Shouji Saeki

Template:Nihongo is a Japanese director, storyboard artist, writer, and animator known for directing and writing several series for studios Gainax and Shaft.

Early life

During his days at Teikyo University, Saeki rented a room in the art club where he learned the basics of drawing on his own with the desire of making anime. After four years of collegial schooling, his motivation remained unchanged; and once he graduated, he joined studio Gainax.

Career

He started as an in-between animator at the studio in 1996, and in 1998, the 25th episode of Cyber Team in Akihabara marked his first storyboard credit, and the following year marked his episode director debut and scriptwriting debut with Kare Kano, where at-the-time fellow Gainax director Hiroyuki Imaishi described that the both of them had "learned our chops." In 2002, Saeki served as assistant director under Hiroyuki Yamaga for the second season of Mahoromatic, Mahoromatic: Something More Beautiful, which marked his first work with Shaft. Following Mahoromatic, Saeki made his series directorial debut with the final Gainax/Shaft collaboration series (This Ugly yet Beautiful World (2004) and He Is My Master (2005)).

Some of the cast of Mahoromatic discussed the idea of doing another project together, and eventually This Ugly yet Beautiful World was created with some of the same cast and much of the same staff in mind. Saeki became the director of the work and he invited some staff who worked on the previous series like Template:Ill, Toshimasa Suzuki, and Template:Ill. Hiroyuki Yamaga, who was the co-series composition writer with Saeki, told him that there would be two heroines by way of a dual personality (referring to the character Hikari); and Saeki was given responsibility of deciding the setting, whether or not she and the hero would get together, and the story itself. Elements of the story were taken from a project that character designer Template:Ill had concepted years prior while they had worked on Neon Genesis Evangelion, which Takamura had entitled Extended Definition; though, Takamura abstained from speaking on matters of the setting with Saeki and instead left the details of the work to him. Saeki had felt that his work on Mahoromatic was left unfinished due to the fact that for the second season, Yamaga had done the rough parts of the work and then handed it over to Saeki with the exception of the final part. Saeki felt like his work then remained unfinished as he was unable to complete it himself which he used as some motivation for This Ugly yet Beautiful World.

The following years saw Saeki working mainly as a storyboard artist, scriptwriter, and episode director for Shaft and Gainax series, and notably became an essential member of Hiroyuki Imaishi's team on Gurren Lagann. Between 2011 and 2016, Saeki acted as series director for three more projects with Gainax (Wish Upon the Pleiades (2011/2015), Medaka Box (2012), and Omoi no Kakera (2015)). Beginning in 2017, due to Gainax's minimal production output, Saeki began providing storyboards as a freelance artist. After providing storyboards for a few of Shaft's series in that time, he started freelancing as a series director with the studio, where he first directed Assault Lily Bouquet in 2020, and Luminous Witches in 2022.

According to animator Kazuya Shiotsuki, Saeki's prominence at Shaft has influenced the younger staff at the studio alongside Yasuomi Umetsu.

Works

Television series

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

Year	Title	Director(s)	Studio	SBTemplate:Efn	EDTemplate:Efn	SCTemplate:Efn	ScriptTemplate:Efn	KATemplate:Efn	Other roles and notes	Ref(s)
1998	Cyber Team in Akihabara	Yoshitaka Fujimoto	Ashi Productions	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No
	Lupin III: Tokyo Crisis	Toshiya Shinohara	TMS Entertainment	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Battle Athletes Victory	Katsuhito Akiyama	AIC	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Kare Kano	Hideaki Anno Hiroki Sato Template:Small	Gainax	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
1999	Medabots	Tensai Okamura	Bee Train Production	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No
	Dai-Guard	Seiji Mizushima	Xebec	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No
	Cardcaptor Sakura	Morio Asaka	Madhouse	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No
2001	Mahoromatic: Automatic Maiden	Hiroyuki Yamaga	Gainax Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2002	Mahoromatic: Something More Beautiful	Hiroyuki Yamaga	Gainax Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Assistant director
2004	This Ugly yet Beautiful World	Template:Yes	Gainax Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Ending director and storyboard Image boards (uncredited)
	Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase	Akiyuki Shinbo Template:Small	Shaft	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
2005	Pani Poni Dash!	Akiyuki Shinbo Shin Oonuma Template:Small	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Sugar Sugar Rune	Yukihiro Matsushita	Pierrot	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No
	He Is My Master	Template:Yes	Gainax Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2007	Prism Ark	Masami Ōbari	Frontline	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Gurren Lagann	Hiroyuki Imaishi	Gainax	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	2nd key animator Opening director Ending director
	Hidamari Sketch	Akiyuki Shinbo Template:Small Ryouki Kamitsubo Template:Small	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No
2008	(Zoku) Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei	Akiyuki Shinbo Yukihiro Miyamoto Template:Small	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Psychic Squad	Keiichiro Kawaguchi	SynergySP	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	2nd key animator
	Strike Witches	Kazuhiro Takamura	Gonzo	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
	Michiko & Hatchin	Sayo Yamamoto	Manglobe	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Corpse Princess: Aka	Masahiko Murata	Gainax feel.	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Opening director
2009	Mahoromatic: I'm Home, Special	Template:Yes	Gainax	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Corpse Princess: Kuro	Masahiko Murata	Gainax feel.	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes
2010	Hanamaru Kindergarten	Seiji Mizushima	Gainax	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
2011	The Mystic Archives of Dantalian	Yutaka Uemura	Gainax	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No
2012	Medaka Box	Template:Yes	Gainax	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Opening director and storyboard
	Medaka Box Abnormal	Template:Yes	Gainax	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
2015	Wish Upon the Pleiades	Template:Yes	Gainax	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
2017	March Comes In like a Lion 2nd Season	Akiyuki Shinbo Kenjirou Okada Template:Small	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No
2018	Fate/Extra: Last Encore	Akiyuki Shinbo Template:Small Yukihiro Miyamoto Template:Small	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No
	Forest of Piano	Gaku Nakatani Ryūtarō Suzuki Template:Small	Gaina	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No
	Revue Starlight	Tomohiro Furukawa	Kinema Citrus	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No
2020	Assault Lily Bouquet	Template:Yes	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2022	Luminous Witches	Template:Yes	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Opening storyboard

OVAs/ONAs

Year	Title	Director(s)	Studio	SBTemplate:Efn	EDTemplate:Efn	ScriptTemplate:Efn	KATemplate:Efn	Other roles and notes	Ref(s)
1997	Agent Aika	Katsuhiko Nishijima	Studio Fantasia	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No	In-between animator
2000	FLCL	Kazuya Tsurumaki	Gainax Production I.G	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:Yes	In-between animator
2011	Wish Upon the Pleiades	Template:Yes	Gainax	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
2015	Omoi no Kakera	Template:Yes	Gainax	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:No
2020	Luminous Witches (PV)	Template:Yes	Shaft	Template:No	Template:No	Template:Yes	Template:No
2021	Assault Lily Fruits	Template:Yes	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:No	Template:No	Template:No

Films

Year	Title	Director(s)	Studio	Other roles and notes	Ref(s)
1997	Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth	Hideaki Anno Template:Small Masayuki Kazuya Tsurumaki	Gainax Tatsunoko Template:Small Production I.G Template:Small	In-between animator
	The End of Evangelion	Hideaki Anno Template:Small Kazuya Tsurukami	Gainax Production I.G	In-between animator
2006	Gunbuster vs. Diebuster	Kazuya Tsurumaki	Gainax	2nd key animator

Notes

Works cited

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External links

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