Shinichirô Watanabe

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Birth Name: 渡辺信一郎, Watanabe Shin'ichirō

Age: 58, born 24 May 1965

Country of origin: Japan

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133 votes

Directors:The Filmography of... (207 items)
list by propelas

Published 13 years, 2 months ago

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Animators (28 items)
list by Mr. Saturn

Published 11 years, 6 months ago

5 comments

12 votes

Showrunners and TV Creators (18 items)
list by Mr. Saturn

Published 11 years, 7 months ago

1 comment

5 votes

My favorite Directors (22 items)
list by donatboy

Published 11 years, 11 months ago

1 comment

3 votes

Mis Directores De Animacion Favoritos (11 items)
list by Brandon Carreon

Published 5 years, 9 months ago

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Description: Japanese anime television and film director. He is best known for directing the critically acclaimed and commercially successful anime series Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Carole & Tuesday, and Space Dandy. Watanabe is known for incorporating multiple genres into his anime creations. In Cowboy Bebop, for example, Watanabe blends classic cowboy western with 1960s/1970s New York City film noir, jazz/blues music, Hong Kong action movies, and sets the entire series in space. In his later work, Samurai Champloo, Watanabe unites the cultures of Okinawa, hip hop, modern-day Japan, and chanbara. Career: Watanabe was born in Japanese anime television and film director. He is best known for directing the critically acclaimed and commercially successful anime series Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Carole & Tuesday, and Space Dandy.

Watanabe is known for incorporating multiple genres into his anime creations. In Cowboy Bebop, for example, Watanabe blends classic cowboy western with 1960s/1970s New York City film noir, jazz/blues music, Hong Kong action movies, and sets the entire series in space. In his later work, Samurai Champloo, Watanabe unites the cultures of Okinawa, hip hop, modern-day Japan, and chanbara.

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.

Following the release of Samurai Champloo, Watanabe directed a short film called Baby Blue which was released on July 7, 2007 as a segment of the anthology film Genius Party. In recent years, he has been active as a creative music producer, overseeing the 2004 film Mind Game, 2008's Michiko & Hatchin, and supervising the storyboards for episode 12 of Tetsuwan Birdy: Decode. In 2012, he directed the anime series Kids on the Slope (Japanese title: Sakamichi no Apollon), a coming-of-age story about young jazz musicians, which premiered in April 2012 on Fuji TV's Noitamina block.

In 2009 it was announced that Watanabe would be working as an associate producer on the upcoming live-action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop, alongside his fellow Sunrise staff members Kenji Uchida and Keiko Nobumoto. As of 2014, the project is in hiatus. During FicZone in Granada, Spain, it was reported that Watanabe was collaborating with anime studio BONES on a space science-fiction comedy. BONES subsequently confirmed that the studio was working with Watanabe, but did not confirm the genre of the series. In late 2013, the original trailers for Space Dandy were released to the public. The dubbed version premiered on Adult Swim on its Toonami block on January 4, 2014 in the United States, hours before airing in Japan. He is frequently ranked among Japan's best animation directors.

Watanabe directed the anime short film Blade Runner Black Out 2022, which was released in 2017. On November 29, 2018, it was announced that he would be creative producer of Blade Runner: Black Lotus, an anime series produced for Adult Swim and Crunchyroll. ... (more)

Tags: Anime (1), Japanese (1), Director (1), Watanabe (1), Anime Director (1)

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