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Gundam Creator Yoshiyuki Tomino, Actress/Singer Chieko Baisho Invited to Join Japan Art Academy
posted on by Joanna Cayanan
The Japan Art Academy is a national institution that gives preferential treatment to artists who have made outstanding achievements in different fields of art including literature, fine arts, music, and theater.
Tomino was born in Odawara in Kanagawa Prefecture on November 5, 1941.
Tomino created and directed the Mobile Suit Gundam anime in 1979. He made his debut at Osamu Tezuka's Mushi Production where he worked on the Astro Boy television anime. He has since directed anime including Zeta Gundam, Gundam ZZ, Char's Counterattack, Gundam F91, Victory Gundam, Turn A Gundam, Muteki Kōjin Daitarn 3, Space Runaway Ideon, Aura Battler Dunbine, and Gundam: Reconguista in G.
The Japanese government honored Tomino as a Person of Cultural Merit in 2021. Tomino received the Tokyo Anime Award Festival's (TAAF) Achievement Award in 2020. Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs gave Tomino the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs award in 2019. He was appointed as Odawara's hometown ambassador in July 2021, and he received the Odawara Citizen's Merit Award in February 2022. Tomino received the 71st annual Kanagawa Cultural Award November 2022.
Baisho was born on June 29, 1941 in Tokyo.
As a singer, Baisho performed theme songs for animated films such as Studio Ghibli's Howl's Moving Castle, the 1993 On a Paper Crane - Tomoko's Adventure film, and the 2015 film Air Bound.
Baisho also voiced characters in classic animated films such as Kamaria Ray in the 1981 Mobile Suit Gundam - The Movie Trilogy film, West Wind (Zephyrus) in The Fantastic Adventures of Unico also in 1981, and Lyre in the 1997 Jungle Emperor Leo film. She also voiced Sophie Hatter in Howl's Moving Castle, Sonia in Tracing the Gray Summer film, and Fumi Tachibana in Makoto Shinkai's Weathering With You film. Baisho voiced the protagonist Hisako Ōishi in the 1980 Twelve Sets of Eyes television special.
Sources: NHK News Web, Gundam.info
