Midori Yoshizawa

Midori Yoshizawa 吉澤 翠
Nationality	Japanese
Education	Tama Art University
Occupation(s)	Animator, storyboard artist, director
Years active	2012–present
Employer(s)	Studio Luna (2012~2013) Toei Animation (2013~2014) Green Bear (2023~)

Midori Yoshizawa (Japanese: 吉澤 翠, Hepburn: Yoshizawa Midori) is a Japanese animator, storyboard artist, and director.

Career

Yoshizawa studied at Tama Art University before getting her first job in the anime industry as an animator at Studio Luna around 2012.^[1][2] She worked at the studio for a year or two and then joined Toei Animation as an apprentice director working on One Piece. Around 2014, she left Toei and began freelancing for Shaft. Initially, she took on animation and assistant episode direction roles like her previous jobs but was being given episode direction duties across all of the studio's productions by 2015.^[1] She participated in several more from 2016 through 2018, and in 2019 was one of the episode directors and storyboard artists for Zoku Owarimonogatari. Longtime series and studio chief director Akiyuki Shinbo highlighted the first episode, which she directed, as being particularly interesting to him.^[3]

In 2019, she was involved with the studio's adaptation of the Magia Record mobile game, in the first season serving as a "director" (equivalent to a series director for a specific set of episodes) due to chief director Doroinu having no prior experience with directing a television anime. As such, Yoshizawa, Kenjirou Okada, and Yukihiro Miyamoto were chosen to supervise sets of episodes, with Miyamoto presiding as assistant director. ^[4][5] The depiction in the 9th episode of the series, in which an AI gradually becomes more human, was broadly influenced by Yoshizawa herself.^[6] For the second and third seasons of the work, Miyamoto was promoted to series director under Doroinu, and Yoshizawa was promoted to assistant director. In the second episode of the second season, both Yoshizawa and Miyamoto were in charge of storyboarding the episode; but rather than splitting the content between the A and B-parts of the episode (the first and second halves), they split the content based on what they felt like depicting, such as Miyamoto taking charge of the action sequences.^[7]

Following the end of production on Magia Record, Yoshizawa took a break from directing duties and only contributed storyboards through 2022 and 2023, with the exception of supervising animator and first-time director Hiroto Nagata's opening for The Quintessential Quintuplets~.^[8] As Yoshizawa had directed the eleventh episode of the first season outsourced to Shaft in 2019, animation producer Yuuya Matsukawa appointed Yoshizawa to storyboard the second episode of the special;^[8] and Shaft was chosen to produce the special due to the popularity of Yoshizawa and Shaft's episode in the first season.^[8]

In the fall of 2022, Aniplex producer Tatsuya Ishikawa approached Shaft to continue the Monogatari series, and studio president Mitsutoshi Kubota selected Yoshizawa to be the new series director under Shinbo's chief direction,^[9] replacing prior series director Tomoyuki Itamura. Shinbo relied on Yoshizawa for her art design sensibilities and instilled changes to the series from her predecessors.^[9] In particular, he wanted Yoshizawa to use eyecatches with more freedom, and asked for one arc (Nademonogatari) to have eyecatches like the Dragon Ball book spines, and for another arc (Shinobumonogatari) to be like a tour of famous places in Japan.^[10] Although her directing debut, Yoshizawa said that because it was the first Monogatari series in several years, she didn't consciously direct the series especially "acrobatically" (アクロバティック).^[10]

Style

Yoshizawa's style, having started directing at Shaft almost immediately after her work on One Piece at Toei Animation, has been characterized as being largely based on Shaft's stylistic identity with attention given to the composition of "attractive shots" using animation, backgrounds, CG, and live-action elements, and her prior work as an animator has been described as leading to "troublesome" and ambitious sensibilities in regard to layouts.^[1] Yoshizawa has also prominently made use of unconventional materials not often used in televised anime such as paper cutouts, analog drawings, and hand-made puppets.^[1][6] Kevin Cirugeda differentiated Yoshizawa from other directors at the studio by considering her to be a more emotionally expressive storyteller, as opposed to the more logical- or abstraction-oriented directors.^[1] Specifically through her work on Monogatari Series & Off and Monster Season, her debut work as a director, her work has harkened back to the stylistic characteristics of her predecessors (Oishi and Itamura) while also invigorating the series with her own personality.^[1] Christopher Farris of Anime News Network considered her to have given the series a "fresh", new, and "active" look from Itamura's long directorial reign.^[11]

Works

Teleivison series

  In "Director(s)" column highlights Yoshizawa's directorial works.

Year	Title	Director(s)	Studio	SB[a]	ED[b]	Other roles and notes	Ref(s)
2012	Toriko	Akifumi Zako	Toei Animation	No	No	Key animator
	Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero	Rion Kujou	Arms	No	No	2nd key animator
	Little Busters!	Yoshiki Yamakawa	J.C.Staff	No	No	2nd key animator
	Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal II	Satoshi Kuwabara	Gallop	No	No	2nd key animator
2013	One Piece	Hiroaki Miyamoto	Toei Animation	No	No	Episode director's assistant
2014	Mekakucity Actors	Akiyuki Shinbo Yuki Yase	Shaft	No	No	2nd key animator
	Hanamonogatari	Akiyuki Shinbo Tomoyuki Itamura	Shaft	No	No	2nd key animator
	Tsukimonogatari	Akiyuki Shinbo Tomoyuki Itamura	Shaft	No	No	Episode director's assistant	[1]
2015	Gourmet Girl Graffiti	Akiyuki Shinbo Naoyuki Tatsuwa	Shaft	No	Yes		[1]
	Nisekoi:	Akiyuki Shinbo Yukihiro Miyamoto	Shaft	No	Yes		[1]
	Owarimonogatari	Akiyuki Shinbo Tomoyuki Itamura	Shaft	No	Yes		[1]
2016	March Comes In like a Lion	Akiyuki Shinbo Kenjirou Okada	Shaft	Yes	Yes		[1]
2017	March Comes In like a Lion 2nd Season	Akiyuki Shinbo Kenjirou Okada	Shaft	Yes	Yes	2nd key animator
2018	Fate/Extra: Last Encore	Akiyuki Shinbo Yukihiro Miyamoto	Shaft	No	Yes	2nd key animator Background artist	[7]
2019	Zoku Owarimonogatari	Akiyuki Shinbo	Shaft	Yes	Yes		[3]
	The Quintessential Quintuplets	Satoshi Kuwabara	Tezuka Productions	No	Yes
2020	Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story	Doroinu Yukihiro Miyamoto Kenjirou Okada Midori Yoshizawa	Shaft	Yes	Yes	Opening director Ending director	[12]
2021	Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story - The Eve of Awakening	Doroinu Yukihiro Miyamoto	Shaft	Yes	Yes	Assistant director Transformation scene storyboard Opening director	[7]
2022	Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story - Dawn of a Shallow Dream	Doroinu Yukihiro Miyamoto	Shaft	Yes	Yes	Assistant director Opening director	[7]
	RWBY: Ice Queendom	Toshimasa Suzuki Kenjirou Okada	Shaft	Yes	No		[7]
2023	Yohane the Parhelion: Sunshine in the Mirror	Asami Nakatani	Sunrise	Yes	No
	The Quintessential Quintuplets~	Yukihiro Miyamoto	Shaft	Yes	No	Opening supervisor	[8]

OVAs/ONAs

Year	Title	Director(s)	Studio	SB[a]	ED[b]	Other roles and notes	Ref(s)
2016	Koyomimonogatari	Akiyuki Shinbo Tomoyuki Itamura	Shaft	No	No	2nd key animator
2024	Monogatari Series Off & Monster Season	Akiyuki Shinbo Midori Yoshizawa	Shaft	Yes	Yes		[13]

Notes

General notes

1. Storyboard artist.
2. Episode director, equivalent to unit director.

Book citations

• Takahashi, Yumi, ed. (November 23, 2019). Akiyuki Shimbo x Shaft Chronicle (in Japanese). Dotcom. ISBN 978-4835457017.
• Maeda, Hisashi; Nakagami, Yoshikatsu; Kawabata, Takeshi; Nishitani, Nanako (2020). マギアレコード 魔法少女まどか☆マギカ外伝 TVアニメ公式ガイドブック 1巻 [Magia Record Puella Magi Madoka Magica TV Anime Official Guidebook Volume 1] (in Japanese). Houbunsha. ISBN 978-4832272019.
• Maeda, Hisashi; Nakagami, Yoshikatsu; Kawabata, Takeshi; Nishitani, Nanako (2022). マギアレコード 魔法少女まどか☆マギカ外伝 TVアニメ公式ガイドブック 2巻 [Magia Record Puella Magi Madoka Magica TV Anime Official Guidebook Volume 2] (in Japanese). Houbunsha. ISBN 978-4832274006.

References

1. Cirugeda, Kevin "yuyucow" (August 23, 2024). "Monogatari's Past, Present, and Future: Director Midori Yoshizawa and the Synergistic Storytelling in Off & Monster Season". Sakuga Blog. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
2. Shaft Shizuoka Studio Aoi display, part of the Mirai Innovation Design Exhibit (ミライイノベーションデザイン展) at the Shizuoka City Cultural and Creative Industry Promotion Center (静岡市文化・クリエイティブ産業振興センター). October 12, 2024, to November 10, 2024.
3. Takahashi 2019, p. 228.
4. Maeda et al. 2020, p. 74.
5. @gekidaninucurry (February 2, 2020). 【マギレコ 】 ３話は岡田さんコンテ演出。2、3話のシリーズディレクターでもあり、レナ達の細かな描写をディレクションして頂きました。 変身シーンはそれとは別にコンテから原画まで全てガッツアニメーター様にお願いしました。変身という名の自由時間 ["MagiReco" | Episode 3 is directed by Okada-san. He was also the series director for episodes 2 and 3, and directed the detailed depiction of Rena and the others. | Apart from that, for the transformation scene, we asked the cut animator to do everything from the storyboard to the key animation.] (Tweet) – via Twitter.
6. Maeda et al. 2020, p. 106.
7. Maeda et al. 2022, p. 116.
8. Satou, Junpei, ed. (May 30, 2023). "Megami Magazine July 2023". 宮本幸裕×松川裕也インタビュー [Yukihiro Miyamoto x Yuuya Matsukawa Interview]. Megami Magazine (in Japanese). Gakken.
9. "CUT July 2024". 新房昭之インタビュー [Akiyuki Shinbo Interview]. CUT (in Japanese). rockin-on. June 19, 2024.
10. Kado, Kiyoto, ed. (December 10, 2024). "Newtype January 2025". Newtype (in Japanese). Kadokawa Shoten.
11. "MONOGATARI Series: OFF & MONSTER Season". Anime News Network. July 6, 2024. Retrieved December 14, 2024.
12. Maeda et al. 2020, p. 6-38.
13. "Monogatari Series Off & Monster Season" (in Japanese). Retrieved January 18, 2024.

External links

• Midori Yoshizawa at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Midori Yoshizawa at IMDb