Hideo Okamoto

Hideo Okamoto (岡本英郎) is a Japanese designer, mechanical designer, illustrator, and occasional film director, born in 1960 in Katsushika, Tokyo. Active since the 1980s, he moved fluidly between anime, tokusatsu, and film: contributing illustration and mecha concepts around classic Sunrise works, defining the armor and prop language of Yoroiden Samurai Troopers (Ronin Warriors), and designing memorable kaiju in the 1990s Godzilla era (notably Battra and Destoroyah). His portfolio also touches Super Sentai creature design, Gundam-related design clarification and model supervision, and more recent mecha/monster work on projects linked to the Gridman/Dynazenon revival. Okamoto’s hallmark is silhouette-first craft—bold, readable forms with crisp paneling and emblematic motifs—often blending samurai-armor cues with futuristic machinery to create designs that are striking in stills and instantly legible in motion.