Born: July 11, 1956 in Tokyo, Japan

Yatabe Katsuyoshi is a Japanese screenwriter and director who got his start at some of the industry's most influential studios. He studied at Nihon Daigaku's Department of Arts starting in 1975, then bounced around early in his career—first to Ad Cosmo in 1978, which he felt wasn't going to give him real production work, then to Sunrise in 1979 where things actually took off.

At Sunrise, he learned directly from heavy hitters like Tomino Yoshiyuki and Takahashi Ryousuke before eventually striking out as a freelancer. Those early mentorships clearly shaped his approach to the work.