Curated category
Japanese animators
- Michiyo YasudaMichiyo Yasuda spent five decades making colours think. Her work appears in some of the most beloved animated films ever made, from Nausicaä of the Valley of…
- Akira NishitaniAkira Nishitani goes by two nicknames: "Nin-Nin" and "Pom G". Behind those playful monikers is a Japanese game director, designer, and character designer…
- Kenzō MasaokaKenzo Masaoka was a Japanese animator and voice actor who helped lay the technical foundations of anime as we know it. He was the first person in Japan to…
- Noburō ŌfujiNoburō Ōfuji left behind a legacy so enduring that one of Japan's most prestigious film prizes carries his name. The Mainichi Film Awards' Ōfuji Noburō…
- Yoshiaki NishimuraYoshiaki Nishimura is a Japanese lead film producer, formerly of Studio Ghibli and founder of Studio Ponoc. On Sunday, the 1st of September 2013, Hayao…
- Mitsuyo SeoMitsuyo Seo died on the 24th of August 2010 at the age of 98, outliving nearly the entire world he had helped create. He was a Japanese animator…
- Yasuo ŌtsukaYasuo Otsuka was a Japanese animator whose career touched nearly every major studio in the history of Japanese animation.
- Ōten ShimokawaOten Shimokawa drew directly onto film stock with ink and rubbed away figures with his fingers to make them move. At a time when celluloid cels had to be…
- Yoshifumi KondōYoshifumi Kondō died on the 21st of January 1998, at age 47, of an aortic dissection at Tachikawa City Hospital in Tokyo.
- Hideaki AnnoHideaki Anno was born in Ube, Yamaguchi, the son of Fumiko and Takuya Anno, and the world of Japanese animation would eventually pivot on decisions he made…
- Katsuhiro OtomoKatsuhiro Otomo was born in Tome, Miyagi Prefecture, in a region so rural that, as a child, he said there was simply nothing to do. So he read manga.
- Yoshiyuki TominoYoshiyuki Tomino was born on the 5th of November 1941 in Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture, into a family shaped by civic power and industrial engineering.
- Hiroyuki MoritaHiroyuki Morita danced the idol choreography himself before drawing a single frame of it into Perfect Blue. That instinct, to get the fundamentals right…
- Osamu DezakiOsamu Dezaki could freeze time. Not literally, but on screen he came as close as anyone in the history of Japanese animation.
- Makoto ShinkaiMakoto Shinkai spent June of 2000 sketching a single image: a girl gripping a mobile phone inside a cockpit. That drawing became the seed of Voices of a…
- Tadahito MochinagaTadahito Mochinaga built the puppets that became Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Working from his MOM Production Studio in Tokyo, he and his team brought the…
- Osamu TezukaOsamu Tezuka spent his final hours in a Tokyo hospital bed, drawing. When a nurse tried to take his equipment away, his last words were: "I'm begging you…
- Kihachirō KawamotoKihachirō Kawamoto first walked into the art department of Toho film studio in 1946 as a young production design assistant in his early twenties.
- Shūkō MuraseShūkō Murase entered the animation industry during a period of intense growth for Studio Sunrise. His early career began with work on Yoroiden Samurai…
- Yoshikazu YasuhikoYoshikazu Yasuhiko grew up drawing in a small town in Hokkaido, dreaming of becoming a manga artist. He would eventually become famous for something else…