Shinji Ootsuka

Wiki (jp)

The epitome of the versatile animator capable of adapting to any anime to do outstanding work in that style. Ootsuka's animation is professional but always full of personality and a special verve.

He is one of the pillars of Studio Ghibli's animation. Not confined to the Ghibli style, he has always searched for new means of expression, having done everything from the photorealistic to the cartoonish. The wonderful feeling of weight in the movement of Toshio running around the train station in Only Yesterday, the delightful bodyguards in The Cat Returns, the little robot coming out of the water in the final episode of FLCL - all of these are quintessential Ootsuka.

None other than the animation director of Tokyo Godfathers has conceded that the film was originally conceived as a project to showcase Ootsuka's talents, in the same way Genma Taisen was a vehicle for Yoshinori Kanada. Most of Ootsuka's scenes in the film were drawn entirely by himself, with no in-betweens, and his cuts which were the first finished, had a determining influence on the direction of the animation by the rest of the animators.