Tadao Nagahama (長浜 忠夫, Nagahama Tadao; September 26, 1932 – November 4, 1980 in Kagoshima) was a Japanese director of anime and puppet shows.
He also wrote the lyrics for the anime's theme song under the name Akira Aoi (あおい あきら, Aoi Akira).
Nagahama has produced hits in a wide variety of genres, including super robot, sports, and comedy.
He is best known as the director of Sunrise and Toei's Robot Romance Trilogy, which added human drama to the Super Robot genre.
He is also known as the director of several popular anime series that are still well known among Japanese viewers.
His most famous work is the national hit, Star of the Giants, which contributed to the popularity of baseball in Japan.
Contents
Biography
Nagahama began his theatrical career in the drama club of his junior high school, and not only directed but also acted on stage himself.
After entering the Department of Drama at Nihon University College of Art, he studied theater at Butai Geijyutsu Gakuin, Kirin-za, Seinen Haiyū Club, and Mingei Theatre Company, while working part-time in the editorial department of theater magazine Theaterux.
In the early 1960s, while working in the production department of the puppet theater troupe Hitomi-za, he was assigned to direct puppet shows for television.
In 1965, he joined A Production, which was contracted to produce anime for Tokyo Movie, an animation studio founded by Yutaka Fujioka, a colleague at Hitomi-za and producer of the TV puppet show Iga no Kagemaru, where he began directing TV anime.
The TV series he directed, Star of Giants, which began airing in 1968, was a huge hit and raged at the time.
However, he gave up on anime after working on Samurai Giants and left A Production to start a company, where he worked on commercial production for about a year.
In 1975, he returned to the anime industry as the director of Reideen The Brave, replacing Yoshiyuki Tomino, who was dropped midway through the show. This was his first robot anime.
In 1976, he took on the job of director for Toei (not Toei Animation)'s robot anime, Combattler V and was involved from the planning stage with the Raiden staff.
From this work, he began teaching acting to voice actors and handling sound effects, which led to his being credited as sound director.
He went on to direct two more Toei's robot anime, Voltes V and Tōshō Daimos.
Filmography
Puppetry
Iga no Kagemaru (1963-1964) Episode director
Hyokkori Hyōtanjima (1964–1969) Puppet performance director
Terrahawks (Japan-UK co-production) (canceled)
Anime
Obake no Q-tarō (1965) Episode director/Storyboard
Perman (1967-1968)
Star of the Giants (1968-1971) Composition (episodes 1-85) → Episode director (episodes 86-final episode)
Chingō Muchabē (1971) Episode director
Shin Obake no Q-tarō (1971-1972) Director/Script
The Gutsy Frog (1972-1974) Episode Director (9th-80th), Chief Director (81st-final), Storyboard
Samurai Giants (1973-1974) Director
Brave Raideen (1975-1976) General Director (Episode 27-Final episode)/Storyboard
Combattler V (1976-1977) General director/Sound director
Voltes V (1977-1978) General director/Sound director/Voice actor
Ore wa Teppei (1977-1978) Episode director
Tōshō Daimos (1978-1979) General director/Sound director
Future Robot Daltanious (1979-1980) General director/Sound director (Episodes 1-26)
The Rose of Versailles (1979-1980) General director/Sound director (Episodes 1-13)
Zukkoke Knight - Don De La Mancha (anime adaptation of Don Quixote) (1980)
Ulysses 31 (Japan-France co-production) (1981) Chief director on the Japanese side, his last work
Music
Lyrics
Voltes V Ending theme
Tōshō Daimos Ending theme
Future Robot Daltanious Ending theme
