Takeshi Honda
本田 雄
Born (1968-03-12) March 12, 1968 (age 56)
Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan
NationalityJapanese
Occupation(s)Animator
Designer
Anime director

Takeshi Honda (本田 雄, Honda Takeshi, born March 12, 1968 in Ishikawa Prefecture) is a Japanese animator, designer, and animation director.[1]

Honda is one of Japan's outstanding animators.[2] He is best known for his character design and animation directing work on Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo, The Boy and the Heron, Millennium Actress and Den-noh Coil.[2][3] While Honda is an animator who draws realistic, theatrical characters, he also specializes in catchy "Bishōjo" characters.[4] He was nicknamed Shisho (師匠, Shishō, lit. 'master') from the early days of his career.[5][a]

Honda made his debut as an animator with the inbetweening for the 1987 OVA Relic Armor Legaciam and debuted as character designer on the series Metal Fighter Miku in 1994.[1][6]

Career

Honda moved to Tokyo from Ishikawa Prefecture to work in the animation industry after graduating from high school.[9][10] After a brief stint at small studios such as Atelier Giga, he joined Gainax, where Hideaki Anno and Yoshiyuki Sadamoto worked.[9][10] He debuted as an animation director in 1990 with Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water at the tender age of 22, but then quit and moved to Studio AIC.[6][9] However, Gainax soon recalled him to work on Uru in Blue. When the project fell through, he joined Neon Genesis Evangelion. He left Gainax again after the two Evangelion movies released in 1997.[9][10]

After leaving Gainax, Honda began to work with other famous directors in the animation industry besides Anno, such as Satoshi Kon (Perfect Blue, Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress), Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, The Sky Crawlers), Hiroyuki Okiura (Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade) and Kōji Morimoto (The Animatrix: Beyond). In 2007, he worked as character designer and chief animation director on Den-noh Coil, the directorial debut of Mitsuo Iso, with whom he worked on Neon Genesis Evangelion.[11] However, he quarreled with Iso and dropped out after the first half of the series.[9][b] Honda soon afterwards joined Khara, which was newly established by Anno after he left Gainax, and worked with him again on the Rebuild of Evangelion film series.[9] After working mainly as mechanical animation director on Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone (2007) and Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (2009), he finally took over as supervising animation director on Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo (2012) with Honda at the centre of the production.[10][13]

Honda moved to Studio Ghibli in 2017 to accept the post of animation director for Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron.[10] He had already been offered a position on the final film in the Rebuild of Evangelion series, Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, but Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki approached director Anno directly, resulting in his transfer to Ghibli.[14] It all started in the summer of 2016. He was approached by Hayao Miyazaki himself, who had long held him in high esteem, about taking part in his new film.[14][c] When Honda withheld an answer, he was summoned by Toshio Suzuki at the end of the year to discuss the matter. Honda concluded that he would work on both films, but he tried to arrange a meeting with Anno, believing that he should speak to him directly. However, six months passed with Anno avoiding him, and when he met with Anno in June 2017, perhaps having already had discussions with Suzuki, Anno gave him a curt attitude, as if to say he could do as he liked. After meeting with Anno, Honda was excluded from all meetings on Evangelion, so he decided to concentrate on Miyazaki's work and began actual production in July.[14]

Works

Anime television series

Anime films

Independent films

OVA

ONA

Games

Music video

Notes

  1. ^ It all started when Takahiro Kishida called him so during the production of the 1991 OVA Bubblegum Crisis.[6] Since then, many of his fellow animators and even directors have come to refer to him as such.[7][8]
  2. ^ a b Honda was credited as chief animation director until the final episode, but was actually absent for the second half of the series. His work was taken over by Toshiyuki Inoue and Yoshimi Itazu.[12]
  3. ^ It was not the first time that Honda had worked with Miyazaki, and at that time he was also the animation director for the short film Boro the Caterpillar, which was shown at the Ghibli Museum.
  4. ^ He was not involved in the production of the film.

References

  1. ^ a b "本田雄インタビュー 「千年女優」と今敏監督の思い出を語る（前編）" [Interview with Takeshi Honda on his memories of 'Millennium Actress' and director Satoshi Kon (Part 1)]. Anime! Anime! (in Japanese). IID, Inc. 20 February 2014. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  2. ^ a b "前田真宏と本田雄がタッグ 日本アニメ（ーター）見本市第6弾が予告編も公開" [Maeda Mahiro and Honda Takeshi tag-team Japan Anime(ator) Trade Fair Vol. 6, which also features a trailer]. Anime!Anime! (in Japanese). IID, Inc. 11 December 2014. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  3. ^ "「野中くん発 ジブリだより」2019年2月号" [“Ghibli News from Nonaka-kun” February 2019 issue] (in Japanese). Studio Ghibli. 8 February 2019. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  4. ^ "【月刊アニメスタイル】本田雄さんの取材" [Monthly Anime Style Interview with Takeshi Honda]. WEB Anime Style (in Japanese). Style. 2 June 2011. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  5. ^ Matteo Watzky (29 December 2023). "Takeshi Honda's The Boy and the Heron – Long Interview". fullfrontal.moe. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  6. ^ a b c "Imposter of Evangelion: 2.0's Takeshi Honda resigned his teaching job". GIGAZINE. 2 May 2009. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  7. ^ "『ももへの手紙』沖浦啓之監督インタビュー第5回 丸4年を費やした作画作業" [Interview with Hiroyuki Okiura, director of Letters to Momo no tegami (Letters to Momo) Vol. 5: The drawing process took four whole years]. WEB Anime Style (in Japanese). Style. 11 May 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  8. ^ "日本アニメ(ーター)見本市 資料集発刊記念トーク&サイン会前半戦に本田雄と前田真宏が登場、「アニメ(ーター)海の家 @ 渋谷2.5D」企画語り編" [Takeshi Honda and Mahiro Maeda appeared at the first half of the talk and signing session to celebrate the publication of the Japan Anime(ters) Trade Fair material collection, "Anime(ters) Umi no Ie @ Shibuya 2.5D" project talk session]. WebNewtype (in Japanese). Kadokawa Shoten. 17 August 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  9. ^ a b c d e f Florian Abbas (22 December 2023). "Who is Takeshi Honda, from Evangelion to The Boy and the Heron – Panel at Art to Play 2023". fullfrontal.moe. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  10. ^ a b c d e "「勘違いも甚だしい」――宮﨑駿『君たちはどう生きるか』の作画監督が明かしたアニメ会社の奇抜すぎる入社試験" ["'It's a gross misunderstanding" - The animation director of Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron reveals the bizarre entrance examinations for animation companies]. Bunshun Online (in Japanese). Bungeishunjū. 7 September 2023. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  11. ^ "電脳コイル：宮崎、庵野に続く"新星"磯光雄が初監督 NHKの新オリジナルアニメ" [Dennō Coil: NHK's new original animation directed by "rising star" Mitsuo Iso for the first time, following in the footsteps of Miyazaki and Anno]. Mantan web (in Japanese). 12 April 2007. Archived from the original on 15 April 2007. Retrieved 29 February 2024.
  12. ^ Matteo Watzky (28 January 2022). "Toshiyuki Inoue discusses three decades of Mitsuo Iso – Interview". fullfrontal.moe. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  13. ^ "アニメ評論家・藤津亮太のアニメの門ブロマガ 第117号" [Anime Critic Fujitsu Ryota's Gate of Anime Blog Magazine No. 117]. Nico Nico Channel (in Japanese). Dwango. 22 July 2017. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  14. ^ a b c "「『エヴァンゲリオン』をやるそうですが、ぜひこっちをやってほしい」宮﨑駿は作画監督に何を伝えたか" ["I hear you're doing 'Evangelion', but I'd really like you to do this one" What did Hayao Miyazaki tell the animation director?]. Bunshun Online (in Japanese). Bungeishunjū. 26 August 2023. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  15. ^ Millennium Actress production notes from Dreamworks. DVD Vision Japan
  16. ^ Movie Reviews, Showtimes and Trailers - Movies - New York Times
  17. ^ http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazine/anime/002820376.cfm [dead link]

External links

Neon Genesis Evangelion
Annie Award for Character Animation in a Feature Production
Authority control databases
Categories