Toshio Okada (岡田 斗司夫,Okada Toshio, born July 1, 1958) is ananime producer, author, andlecturer. He is a co-founder and former president of the production companyGainax. He is portrayed by actorGaku Hamada in the 2014TV DramaAoi Honō based on the autobiographicalmanga by his fellowKazuhiko Shimamoto. He is representative director of Otaking Inc. and Cloud City Inc., as well as the founder of FREEex Inc. He also served as a part-time lecturer at the University of Tokyo's college of art and sciences and as a visiting scholar at Osaka University of Arts' character creative arts department.

Okada was born on July 1, 1958, inOsaka, Japan. He has written several Japanese-language books onotaku culture, and lectured on the topic as an adjunct instructor atUniversity of Tokyo from 1996 to 1997.^[1]: 190 He is considered the foremost authority onotaku and in addition, in a tribute to his own otaku-ness^[a] has been called "Otaking" amongst his colleagues and fellow otaku.^[2][3][4]

Okada was admitted toOsaka Electro-Communication University to learn to use computer in 1978, but he could not obtain any credits in the first year because he had forgotten to hand in his course registration form. For this reason, he stopped completing all the courses necessary for a university degree, and he joined a group of SF fans and went into its activity. He lived on a monthly allowance from his parents who did not know of his dropping out. In the same year, he sawStar Wars as he was dressed asDarth Vader.

In 1981, his group promoted20th Japanese SF convention (aka Daicon III), and he putDAICON III Opening Animation on the screen. Okada andYasuhiro Takeda and their group established "Daicon Film" as an anime producing team and commissioned undergraduates ofOsaka University of Arts to produceDAICON III and IV Opening Animations for the SF convention.Hideaki Anno,Takami Akai, andHiroyuki Yamaga who were undergraduates of that university worked on those animations.

Okada realized that he could make a business out of selling SciFi products because he made a large profit sellinggarage kits and videos of opening animations at this convention. In 1981, he was formally expelled from his university. On February 14, 1982, he openedGeneral Products as a part of his parents company to sell SF Goods in Osaka. Before opening his shop, he borrowed money from his parents and got permission to use term ofgeneral products fromLarry Niven. In this year, he got married.

In 1986, he establishedGainax as an Anime studio and isolated General Products from his parents company. Okada assumed office as CEO of Gainax andYasuhiro Takeda assumed office as CEO of General Products. In 1989, Okada's first child was born, a daughter. In 1992, Okada retired from Gainax.

• Official blog(in Japanese)
• Toshio Okada atIMDb
• Otaking Space Port: Toshio Okada On The Web(in Japanese)
• A Review of "You Otaku Are Already Dead"
• Return of the Otaking: Toshio Okada at Anime America '96 -(introduction)
  • Part 2
  • Part 3
  • Part 4
  • Part 5
  • Part 6
  • Part 7
  • Part 8
  • Part 9
  • Part 10
  • Part 11
  • Part 12
• "Conscience of the Otaking" -(4-part 1995/1996Animerica interview)

• People from Sumiyoshi, Osaka
• People from Osaka
• Gainax
• Living people
• 1958 births
• Academic staff of the University of Tokyo

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from September 2016
• Articles containing Japanese-language text
• Official website not in Wikidata
• Articles with Japanese-language sources (ja)