Yoshihiko Umakoshi (Japanese:馬越嘉彦,Hepburn:Umakoshi Yoshihiko, born July 30, 1968) is a Japanese animator and character designer. In 1994, he was put in charge of character designs for the first time withMarmalade Boy. Since then, he has done character designs for many series, such asHeartCatch PreCure!,Ojamajo Doremi, andMy Hero Academia.

Yoshihiko Umakoshi was born inHakata, Ehime in 1968.^[1][2] Umakoshi debuted as a character designer in 1994 withMarmalade Boy.^[2] In 2011, due to his work onHeartCatch PreCure!, he won the award for best character designer at the 2011Tokyo Anime Award.^[3]

Starting in 2016, Umakoshi created the character designs for the anime adaptation ofMy Hero Academia.^[4] He also provided the character designs for the three anime films based on the series.^[5][6][7] The series has received praise, withPaste ranking the adaptation among the top 40 anime of all time.^[8]Polygon,Crunchyroll, andIGN also named the adaptation as one of the best anime of the 2010s.^[9][10][11] At theCrunchyroll Anime Awards, the adaptation was nominated for anime of the year in 2016 and the filmMy Hero Academia: Two Heroes won the award for best film in 2018.^[12][13] In 2020, Umakoshi did the character designs forLooking for Magical Doremi, which won theMainichi Film Award for Best Animation Film.^[14][15]

• Marmalade Boy (1994–1995) (character designer)^[2]
• Neighborhood Story (1995–1996) (character designer)^[1]
• Boys Over Flowers (1996–1997) (character designer)^[2]
• Berserk (1997) (character designer)^[2]
• Ojamajo Doremi (1999–2004) (character designer)^[14]
• Air Master (2003) (character designer)^[2]
• Guyver: The Bioboosted Armor (2005–2006) (character designer)^[16]
• Mushishi (2005–2014) (character designer)^[17]
• Casshern Sins (2008–2009) (character designer)^[16]
• HeartCatch PreCure! (2010–2011) (character designer)^[3]
• Saint Seiya Omega (2012–2014) (character designer)^[18]
• My Hero Academia (2016–present) (character designer)^[4]

• Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation (2000) (character designer)^[2]
• My Hero Academia: Two Heroes (2018) (character designer)^[5]
• My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising (2019) (character designer)^[6]
• Looking for Magical Doremi (2020) (character designer)^[14]
• My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission (2021) (character designer)^[7]

• Bloody Roar: Primal Fury (2002) (supervising animator)https://www.mobygames.com/game/6017/bloody-roar-primal-fury/credits/gamecube/?autoplatform=true

• Yoshihiko Umakoshi atAnime News Network's encyclopedia

• 1968 births
• Anime character designers
• Japanese animators
• Living people
• People from Imabari, Ehime

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