Institute / Research Cases / QS-RC-131
Kunio Okawara
Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, the Time Bokan series, Mobile Suit Gundam, Fang of the Sun Dougram, Armored Trooper Votoms, Metal Armor Dragonar, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. Giving robots and vehicles the form of tools that move within a story — Kunio Okawara established the profession of the mechanical designer in animation. He was born in 1947 in Tokyo. After graduating from Tokyo Zokei University and working at a major apparel company, he joined the art department of Tatsunoko Production in 1972. On Science Ninja Team Gatchaman he was credited, for the first time, as mechanical designer. He went freelance in 1978, and on 7 April 1979 the television anime Mobile Suit Gundam began. The weapon forms called mobile suits set the direction of the real robot lineage. Beginning with the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art exhibition in 2013, museum exhibitions of his work continue. How could one hand keep creating the forms that became the face of so many stories? We read the vessel he was born with against his destiny and the phases of time.
At a Glance
The case
- Subject
- Kunio Okawara (大河原邦男) — Mechanical designer
- Period analysed
- 1947–2026
- Three pillars
- Day 己卯 / Month 壬子 / Year 丁亥
- Void branches
- 申酉 (Monkey–Rooster)
- Destiny area
- 0.78 The area of the triangle formed by the three pillars on the sixty-cycle circle (maximum 1.30)
- Format
- PDF, 14 pages — written in Japanese
- Price
- ¥50,000 including tax
Research Brief
What the case shows
- He holds a vessel that grows larger the more he stays out of the foreground and follows the flow. A single element breaks the pattern, and handling it without either indulging or suppressing it is the key to bringing the vessel to completion. In 1972, the year that element came round, the path he entered with a firm resolve became the starting point of his later rise.
- His is a space-time structure in which the energy arising from himself brings the hearts of those around him together, and in the end he too is brought together. The ideas of many creators gathered into the single form of a machine.
- His is a destiny born with the most delicate of vessels. It is the exact opposite of Yoshiyuki Tomino, born with the strongest, and that is why it could receive his force.
- The twenty years from age 27 to 47 fall in a void period of fortune. Drawing on that unnatural energy, as if borrowing fortune in advance, Gundam, Dougram and Votoms were born. Once that period ended, new lead machines for new worlds stopped appearing, and his work moved to established series and exhibitions.
- 7 April 1979 was a day on which protective forces lined up in all four layers of fortune, and the force of social role came together as one.
Questions
The questions the report answers
- How could he bring the ideas of many creators together into the single form of a machine?
- Why could he form a team with Yoshiyuki Tomino, who holds the strongest vessel?
- What energy flowed through the twenty years in which his major works gathered?
- What overlapped on 7 April 1979, the day Mobile Suit Gundam began?
Public Record
The record, year by year
Selected events from the public record. Analysis and judgement are given in the report itself.
| 1947 | 丁亥 | 26 December: born in Tokyo |
| 1972 | 壬子 | Joins Tatsunoko Production; as a new recruit designs the enemy machines of Gatchaman, credited as mechanical designer |
| 1976 | 丙辰 (天) | Designs a lead robot for the first time, in Gowapper 5 Godam |
| 1977 | 丁巳 (天) | Yatterman |
| 1978 | 戊午 (天) | Goes freelance |
| 1979 | 己未 (天) | 7 April: the television anime Mobile Suit Gundam begins |
| 1981 | 辛酉 (天天) | Fang of the Sun Dougram |
| 1983 | 癸亥 (天) | Armored Trooper Votoms |
| 1987 | 丁卯 (天) | Metal Armor Dragonar |
| 2002 | 壬午 | Mobile Suit Gundam SEED |
| 2013 | 癸巳 | Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art exhibition |
| 2015 | 乙未 | Ueno Royal Museum exhibition of his mechanical design |
Year pillars change at Risshun, in early February. (天) = void year or void decade. (天天) = void year within a void decade.
Contents
14 pages
- Destiny profile and chart
- Yin and yang charts
- Axis and type of destiny
- Ten-year phases
- Composite numerical table
- One break in the following-authority pattern
- Two harmonic unions
- Most delicate × strongest
- The twenty void years
- The one who gives form
- The four layers of 7 April 1979
- Timeline chart
- Public record
- Conclusion
Purchase
Order this Research Case
¥50,000incl. tax · PDF · Japanese
Email the case number QS-RC-131. We reply with an invoice; the PDF follows once payment is confirmed.
Analysis supervised by FAITH (Makoto Tokunaga) — MSc Economics, University of Warwick · CICP · Shugakuin Saii