Nobuyuki Takeuchi
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is a Japanese
animator An animator is an artist who creates images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games. Animat ...
, director, character designer and production designer. His work with directors
Akiyuki Shinbo is a Japanese animator, director, compositional writer, and storyboard artist. Best known for his works with Shaft (company), Shaft, he has attained international recognition for his unique visual style and storytelling methods. Born in Koori, ...
(and more broadly studio Shaft) and Kunihiko Ikuhara have gained noteworthy fame since the late 1990s and especially through the mid-2000s.


Career

Takeuchi was originally from sub-contracting animation studio Dragon Production, which he belonged to sometime during the mid-1980s. His tenure at the company was relatively short-lived as he transferred to Studio Lions, the in-between division to Studio Giants, soon thereafter; and eventually, he became a part of the larger Studio Giants entity. In the early 1990s, however, Takeuchi went freelance. Around 1994, he was offered a seat as a freelancer at Shaft and started to work on a number of their outsource works and eventually made his debut as an
animation director An animation director is the director in charge of all aspects of the animation process during the production of an animated or television film, or an animated segment for a live-action film or television show. Alternatively, the animation direct ...
on the studio's first original televised work, ''
Juuni Senshi Bakuretsu Eto Ranger is a 1995 Japanese anime television series by Shaft. Plot The series takes place on the continent of Mugen, a floating island ruled by Princess Aura, who derives her power from the Great God Goal, but is forbidden from leaving the island. ...
'' (1995). In 1997, Takeuchi worked as the animation director for Shaft's outsourced episodes of ''
Revolutionary Girl Utena is a Japanese anime television series created by Be-Papas, a production group formed by director Kunihiko Ikuhara and composed of himself, Chiho Saito, Shinya Hasegawa, Yōji Enokido and Yūichirō Oguro. The series was produced by ...
'' directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara. Takeuchi's work on the series gained particular interest from Ikuhara, who invited him to work on the succeeding movie as an animation director. Also that year, Takeuchi participated as a character designer for Shaft's ''
Sakura Diaries is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by U-Jin. It was serialized in Shogakukan's ''seinen'' manga magazine '' Weekly Young Sunday'' from 1995 to 2000, with its chapters collected in twenty ''tankōbon'' volumes. It follows th ...
'' OVA series. The following year, in 1998, studio
Radix In a positional numeral system, the radix (radices) or base is the number of unique digits, including the digit zero, used to represent numbers. For example, for the decimal system (the most common system in use today) the radix is ten, becaus ...
was set to produce an adaptation of '' Silent Möbius'', but the production ended up being outsourced to Shaft. Chief director Hideki Tonokatsu worked at Shaft, and Shaft became the main production site and also the company responsible for finding the series' staff; and finding interest in Takeuchi's work, saying that Takeuchi had a clear vision and direction, he was given the role of series "animation director" (not referring to the correction of drawings). Takeuchi's work from the series garnered interest from then-managing director of Shaft Mitsutoshi Kubota, who felt that Takeuchi would be a central figure in Shaft's succeeding productions. For the next several years, Takeuchi continued to freelance as a key animator and animation director across several studios, even doing work for
Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation studio based in Koganei, Tokyo."Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment". ''Studio Ghibli Collection - Madman Entertainment''. Retrieved 2020-12-14. It has a strong presence in the animation industry and has exp ...
, but he gained prominence in 2004 when Shaft teamed up with
Akiyuki Shinbo is a Japanese animator, director, compositional writer, and storyboard artist. Best known for his works with Shaft (company), Shaft, he has attained international recognition for his unique visual style and storytelling methods. Born in Koori, ...
to produce '' Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase'', the start of Shinbo and Shaft's long collaborative history. Shinbo was concerned with having a strong visual foundation for the series, and wanted someone with strong sensibilities for material to work with; however, he did not want someone from a background art studio to take on the role, as was traditional. Kubota, who succeeded Shaft founder Hiroshi Wakao as CEO following Wakao's retirement, recommended Takeuchi to Shinbo, who then took on the role of "visual director". Takeuchi's work on the series, which featured cross-sections of buildings to show their insides, almost like a stage production, inspired Shinbo to use similar techniques on his next work, ''
Pani Poni Dash! , also known by the title of its anime adaptation, , is a Japanese manga series by Hekiru Hikawa that uses parody, frequently referencing Japanese and American pop-culture in many ways. It mainly follows child prodigy Rebecca Miyamoto, an MIT ...
'', despite Takeuchi not working on the series. However, Takeuchi collaborated more with Shaft in large roles as a production and concept designer in several succeeding works. In 2009, he participated again as a visual director on Shinbo and Tatsuya Oishi's adaptation of ''
Bakemonogatari is a Japanese light novel series written by Nisio Isin and illustrated by Vofan. The plot centers on Koyomi Araragi, a third-year high school student who survives a vampire attack and finds himself helping girls involved with a var ...
''. Although he didn't continue throughout the rest of the franchise as its visual director, his work became a vital part of its production, and he contributed as an art setting or production designer across all other iterations of the series with the exception of the final two parts, ''Owarimonogatari II'' and ''Zoku Owarimonogatari''. Takeuchi did occasional storyboard work and directing work since ''Silent Möbius''. He storyboarded the first five episodes of ''Bakemonogatari'', and also storyboarded, directed, and did key animating work in ''
Penguindrum ''Penguindrum'', known in Japan as , is a Japanese anime television series produced by Brain's Base. It was written by Kunihiko Ikuhara and Takayo Ikami, was co-directed by Ikuhara along with Shouko Nakamura, with character designs by Lil ...
'' episode 9 entirely by himself. In 2017, Takeuchi made his directorial debut anime film adaptation of
Shunji Iwai is a Japanese filmmaker, video artist, writer and documentary maker. Life and career Iwai was born in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. He attended Yokohama National University, graduating in 1987. In 1988, he started out in the Japanese entertainment ...
's 1993 live-action film '' Fireworks, Should We See It from the Side or the Bottom?''. He and the film's composer,
Satoru Kōsaki is a Japanese music composer and arranger. He is best known for his work on anime, including '' Lucky Star'', '' The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya'', ''Monogatari'', ''Beastars'' and '' The Apothecary Diaries''. He worked at Namco, where he prima ...
, were both longtime fans of Iwai's films. The first film Takeuchi had seen from Iwai was '' Ghost Soup'', and he thought that it was an impressive film. As the film's director, he said he was honored to work with Iwai. In 2019, he chief directed Ikuhara's '' Sarazanmai'', and in 2022 contributed to both of Ikuhara's '' Re:cycle of the Penguindrum'' films as their assistant director and Shaft's '' RWBY: Ice Queendom'' as its visual director.


Works


Teleivison series

In "Director(s)" column highlights Takeuchi's directorial works.


OVAs/ONAs


Films


Notes


Works cited

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References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Takeuchi, Nobuyuki Japanese animators Living people Japanese film directors Anime directors 1967 births