Hajime Ootani

Hajime Ootani is a Japanese animator, director, and storyboard artist.

Early life

Ootani was born in Fukui Prefecture on September 22, 1979. He first became interested in animation while in high school after seeing Hayao Miyazaki's film Princess Mononoke.

Career

Ootani joined studio Imagin as an in-between animator around 2004. He mostly worked as a sub-contracting animator, and eventual episode director, for Madhouse and Imagin. He made his directorial debut with an OVA adaptation of Ayano Yamane's manga A Foreign Love Affair. Ootani's final projects with Imagin were Needless and Wolverine, which the studio assisted under Madhouse for, where he was promoted to series assistant director.
After the dissolution of Imagin, former studio producer Yasuhiro Okada joined studio Shaft with Ootani, where the latter mainly did episodic direction and storyboard art. In 2020, he made his series directorial debut as the chief episode director on Assault Lily Bouquet with Shouji Saeki, and the following year debuted as director of Pretty Boy Detective Club under Akiyuki Shinbo. After Pretty Boy Detective Club, he decided that he wanted to try directing at a different studio since he had been working with Shaft for so long; so, in the middle of the production for the series Dance Dance Danseur, produced by MAPPA, he was asked if he wanted to join the series as its "ballet director."

Style

In an interview between him and Shaft colleague Kenjirou Okada, the two were asked to describe each other's styles and processes as directors. Okada stated that Ootani didn't hesitate to put appealing art and animations first and foremost, and that he admired that about Ootani. Akiyuki Shinbo also commented in a separate interview that he felt Ootani and himself had similar visual sensibilities. Shinbo also said that Ootani was particularly good at horror-esque work, referencing episode 12 of March Comes In like a Lion season 2 and the similarities in atmosphere between it and parts of Pretty Boy Detective Club. Commenting on Ootani's work with Okada, who acted as assistant director for Pretty Boy Detective Club, Shinbo also said that the two complemented each other's weaknesses and strengths as directors. Despite originally being inspired by director Hayao Miyazaki, Ootani has commented that his style is much more eccentric and different from Miyazaki's, which he described was due to trying to survive and stand out in the industry.

Works

Television series

In "Director" column highlights Yase's directorial works.

Year	Title	Director	Studio	SB	ED	Other roles and notes	Ref
2005	Strawberry 100%	Osamu Sekita	Madhouse			In-between animator
2005	Oku-sama wa Joshi Kōsei	Jun Shishido	Madhouse			In-between animator Key animator
2005	Eyeshield 21	Masayoshi Nishida	Gallop
2005	My-Otome	Masakazu Obara	Sunrise			Assistant episode director
2006	Strawberry Panic!	Masayuki Sakoi	Madhouse			Key animator
2006	Yume Tsukai	Kazuo Yamazaki	Madhouse
2006	The Story of Saiunkoku	Jun Shishido	Madhouse
2007	Saiunkoku Monogatari Second Series	Jun Shishido	Madhouse
2008	Kamen no Maid Guy	Masayuki Sakoi	Madhouse
2008	Chaos;Head	Takaaki Ishiyama	Madhouse
2009	Needless	Masayuki Sakoi	Madhouse			Assistant director Opening director and storyboard
2011	Wolverine	Hiroshi Aoyama	Madhouse			Assistant director
2012	Nisemonogatari	Akiyuki Shinbo Tomoyuki Itamura	Shaft
2015	Gourmet Girl Graffiti	Akiyuki Shinbo Naoyuki Tatsuwa	Shaft
2015	Nisekoi:	Akiyuki Shinbo	Shaft
2015	Owarimonogatari	Akiyuki Shinbo Tomoyuki Itamura	Shaft
2016	March Comes In like a Lion	Akiyuki Shinbo Kenjirou Okada	Shaft			Opening director and storyboard
2017	March Comes In like a Lion 2nd Season	Akiyuki Shinbo Kenjirou Okada	Shaft			Assistant episode director
2018	Zoku Owarimonogatari	Akiyuki Shinbo	Shaft
2020	Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story	Doroinu Various	Shaft
2020	Assault Lily Bouquet		Shaft
2021	Pretty Boy Detective Club		Shaft			Ending director
2022	Dance Dance Danseur	Munehisa Sakai	MAPPA			Ballet director Ballet part episode director Ballet part storyboard
2024	Bucchigiri?!	Hiroko Utsumi	MAPPA
2026	Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku Season 2	Kaori Makita	MAPPA			Opening director and storyboard artist

Video games

Highlights roles with major directorial duties.

Year	Title	Studio	Roles	Ref
2017	Magia Record	Shaft	Cutscene director and storyboard artist