Masami Ōbari (大張正己, Ōbari Masami, born January 24, 1966) is a noted Japanese anime director, animation director and mecha and character designer.

Biographie

After graduating from High School in 1985, Masami Obari began his career when he joined the animation studio Ashi Production, there he worked on shows such as Special Armored Battalion Dorvack, Transformers and Bismark (anime). Soon after at the age of 19 he got his first major break when he landed the role of Mecha Designer on Dancouga – Super Beast Machine God. Not too long after, at the young age of 21, he was given his first directorial role by directing episodes 5 and 6 of the Bubblegum Crisis OVA series.

In 1993 he founded Studio G-1 with fellow animators Kazuto Nakazawa, Masahiro Yamane, Takehiro Nakayama and Atsuko Ishida, whom Masami Obari was married to, but they are now divorced. Studio G-1 was later disbanded and was reformed under the name of Studio G-1 Neo in the year 2000.