Hajime Ootani

Template:Nihongo 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 (2009) and Wolverine (2011), 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 (episode 34 overall) 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

Template:Color box In "Director(s)" column highlights Yase's directorial works.

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

OVAs

Year	Title	Director(s)	Studio	SBTemplate:Efn	EDTemplate:Efn	Other roles and notes	Ref(s)
2005	Saint Beast: Ikusen no Hiru to Yoru-hen	Masayuki Sakoi	Wonderfarm	Template:No	Template:No	In-between animator
2006	A Foreign Love Affair	Template:Yes	Prime Time	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2009	Maiden Rose	Hidefumi Takagi	Prime Time	Template:Yes	Template:No
2011	Katteni Kaizō	Akiyuki Shinbo Template:Small Naoyuki Tatsuwa	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2016	The Beheading Cycle: The Blue Savant and the Nonsense Bearer	Akiyuki Shinbo Template:Small Yuki Yase	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes

Video games

Template:Color box Highlights roles with major directorial duties.

Year	Title	Studio	Roles	Ref(s)
2017	Magia Record (Arc I)	Shaft	Cutscene director and storyboard artist

Notes

Citations

• Template:Cite book

External links

• Template:Anime News Network
• Template:IMDb name