Hey there everyone! This week I am trying something new, something that I hope becomes a regular column of mine. As part of plans to help expand the scope of my content from simple reviews I have decided to give some in depth look at the careers of people involved in the creation of anime. My line of thinking being that if you liked some of the things they have worked on, maybe you will like some of their other works, too.
The topic of my inaugural article in this series is one of my personal favorite anime creators, Hiroyuki Imaishi. While his name may not be immediately recognizable like Hayao Miyazaki or Akira Toriyama, his works are among some of the most popular series in the modern era of anime. It would take a sizable novel to cover the full breadth of his career, so I will just focus on a few key moments, separated by their respective years.
1995 – A Key Contributor
Imaishi joins the animation studio Gainax. His first role in the company is the key animator on Hideaki Anno’s seminal mecha series Neon Genesis Evangelion.
2000 – One Cool Cat
Imaishi’s next notable role was as an animation director for Kazuya Tsurumaki’s surreal, and often played on Cartoon Network’s late night anime block, FLCL.
2004 – Deadly Debut
This year marked the first two times Imaishi would step into the director’s chair. The first was called Dead Leaves, a film about two amnesiac renegades named Retro, who has a TV for a head, and Pandy, who has a panda bear mark, who are sent to the titular prison on the moon after a crime spree in Tokyo. In addition to being the director, Imaishi was also the character designer and animation director.
The second would see Imaishi team up with Hideaki Anno once again for the original video animation series Re: Cutie Honey, based on a live action film that was based on Go Nagai’s famous magical girl manga series. Imaishi would direct the first episode of the series.
2007 – Drilling to the Top
Twelve years after joining the industry, Imaishi would finally get his big break with his full series directorial debut, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, more commonly simply called Gurren Lagann. Gurren Lagann is a mecha series the follows the primary trio of Simon, Kamina, and Yoko Littner, as they help lead humanity to take back the surface of the planet from Lordgenome and his beastmen army. Gurren Lagann would go on to receive massive critical reception, and is generally regarded as one of the best anime series of all time. The series itself would win the Excellence Prize at the 2007 Japan Media Arts Festival, as well as the Best Television Production award at the 2008 Tokyo Anime Awards held at the Tokyo International Anime Fair. Imaishi himself would win an individual award for “Personal Best” at the 2007 Animation Kobe Festival for his work on the series.
2010 – Heavenly Sinners
The next series Imaishi would helm is the raunchy comedy series, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. It follows the Anarchy sisters Panty and Stocking, two angels kicked out of heaven for their sinful behavior. They are sent to Daten City, which is located on the border between heaven and hell. Under the watch of the reverend Garterbelt, the sisters must use Heaven Coins they earn from defeating evil spirits to buy their way back into heaven. The series is a sendup to Western animation, particularly adult animation like Drawn Together. The concept for the series came about while Imaishi and his Gurren Lagann staff were drunk on a trip after the completion of Lagann.
2011 – Trigger Happy
In 2011, Imaishi, Masahiko Ohtsuka, and other Gainax employees left the studio to found their own studio that they would name Trigger.
2012 – Blazing Inferno
Imaishi’s first role on a Trigger series would be as the supervisor for Inferno Cop, an original net animation series about a cop who is immune to bullets and has a flaming skull head called Inferno Cop and his surreal adventures in Jack Knife Edge Town.
2013 – Killer Threads
Imaishi’s most recent and current role is as the director of Trigger’s first full series, Kill la Kill. Kill la Kill follows Ryuko Matoi, a vagrant schoolgirl wielding half of a giant pair of scissors. Ryuko transfers to the Honnouji Academy to find out who killed her father. In doing so, she finds herself dragged into a situation that is far bigger than even she knows yet. The series is currently airing, so no one knows what kind of legacy it will ultimately leave, but for now the series is receiving a lot of acclaim and is being touted as one of the best recent series to come out.
And there you have it, a nice brief little summary of the career path of one of modern anime’s most prolific creators. Hopefully this has informed you in some way and makes you want to check out some of his work.