Yoshinobu Nishizaki was a Japanese film producer, director, and writer, born Hirofumi Nishizaki on December 18, 1934. He is best known as one of the two co-creators of the legendary Space Battleship Yamato franchise, a seminal work in the history of anime. Nishizaki graduated from the Nihon University Art Department. His early career was rooted in music; he owned a jazz club, worked as a jazz radio personality, and founded a music production company called Office Academy in 1963. His entry into the animation industry came in 1970 when he joined Osamu Tezuka's Mushi Production as a sales manager. His first anime production was Triton of the Sea in 1972, followed by Wansa-kun in 1973, both based on Tezuka's manga.

Nishizaki's most significant and enduring contribution to anime is the creation of Space Battleship Yamato, which first aired as a television series in 1974. He is credited as the central driving force behind the project, serving as the producer and co-creator alongside famed manga artist Leiji Matsumoto. The series was initially a ratings disappointment, but it exploded in popularity in 1977 with the release of a feature-length film compilation, sparking a nationwide phenomenon known as Yamato Fever that lasted for several years. This success spawned a vast franchise. Among the works he is credited for are Farewell to Space Battleship Yamato (1978), Be Forever Yamato (1980), Final Yamato (1983), and Space Battleship Yamato Resurrection (2009). He also created the original video animation Yamato 2520 in 1994. Outside of the Yamato series, Nishizaki's other productions during this period, such as the 1979 series Space Carrier Blue Noah, did not achieve the same level of success. The edited versions of the Yamato television series became a cult hit in the United States under the title Star Blazers.

Nishizaki's artistic identity was that of a determined producer with a grand, Hollywood-style vision for entertainment. He saw anime as a medium capable of creating spectacular, large-scale space operas that could rival live-action films. His creative philosophy for the Yamato series, as expressed in a 1982 interview, focused on the idea of the universe as an ocean and the ship as a character, aiming to depict the romance between a man and his vessel. He insisted on high-quality production values, including ambitious sound design and a desire to screen the films in large-format 70mm to enhance the epic scope. A recurring theme throughout the Yamato works is the struggle for peace, often achieved through immense sacrifice, and the idea of the next generation surpassing the previous one.

Nishizaki's later career was marked by significant legal and financial turmoil. He had a protracted and bitter legal battle with Leiji Matsumoto over the copyrights to Yamato, which led to the bankruptcy of his company, West Cape Corporation, in 1997. The dispute was finally settled in 2003, with Nishizaki winning the rights to the Yamato name, original plot, and characters, while Matsumoto retained the rights to the original conceptual art and character designs. Nishizaki also faced serious legal troubles, being arrested and imprisoned on multiple occasions for drug and firearms possession. He died on November 7, 2010, at the age of 75, after falling from his vessel, the Yamato, near Chichijima island and suffering an apparent heart attack. Despite his controversial life, Yoshinobu Nishizaki's role as the original creator and driving force behind Space Battleship Yamato solidifies his legacy as a monumental figure in the anime industry, responsible for a franchise that broke new ground for animated storytelling and remains influential to this day.