Akihiko Yamashita

As a teenager Yamashita was influenced by the works of Yoshiyuki Tominohttps://anilist.co/staff/97337/ and Tomonori Kogawahttps://anilist.co/staff/105957/ and was inspired to become an animator. After graduating from Kurashiki Minami High School he moved to Tokyo to become an animator and joined Bevore. After Bevores dissolution he joined Atelier Giga and from there he joined Project Team Muu. There he was jointly in charge of the character designs animation direction and storyboards for Giant Robo the Animation: The Day the Earth Stood Stillhttps://anilist.co/anime/2321/. The production took nearly 10 years during which Yamashita gave it his all. After the production was over he started losing his motivation for animation. Though it sparked again after having met Norio Matsumotohttps://anilist.co/staff/100991/ and Tomohiro Hiratahttps://anilist.co/staff/122071/ on the opening animation for a video game called Gensou Suikogaiden. In 2001 Yamashita worked as a key animator on Spirited Awayhttps://anilist.co/anime/199/ a Studio Ghiblihttps://anilist.co/studio/21/ feature film. There he was in charge of multiple scenes most notably Chihiro and Harus free fall at the end of the movie. This earned him high high praise from Hayao Miyazakihttps://anilist.co/staff/96870/ and he was thus selected as one of the animation directors for Hows Moving Castlehttps://anilist.co/anime/431/. Since then he has served as an animation director on most of Ghiblis movies. In 2018 Yamashita directed The Invisible Man a short film part of the anthology collection Modest Heroeshttps://anilist.co/anime/103887/ produced by Studio Ponochttps://anilist.co/studio/6147/. The film won the Newcomers Award in the Animation Division at the 22nd Japan Media Arts Festival Married to Miho Shimogasahttps://anilist.co/staff/116279/.