Yoshiyuki Sadamoto

Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
Yoshiyuki Sadamoto at J-Popcon in Copenhagen, 2007
Born	(1962-01-29) January 29, 1962 (age 55) Tokuyama (now Shunan), Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Occupation	Character designer, manga artist
Known for	Neon Genesis Evangelion (manga)

Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (貞本 義行, Sadamoto Yoshiyuki^?, born January 29, 1962, in Tokuyama (now Shunan), Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese character designer, manga artist, and one of the founding members of the Gainax anime studio.

Before Gainax was founded under the official name (it was originally called Daicon Film), Yoshiyuki served as animator on the second animated project, the Daicon IV opening animation. His first assignment as character designer in Gainax was for Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise, released in 1987. Sadamoto has since had many works credited to him, one of the most notable being Neon Genesis Evangelion where he worked as a designer for the characters. Yoshiyuki's three most recent films include: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006), Summer Wars (2009), and Wolf Children (2012) for which he was the character designer.

According to Yasuo Otsuka, who guided Sadamoto as a newcomer, there are only three people whom he regarded as more skillful than himself that he has met during his career. One of them is Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. The other two are Sadao Tsukioka who became a visual creator, and award-winning director Hayao Miyazaki. When Otsuka met the three men, he seems to have felt that he was taking off his hat to them at once. However, he thinks that only Miyazaki completely mastered a genuinely superior animation technique at present. He guesses, "A too excellent person might despair in the group work".