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Shinichirō Watanabe

(渡辺 信一郎)

Dirctor | Screen Writer | Producer

Hall of fame

Shinichirō Watanabe (渡辺 信一郎, Watanabe Shin'ichirō, born on May 24, 1965) is a Japanese anime television and film director, best known for directing the critically acclaimed and commercially successful anime series Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, and Space Dandy. An auteur of the industry, Watanabe's work is characterized by evocative uses of music, mature themes, and the incorporation of multiple genres.

Career

Watanabe was born in Kyoto. After joining the Japanese animation studio Sunrise, he supervised the episode direction and storyboards of numerous Sunrise anime, and soon made his directorial debut as co-director of the well-received Macross update, Macross Plus.

His next effort, and first full directorial venture, was the 1998 series Cowboy Bebop, which received universal praise and is considered by many to be one of the greatest anime series of all time. It was followed by the 2001 film Knockin' on Heaven's Door.

In 2003, Watanabe directed his first American-produced anime, the short films Kid's Story and A Detective Story, both part of The Wachowskis' The Animatrix, an anthology of animated short stories from The Matrix. His next directorial effort was the critically acclaimed 2004 anime series Samurai Champloo which began broadcasting on Fuji Television in Japan on May 19, 2004.

Top works

1. Cowboy Bebop

Cowboy Bebop (Japanese: カウボーイビバップ, Hepburn: Kaubōi Bibappu) is a Japanese neo-noir space Western anime television series which aired on TV Tokyo and Wowow from 1998 to 1999. It was created and animated by Sunrise, led by a production team of director Shinichirō Watanabe, screenwriter Keiko Nobumoto, character designer Toshihiro Kawamoto, mechanical designer Kimitoshi Yamane, and composer Yoko Kanno, who are collectively billed as Hajime Yatate.

  1. Directed by: Shinichirō Watanabe
  2. Produced by: Masahiko Minami,Kazuhiko Ikeguchi
  3. Written by: Keiko Nobumoto
  4. Studio: Sunrise
  5. Episodes: 26
  6. Original run: April 3, 1998 - June 26, 1998

2. Samurai Champloo

Samurai Champloo (Japanese: サムライチャンプルー, Hepburn: Samurai Chanpurū) is a 2004 Japanese historical adventure anime television series. The debut television production of studio Manglobe, the 26-episode series aired from May 2004 to March 2005. It was first partially broadcast on Fuji TV, then had a complete airing on Fuji Network System.

  1. Directed by: Shinichirō Watanabe
  2. Produced by: Takatoshi Hamano,Takashi Kochiyama,Tetsuro Satomi
  3. Written by: Shinji Obara
  4. Studio: Manglobe
  5. Episodes: 26
  6. Original run: May 20, 2004 - March 19, 2005

3. Space☆Dandy

Space Dandy, stylized as Space☆Dandy (Japanese: スペース☆ダンディ, Hepburn: Supēsu Dandi), is a 2014 Japanese comic science fiction anime television series produced by Bones. The series follows the misadventures of Dandy, an alien hunter who is "a dandy guy in space", in search for undiscovered and rare aliens with his robot assistant QT and his feline-like friend named Meow.

  1. Directed by: Shinichirō Watanabe
  2. Produced by: Masahiko Minami,Motoki Mukaichi,Hirofumi Inagaki
  3. Written by: Shinichirō Watanabe,Dai Satō,Kimiko Ueno
  4. Studio: Bones
  5. Episodes: 13+13
  6. Original run: December 20, 2013 - October 3, 2014

4. Terror in Resonance

Terror in Resonance (残響のテロル, Zankyō no Teroru, lit. "Terror of the Echo"), also known as Terror in Tokyo, is a Japanese anime television series produced by MAPPA. The anime was created and directed by Shinichirō Watanabe, with character designs by Kazuto Nakazawa and music by Yoko Kanno. The anime began airing on Fuji TV's Noitamina block from July to September 2014. It consisted of 11 episodes.

  1. Directed by: Shinichirō Watanabe
  2. Produced by: Koji Yamamoto,Makoto Kimura,Takamitsu Inoue
  3. Written by: Shōten Yano,Hiroshi Seko,Jun Kumagai,Kenta Ihara
  4. Studio: MAPPA
  5. Episodes: 11
  6. Original run: July 10, 2014 - September 25, 2014

5. Carole & Tuesday

Carole & Tuesday (Japanese: キャロル&チューズデイ, Hepburn: Kyaroru & Chūzudei) is a 24-episode anime television series directed by Shinichirō Watanabe. It was animated by studio Bones, in commemoration of the studio's 20th anniversary and the 10th anniversary of record label FlyingDog. It aired from April 11 to October 3, 2019, on Fuji TV's +Ultra programming block.

  1. Directed by: Shinichirō Watanabe
  2. Produced by: Makoto Nishibe,Noriko Ozaki
  3. Written by: Shinichirō Watanabe,Keiko Nobumoto
  4. Studio: Bones
  5. Episodes: 24
  6. Original run: April 11, 2019 - October 3, 2019