Analysis on Animation Directors – Movies

While my mind is circling around the topic of movies, I will get around to looking at the directors that are responsible for these 34 titles on the list and see if there is any interesting patterns within them. I have read in quite a few blogs / podcasts already about whether general anime fans really know the directors that work on the famous or favourite movies.

The argument goes that you most likely will know who direct Schindler’s List, Gladiator or Pulp Fiction, but outside of Miyazaki Hayao and maybe Oshii Mamoru, people would not be able to recognize the directors’ names. I imagine with the names being in Japanese, a lot of people just give up trying to recite them but do you feel that this is really the case? Can you name the director of Akira, Grave of the Fireflies or Ninja Scroll (admittedly I only know 2 out of 3 here so I may also be one of the guilty ones).

Anyway, on to the list:

#	Director	Title count
1	Miyazaki Hayao	3
1	Kon Satoshi	3
1	Hosoda Mamoru	3
4	Various	2
4	Shinkai Makoto	2
4	Oshii Mamoru	2
4	Anno Hideaki	2
8	Yuasa Masaaki	1
8	Kawamoto Kihachiro	1
8	Matsumoto Leiji	1
8	Michael Arias	1
8	Ando Masahiro	1
8	Mizushima Seiji	1
8	Morita Hiroyuki	1
8	Nakamura Ryutaro	1
8	Nomura Tetsuya	1
8	Ohara Minoru	1
8	Aramaki Shinji	1
8	Rintaro	1
8	Gohda Kiroaki	1
8	Sugiyama Keiichi	1
8	Asaka Morio	1
8	Watanabe Shinichiro	1
8	Yamamura Koji	1

1).  don’t think this list will come as much of a surprise, the top top 5 movie directors are probably the most well-known directors of the lot in the last decade [Hiyazaki from Ghibli; Kon from Perfect Blue, Paranoia Agent; Hosoda ;Shinkai of Voices of the Distant Star fame; Oshii)

2). Notable names in the rest of the lists include Watanabe Shinichiro (Cowboy Bebop), Rintaro, Matsumoto Leiji (of Galazy Express, Captain Harlock fame)

Director	Studio	Title	Rank
Hosoda Mamoru	Madhouse Studios	The Girl Who Leapt Through Time	3
Hosoda Mamoru	Madhouse Studios	Summer Wars	12
Hosoda Mamoru	Toei Animation	One Piece: Omatsuri Danshaku to Himitsu no Shima	26
Miyazaki Hayao	Studio Ghibli	Spirited Away	1
Miyazaki Hayao	Studio Ghibli	Ponyo on the Cliff By the Sea	10
Miyazaki Hayao	Studio Ghibli	Howl’s Moving Castle	15
Kon Satoshi	Madhouse Studios	Millennium Actress	4
Kon Satoshi	Madhouse Studios	Tokyo Godfathers	5
Kon Satoshi	Madhouse Studios	Paprika	8
Various	ufotable	Kara no Kyoukai – The Garden of Sinners	9
Various	Studio 4C	Genius Party	21
Anno Hideaki	Studio Khara	Evangelion: 1.0	13
Anno Hideaki	Studio Khara	Evangelion: 2.0	19
Oshii Mamoru	Production I.G	The Sky Crawlers	22
Oshii Mamoru	Production I.G	Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence	24
Shinkai Makoto	Comix Wave Inc.	5 Centimeters Per Second	2
Shinkai Makoto	Comix Wave Inc.	The Place Promised in Our Early Days	6
Nakamura Ryutaro	SHAFT	Kino’s Travels: The Country of Sickness – For You-	33
Mizushima Seiji	BONES	Fullmetal Alchemist: Conquerer of Shamballa	25
Asaka Morio	Madhouse Studios	Card Captor Sakura Movie 2	28
Yuasa Masaaki	Studio 4C	Mind Game	18
Ando Masahiro	BONES	Sword of the Stranger	7
Watanabe Shinichiro	BONES	Cowboy Bebop: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door	11
Rintaro	Madhouse Studios	Metropolis	14
Michael Arias	Studio 4C	Tekkonkinkreet	16
Nomura Tetsuya	Square Enix	Final Fantasy VII: Advent’s Children	17
Ohara Minoru	TMS Entertainment	Lupin III: First Contact	20
Gohda Kiroaki	AIC	Ah! My Goddess: The Movie	23
Kawamoto Kihachiro	Imagica	Fuyu no Hi	27
Aramaki Shinji		Appleseed	32
Sugiyama Keiichi	Gonzo	Origins: Spirit	29
Matsumoto Leiji	Toei Animation	Interstella 5555	30
Morita Hiroyuki	Studio Ghibli	The Cat Returns	31
Yamamura Koji	Shochiku Film	Franz Kafka’s A Country Doctor	34

3). There are quite a few other shounen franchise-based movies out there but only One Piece: Omatsuri makes it onto the list. Got to give Hosoda a credit for that!

4). A common theme here is that certain studios are related to only certain directors. Hosoda and Kon are Madhouse aces. Miyazaki is predictably Ghibli’s. Shinkai also seem to only use Comix Waves for all his outings and anything worthwhile from Production I.G is led by Oshii.

5). On the other hand. Studio 4C’s choice of director is pretty scattered.

Last chart to show direct sorted by the number of votes he get from all the rankings:

#	Director	# of votes
1	Kon Satoshi	28
2	Miyazaki Hayao	26
3	Shinkai Makoto	20
4	Hosoda Mamoru	18
5	Various	8
6	Anno Hideaki	6
6	Ando Masahiro	6
8	Rintaro	5
9	Watanabe Shinichiro	4
9	Oshii Mamoru	4
11	Michael Arias	3
12	Yuasa Masaaki	2
12	Ohara Minoru	2
12	Nomura Tetsuya	2
15	Mizushima Seiji	1
15	Nakamura Ryutaro	1
15	Morita Hiroyuki	1
15	Asaka Morio	1
15	Kawamoto Kihachiro	1
15	Aramaki Shinji	1
15	Sugiyama Keiichi	1
15	Gohda Kiroaki	1
15	Matsumoto Leiji	1
15	Yamamura Koji	1

6). List again puts Miyazaki, Kon, Shinkai and Hosoda at the top, way above any other movie directors over the last decade. Apart from Miyazaki who is 67, the other three directors are around 40 years old (Kon 47, Hosoda 43, Shinkai). Throw in Ando (43) whose movie directorial debut also cracks the top ten, and these four are young enough to produce many more great movies for us to watch in the next decade or two!

7). Kon’s work is slightly more well-rated than miyazaki, but that’s splitting hairs:)

8). One have to remember also that the one title that make Shinkai so well-know is VOice of the Distant Star and it is not in this list. Adding the vote for that in (10) and Shinkai might even be top!

9). Then again, this does not take into account the ranking in which each title is being voted in the list. I might get around to doing that analysis sometime later after I am done with about 10 other things I also want to do:)

Looking at this list of 34 films, I can only name 17 directors correctly without cheating (only miss Sword of the Stranger in the top 10). Admittedly there are a lot of obscure name there in the list though! How well do you out there know your anime film directors?

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