Kōji Morimoto
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Koji Morimoto (森本晃司 Morimoto Kōji?), born December 26th, 1959) is an animator and one of Japan’s premier anime directors. Born in Wakayama, Japan, he graduated from the Osaka School of Design in 1979 and a couple years later joined the studio Annapuru as a grunt animator for the TV series “Tomorrow's Joe”. While working there, he saw some animation by Takashi Nakamura in ‘Gold Lightan’, an otherwise standard mecha TV series by a rival studio. He was blown away, and it inspired him to quit his job and go freelance.
Morimoto quickly became one of the most interesting animators in Japan, often collaborating with Nakamura, most notably in Katsuhiro Otomo’s 'The Order to Stop Construction’ segment of the anthology film ‘Neo-Tokyo’. It was fluid and expressive in ways that are rarely seen in anime, especially in the realm of direct-to-video releases like ‘Neo-Tokyo’. This opened many doors for him, from working as animation director on Otomo’s landmark feature ‘Akira’ and a chance to direct a short for the ‘Robot Carnival’ anthology. Around this time he founded Studio 4°C with producer Eiko Tanaka and fellow animator Yoshiharu Sato.
Since then, Morimoto has focused almost exclusively on his directing work. His work became increasingly bizarre and full of manic energy. This is best represented by the concert scenes in ‘Macross Plus’ (his only animation work in the past 15 years) and his short film ‘Noiseman Sound Insect’.
Unfortunately, aside from a small cult following, his films have been ignored outside of Japan. This has begun to change in recent years, with his artwork being featured in Takashi Murakami’s Superflat exhibitions worldwide, and being invited by the Wachowski Brothers to direct a segment of ‘The Animatrix’. He is currently working on ‘Sachiko’, his second feature-length film.
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[edit] Filmography
[edit] Film Director
- Robot Carnival - ‘Franken's Gears’ (1987)
- Fly! Peek the Whale (1991)
- Nine Love Stories - ‘Hero’ (1991)
- Memories -‘Magnetic Rose’ (1996)
- Noiseman Sound Insect (1997)
- Eternal Family (1997)
- The Animatrix - ‘Beyond’ (2003)
- Digital Juice - ‘The Saloon in the Air’ (2003)
[edit] Music Video Director
- KEN ISHII - ‘EXTRA’ (1996)
- The Bluetones - ‘4-Day Weekend’ (1998)
- GLAY - ‘Survival’ (サバイバル Sabaibaru?) (1999)
- KICELL - ‘Yakan Hikō (Rakka Dub Version)’ (夜間飛行 (落下ダブ Version)?) (2002)
- AYU - ‘Connected’ (2003)
- Utada - ‘You Make Me Want To Be A Man’ (2005)
- Utada - ‘Passion’ (2005)
[edit] Animator
- Tomorrow’s Joe (‘Ashita no Joe’) (1980)
- Space Adventure Cobra (1982)
- Golgo 13 (1983)
- Harmagedon (1983)
- Fist of the North Star (1984)
- The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? (1984)
- Bobby’s In Deep! (‘Bobby ni Kubittake’) (1985)
- Dagger of Kamui (1985)
- Neo-Tokyo - ‘The Order to Stop Construction’ (1987)
- Akira (1988)
- Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
- Macross Plus (1995)
- Mind Game (2004)
- Tekkon Kinkreet - (2006)
[edit] External links
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