Akiyuki Shinbou

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Akiyuki Shinbou is a Japanese director, producer, animator and storyboard artist. He joined Studio One Pattern in 1981. He made his directorial debut with Metal Fighter Miku in 1994. He joined Shaft in 2004. He has received the 11th Tokyo Anime Award and the 2011 Newtype Anime Award for Best director for his work on the acclaimed anime series Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

Shinbou was born in Fukushima Prefecture. After high school, he attended Tokyo Designer Institute before entering the anime industry.

After graduating from Tokyo Design Institute, Shinbou worked as an animator for the 1981 anime series Urusei Yatsura. Shinbou participated with Studio Pierrot in 1990 as an episode director in Musashi. His first full directorial debut was however the previously mentioned, with Metal Fighter Miku. He continued his early directional career with several OVA series in the late 90's. Shinbou participated with Seven Arcs starting with Triangle Heart: Sweet Songs Forever in 2003 and then became director for 2004's spin-off Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.

His style in particular became noticed during his episode direction work on Yu Yu Hakusho's Dark Tournament arc. After seeing Shinbou's stylized presence, the new president of Shaft, Mitsutoshi Kubota, approached Shinbou with the desire to make Shaft a distinctive studio among animation companies. In an interview, Kubota cited Le Portrait de Petit Cossette and The SoulTaker among Shinbou's most distinctive products that caught his eye.

His work at Shaft has been characterized by extensive experimentation within the visual medium of animation, and often includes pictures taken from real life cut into scenes, as well as art shifts, beat panels, kabuki sound effects, textures that remain stationary when the textured object moves, showing symbols or defining parts of a character in place of characters during dialogue, written text in place (in opposition to dialogue), precise use of fan service, and "head-tilting", a style known as a Shaft specialty.

He says that the reason he sticks with Shaft is due to their system and professional capacity, which make his expression of direction much easier. The so-called "Team Shinbou" includes himself, Tatsuya Oishi and Shin Oonuma.

(Source: Wikipedia)