Mitsuo Fukuda
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Mitsuo Fukuda (福田 己津央, Fukuda Mitsuo, 福田 満夫 prior to 1990) (born 1960) is the director of Future GPX Cyber Formula, Gear Fighter Dendoh, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny. Mitsuo Fukuda often writes his name differently depending on whether he is directing, storyboarding, or performing more mundane production tasks. There are at least three different ways he has written his name for Sunrise credits, and he may have more pen names that are currently unknown.[citation needed]
Fukuda joined Sunrise in 1979. He was one of the creators of the Brave series of shows and likely would have directed the ninth Brave series, Baan Gaan, had it been fully produced.[citation needed] He was a core planning and production staffer on Exkaiser, Fighbird, and Da Garn, before leaving to focus on Cyber Formula. After the ending of Cyber Formula, he worked on the widely praised GEAR Fighter Dendoh series, and then work on Gundam SEED in the year following. He once promised a new Cyber Formula series in 2007, but this production seems to be put on the backburner in favor of the Gundam SEED movie.[citation needed] He has also worked on Victory Gundam and Metal Armor Dragonar in a storyboard capacity, and likely worked on other Sunrise franchises in a more subordinate role.
Fukuda has been credited with the revival of Gundam's popularity with Mobile Suit Gundam SEED after two straight commercial failures in After War Gundam X and Turn A Gundam. In particular, these shows did not provide Bandai with popular lines of model kits to sell.[citation needed] Mitsuo Fukuda, by contrast, declared that successful lines of model kit merchandise were one of his personal goals for the SEED franchise in his early interviews in Newtype.[citation needed] Japanese television shows have referred to this resurgence in merchandise popularity as the "Second Gundam Boom", and compared it to the "First Gundam Boom" of the early 80's from the release of the original Mobile Suit Gundam movies.[citation needed] Fukuda is a fan of Gundam series creator Yoshiyuki Tomino and his works including the aforementioned Turn-A Gundam. He is also a Star Wars fan. [1]
Fukuda places an emphasis on music. He frequently works with composer Toshihiko Sahashi to craft scores for his shows, and also takes great interest in the creation of opening, ending, and insert themes.[citation needed] In an interview published in the liner notes for the second GEAR Fighter Dendoh OST, he challenged fans to guess the still-unaired ending of the TV series based on the musical themes contained on the CD.[citation needed] In comments he wrote for the release of T.M. Revolution's "coordinate" album, he commented that much of the tone and story of the original Gundam SEED was inspired by the sound of T.M. Revolution's music.[citation needed] He echoed this in a television appearance alongside T.M. Revolution's Takanori Nishikawa, in which he stated that the character of Shinn Asuka and much of the plot of Gundam SEED Destiny were crafted based on the T.M. Revolution song "ignited".[citation needed] This close relationship became something of a joke in both SEED and SEED Destiny, as characters voiced by Takanori Nishikawa make cameo appearances.[citation needed]
Fukuda is married to Chiaki Morosawa, a writer for Sunrise. Morosawa married Fukuda after being employed by Sunrise independently as an author, and Fukuda directed and worked on many series that Morosawa did not write, or was not sole head writer. Morosawa did not write the original Cyber Formula series at all, for example, instead coming on board for the Cyber Formula 11 sequel. She did not marry Fukuda until well into production of the Cyber Formula Zero series.
However, Fukuda has been criticized both by people who work for him and the public for his reliance on his wife, Chiaki Morosawa, for writing the shows he directs.[citation needed] Fukuda has denied any sort of favoritism, however, explaining in interviews that, "I fell in love with her scripts."[citation needed] Morosawa is usually criticized for introducing unpopular plot elements, such as Athrun and Cagalli's relationship ending, Kira replacing Shinn as protagonist, and the Lacus/Meer plotline.[citation needed]
My-HiME character designer Hisayuki Hirokazu refers to him in comments published on his "Flame Talk" web site as "my greatest ally and worst enemy", in reference to this habit of rejecting character designs other directors might accept.[citation needed] Mecha animation director for (SEED Destiny and My-Otome) Yousuke Kabashima cticized Fukuda, and mainly his wife, in a short-lived but blistering blog post.[citation needed]
He likes to fill his series with in-jokes relating either to previous shows he worked on, or his own favorite series.[citation needed] References to the classic UC Gundam series appear throughout Cyber Formula.[citation needed] There are Cyber Formula, Star Wars, Macross, and Dragonar references in Dendoh.[citation needed] SEED contains in-jokes referencing the classic Gundam series, Star Wars, the Macross franchise, Cyber Formula, Dendoh, and Dragonar.[citation needed] His style of direction has become widely imitated following Dendoh and SEED's popularity, particularly its emphasis on extremely dynamic camera angles and digital effects during combat sequences.[citation needed] Most mecha series produced after SEED contain combat choreography elements directly influenced by Mitsuo Fukuda's work.[citation needed]
Fukuda recorded full episode commentaries for the Italian DVD release of GEAR Fighter Dendoh. Similar commentaries were later included on the recent R2 box set of GEAR Fighter Dendoh.
