Hirotsugu Kawasaki

Hirotsugu Kawasaki is an animator and director who has worked on numerous famous anime television shows and films in Japan. Kawasaki often worked as a key animator, his vital role was drawing the defining frames of each animated scene. Beginning in 1986, he was a key animator in the fantasy adventure film "Castle in the Sky," directed and written by the prominent Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. He continued finding jobs in major productions, such as the supernatural military thriller "Akira," and proceeded to work on otherworldly action films. Kawasaki used his talents in the futuristic cyborg crime fantasy "Ghost in the Shell." The picture was applauded by critics in the animation community and won various awards worldwide. He finally branched out in 2001 by directing and writing his first film "Spriggan." Kawasaki returned to his science fiction roots and created a world filled with secret agents searching for ancient artifacts. In the same year, he worked on "Metropolis," the futuristic film based loosely on the 1927 German silent film. It was directed by Rintaro, the filmmaker most famous for directing numerous 1960s "Astro Boy" episodes. In 2005, Kawasaki returned to the director's chair and directed a film version of the popular children's anime series "Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow." By 2011, Kawasaki directed the time period fantasy film "Legend of the Millennium Dragon," the movie focused on a teenage boy traveling back in time to stop a supernatural war.