Yasuhiro Imagawa (今川 泰宏 Imagawa Yasuhiro born July 24, 1961) is a Japanese anime director and screenwriter best known for his works in the Giant Robo OVA series and Mobile Fighter G Gundam along with several other mecha series including Getter Robo Armageddon and Mazinger Edition Z: The Impact!.
History[]
As a child, Imagawa enjoyed Tetsujin 28 among several other programs. In junior high, he became a fan of The Rocky Horror Picture, it was there he started his personal motto about achieving a dream he never thought about before. After graduating high school, he joined Tatsunoko Productions in its institute for animation. However, encounters with his classmate Fumio Iida discouraged him from animation and later took classes in directing. In 1981, Imagawa served as a production assistant to the OVA Breman 4 Angels in Hell and later acted as an assistant director in the Time Bokan series Yattodetaman. After 1982, he started his career as a full director and enrolled in Sunrise under supervision from Yoshiyuki Tomino. Imagawa was chosen as the director for Mister Ajikko and even won the 6th Atom Award for directing it. In 1998, it was announced that he would be the director and series composition of Getter Robo Armageddon. He was originally put in charge of the project. Due to an unknown disagreement with the staff, he left the project, leaving the story in disarray from episode 4 and onward. His directing role was replaced by Jun Kawagoe for the subsequent episodes. Kawagoe would later go on to direct the Shin Getter Robo vs. Neo Getter Robo and New Getter Robo OVAs and currently and recently, the Getter Robo Arc television series. In 2009, he was returned to Dynamic Productions to work on Mazinger Edition Z: The Impact!. But after Mazinger Edition Z ended, he was never returned to work on for Dynamic Productions again. From this point to present, Imagawa later eventually retired from mecha anime works.
Style[]
Imagawa often works in mecha programs with giant robot in some way leading to large scale destruction. His works often feature a crime and punishment theme.