Mitsuki Nakamura

Mitsuki Nakamura (中村 光毅, Nakamura Mitsuki) (April 7, 1944 – May 16, 2011) was an art director and mecha designer in the Japanese anime industry.^[1]

After working for Toei Doga, he joined Tatsunoko Productions, where he drew background art and designed mecha, supporting the first Tatsunoko golden age.^[2][3] After leaving Tatsunoko, he founded Design Office Mecaman and served as its representative director.^[3]

Nakamura worked as art director on a number of anime works and has likewise worked as a mechanical designer.^[4]

He is one of the pioneering mecha designers in the Japanese anime industry and was the first to have his name included in the end credits.^[3][5][a] His best-known works as a mecha designer include Mach Five from Speed Racer, God Phoenix from Science Ninja Team Gatchaman and Time Mechabuton from Time Bokan.^[3][6] Mach Five, in particular, is regarded as a masterpiece of the first Tatsunoko golden age for its outstanding design sense, and its design was so perfect that it was used almost unchanged in the 2008 live-action film Speed Racer by The Wachowskis, 40 years later.^[3][7]

However, his speciality was not mecha design, but anime background art.^[6] Background art plays a very important role in Japanese-style animation expression techniques. This has become increasingly the case in recent years, and Nakamura's art was one of the factors to move in this direction.^[7] His representative works as an art director include Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, Mobile Suit Gundam, and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.^[8][9][10]

After graduating from junior high school, Nakamura joined Toei Doga through the help of his school teacher. He gained experience in various jobs as an assistant and then as a member of the colouring staff, where he developed his knowledge of paints and colours.^[3]

Nakamura, who wanted to paint background art, moved to the newly established Tatsunoko Productions in 1964 through an introduction from Toei.^[11] After working on the studio's first TV series Space Ace, his love of cars led him to design cars for the studio's second work, the car racing anime series Speed Racer.^[12][13]

He became head of the art section, where he instructs Yoshitaka Amano and Kunio Okawara.^[6][14][15] At that time, Tatsunoko's art section was not only responsible for art, but also for the design of backgrounds, props, robots and cars, all of which were entrusted to Nakamura, who was trusted by the president, Tatsuo Yoshida.^[16][17] The staff included many aspiring painters who had left art college, some working for a living and some with personalities of their own, and he had to lead them as section head. With the number of animations even increasing, it was impossible for him to do everything on his own. He therefore decided to entrust some of the mechanical design work to Okawara, who had just joined Tatsunoko. Nakamura and Okawara were credited as mechanical designers for the first time in Japanese animation history in Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, which began airing in 1972.^[17][18]

At the end of 1976, he left Tatsunoko Productions and founded Design Office Mecaman with Kunio Okawara. Initially, Mecaman was planned to be a mecha design company, as Okawara was also a member of the company. However, he soon became independent and the company specialised in background art.^[17][18]

Nakamura died of oral cancer on May 16, 2011, at the age of 67.^[1][4]