INFLUENCES II - Haruhiko Mikimoto - the cel shading king (Patreon)

When I was first getting exposed to anime in the early 90s through VHS releases over here in the UK, one of the first things I saw was a 6-episode OVA called Macross II. Back then you would watch whatever you could get, even if it was a sequel to a show you'd never seen, so I snapped it up on 3 VHS tapes and loved it. I was especially taken with the incredibly well-drawn characters and the beautiful shading (and really detailed eyes). After Macross II, I grabbed another 6-episode show that Haruhiko Mikimoto was the character designer for: Gunbuster. It turned out to be my favourite OVA of all time, and this started me on a decades-long quest to watch everything Mikimoto was involved in . He's still my favourite character designer to this day.

Today I'd like to introduce you to the work on Mr Haruhiko Mkikmoto, who you may know as being the main artist for Macross over the years. He's a master of both cel-shading and watercolour style, and also does highly detailed manga when he has the time. At age 64 he's had a long and storied career. See how many of the following you recognise!

Mikimoto's first major work was in 1982 when he designed all the characters for the massively popular space epic The Super Dimension Fortress Macross (39 episodes). You can really see the detail he puts into eyes, and his great shading.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF08IaXisus

After that he was straight on to the high budget theatrical movie, Macross: Do You Remember Love?  (1983)
More money meant even better art and animation, and it's one of the greatest movies I've seen. Kind of a retelling of the TV series, and worth a watch if you want to get into Macross but don't want to watch the TV series. It's a beautiful and haunting work of art, especially the more lonely and desolate scenes which I won't spoil.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zg7G9uOf0A

Also in '83 he was character designing and animation directing on Super Dimension Century Orguss (35 episodes)  (no releation to Macross, despite the 'super dimension" in the title).

In 1985 he designed the virtual idol EVE for the movie Megazone 23. This movie was extremely mind bending at the time and was a clearly a huge early inspiration for The Matrix. The rest of the characters are designed by Toshiki Hirano of Iczer 1 & Dragon's Heaven fame, so having this one character who stands out with a different art style is a cool choice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y76-rcc6_XY

In 1987 he was back to Macross with the one-off special Macross: Flash Back 2012 (character designer, animation director). It's a collection of music videos and fantastic new pieces of animation showing what happens to the cast after the original series and movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8dcS3vKWRA

In 1988 Mikimoto did character designs for an OVA based on Konami's Salamander/Nemesis/Gradius series of games. European owners of NES consoles would know the games as Life Force (3 episodes).

Straight after that he designed the character's for Gainax's masterpiece Gunbuster, my aforementioned favourite OVA  (6 episodes).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boIq-ep5A9g

Having done character design for many high profile properties as well as one of the most well known mecha series of the 80s (Macross) probably got him noticed by Sunrise for their 1989 Gundam OVA, Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (6 episodes). It's an absolutely great little stand-alone entry to the Gundam universe and one of the most consistently high-ranked Gundam shows by fans. Hugely recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo7Mjf6RfIE

1989 saw Mikimoto yet again on character design duty for the lesser-known 12-part OVA  series Hi-Speed Jecy. I personally need to finish watching this one, as it looks pretty nice.

1992 saw the long awaited sequel to Macross with the 6-part OVA Super Dimensional Fortress Macross II: Lovers Again. Mikimoto returned as character designer. The series itself has been criticised as being a bit of a beat-for-beat rehash of Macross, but I love it. It does, however, suffer from putting all the budget into the space battle in episode 5 and then having choppy animation for the final episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVgGhMRG6pk

1993 had the OVA sequel to Orguss, Super Dimension Century Orguss 02 (6 episodes), with Mikimoto back again on character design. Apart from the Americanised version of Macross - the infamous Robotech - this was one of the first of his works released in the west during the Manga Video VHS boom of the 90s!

But it was 1994 where we really saw Mikimoto's return to glory with the long awaited and much-hyped direct sequel to Macross, set 39 years after the original series with several returning fan favourite characters. Macross 7 was 49 episodes long, with several specials, a movie and a OVA sequel called Macross Dynamite 7. Mikimoto's character designs shine through as always, though they've been somewhat simplified for TV animation from his very detailed character sheets.

Macross 7 is easily my favourite anime TV series, and has quite frankly the best soundtrack I've ever heard in a TV show. Also, look at that city in the opening. That's 1994 CGI and it looks insanely good!  -  https://vimeo.com/203993320

Following Macross 7, Mikimoto did character designs for the Sega Saturn turn-based strategy game Quo Vadis in 1995, and the ridiculously well-animated sequel Quo Vadis 2 in 1997.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNySeVMl-kw

After that it seems he went into hibernation until 2016's Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress. In the digital, 3D-stuffed world of modern anime, it was very refreshing to see the super-detailed retro character designs of Mr. Mikimoto back on the screen!

And there you have it. My favourite character designer and the guy whose cel-shading style I copied a lot as a teenager to try and get he hang of that distinctive "anime look." I would recommend any of the above if you're looking for something to watch, and he also has a number of art books out, as well as manga like Macross 7 Trash.
Give Haruhiko Mikimoto's works a look and you shan't be disappointed!

-Paul