Komatsubara Kazuo was an animator and character designer who co-founded Oh! Production. He died of neck cancer on March 24, 2000.

His career took off with Devilman in 1972, leading to a string of major 1970s anime where he worked closely with creator Nagai Go on character designs—Cutey Honey, Getter Robo, Getter Robo G, UFO Robo Grendizer, and Magne Robo Gakeen. He'd return to Devilman decades later as character designer and animation director for the 1987 OVA remake.

By the late 1970s and into the 1980s, Komatsubara became the go-to character designer for Matsumoto Leiji's works, handling designs for Space Cruiser Yamato, Space Pirate Captain Harlock, and the film Galaxy Express 999. He became so closely associated with Matsumoto's visual style that his artwork regularly graced magazine covers. Around the same time, with rival designer Araki Shingo shifting toward Tokyo Movie Shinsha, Komatsubara doubled down on his work at Toei Animation, where he collaborated with director Rintaro on projects like the TV series Ganbare Genki and the film Metropolis (released in 2001, after his death).

Beyond adapting Nagai and Matsumoto, he designed characters for shoujo anime including Miracle Shoujo Limit-chan and High-step Jun. In 1984, Miyazaki Hayao brought him on for Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind as character designer and animation director. Komatsubara credited Miyazaki's mentorship during that period with teaching him invaluable lessons.

He also created original characters for the J9 series—Galactic Whirlwind Braiger, Galactic Gale Baxinger, and Galactic Hurricane Sasuraiger.