Yukihiro Miyamoto (Japanese: 宮本 幸裕, Hepburn: Miyamoto Yukihiro, born November 21, 1977), occasionally nicknamed Otokomatsuri,^[3] is a Japanese anime director. He started at animation studio Vega Entertainment, and later joined Shaft. He is best known for directing Puella Magi Madoka Magica and its subsequent film trilogy alongside Akiyuki Shinbo, the latter trilogy which subsequently garnered ¥2 billion, making it a box-office success.^[4]

Career

Miyamoto joined the anime industry in 2002 as a production manager and assistant episode director for Vega Entertainment on their adaptation of Leiji Matsumoto's Gun Frontier manga series.^[5][6] In 2003 and 2004, he debuted as an episode director and storyboard artist with F-Zero: GP Legend,^[7] and began doing outsource work with Vega for Madhouse in 2004. For the next 3 years, he served with Madhouse, most prominent as an episode director for Monster,^[8] and then in 2006 joined studio Shaft. At Shaft, he quickly became a prominent director alongside Akiyuki Shinbo, Shin Oonuma, and Tatsuya Oishi. In 2008, he debuted with a series as the chief unit director with (Zoku) Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei alongside Shinbo.^[9] In the following years, Miyamoto directed several more series with Shinbo, and in 2011 they directed Puella Magi Madoka Magica,^[10] which became a critical hit and, alongside Bakemonogatari, is considered to be one of the series that pushed the studio into the spotlight.^[11] Subsequently, Miyamoto was tasked with directing the series' film trilogy, with Shinbo acting as chief director over the films.^[12] In 2018, it was announced that the spin-off Magia Record mobile game would receive an adaptation by the studio; the following year, it was announced that Miyamoto would serve as an assistant director and director alongside Shaft directors Kenjirou Okada, Midori Yoshizawa, Doroinu of Gekidan Inu Curry, with Shinbo serving as an animation supervisor on the project.^[13]

Style

Miyamoto described himself as being a "heretic" at Shaft—someone who, in a company of many differing directors, is only good at doing "plain work", and isn't particularly original or creative.^[14] Shinbo described Miyamoto in a similar way, but said that he was more like a professional craftsman who leaves their mark in places that cannot be seen.^[14] Due to this, Shinbo has said that Miyamoto is a director whose work often exceeds his expectations.^[15] Shinbo himself likes to cut the space between dialogue when characters talk, though he mentioned that Miyamoto seems to cut dialogue pauses more than Shinbo to a point that the silence between characters talking is close to zero.^[15] Miyamoto said that it's like characters who have already started thinking of a response to the person who is actively talking, and thus begin speaking either directly after the person talking has stopped or interrupting their speech entirely.^[15]

Personal life

Miyamoto is married and has a who was child born near the end of production of the Kizumonogatari trilogy.^[16] When his wife was in labor, Miyamoto was at the hospital and continued to text with Shaft's producers and staff regarding the film; and the director, Tatsuya Oishi, joked that Miyamoto should name them "Nekketsu" (after the second film in the trilogy, which Miyamoto was in charge of as unit director).^[16]

Works

Television series

  Highlights roles with series directorial duties.

OVAs/ONAs

  Highlights roles with series directorial duties.

Films

  Highlights roles with film directorial duties.

Video games

  Highlights roles with major directorial duties.