Portfolio. Animation Staff
Tameo Kohanawa 小花和 為男 · こはなわ ためお
The veteran director who joined for the later seasons
In animation since the mid-1960s. Joined ThunderCats for the late run. Spent the next thirty years directing Iga no Kabamaru, Hello Kitty films, and storyboarding Chibi Maruko-chan and Urusei Yatsura.
- Born
- Active in animation since the mid-1960s
- Role on ThunderCats
- Animation Staff (Seasons 3 & 4)
- Season involvement
- Seasons 3 and 4, the later run of the show, including the Return to Thundera arc.
Biography
Tameo Kohanawa had been working in Japanese animation for two decades by the time he joined Pacific Animation Corporation for the later seasons of ThunderCats. He came up in the mid-1960s, the first generation of TV-anime animators, and had spent the 1970s on series including Scientific Adventure Team Tansar 5 and Urusei Yatsura before moving into directing work.
His ThunderCats credit is on Seasons 3 and 4, the later run that includes the multi-part Return to Thundera arc and the Mumm-Rana stories. After PAC he returned to Japanese-language productions and built a long directorial career across mainstream and children's anime.
Notable later credits include directing 11 Piki no Neko to Ahoudori (11 Cats and an Albatross), Hello Kitty no Cinderella, Yakyuukyou no Uta, Anime Himitsu no Hanazono (the Secret Garden adaptation), Iga no Kabamaru and Monkey Magic. He has storyboard and episode-direction credits across long-running properties including Chibi Maruko-chan and Bit the Cupid.
On ThunderCats
Animation work across Seasons 3 and 4, the second half of the production run.
Selected works around and after ThunderCats
- 11 Piki no Neko to Ahoudori 1986
Director.
- Hello Kitty no Cinderella 1989
Director on the Sanrio anime adaptation.
- Iga no Kabamaru 1983-84 / continuing
Director.
- Monkey Magic 1998
Director.
- Bit the Cupid 1995
Director and storyboard.
- Chibi Maruko-chan 1990s-2000s
Storyboard and episode direction.
- Urusei Yatsura 1981-86
Episode work.
Why this credit matters
Kohanawa is the example of the senior Japanese animator who slipped quietly through the ThunderCats credits and went on to a substantial directing career almost entirely outside the English-language anime conversation. His Sanrio and Hello Kitty work has been seen by an enormous Japanese audience without ever crossing over.
Sources
Cover artwork and portrait images here are reproduced under fair use for editorial commentary. Image sources: Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons (work cover art); Rick Goldschmidt, "Masaki Iizuka remembered" (2020) for the Iizuka portrait; Z&G Animelab (zganimelabo.co.jp) for the Akiyama 2024 photographs. Japanese-language biographical sources cited per page above.