Akiyuki Shinbo

Akiyuki Shinbō (新房 昭之, Shinbō Akiyuki), born September 27, 1961 in Fukushima, Japan, is a Japanese animation director, and part of the production team for Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica.

Biography

Akiyuki Shinbo

After graduating from the Tokyo Design Institute, Shinbo started his career as an animator with Studio One Pattern in the 1981 anime series, Urusei Yatsura. In 1990, he participated as a unit director in the Studio Pierrot animation Karakuri Kengouden Musashi Lord and began working on storyboards for YuYu Hakusho in 1992.

Shinbo made his first full directional debut in 1994 with Metal Fighter Miku. His most important work to date is probably The SoulTaker, where he started to develop his own unique directoral style. In 2004, he further defined his style in his work on Le Portrait de Petit Cossette with Studio Daume -- a bizarre love story between a man and a painting. Though the plot was simple, Shinbo used surreal bloody imagery, and strange camera angles to make the series a disturbing and highly atmospheric experience.

Also in 2004, Shinbo was hired by Seven Arcs to work on Triangle Hearts and its popular spin-off mahou shoujo series Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha. Along with Shin Oonuma and Tatsuya Oishi, Shinbo was subsequently hired by the new SHAFT chief director, Mitsutoshi Kubota, as a 'supervisor', director, and 'educator' for new members of the studio. He has since participated in and applied his directoral aesthetics to nearly every SHAFT production (except for He Is My Master and REC). He also produced the 2009 best-selling television anime series, Bakemonogatari.

During the production of Bakemonogatari and Hidamari Sketch, Shinbo informed producer Atsuhiro Iwakami of his desire to create a magical girl series. Iwakami asked Ume Aoki for original character designs and hired Gen Urobuchi of Nitroplus as scriptwriter to work on their new project, Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica.

Shinbo frequently provides art and storyboards under psuedonyms for his own animation projects. Known pseudonyms include Sōji Homura (帆村壮二) and Futoshi Shīya (椎谷太志). Following the release of The SoulTaker, he spent a period of roughly two years working on hentai animation projects under the name Jūhachi Minamizawa (南澤十八).

Filmography

Director

Television Animation

• Metal Fighter Miku (1994)
• Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko (1999)
• The SoulTaker (2001)
• Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (2004)
• Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase (2004)
• Pani Poni Dash (2005)
• Negima!? series (2006)
• Hidamari Sketch series (2007~2012)
• Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei series (2007~2010)
• Maria+Holic series (2009~2011)
• Natsu no Arashi! series (2009)
• Bakemonogatari (2009)
• Dance in the Vampire Bund (2010)
• Arakawa Under the Bridge series (2010)
• Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru (2010)
• Puella Magi Madoka☆Magica (2011)
• Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko (2011)

Original Video Animation

• Devil Hunter Yohko (1995)
• Debutante Detective Corps (1996)
• Hurricane Polymar (1996)
• Galaxy Fraulein Yuna series (1996)
• Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko (1996~1997)
• Detatoko Princess (1997)
• Twilight of the Dark Master (1998)
• Tenamonya Voyagers (1999)
• Triangle Heart ~sweet songs forever~ (2003)
• Le Portrait de Petit Cossette (2004)
• Katte ni Kaizou (2011)

Original Animation Disc

• Negima! Magister Negi Magi ~Shiroki Tsubasa Ala Alba~ (2008)
• Goku: Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (2008)
• Negima! Magister Negi Magi ~Another World~ (2009)
• Zan Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei Bangaichi (2009)

Adult Animation

As Jūhachi Minamizawa (南澤十八):

• Unbalance (2002)
• Blood Royale (2002)
• Seijun Kango Gakuin (2002)
• Yu-Waku (2003)
• Ryokan Shirasagi (2003)

Unit Director

• Karakuri Kengō Den Musashi Lord (1990)
• Marude Dameo (1992)
• YuYu Hakusho (1992)
• Kyōryū Wakusei] (1993)
• Montana Jones (1994)
• Ninku series (1995~1996)
• Midori no Makibaō (1996)
• Kaiketsu Zorro (1996)

Storyboard Artist

• YuYu Hakusho (1992)
• Galaxy Fraulein Yuna: Siren's Sadness (1995)
• Kaiketsu Zorro (1996)
• Saber Marionette J (1996) [Opening movie]
• Saber Marionette J Again (1997) [Opening movie]
• Saber Marionette J to X (1998)
• Tatsunoko Fight (2000) [Opening movie]
• Denkō Sekka Volter (2000) [Opening movie]
• The God of Death (2005) [Opening movie]

Other

• Urusei Yatsura series (1981~1991, Animator)
• Dirty Pair (1985, Animator)
• GeGeGe no Kitaro (1985, Animator)
• Aoi Blink (1989, Animator)
• Oishinbo (1989, Animator)
• The Visitor (1989, Animator)
• Tokyo Babylon (1992, Animator)
• Sotsugyou M: EMU Music Video (1996, Animation Part Director)
• ef - a tale of the two (2007~2008, Supervisor)
• Lotte no Omocha (2011, Concept Advisor)

See Also

• November 2011 Shinbo book interview on Madoka Magica and several other works
• June 2012 Kirara Magica interviews Shinbo about the Madoka Magica Movies

External Links

• Akiyuki Shinbo - Article at Wikipedia
• SHAFT