Ichirou Itano

Ichirou Itano is a Japanese director, producer, animator and mechanical designer. He has worked in a number of science fiction anime series, especially mecha-themed ones. Director of works such as Angel Cop, Battle Royal High School, Gantz and more.

Itano is best known among anime fans for a style of action scene that he developed, usually nicknamed "Itano Circus" by fans; it refers to a highly stylized and acrobatic method of depicting aerial combat and dogfights in many anime.

The production in Space Runaway Ideon became a hot topic in the anime industry, and it came to be called this by comparing the brisk movement of mechanics to the air acrobatics of the circus. The technique became more famous when Itano used it for the "dogfights" depicted in The Super Dimension Fortress Macross anime TV series in 1982. It's characterized by detailed, fluid shading of the mecha, the close-range acrobatic moves the dueling fighters make in combat, as well as twisting contrails left by fighters and missiles. It is also commonly used in specific reference to an attack where a mecha or spaceship launches a large swarm of guided missiles with meticulously animated spiraling smoke trails and erratic trajectories and its target is repeatedly dodging those missiles at a high speed.

According to him, Hideaki Anno, Masami Gotou and Yasushi Muraki are the only animators to have fully mastered Itano Circus.