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Headgear is the collective name given to Patlabor's creators. Usually a series will be credited to a single person. In Patlabor's case it was credited to a creative team. The main reason was to own the rights to the work and not have the rights to be taken away by an animation studio or producers. But to do this they needed to sell it as a whole production team. This caused problems in itself, as to be taken seriously and to be able to sell it as a package they also needed to have a director. At that point Mamoru Oshii was recruited. Once the main members came together, Patlabor became a team effort rather than just an anime based upon Masami Yuuki's manga. Another major reason to form Headgear was publicity. According to an interview with Masami Yuuki, anime magazines in Japan would only set aside two pages for an anime based on another persons work such as a manga. If the manga version was published first under Yuuki's name, there would be less pages in anime magazines for Patlabor, hence the reason why Patlabor is credited to Headgear, not just Masami Yuuki. Patlabor was Headgear's only output. No other anime or manga was released under the group's title, though some members of the group worked together on other projects after Patlabor.
Below are profiles of the main members of Headgear.
Mamoru Oshii served as director on the original OVA series, as well the first two films. He has also provided the screenplays for several TV episodes, several episodes of the New OVA series, and Minipato.
Born in Tokyo on 8 August 1951, after graduating from university he worked briefly as a radio programmer. But soon moved into a career as an animator in 1977 working at Tatsunoko Productions. He gained recognition as a director of the TV series "Urusei Yatsura" in 1981. During the 1980's, he directed a number of anime projects including "Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer", and "Angel's Egg" (a surreal film co-created by Yoshitaka Amano). He has also directed a number of live action films including "Talking Head", "Red Spectacles", and "Kereberos (Panzer Corps)", and wrote the "Kereberos (Panzer Corps)" manga.
Oshii came to the attention of western fans with the release of the 1995 film "Ghost in the Shell", which he directed. Since then he has directed the live action film "Avalon", wrote the screenplay for "Jin-roh: the Wolf Brigade", provided the original story and concept for "Blood: The Last Vampire", directed the ".50 Woman" segment of the live action film "Killers", directed and written the screenplay for the second Ghost in the Shell anime film, "Innocence", wrote and directed the part-live-action, part-animated film "Tachigui: The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters", directed the anime film "The Sky Crawlers" as well the live action fantasy "The Last Druid: Garm Wars".
Masami Yuuki conceived the story of Patlabor in the early 1980's. Yuuki wrote the manga version of Patlabor, which commenced shortly after the first video release in April 1988. The manga eventually ended in 1994, and totalled 22 volumes. Yuuki's manga story "Waste Product 13" became the basis for the film "WXIII Patlabor the movie 3".
Masami Yuuki was born 19 December 1957 in Hokkaido. He originally began writing doujinshi (fan comics) and parodies. His work, a parody of "Mobile Suit Gundam" was first published in 1980 in "Out" magazine. He has also written and drawn the manga series "Birdy the Mighty", "Assemble Insert", "Ultimate Superman R" (which have all been adapted into anime series), "Ja Ja Grooming Up!" and "Kunie, Daughter of Panage".
Kazunori Ito wrote the screenplays for the original OVA series, the first two films, and several episodes of the TV series and New OVA series.
Ito was born 24 December 1954 in Yamagata. He has written a number of screenplays for several anime films and live action films including ".hack//SIGN", ".hack//Roots", ".hack//Liminality", "Creamy Mami", "Maison Ikkoku, "Ghost in the Shell", "Gamera (1995)", "Gamera 2", "Gamera 3", and "Avalon". He was also the series director for ".hack//Liminality". He was married to Akemi Takada, though I am unsure of their current marital status.
Yutaka Izubuchi developed most of the mechanical items in the series including the Ingram AV-98, possibility one of the best robot designs ever conceived for an anime. He also provided screenplays for a number of the TV and New OVA Series episodes, and was the supervisor for "WXIII Patlabor the movie 3".
Izubuchi was born on 8 December 1958 in Tokyo. He has also designed robots and other mecha for anime series such as "Dunbine", "Gundam Char's Counterattack", "Gasaraki", and "Rahxephon". He also directed "Rahxephon", and provided the original character designs for "Record of Lodoss War" and miscellaneous designs for "Gundam Wing" and "Kamen Rider Agito".
Akemi Takada provided the excellent character designs for all of the Patlabor anime except "Patlabor WXIII the movie 3" and "Minipato".
Takada was born 31 March 1952 in Tokyo, and began her carer at Tatsunoko Productions, but soon became a freelancer. An extremely well known and loved character designer, she has provided designs for seminal anime such as "Kimagure Orange Road", "Urusei Yatsura", "Creamy Mami", "Licca-chan", and "Fancy Lala". She was married to Kazunori Ito, though I am unsure of their current marital status.
Besides the main unit of Headgear, there were other staff involved in the creation of Patlabor. Below are their profiles;
Kenji Kawai wrote the music for all the Patlabor anime. Kawai was born 23 April 1957 in Tokyo. A very talented composer, his credits include "Ranma ½", "Maison Ikkoku", "Irresponsible Captain Tylor", "Ghost in The Shell", "Innocence" "Vampire Princess Miyu" and "Mobile Suit Gundam 00". He has also scored many live action films including "Ring", "Ring 2", "Chaos", "Dark Water", "Avalon", "Princess Blade", "Le Samurai" and the live action "Death Note" movie.
Naoyuki Yoshinaga directed the seventh OVA of the Patalbor Original OVA Series, the TV series and New Series OVA. Yoshinaga has also directed "Parasite Dolls", "Cleopatra DC" and episodes of "Maison Ikkoku" and the "Kimagure Orange Road" OVA series.
Takayama Fumihiko directed "WXIII Patalabor the movie 3". A character based on him appears twice in Patlabor anime; in the TV episode "The Underground Mystery Tour" and in the New Series OVA episode "The Dungeon - Again". Fumihiko also wrote and directed the OVA series "Orguss 2" and directed "Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket".
Kenji Kamiyama directed "Minipato". He was born on 20 March 1966 in Iturup. Kamiyama has worked on numerous Production I.G. productions but is most famous for his work on the "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex" series. He directed both the first TV series, the second TV series "2nd Gig" and the TV special "Solid State Society". He also worked on the scripts and storyboards for some sections of the series. Kamiyama also worked on the screenplay for "Blood: The Last Vampire" and was the director for the "Guardian of the Sacred Spirit" and "Moribito" anime TV series. His latest work is "009 Re: Cyborg", a big budget cinema retelling of Ishinomori Shotaro's ("Kamen Rider") "Cyborg 009".
Tori-Miki wrote the screenplay for "WXIII Patlabor the movie 3". He was born 23 February 1958 in Hitoyoshi city. Tori-Miki works primarily as a novelest and manga artist. He has written Tohku E Ikitai (Escaping), which won the 41st Bunshun Comic Award, and Dai-Honya (the Big Book Store), for which he won the Seiun Award. Other works include "Sound of the Mountain", "Terrible Boys Club" and "Tori Miki's Peace of Mind".