Hajime Katoki

nihongo|Hajime Katoki|カトキハジメ|Katoki Hajime|born 1963 is a popular Japanese mecha designer. A member of the studio Sunrise, he is highly noted for his work on the "Gundam" series as well as his work on video games, such as the "Virtual On" series and "Policenauts".

Biography

Born in 1963, Katoki gained fame with his designs for the graphic novel "Gundam Sentinel". He then worked in the OVA series "Gundam 0083", where he designed the famous RX-78 GP03 Dendrobium Orchis mobile weapon. His next big work was "V Gundam", where he was the main mechanical designer, creating the main mobile suits Victory Gundam, V2 Gundam and the hefty V2 Assault Buster Gundam. After that, he worked in "G Gundam", now in design of the evil mobile suits. He then worked in "Gundam W" on some minor mobile suits, but in "Gundam W Endless Waltz" he designed all of the mobile suits, and re-designed the Gundams with a more fantastic style, creating one of his most famous mechs: the XXXG-00W0 Wing Gundam Zero Custom. To correspond with these new designs, he also redesigned the 5 original Gundams from "Gundam W", as a result, his redesign of Wing Gundam has become a popular model kit.

Katoki also has worked in Super Robot Wars and Virtual On video games, and in the "Patlabor 2" movie. He also does touch-up design in the many mobile suits for the Master Grade kits from Bandai.

In his art book "Gundam Fix" Katoki said, "Do people, like myself, spend time imagining what it would be like if Gundam robots were actually present on the streets of our cities? Are you sure you're not limiting yourself to the images that were offered in the animated series? One of the reasons that I fell in love with Gundam was that it excites me to imagine what it would be like if these machines actually existed, and I worry that other fans may be losing out..." He said he hopes his work will catch peoples' attention"...then people who had never before been drawn in by the magic of these giant robots may discover their attraction for the first time."

He is also the designer of the Gundam FIX Figuration series.

Credited series/works

Super Robot Wars series

*4th Super Robot Wars
*
*Shin Super Robot Wars
*Super Robot Wars F
*Super Robot Wars F Final
*Super Robot Wars Complete Box
*Super Robot Wars Alpha
*Super Robot Wars Alpha For Dreamcast
*Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden
*
*2nd Super Robot Wars Alpha
*
*3rd Super Robot Wars Alpha
*Super Robot Wars Original Generations
*
*
*Super Robot Wars Original Generation Gaiden

Gundam series

*Gundam Sentinel
*Gundam Sentinel 0079 (unofficial series)
*
*
*Mobile Suit Victory Gundam
*Mobile Fighter G Gundam
*Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam
*Gundam Fix
*New Mobile Report Gundam Wing
*
*
*
*Gundam Evolve (Episode 4 and 7)
*Superior Defender Gundam Force
*Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO
*Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn
*Master Grade
** RX-78-2 Gundam Ver.Ka
** XXXG-01W Wing Gundam Ver.Ka
** RB-79 Ball Ver.Ka
** XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam X-1 Ver.Ka
** RX-0 Unicorn Gundam Ver.Ka

Virtual On series

*Cyber Troopers Virtual-On
*Cyber Troopers Virtual-On One Man Rescue
*Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Oratorio Tangram
*Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Fragmentary Passage
*Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Force
*Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Marz

Other works

*
*
*Sgt. Frog (Episode 38 and 73)
* (also known as Sgt. Frog The Super Movie 2)
*The Cockpit
*Xardion
*Welcome to the N.H.K. (Episode 24)
*Gradius II (X68000 version)
*Policenauts (mechanical designs for the EMPS mecha)
*Super Robot Spirit
*Real Robots Final Attack
*Super Hero Sakusen

He was also involved in the color scheme design of Toyota Team Kraft's SC430(#35, GT500) which paricipating in Super GT seasons in 2006 and 2007. His colour scheme was later replaced by Gundam Exia-like colour scheme on July, 2007(race 5 in 2007 season) as a promotion project of Mobile Suit Gundam 00, the most recent Gundam Series.

External links

* [http://homepage2.nifty.com/st_reguls/reguls/katoki/ Unofficial fan-made website in Japanese]