ShÅji Kawamori

Shōji Kawamori (河森正治 Kawamori Shōji, b. February 20, 1960) is a renowned Japanese mechanical designer best known as the primary architect of the Macross mega-franchise which he continues to lead to this day.

Kawamori cut his teeth as one junior designer of many in the design studio Studio Nue working for Takara on the pre-Transformer Diaclone franchise, where he is known to have contributed to the design of Diaclone flagship "Battle Convoy" (pre-Optimus Prime) and quite a few of the pre-Autobot Cars, amongst others. Diaclone is a bit of a footnote however, relative to Kawamori's most famous work: creating and writing the seminal '80s mecha anime Super Dimension Fortress Macross and nine of its ten and counting sequels, as well as his work on many smaller critically acclaimed productions such as Escaflowne and Eureka 7. Of particular pertinence to Transformers is his design work on the transforming "VF-1 Valkyrie" fighter jet/mecha of the original Macross, which was subsequently ported into The Transformers alongside his Diaclone work as Jetfire.

Kawamori briefly returned to the Transformers franchise in 2006 to oversee the design of a new Generation 1 Optimus Prime toy for Takara's Transformers Hybrid Style line as well as the immaculate jet mode of the original Starscream toy of the nascent Masterpiece toyline.