Hiroyuki Imaishi
今石洋之
2.3K
Birth:Oct 4, 1971
Age:53
Gender:Male
Years active:1995-Present
Hometown:Tokyo, Japan
Twitter shiimaihttps://twitter.com/shiimai Sakugabooruhttps://www.sakugabooru.com/post?tags=hiroyukiimaishi+
Hiroyuki Imaishi was born in 1971 in Tokyo. He joined studio Gainax after graduating from Tama University of Arts. Imaishi later left the studio to establish his own studio Trigger where he still works to this day.
Imaishi made a name for himself on Hideaki Annos Kareshi Kanojo no Jijouhttps://anilist.co/anime/145/KareshiKanojonoJijou/. He did key animation and storyboards for several episodes with episode 19 being a standout for its unorthodox paper cutout animation. His presence injected some stylized levity into Annos shoujo drama.
Imaishi started as an animator heavily influenced by Masahito Yamashitahttps://anilist.co/staff/138566/MasahitoYamashita and Yoshinori Kanadahttps://anilist.co/staff/106398/YoshinoriKanada. He draws
with a similar warping of perspective and with characters snapping into discrete poses mixed with cartoony devices reminiscent of A Pros work on Dokonjo Gaeruhttps://anilist.co/anime/5618/DokonjouGaeru/ of which Imaishi is a fan. He also tends to draw his characters enveloped in speedlines with strongly defined eyes and eyebrows rectangular jawlines and gummy gritted teeth. His cuts are willfully limited eliminating transitions between poses and using fast looping for comedic effect.
Imaishi became one of Gainax premier directors after Kare Kano. His directorial aesthetic is heavily informed by his animation. Elisions of graphic space become elisions of cinematic space and time.The interplay of moving and still planes forceful use of text and extreme variations in size are other major components of his direction. His shot compositions are usually very busy due to crunching in as much of his characters into the frame as possible and he has no problem reducing action scenes to pure visual abstraction like rendering clashing figures as a few pencil lines. He is known to employ Osamu Dezakihttps://anilist.co/staff/100393/OsamuDezakiesque tricks like triple takes and postcard shots in his work. His storyboards are rough improvised and lacking in detail. Hes a fan of American director Robert Rodriguezhttps://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001675/ and John Woohttps://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000247/ and loves referencing classic anime and film in his works.
His first solo directorial effort was the Production I.G. OVA Dead Leaveshttps://anilist.co/anime/974/DeadLeaves/ which would set the stage for Imaishis later works: crude anarchic and heterogeneous characters positioned against a homogenizing totalitarian force. Dead Leaves uses pillarboxing and text in a manner recalling stylized comic books. Imaishi served as character designer and animation director on the OVA so the animation is steeped in his neoKamada idiom more than any of his other works.
Imaishi left Gainax and formed studio Trigger with Masahiko Otsukahttps://anilist.co/staff/108023/MasahikoOotsuka in 2011 bringing over several major animators to the new studio. His debut TV work with Trigger was 2013s Kill la Killhttps://anilist.co/anime/18679/KilllaKill/ that similarly to Gurren Lagann freely and extensively referenced anime history. Despite being a broadly popular series overseas it is Imaishis most controversial work to date not only for its extreme levels of fanservice but also because it suffered damaging production problems: rewrites of the script cost cutting animation shortcuts and a restrictive schedule.
Sourcehttps://camonte.wordpress.com/2014/10/06/hiroyukiimaishi/
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