Akiyuki Shinbo

At 63 years old, Akiyuki Shinbo physical status not available right now. We will update Akiyuki Shinbo's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

After graduating from college, Shinbo entered the industry as an animator in the early 1980s with Bebow, the studio founded by Tomonori Kogawa, and shared a room with colleague Hirotoshi Sano. Afterwards, he joined Kaname Production for a brief period of time, but quickly left soon afterwards to join Masahito Yamashita's animation collective Studio Oz. He joined the group sometime during their rebranding to Studio Tome, and in 1984 they reorganized again into Studio One Pattern. For about three years, he and Shinsaku Kozuma shared a room as members of Studio One Pattern. Although not much is known about Shinbo's time as an animator, Kozuma has stated that he was good at drawing. In 1990, he debuted as an episode director on Pierrot's Musashi, the Samurai Lord television series after Studio One Pattern colleague (and mentor) Masahito Yamashita had heard that Pierrot was looking for directors on the series and had recommended Shinbo. Around that time, he began to work primarily with Pierrot, and two years later joined the studio's production team for Yu Yu Hakusho (1992–1994). Shinbo directed 19 episodes of the series and storyboarded 13 (some of which he did both for) under the series direction of Noriyuki Abe, who had served as an episode director on Musashi, the Samurai Lord. In particular, Shinbo's involvement with the series is noted for his work on the Dark Tournament arc, which is sometimes regarded as the first appearance of his unique visual directorial style. Speaking of his motivations in producing the series, Shinbo spoke highly of animation director Atsushi Wakabayashi, whom he said was the driving force behind his work, and storyboard artist Motosuke Takahashi, whom Shinbo called a "mentor" figure who had taught him much about directing. Shinbo's involvement with Yu Yu Hakusho lessened over time. In 1994, in the middle of the series' production, he was hired to direct J.C.Staff's anime-original television series Metal Fighter Miku. He was chosen after an executive producer watched the 74th episode of Yu Yu Hakusho, which Shinbo had storyboarded and directed, and after the original Metal Fighter Miku director had left the project during pre-production.

In 1995, Shinbo directed the sixth and final episode of Madhouse's Devil Hunter Yohko, which he later cited as a major point in his development as a director. The episode received a mixed critical reception. From 1996 to 1999, he directed original video animations (OVAs) at several studios. The first of these OVAs, Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko I (1996), spawned its own animated franchise consisting of a sequel OVA series in 1997 and a 26-episode television series in 1999, all of which received mixed to positive critical reception. Also in 1996 he directed Debutante Detective Corps at Daume, initiating his first of two projects with the company; as an initial project with Daume, however, the OVA was panned by reviewers. In 1997, he directed his first project with Tatsunoko Production: a reboot of the 1974 superhero series Hurricane Polymar titled New Hurricane Polymar; Shinbo later noted the series as where he learned the composition techniques of "smacking" and "dabbing". He then returned to J.C.Staff to produce Galaxy Fräulein Yuna Returns (1996), a sequel series to the 1995 OVA directed by Yorifusa Yamaguchi, where Shinbo had served as storyboard artist.

Shinbo again worked with Madhouse on an OVA adaptation of Saki Okuse's Twilight of the Dark Master manga in 1997, and again with J.C.Staff and T-Up to produce a 3-episode OVA adaptation of Hitoshi Okuda's Detatoko Princess manga series. During production of Detatoko Princess, he decided that he wanted to direct with a "simple and frivolous" philosophy and said he "hate[d] making ordinary stuff." He worked for the final time with Pierrot in 1999 with the 4-episode original series Tenamonya Voyagers.

In 2001, Shinbo returned to Tatsunoko Production (aided by Tatsunoko VCR, Tatsunoko's digital subdivision) with the OVA series The SoulTaker. Shinbo admitted that while working on the series, he focused more on making unique shot compositions and imagery than creating a story, and instead left all organization of the narrative to scriptwriter Mayori Sekijima, who had worked with Shinbo on three separate series prior to The SoulTaker. The series also marked his second collaboration with character designer Akio Watanabe. The SoulTaker received both praise and criticism for his direction and the series' art design by reviewers; despite the criticisms, Mike Toole of ANN said that the series was important for being "the start of Akiyuki Shinbo's long transformation" as a director.

With The SoulTaker complete, Shinbo took a brief hiatus from the mainstream anime industry; in 2001, he directed a short music video spin-off of the Triangle Hearts series, which started his relationship with Seven Arcs. For the next 3 years, he mainly focused on producing adult hentai series under the pseudonym Jūhachi Minamizawa (南澤 十八, Minamizawa Jūhachi) with AT-2 (the adult video brand of studio Arcturus, at the time a subsidiary of Seven Arcs). Shinbo's hentai OVAs during this time have also been lauded for their visual aesthetics, with one blogger referring to them as "unhinged and downright batshit crazy", and one series, Nurse Me!, was particularly important for being the first time Shin Oonuma worked as an episode director under Shinbo, a relationship that continued through Shaft.

Along with the various hentai series produced by Arcturus, Shinbo was hired to direct the Seven Arcs series Triangle Heart: Sweet Songs Forever (2003), which Masaki Tsuzuki had created. The series served as a starting point for the creation of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha the following year, which featured the return of Seven Arcs, Shinbo, and Masaki Tsuzuki. Nanoha received praise for its atmosphere, themes, and uniqueness from reviewers. Tim Jones from T.H.E.M. Anime Reviews noted that the series tended to focus more on physical fighting, rather than the usual magical girl trope of fighting with long-range magic attacks, despite having many of the genre's usual tropes. While Carl Kimlinger of Anime News Network criticized the series for having a more mature tone than its characters ages should have represented, online magazine ICv2, conversely, stated that the series had become immensely popular in the United States among "hardcore" fans due to the characters' adversaries containing more realistic social issues not found in other series of the same genre. Despite his criticisms of the series, Kimlinger praised the series' usage of multiple art-styles, which he found gave the series an "undeniably appealing" look. The success of the series spawned a franchise that consists of four television series and four theatrical films, albeit all other entries in the franchise did not involve Shinbo.

Around the same time, SME Visual Works producer Masaotoshi Fujimoto and Shinbo had concepted Le Portrait de Petit Cossette (2004), which once again incorporated Shinbo's direction with writer Mayori Sekijima, character designer Akio Watanabe, animation studio Daume, and art director Junichi Higashi (the latter of whom Shinbo had worked with on Tenamonya Voyagers). The series also marked the first time Shinbo worked with composer Yuki Kajiura. Fujimoto discovered Shinbo while he was looking for "unusual" directors, and had found out about Shinbo while watching various series; Cossette was intended to be a project that "showcased Shinbo as an auteur", according to Fujimoto, and it was the first time Shinbo himself had directed and storyboarded every episode. Animestyle magazine editor-in-chief Yūichirō Oguro, in his interview with Shinbo, likened the series to The SoulTaker, calling the atmosphere of the two series "exactly the same." Viewers praised the series' style, with admiration emphasized on the color design and "inventive imagery and camera tricks."

In 1995, then-Shaft company director and producer Mitsutoshi Kubota asked Shinbo to direct the studio's first original work Juuni Senshi Bakuretsu Eto Ranger, but due to conflicts with his schedule was unable to. Although unable to participate in Eto Ranger, Shaft was later gross outsourced to for an episode of Shinbo's The SoulTaker; reminiscing on the series, Shinbo commented that he was impressed with their work on the episode. Later, after Shaft's founder, Hiroshi Wakao, retired as representative director of the company, Kubota succeeded him as president, and having seen Shinbo's work on Le Portrait de Petit Cossette and The SoulTaker, became interested in working with Shinbo full-time. Kubota intended to transform Shaft into a studio with recognizable characteristics and visual flairs distinct from others in the industry, and Shinbo was a director he believed could work towards that goal.

Shinbo's first project as series director with Shaft was Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase, an adaptation of Keitarō Arima's manga. Shinbo believed he shouldn't add much of his signature style to the series due to the change in genre from his previous works The SoulTaker and Le Portrait de Petit Cossette, and that he should instead focus on "making things properly", but was asked by the series' sponsors to add some of his aesthetics anyway. The series, which Shinbo said had the theme of "moe", was challenging for him due to the fact that he didn't understand "moe" at the time, so he took great care in receiving help from staff members more experienced with the aesthetics of moe. In creating the series itself, Kubota knew that Shinbo had worked several times with scriptwriter Mayori Sekijima, and so they asked him to write the series composition for the series as well; afterwards, Shinbo decided that the visual aspect of the series would need more solidification, so Nobuyuki Takeuchi (who worked with Shaft often) was asked to take on the role of "visual director." Most of the core directing staff for Shaft's projects for the next several years also worked on the project to some degree: the core Team Shinbo (Shin Oonuma and Tatsuya Oishi) and Ryouki Kamitsubo served as episode directors, among other roles; and Naoyuki Tatsuwa participated as a key animator. Oonuma was directly contacted by Shinbo to join him at Shaft due to the former's knowledge on utilizing digital technology; and since Oonuma seemed to be particularly fond of "gal games" and "moe" anime, his contributions with those aesthetics helped Shinbo in directing Tsukuyomi. Oishi had previously worked with Shaft as an animator several times in the past, as well as with Shinbo as a key animator on an episode of Yu Yu Hakusho, so his connections with both made sense for his working on Tsukuyomi; however, Shinbo asked Oishi to direct the sixth episode of Tsukuyomi, which was a new experience for Oishi. Shinbo attributes Tsukuyomi as being the foundation for his experimentalism with Shaft, saying that without the work's out-of-the-ordinary approach, it would not have been possible to collaborate with other like-minded people; and it was because of that approach that they gained recognition, thus allowing for creators such as Oishi, Tatsuwa, and Oonuma to come together.

In 2005, Shinbo and Oonuma worked together as series co-directors for the first time with Pani Poni Dash!. In animating Pani Poni Dash, Shinbo wanted to expand on the visual cross-cutting (in which buildings are spliced on the camera as if it was a stage production) techniques Nobuyuki Takeuchi used in Tsukuyomi, while also expanding on other experimentalist ideas from the series. He wanted to expand on the idea of staff members showcasing their own abilities and keeping a consistent direction, which he compared to Time Bokan (1975). Although eyecatches were not new to either Shaft or Shinbo, the idea using them consistently arose when the planners from King Records asked the staff to include the character Behoimi in every episode, but because she did not show up often early on in the story, it was decided that they would instead put her in the eyecatches. Shinbo attributed part of Pani Poni Dash!'s success to King Records' producer on the project (Atsushi Moriyama) and the head of TV Tokyo on the project, who he said would fight for Shaft's ability to use certain references and parodies, thus giving the team a certain degree of freedom in using them.

Between 2006 and 2009, Shinbo directed several more television series and OVAs with various in-house and freelance directors. In 2006: Negima!? with Oonuma; in 2007: Hidamari Sketch with Ryouki Kamitsubo, Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei by himself, as well as serving as a supervisor on Oonuma's own series Ef: A Tale of Memories and its sequel Ef: A Tale of Melodies; in 2008: (Zoku) Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei and its sequel (Zan) Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei with Yukihiro Miyamoto, and Hidamari Sketch x 365 by himself; and in 2009: Maria Holic with Miyamoto, Natsu no Arashi! with Oonuma and its sequel Natsu no Arashi! Akinai-chū with Oonuma and Kenichi Ishikura. Between 2008 and 2010, the studio also produced a series of Negima! Magister Negi Magi OVAs with several guest directors working under Shinbo including Miyamoto, Tomoyuki Itamura, Hiroaki Tomita, Kōbun Shizuno, Tomokazu Tokoro, and Tatsufumi Itō, and a series of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei OVAs directed by Shinbo and Miyamoto.

Although the two had never worked together before, manga author Jin Kobayashi attended Shinbo's drinking and book reading sessions, where they would read other works. Eventually, it was decided that Shaft, Shinbo, and Oonuma would make an adaptation of Kobayashi's Natsu no Arashi! work. Shinbo felt that one of the most particular aspects of the series was its portrayal of summer (thus, "natsu" in the title), so he asked Oonuma to come up with a way of emphasizing the summer heat. After he discussed with the art team, Oonuma decided that the shading and lit areas by the sun would have substantially different contrasts in order to bring out a feeling of harsh heat from the sunlight. Shinbo himself contributed to the look of the lighting itself, in which it often taking the form of linear, geometric shapes, a style Shinbo said was influenced from the work of art director Yuuji Ikeda on Marude Dameo (1991), a series which Shinbo worked on as an episode director. Although he had used such a style in previous works, Natsu no Arashi! was his first time implementing it across an entire series.

In producing Maria Holic, Shinbo and the staff (such as chief unit director Yukihiro Miyamoto and assistant director Naoyuki Tatsuwa) made the conscious decision of directing the series using some of the tecniques headed by Dezaki, such as Dezaki's "three pan" (三回パン) shots, which show the subject three times for dramatic effect. Maria Holic, which was produced with much of the same staff as Zetsubou-sensei, also utilized stylistic influences from Dezaki's works; in particular, Shinbo wanted to take from the aesthetics of shōjo manga like Aim for the Ace! and The Rose of Versailles.

In April 2008, an anime adaptation of Nisio Isin's novel Bakemonogatari was announced. Shinbo was originally on the project as its only director, but requested that Tatsuya Oishi work with him as series director due Oishi's stylistic affinity for interesting colors and his ability to use cool lettering and Kanji in the animated medium, which Shinbo thought would be beneficial in adapting a novel. He believed that keeping the dialogue more-or-less the same, despite the amount of dialogue in the work, would be interesting as an anime; though, this philosophy in making the work proved to be somewhat problematic, as Shinbo thought of producing the series as a 12-episode work, and although there was enough content to add another episode in the Suruga Monkey arc, that would end up adding an extra episode (nevertheless, 3 extra episodes were produced months later serving as the finale to Bakemonogatari and, more specifically, the Tsubasa Cat arc). Akio Watanabe, with whom Shinbo had worked with on Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko and Le Portrait de Petit Cossette, was brought onto the project as character designer and chief animation director. Bakemonogatari received cult fame and was widely praised for its aesthetics upon its initial release, and is regarded by some critics as the series that pushed Shaft "into fame", with writers from Funimation describing it as a "hit." Whereas most of the studio's works prior to Bakemonogatatari have been described as being light-hearted comedies (such as the Hidamari Sketch franchise, Pani Poni Dash, and Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase), the series was described as being more "episodic" and darker in nature. Stylistically, Bakemonogatari was praised and is considered to be a "visually striking" production by various critics, and in 2017, the Tokyo Anime Award Festival selected Bakemonogatari as the best anime of 2009. The series was also an immediate financial success, as indicated by the 6th BD release breaking records for the number of copies sold on its first day.

Around the time when Bakemonogatari was announced, Shinbo had expressed his desire to produce a magical girl series to Aniplex producer Atsuhiro Iwakami, which spawned the initial development of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. During the early planning stage, Iwakami decided on an original project to give Shinbo more freedom with his direction, and to develop an anime that could appeal to a wider audience than the usual demographic that the magical girl genre was aimed towards; in other words, Shinbo and Iwakami intended for the series to be accessible to "the general anime fan." Gen Urobuchi and Ume Aoki were contacted to work on the project as the scriptwriter and original character designer, respectively, and the four – Shinbo, Urobuchi, Aoki, and Shaft– became collectively known as the "Magica Quartet." The team agreed that the work would have a copious amount of blood and a "heavy" storyline that was unique in comparison to other magical girl series. Yukihiro Miyamoto, who had been serving as a director with Shaft since 2008, primarily on the Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei series, was put on the project as series director alongside Shinbo, and animation troupe Gekidan Inu Curry, who had also been working on Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei, were brought on to design the "Alternate Space" world.

Released in 2011 to critical acclaim, Madoka Magica has been cited by several critics as one of the greatest anime series of the 2010s, and one of the greatest anime series of all time. Shinbo won the best director awards at the 11th Tokyo Anime Award, and the 2011 Newtype Anime Award for his work on Madoka Magica. In 2017, Shinbo was also chosen by Japanese critics as one of the greatest anime directors of all time for his work on Madoka Magica. The series was also a financial success and broke the record for the number of BD volumes sold on the first day (a record previously held by Shinbo's Bakemonogatari) with its 1st BD release, which the series broke again with the following release, and ultimately garnered over ¥40 billion ($400 million) from the sales of related goods by 2013.

Shinbo attributed his success with the series to the culmination of projects that he had been involved with up until that point, especially with Shaft. One series he noted in particular was the Ef series which –although not involved with as a director, but rather as a supervisor– he described as exemplifying that beautiful or cutely drawn characters can mix with a story of heavy themes.

While producing the Madoka Magica franchise, Shinbo and Shaft continued production on a number of other series concurrently. In 2010: Hidamari Sketch x Hoshimittsu with Ishikura, Dance in the Vampire Bund with Masahiro Sonoda, Arakawa Under the Bridge and its sequel Arakawa Under the Bridge x Bridge with Miyamoto, Katte ni Kaizō with Naoyuki Tatsuwa, and And Yet the Town Moves by himself. In 2011, he co-directed Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl with Miyamoto, the sequel to Maria Holic, Maria Holic Alive, with Tomokazu Tokoro, and he directed Hidamari Sketch x SP and Mahou Sensei Negima! Anime Finale by himself. In 2012, he directed Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb with Yuki Yase, and this year marked the continuation of the Monogatari series with Nisemonogatari and Nekomonogatari: Black, with director Tomoyuki Itamura replacing Tatsuya Oishi as Shinbo's co-director. In 2013, Itamura returned for Monogatari Series Second Season, with Yase and Tatsuwa being featured as series directors for the Kabukimonogatari and Onimonogatari arcs; Yase also co-directed the final OVA series in the Hidamari Sketch anime franchise, and Shinbo solo-directed Sasami-san@Ganbaranai as well.

Shinbo interpreted the source material for And Yet the Town Moves as being inspired by and written like an older manga series. For that reason, he wanted to direct the series as if it was an older series, using less-common techniques in the modern era of the time like people reflected in objects and fish-eye lenses.

In making Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl, Shinbo noted that both himself and the novel's original author, Hitoma Iruma, were male, so he thought the series would've been more interesting if it was instead composed (organized, referring to the series composition writer) from the perspective of a woman. Eventually, Yuniko Ayana was hired to be the series composition writer by request of Shinbo.

In 2014, Shinbo directed Nisekoi with Tatsuwa, Mekakucity Actors with Yase, and the final arc to Monogatari Series Second Season, Hanamonogatari, with Itamura. Five months later, at the end of 2014, Tsukimonogatari, the first arc in Monogatari Series Final Season, was released. Throughout the next several years, Shinbo continued to direct series with Shaft's other directors, including Gourmet Girl Graffiti (2015) with Tatsuwa, Nisekoi: (2015) with Miyamoto, The Beheading Cycle: The Blue Savant and the Nonsense Bearer (2016–17) with Yase, March Comes In like a Lion (2016–18) with Kenjirou Okada, the film Fireworks (2017) with Nobuyuki Takeuchi, and Fate/Extra: Last Encore (2018) with Miyamoto.

Manga author Chika Umino was a fan of Shinbo's works with Shaft and stated that she did not want an adaptation of March Comes In like a Lion unless it was a Shaft-Shinbo production. Her editor from Hakusensha, Ryou Tomoda, asked about getting an adaptation from the director and studio, but was told it would be impossible. However, the son of shogi player Torahiko Tanaka, Makoto Tanaka, who worked at Tohokushinsha Film, was a fan of Umino's manga as well, and approached Tomoda in adapting the anime. From there, Tomoda met with Aniplex CEO Atsuhiro Iwakami about the prospects of a Shaft-Shinbo adaptation, and Iwakami met with Kubota and Shinbo about the possibility, which they agreed to. Umino had originally wanted the series to have a similar aesthetic to Bakemonogatari, which she stated she was a big fan of, but Shinbo said that it wasn't a good idea; instead of the Bakemonogatari-esque background art Umino had in mind, the series was made with a watercolor-style.

The second arc to Monogatari Series Final Season, Owarimonogatari I, was released in 2015, adapting the first two of three volumes of the original Owarimonogatari novel. Every year thereafter, new series in the franchise were produced, with Koyomimonogatari being released in 2016, and Owarimonogatari II being released in 2017, all of which were co-directed with Itamura. At the same time, however, Tatsuya Oishi had been busy working on the Kizumonogatari trilogy, which had started 4 to 6 years prior, and also involved Shinbo as chief director. The same year as Kizumonogatari III and Owarimonogatari II's release, however, Itamura left the studio, and Oishi seemingly disappeared from the anime industry. Both director's absence as co-directors led to Shinbo directing Zoku Owarimonogatari, the final novel in Final Season, by himself. The series, initially released as a film in 2018, is the only arc in the Monogatari series directed solely by Shinbo and solely by one director. In 2019, he stated that the Monogatari series was his life's work, and that he intended to continue adapting the series and Nisio Isin's other novels.

Shinbo and studio Shaft took a hiatus from major animation works in 2019. The only major product from the team that year was the televised release of Zoku Owarimonogatari. The following year, they returned for the adaptation of the spin-off Madoka Magica series Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story. Despite the return of Shaft, the series was not directed by Shinbo; instead, Doroinu (one of the two members of Gekidan Inu Curry), who was partially responsible for the original Madoka Magica's alternate space design, served as chief director, and Shinbo served as animation supervisor. Shaft directors Yukihiro Miyamoto (who directed the original series and film trilogy with Shinbo), Kenjirou Okada, and Midori Yoshizawa all served as directors under Doroinu.

Shaft's next work, Assault Lily Bouquet, however, did not feature any involvement from Shinbo whatsoever, the first time since 2007 (Kino's Journey: Country of Illness -For You-) that he was not involved with one of the studio's large projects. In 2021, he returned to the director's chair with an adaptation of Nisio Isin's Pretty Boy Detective Club, which he co-directed with Hajime Ootani. In April of the same year, it was announced that Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Rebellion (2013), the final film in the Madoka Magica trilogy remake, would receive a sequel with Shinbo returning as chief director, and the 2nd season to Magia Record was announced to be airing in July, again with Doroinu chief directing and Shinbo supervising the animation.

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