Foreword

Masami Hata was born in 1942 in Taipei. He debuted as an animator in 1965 at Mushi Pro with Wonder 3, and while there directed his first two TV series. After Mushi Pro folded in 1973, he worked a bit for Tokyo Movie Shinsha, drawing storyboards and directing episodes in a handful of TV series. Around 1975 he began working at Sanrio, which was just moving into the anime market, and wound up staying there for over a decade, going on to direct several of Sanrio's lavish full-animation films. Since the breakup of Sanrio's animation department (Sanrio Films) in 1985 following the release of the film Fairy Florence he has been working freelance, directing and writing storyboards for TV series and movies at various studios.

This filmography was first created on March 5 and 6, 1999, and was redesigned many times along the way, most recently in early July 2001. My sources consist of internet sites including the Japanese Movie Database and published Japanese sources including The Complete Works of Tokyo Movie Shinsha (Tatsumi).

The image at the top shows Hata working on the storyboard of The Legend of Sirius sometime around 1980.

Special note: Mikiharu Akabori (born 1941), Hata's longtime collaborator and animation director of many Sanrio films including The Legend of Sirius, died on November 24, 1999. RIP.

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