Yoshiaki Kawajiri

Yoshiaki Kawajiri
Born	Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture November 18, 1950 (1950-11-18)
Occupation	film director, screenwriter
Influenced by	Osamu Dezaki, Akio Sugino, Hideo Gosha

Yoshiaki Kawajiri (川尻 善昭, Kawajiri Yoshiaki, born November 18, 1950) is a critically acclaimed writer and director of Japanese animation. He is the creator of titles such as Wicked City, Ninja Scroll, and Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.

Career

Kawajiri was born on November 18, 1950 and grew up in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. After he graduated from Yokohama High School in 1968 he began working for a few years as an animator at Mushi Production Animation until it closed in 1972. He then joined Madhouse Studio and in the 1970s was promoted to animation director and finally debuted as a film director with 1984's Lensman, directing jointly with the more experienced Kazuyuki Hirokawa (Kawajiri also did the character design along with Kazuo Tomizawa). Gaining an interest in darker animation, he next directed The Running Man. Afterwards, he was instructed to make a 35 minute short based on Hideyuki Kikuchi's novels, which was released as Wicked City. After completing it, however, his producers were so impressed, he was asked to make it feature length. Kawajiri enjoyed the dark tone so much he agreed and managed to complete the entire film in under a year.

After Wicked City received such critical and commercial success when released in 1987, Kawajiri gained a lot more freedom and began scripting and designing his own film set in feudal Japan, which was released as Ninja Scroll, about the Japanese folk hero Jubei Yagyu. After the western release in 1996, Kawajiri's status as a director received international recognition and was asked in 2002 to direct a segment of The Animatrix, titled Program, considered as a showcase of the best directors Japanese animation has to offer. Before The Animatrix, he also directed Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust which was based on a novel by Hideyuki Kikuchi.

Kawajiri directed Highlander: The Search for Vengeance. It was released on DVD on 5 June 2007. In an interview with Ain't It Cool News with producer Galen Walker, about 7–8 minutes of added scenes with no opening exposition text sequence were removed when the film was released and Kawajiri did not like it. But the director's cut will include the footage.

He has script approval for Ninja Scroll's sequel, which is listed as being in pre-production with no specific release date as of 2010.

Filmography

Films

• Lensman (1984) - Director, Storyboard, Character Design, Key Animation
• Neo Tokyo (1987) (segment The Running Man) - Director, Screenwriter, Character Design, Animation Director
• Wicked City (1987) - Director, Character Design, Animation Director
• A Wind Named Amnesia (1990) - Screenwriter, Supervision
• Ninja Scroll (1993) - Director, Screenwriter, Original Work, Original Character Design
• Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust (2000) - Director, Screenwriter, Storyboard
• The Animatrix (2003) (segment World Record) - Screenwriter
• The Animatrix (2003) (segment Program) - Director, Screenwriter
• Azumi 2: Death or Love (2005) - Screenwriter
• Highlander: The Search for Vengeance (2007) - Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

OVA

• The Phoenix -Space- (1987) - Director
• Demon City Shinjuku (1988) - Director, Character Design
• Goku: Midnight Eye (1989) - Director
• Goku II: Midnight Eye (1989) - Director
• Cyber City Oedo 808 (1990) - Director, Character Design
• The Cockpit (1994) (segment Slipstream) - Director, Screenwriter, Character Design, Animation Director
• Biohunter (1995) - Screenwriter, Supervision, Key Animation
• Birdy the Mighty (1996) - Director, Screenwriter, Storyboard, Key Animation
• X (2001) - Director, Screenwriter

TV series

• X (2001) - Director, Script, Storyboard
• Ninja Scroll: The Series- (2003) - Script, Original Creator

Other work

• Dororo (1969) - In-Between Animation
• Tomorrow's Joe (1970) - In-Between Animation
• New Moomin (1972) - Key Animation
• Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (1972) - Key Animation
• Adventures of Ganba (1975) - Key Animation
• Future Boy Conan (1978) - Key Animation
• The Fantastic Adventures of Unico (1981) - Key Animation, Setting (Assistance)
• Natsu e no Tobira (1981) - Layout
• The Sea Prince and the Fire Child (1981) - Key Animation
• Wandering Cloud (1982) - Storyboard, Layout
• Barefoot Gen (1983) - Key Animation
• Harmagedon (1983) - Key Animation
• Unico in the Island of Magic (1983) - Layout
• The Dagger of Kamui (1985) - Key Animation
• Barefoot Gen 2 (1986) - Key Animation
• Toki no Tabibito -Time Stranger- (1986) - Key Animation
• Kimba the White Lion (1989) - Character Design
• Record of Lodoss War (1990) - Key Animation
• Azuki-chan (1995) - Character Design
• Memories (1995) (segment Stink Bomb) - Supervision, Key Animation
• X (1996) - Key Animation
• Todd McFarlane's Spawn (1997) - Main Title Director
• Cardcaptor Sakura Movie 2: The Sealed Card (2000) - Storyboard, Key Animation
• Metropolis (2001) - Key Animation, Layout (Assistance)
• Shigurui (2007) - Storyboard
• Redline (2009) - 1st Key Animation
• Kaiji 2 (2011) - Storyboard
• Chihayafuru (2011) - Storyboard

External links

• Yoshiaki Kawajiri at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Yoshiaki Kawajiri at the Internet Movie Database
• Filmography:Yoshiaki Kawijiri at Sakuga@Wiki(Japanese)
• Interview With Yoshiaki Kawijiri at The Animatrix Official Website