Hisayuki Toriumi (鳥海 永行, Toriumi Hisayuki, July 9, 1941 – January 23, 2009), sometimes credited as Eikō Toriumi, was a Japanese animation director, storyboardist, screenwriter, and novelist.[1]

Hisayuki Toriumi
Born(1941-07-09)July 9, 1941
DiedJanuary 23, 2009(2009-01-23) (aged 67)[1]
NationalityJapanese
Other namesEiko Toriumi
Occupation(s)Director, screenwriter, novelist
Employer(s)Tatsunoko Production, Studio Pierrot
Known forScience Ninja Team Gatchaman franchise
SpouseHiroko[1]

He is best known for directing the TV show Science Ninja Team Gatchaman and also credited for his contributions to several other Tatsunoko Production anime series.[1] He is known to Japanese fans for his TV series The Wonderful Adventures of Nils and Shima Shima Tora no Shimajirō and to international fans for his work in Area 88, Dallos, The Mysterious Cities of Gold, and Tekkaman: The Space Knight.[1]

After leaving Tatsunoko, he also became a prolific novelist from the 1980s onward.[1] His representative work is the Kyūkei no Figurido series, which depicts the adventures and revenge of a man of Murakami Suigun who becomes a battle slave in Europe, where he arrives due to the betrayal of his comrades, set in England and France during the Hundred Years' War and in Japan during the Northern and Southern Courts.

Style

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Toriumi's direction is very smart, dramatic, and complete.[2] Mamoru Oshii was strongly influenced by him, and Oshii professes him to be "my mentor."[3][4] According to Oshii, he always dealt with family as a theme in his work, and the relationship between father and son was especially important to him. On the other hand, he had no interested in dramas between men and women.[5]

Toriumi also authored nearly two dozen novels. In addition to anime novelizations, he wrote mainly historically-themed novels based on Otogi-zōshi and Yomihon set in Japan from ancient times to the Middle Ages.[1]

Biography

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Toriumi was born in Isehara, Kanagawa Pref., Japan, and graduated from the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Law, Chuo University.[1] After attending a screenwriting institute while in college with an interest in filmmaking, he joined Tatsunoko Productions in 1966.[1]

Toriumi was selected as the series director for the TV series Science Ninja Team Gatchaman in 1972, and went on to direct other Tatsunoko TV series in the 1970s including Tekkaman: The Space Knight and Hurricane Polymar.[1] He was then asked to direct a sequel to "Gatchaman," but he did not accept because the story was already complete in his mind and he had nothing further to do.[5][6]

In December 1978, Toriumi left Tatsunoko. Shocked by the death of the first president, Tatsuo Yoshida, and concerned about his own future at Tatsunoko, he decided to become a freelancer and take on work for other studios. After working at Sunrise, he joined Yuji Nunokawa, who had quit Tatsunoko earlier, and became one of the founding members of Studio Pierrot.[1][7] There, he worked on series such as The Wonderful Adventures of Nils and The Mysterious Cities of Gold. In The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, Mamoru Oshii, who transferred from Tatsunoko to Pierrot after apply to be his apprentice, also participated as one of the episode directors.[7] However, in the following The Mysterious Cities of Gold, Oshii, who was scheduled to be an assistant director, was approached by President Nunokawa to direct Urusei Yatsura, and, prepared to be excommunicated, accepted the offer without telling Toriumi and dropped out.[3]

Toriumi worked with his protégé, director Mamoru Oshii, on 1983's Dallos, the first original video animation (OVA) ever released.[1]

Later, he left Studio Pierrot and became a freelancer again.

In 1990, he served as general director for the TV movie "Like the Clouds, Like the Wind," which featured character designer and animation director Katsuya Kondō and many other elite Studio Ghibli staff at the time.[8]

In his later years, he worked mainly on the children's programme Shima Shima Tora no Shimajirō.

He died of heart failure on January 23, 2009, at the age of 67.

Filmography

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Year Title Medium Roll Animation studio Notes
1967-1968 Speed Racer TV series Episode director Tatsunoko Production
1967-1968 Oraa Guzura Dado TV series Episode director, scriptwriter Tatsunoko Production
1968-1969 Dokachin the Primitive Boy TV series Episode director Tatsunoko Production
1969 Judo Boy TV series Episode director Tatsunoko Production
1970-1971 The Adventures of Hutch the Honeybee TV series Episode director Tatsunoko Production
1971 Animated Documentary Decision TV series Episode director Tatsunoko Production
1972 Pinocchio: The Series TV series Episode director Tatsunoko Production
1972-1974 Science Ninja Team Gatchaman TV series Series director, planner, screenwriter, episode director Tatsunoko Production
1974-1975 Hurricane Polymar TV series Series director, planner, screenwriter, episode director Tatsunoko Production
1975 Tekkaman: The Space Knight TV series Series director (episode 14 to 26), planner, screenwriter, episode director Tatsunoko Production
1976 Goliath the Super Fighter TV series Series director, planner, screenwriter, episode director Tatsunoko Production
1978 Science Ninja Team Gatchaman: The Movie Feature film Director Tatsunoko Production Digest of the TV series.
1976-1977 Paul's Miraculous Adventure TV series Episode director Tatsunoko Production
1978-1979 Gatchaman II TV series Planner Tatsunoko Production
1979-1980 Gatchaman Fighter TV series Planner Tatsunoko Production
1979-1980 The Ultraman TV series Chief director (episode 1 to 13), storyboard Sunrise He left the program midway through.[a]
1980-1981 The Wonderful Adventures of Nils TV series Chief director, episode director Studio Pierrot
1980-1981 Space Warrior Baldios TV series Screenwriter Ashi Production, Kokusai Eiga-sha
Full Moon Legend Indra Television pilot Original story Only a pilot was produced. Toriumi wrote a novel based on it.
1981 Space Warrior Baldios the Movie Feature film General director Ashi Production, Kokusai Eiga-sha The first half is a digest version of the TV series; the second half is an unaired episode on TV.
1982-1983 The Mysterious Cities of Gold TV series Series director, animation production, storyboard, episode director Studio Pierrot, DIC Audiovisuel
1983 The Wonderful Adventures of Nils the Movie Feature film Director Studio Pierrot The film was not released theatrically at the time of its completion, but was screened for the first time in January 2015 at Uplink Shibuya in Tokyo.[9]
1983–1985 Dallos OVA Original story, director[b], screenwriter, episode director Studio Pierrot Toriumi was in charge of episodes with a lot of drama, while Oshii was in charge of episodes with a lot of fight scenes.[4]
1984-1985 Bismark TV series Planner Studio Pierrot
1985-1986 Ninja Senshi Tobikage TV series Storyboard Studio Pierrot
1985-1986 Area 88 OVA Director Studio Pierrot
1986 Bari Bari Densetsu OVA Supervisor Studio Pierrot
1987 Lily C.A.T. OVA Original story, director Studio Pierrot
1988-1989 Salamander OVA Director Studio Pierrot
1989 Baoh OVA Supervisor, storyboard Studio Pierrot
1990 Like the Clouds, Like the Wind Television film General director Studio Pierrot Based on the novel Kōkyū Shōsetsu (Inner palace Novel), which won the Grand Prize at the 1st Japan Fantasy Novel Award, the debut novel by Ken'ichi Sakemi.
1991 Shinzan Gensōtan (Yumemakura Baku Twilight Gekijō) OVA Coordinator Studio Pierrot
1991 Michitekuru Toki no Mukō ni Television film Director Studio Pierrot Based on the novel Rakuen (Paradise), which won the Excellence Award at the 2nd Japan Fantasy Novel Award, the debut novel by Koji Suzuki, known for his Ring series.
1991-1993 Sohryuden: Legend of the Dragon Kings OVA Director (episode 7 to 9), storyboard Kitty Films
1993-2008 Shima Shima Tora no Shimajirō TV series Series director, series composition Studio Signpost
1998 Pinka to Umi no Otomodachi TV series Director T Factory
1999 Cybuster TV series Supervisor Ashi Production
2001 Kaze no Yojimbo TV series Story advisor, scriptwriter Studio Pierrot
2008-2009 Hakken Taiken Daisuki! Shimajirō TV series Series director, series composition[c] Studio Signpost Last work.

Notes

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  1. ^ Other staff and some Sunrise employees also left the program at the same time, but the reason was not disclosed.
  2. ^ He did not appear in the credits, but actually co-directed with Mamoru Oshii.[3]
  3. ^ Live-action parts were added to Shimajirō's new series, but he only worked on the animation parts.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m ANN staff (January 24, 2009). "Gatchaman, Nils Director Hisayuki Toriumi Passes Away". Anime News Network. Retrieved April 2, 2012.
  2. ^ "アニメ様の七転八倒 小黒祐一郎 第100回 タツノコ的な『ザ☆ウルトラマン』". WEBアニメスタイル (in Japanese). 株式会社スタイル. August 29, 2008. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c "押井守監督が語る日本アニメーションの「あの頃」と「これから」" (in Japanese). Kyoto Seika University. August 10, 2016. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
  4. ^ a b Orie Narita (23 March 2023). "押井守が40年の時を経て明かした「ダロス」の謎。「自分の運命を狂わせたのもOVAで、立ち直ったのもOVA」" (in Japanese). Movie Walker. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
  5. ^ a b "007、009、そしてガッチャマンに通じるもの「007 ロシアより愛をこめて」(1963)前編 (3)". 日経ビジネス (in Japanese). Nikkei Business Publications. March 5, 2020. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
  6. ^ "「劇場版Infini-T Force/ ガッチャマン さらば友よ」、笹川ひろし&大河原邦男登壇のレジェンドトークショー公式レポートが到着!". アキバ総研 (in Japanese). Kakaku.com. February 28, 2018. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
  7. ^ a b "押井守監督"お蔵入り"『劇場版 ニルスのふしぎな旅』1・31国内初公開". ORICON NEWS (in Japanese). Oricon. January 13, 2015. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
  8. ^ "「魔女の宅急便」の近藤勝也がキャラデザ 「雲のように風のように」HDリマスター版で初配信". アニメハック (in Japanese). eiga.com. December 10, 2020. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
  9. ^ "「劇場版 ニルスのふしぎな旅」制作40周年を記念した上映イベント、10月9日に開催". Comic Natalie. Natasha, Inc. September 22, 2022. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
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