Kazuko Tadano

is a Japanese animator, character designer, illustrator and animation director. She's mostly known for her character design work for the first two seasons of the 1990s Sailor Moon anime series.

Career Tadano first worked as an animation director for an episode of 1980s Saint Seiya anime. She then became a character designer for Dancouga – Super Beast Machine God, and Crystal Triangle.

In the 1990s, after working on various episodes for Goldfish Warning!, she then became a character designer for the first two seasons of the Sailor Moon anime series (Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon R), and provided some animation direction for many episodes. She also provided the designs for its first movie, Sailor Moon R: The Movie.

From the late 1990s to 2000s, after Sailor Moon, she designed the characters for Wedding Peach, Petite Princess Yucie, Jūsō Kikō Dancouga Nova, Valkyria of the Battlefield 3: The Wound Taken from Someone's Sake, and Nobunagun.

In June 2018, it was announced that Tadano was chosen as a character designer for Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal The Movie, a two-part anime film project that takes place as a "fourth season" for the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal anime series, adapting the Dream arc of the manga. The two-part film was released in 2021.

In December 2019, both Tadano and her husband, Hiromi Matsushita, were chosen as character designers for the sixth spin-off of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime series, Yu-Gi-Oh! Sevens. In December 2021, Tadano and Matsushita were chosen as character designers again for the seventh spin-off, Yu-Gi-Oh! Go Rush!!.

In April 2022, it was announced that Tadano will design the characters for Sailor Moon Eternals sequel, titled Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Cosmos The Movie, another two-part anime film project that takes place as a "fifth and final season" for the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal anime series, adapting the Stars arc of the manga, and was released in June 2023.

Personal life She married Hiromi Matsushita, who was also an animation director on Sailor Moon.

Works TV Anime Year Show Credit Note 1985 Dancouga – Super Beast Machine God Character Design (Shinobu, Masato, Laura), Animation Director (eps. 4, 19, 24), Key Animation (eps. 2, 17)

Anime Film Year Title Credit Note 1983 Choro Q Dougram Character design, Animation Director 9 minute short film 1993 Sailor Moon R: The Movie Character Design, Animation Director 2021 Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Eternal The Movie Character Design, Chief Animation Director (Part 1) 2-Part FilmSeason 4 of Sailor Moon Crystal