such as Speed Racer, Hakushon Daimaō, The Adventures of Hutch the Honeybee, and Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. He took on challenges that other animation studios did not, such as insisting on producing his own original animation that was not based on manga or novels, or creating American-style animation. Character designs were also drawn in Yoshida's style, with a solid skeleton and intricate lines that were drawn with precision, influenced by American comic books, rather than the simplified, less-linear style that was mainstream in Japanese animation at the time, and this became the origin of Tatsunoko's designs.