Pictured with the intellectual properties that he created and designed himself
Shoji Kawamori (born February 20, 1960) (known in western circles as "Hory Froating Head
◊") is a mechanical designer (originating from Studio Nue) and anime director with a very distinctive visual aesthetic and animation style. He frequently works together with Yoko Kanno and the animation director Ichiro Itano.
He has created and/or directed the following:
- Macross:
- Super Dimension Fortress Macross: With Noboru Ishiguro
- Macross: Do You Remember Love?: With Noboru Ishiguro
- Macross Plus: With Shinichiro Watanabe
- Macross 7: With Tetsuro Amino
- Macross Zero
- Macross Frontier: With Yasuhito Kikuchi
- Macross Delta: With Kenji Yasuda
- The Vision of Escaflowne: With Kazuki Akane
- The Daichis - Earth Defense Family: With Tetsu Kimura
- Earth Maiden Arjuna
- Genesis of Aquarion
- Aquarion Evol: With Yusuke Yamamoto
- Aquarion Logos
- Aquarion: Myth of Emotions
- Basquash!: With Thomas Romain, Shin Itagaki, and Hidekazu Sato
- Animal Detectives Kiruminzoo: With Soichi Masui
- AKB0048: With Yoshimasa Hiraike
- Nobunaga the Fool: With Hidekazu Sato
- Spring And Chaos
- Last Hope
He has also done mechanical design for the following:
- Ace Combat: Assault Horizon: Designed the ASF-X Shinden II. His Macross background shows through with it's design and functions.
- Armored Core series
- BattleTech: Until Harmony Gold filed a lawsuit in contravention of decisions that were made in Japanese courts.
- Technically it was the other way round: he didn't really designed original BT mechs, FASA just used his Macross designs for them.
- Blue Submarine No. 6
- Bodacious Space Pirates
- Chousoku Henkei Gyrozetter
- Cowboy Bebop: With Shinichiro Watanabe. Also wrote the screenplay for Episode 18.
- Crusher Joe
- Daemon X Machina
- Daimos
- Dangaioh: Also provided some key animation for episode 1.
- Eureka Seven
- Future GPX Cyber Formula series: Technically cars, but they're mechanical designs nonetheless.
- Ghost in the Shell
- Glass Fleet
- Godzilla vs. Biollante
- Gunhed
- LEGO Exo-Force
- Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory note
- Moldiver
- Outlaw Star
- Patlabor series
- Saber Marionette J: Did key animation for episodes 1 and 5.
- Thunderbirds Are Go
- Time Jam: Valerian & Laureline
- Transformers: Masterpiece Starscream and Hybrid Style Convoy; also designed the original toys Optimus Primenote and Jetfire were based upon.
- Ulysses 31
Shoji Kawamori frequently uses the following in his works:
- God Never Said That: Many of the things he supposedly said to "troll" the Macross Frontier fandom were fiction made up by a disgruntled member of the fandom.
- Technology Porn: He graduated as an aircraft engineer, which is really evident in his designs.
- Transforming Mecha: The creator of transforming real robots himself. He designed the VF-1 Valkyrie and Optimus Prime, who are among the most famous of all mecha, period.
- Trolling Creator: He does have a way of messing with audience expectations, even those who have been following his work for a long time.
