The World of Hiroyuki Imaishi

2D animation, exhibition catalog, Japanese animation

The World of Hiroyuki Imaishi

2024-01-04

今石洋之の世界

This art book was published as the catalogue for the exhibition The World of Hiroyuki Imaishi held in Tokorozawa (Saitama prefecture) in 2021. Born in 1971 in Tokyo, Imaishi is a Japanese animator and director who started his animation career at Gainax with Yusuke Yoshigaki (芳垣祐介), who was going to become his long-term associate. During this period, he made himself known with directing 『Gurren Lagann』 (2007). With TRIGGER studio he co-founded in 2011, he directed many such successful original animations as 『Kill la Kill』(2013), and 『Promare』(2019) which continue to impress countless fans in the world.

Presenting in counter-chronological order his impressive corpus over the past 25 years, this catalogue is arranged into chapters that are devoted to each major works of Imaishi, starting from the most recent one:

Promare (TRIGGER 2019)
Space Patrol Luluco (TRIGGER 2015)
Kill la Kill (TRIGGER 2013)
Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt (GAINAX 2010)
Gurren Lagann (GAINAX 2007)
Shorts: Sex and Violence with Machspeed (Khara 2015), Oval × Over (Production I.G 2005), Dead Leaves (Production I.G 2004; Imaishi’s directorial debut)

This catalogue also presents some works in which Imaishi participated and which are seldom mentioned today:Each chapter showcases a massive amount of images that testify the wide range of creative tasks Imaishi was capable of for a given animated series, including project conception, concept art, character design, storyboard, keyframe animation, etc.. However, because of the abundance of visual information this catalogue tries to encompass, sometimes the images can be printed rather small.

Ninja Slayer (TRIGGER, 2015) as character designer,
Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (Shaft 2008), storyboardist for the C part of the 9^th episode
Anime Tenchou (2002), storyboardist, staging, animation supervisor
FLCL (GAINAX and Production I.G, 2000), storyboardist, animation supervisor, key animator

Lastly, briefly laid out is his early amateur manga / anime works done during his formative years in university, senior high school, junior high school, and elementary school — all of which prove that Imaishi’s creative impulse had taken root early. In the end, an interview with Imaishi and some photos of the exhibition space are included.