Mamoru Hosoda

is a Japanese filmmaker and animator. He is known for the short films that made up Digimon: The Movie, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006) and Summer Wars (2009). He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Animated Feature Film at the 91st Academy Awards for his seventh film Mirai (2018).

Life and career Early life Hosoda was born in Kamiichi, Nakaniikawa District, Toyama, Japan. His father worked as a railway engineer, and his mother was a tailor.

Hosoda was strongly influenced by the animation works he saw in 1979, when he was in the sixth grade, and set his sights on a career related to anime. These were Isao Takahata's Anne of Green Gables, Osamu Dezaki's Aim for the Ace! The Movie, Yoshiyuki Tomino's Mobile Suit Gundam, Rintaro's Galaxy Express 999 The Movie and Hayao Miyazaki's Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro. Hosoda described the concentration of works in that one year that would go down in Japanese animation history as like a grand cross (the planets of the Solar System lining up in a cross on the ecliptic).

When Hosoda was in junior high school, he saw people his age making animation on NHK Educational TV's independent animation specials, and he started making paper animation using the anime magazine Animage as a reference.

He majored in oil painting at the Kanazawa College of Art in Ishikawa Prefecture. He then joined the film club at that college and produced live-action films, somewhat distancing himself from animation.

In 1989, Hosoda saw an article in Animage recruiting trainees for the production of Studio Ghibli's Only Yesterday and took a recruitment test. Although he did not pass the exam, he received a letter from Hayao Miyazaki saying that he had decided not to hire someone like Hosoda because he thought it would diminish his talent.

Toei Animation After graduating from university, Hosoda continued to look for work in the animation industry and contacted a producer with whom he had formed a connection during an open call for animators for Shōnen Kenya, and joined Toei Animation in 1991. He had initially wanted to pursue a directing course, but following that producer's recommendation, he ended up working as an animator for the time being.

Hosoda studied under Takaaki Yamashita, with whom he would later create films, and worked as an animator for six years on various TV series and films, including the film Tōi Umi kara Kita Coo (1993) as assistant animation director. The film production started once in 2000.

At the time, Studio Ghibli was looking for a new talent, as momentum was building to appoint someone other than Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata as director. In this context, Nozomu Takahashi, then a producer at Ghibli, was recommended Hosoda by animation researchers and writers. In April 2002, the project was stopped by producer Takahashi. On the other hand, Hosoda said that Studio Ghibli was producing Spirited Away, directed by Miyazaki, in parallel at the time, which caused the Howl's Moving Castle team led by Hosoda to be understaffed. In a programme on NHK General TV that closely followed him, Hosoda talks about how he did not consult anyone around him, including Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, about his worries on what direction to take with his work at the time. He said his "cheap pride" got in the way and he became more and more isolated at Ghibli.

Return to Toei Hosoda returned to Toei Animation and continued to submit film projects, but none were accepted. There were whispers in the animation industry that Hosoda's career was over. a PR short film for Louis Vuitton in collaboration with artist Takashi Murakami. In that time, the 40th episode of Ojamajo Doremi Dokkān! he directed in 2002, which was inspired by his experience at Ghibli, marked a turning point for him. Hosoda accepted the offer and pondered the plot of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time while working for Toei.

In 2005, after directing the feature film One Piece: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island, Hosoda left Toei.

Freelance era In 2006, Hosoda directed The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, his first film since going freelance.

Hosoda married his long-time girlfriend in August 2006 at the age of 38.

In 2009, Hosoda's first original film Summer Wars was released. The film was a further hit with 127 screens, an audience of 1.26 million and box-office revenue of 1.65 billion yen. The film again won the Japan Academy Award for Animation of the Year in 2010.

Studio Chizu In 2011, Hosoda founded his own animation studio, Studio Chizu, with Saito to produce the film Wolf Children. It was the first time a Japanese animated film other than Studio Ghibli had been nominated for the award. The film grossed 6.6 billion yen at the box office and became Hosoda's highest-grossing film to date.

Filmography Film

Television

As key animator Ashita no Nadja (episode 26) Crying Freeman Dragon Ball: The Path to Power Dragon Ball Z (episode 173) Dragon Ball Z: Broly – The Legendary Super Saiyan Dragon Ball Z: Broly – Second Coming Galaxy Express 999 ~Eternal Fantasy~ GeGeGe no Kitarō (1996 series, Episode 94, 105, 113) GeGeGe no Kitarō: Dai-Kaijū (Japanese, 1996 film) Slam Dunk (episodes 29, 70) Sailor Moon Sailor Stars (episode 7) Sailor Moon Super S: The Movie Yu Yu Hakusho The Movie: Poltergeist Report