Toshimasa Suzuki

Template:Nihongo is a Japanese director, animator, and storyboard artist. He joined Shaft in 1995 as an episode director and storyboard artist, and although he continues to work for Shaft, Suzuki commonly directs series with other studios, most notably with Xebec, where he made his series directorial debut with Heroic Age in 2007.

Career and life

Suzuki joined Shaft around 1988 as a key animator. He made his debut as an episode director and storyboard artist for the studio's first original television series, Juuni Senshi Bakuretsu Eto Ranger, in 1995. His employment with Shaft continued until the early 2000s, when he decided to go freelance (he continued to work with Shaft as a freelancer). In 2007, he debuted as a series director with Xebec with Heroic Age under the supervision of Takashi Noto. For the next few years, Suzuki focused solely on freelancing work with other studios. He continued to do work with Xebec, directing Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne and Fafner in the Azure: Heaven and Earth, and started directing series outside of either Xebec or Shaft, such as The Pilot's Love Song and The Price of Smiles. However, he remains a prominent figure at Shaft and works on most of the studio's productions.

Suzuki was born in 1966, and he is married to color designer Mitsuko Sekimoto, who has worked with Suzuki on all of his directorial projects outside of Shaft.

Style

He said that he is a fan of hard sci-fi, as well as a fan of foreign sci-fi productions, which he has used for inspiration on works like Fafner in the Azure and Heroic Age. Although a fan of watching realistic and 'muddy' depictions of emotions, he himself does not like to make realistic depictions in his works, and is instead more interested in making his works beautiful and exaggerated. Writer Tow Ubukata commented on Suzuki's ideal of beauty by saying he was good at directing emotional scenes.

After he worked as Akiyuki Shinbo's assistant on Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase, Suzuki wanted to use some of Shinbo's visual composition techniques himself while working on Fafner: Right of Left succeeding the end of TsukuyomiTemplate:Apostrophes production. Broadly, he stated that his way of creating images changed after working on Tsukuyomi. Director Ryūtarō Nakamura's sense of light and shadows, whom Suzuki worked under as the assistant director for Sakura Wars (2000), also had an effect on Suzuki's style.

Works

Television series

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

Year	Title	Director(s)	Studio	SBTemplate:Efn	EDTemplate:Efn	Other roles and notes	Ref(s)
1989	Blue Blink	Osamu Tezuka Seitarou Hara	Tezuka Productions	Template:No	Template:No	Animator
	Idol Densetsu Eriko	Tetsurō Amino	Ashi Productions	Template:No	Template:No	In-between animator
1990	Kyatto Ninden Teyandee	Kunitoshi Okajima	Tatsunoko Production	Template:No	Template:No	In-between animator
1991	Oh! My Konbu	Tetsuo Imazawa	Shaft	Template:No	Template:No	Key animator
1993	Thumbelina: A Magical Story	Hiromitsu Morita		Template:No	Template:No	Key animator
1995	Weather Report Girl	Kunihiko Yuyama	Pastel	Template:No	Template:No	Key animator
	Juuni Senshi Bakuretsu Eto Ranger	Kunitoshi Okajima Template:Small	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Key animator
1997	Hareluya II Boy	Kiyoshi Egami	Triangle Staff	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
	Sakura Diaries	Kunitoshi Okajima	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
	Burn-Up Excess	Shinichiro Kimura	Magic Bus	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
	Battle Athletes Victory	Katsuhito Akiyama	AIC	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
1998	Silent Mobius	Hideki Tonokatsu	Shaft (Radix)	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
	Generator Gawl	Seiji Mizushima	Tatsunoko Production	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
1999	Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure	Katsuhito Akiyama	AIC	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
	Power Stone	Takahiro Omori	Pierrot	Template:Yes	Template:No	Key animator
	A Pair of Queens	Takashi Watanabe	Triangle Staff	Template:Yes	Template:No	Key animator
	Dai-Guard	Seiji Mizushima	Xebec	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2000	Sakura Wars	Ryūtarō Nakamura	Madhouse	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Assistant director (13 episodes)
	Dotto! Koni-chan	Shinichi Watanabe	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2001	Mahoromatic	Hiroyuki Yamaga	Gainax Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
	Shaman King	Seiji Mizushima	Xebec	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2002	A Little Snow Fairy Sugar	Hiroaki Sakurai Template:Small Shinichiro Kimura	J.C. Staff	Template:Yes	Template:No
	Cyborg 009: The Cyborg Soldier	Jun Kawagoe	Japan Vistec	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2003	Mahoromatic: Something More Beautiful	Hiroyuki Yamaga	Gainax Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:No
	Stellvia	Tatsuo Satō	Xebec	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2004	This Ugly yet Beautiful World	Shouji Saeki	Gainax Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Key animator
	Tetsujin 28-go	Yasuhiro Imagawa	Palm Studio	Template:Yes	Template:No
	Fafner in the Azure: Dead Aggressor	Nobuyoshi Habara	Xebec	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
	Tsukuyomi: Moon Phase	Akiyuki Shinbo Template:Small	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Assistant director Ending director
2005	He Is My Master	Shouji Saeki	Gainax Shaft	Template:No	Template:Yes	Ending director
	Rozen Maiden: Träumend	Kō Matsuo	Nomad	Template:No	Template:Yes
2006	The Third: The Girl with the Blue Eye	Jun Kamiya	Xebec	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2007	Heroic Age	Template:Yes	Xebec	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
	Ef: A Tale of Memories	Shin Oonuma	Shaft	Template:No	Template:No	Assistant episode director
2008	Wangan Midnight	Tsuneo Tominaga	A.C.G.T	Template:Yes	Template:No
	Kanokon: The Girl Who Cried Fox	Atsushi Ōtsuki	Xebec	Template:Yes	Template:No
	Kyō no Go no Ni	Tsuyoshi Nagasawa	Xebec	Template:Yes	Template:No
2009	Polyphonica: Crimson S	Template:Yes	Diomedéa	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Ending director and storybobard
	Tears to Tiara	Tomoki Kobayashi	White Fox	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Bakemonogatari	Akiyuki Shinbo Tatsuya Oishi Template:Small	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Assistant episode director Opening director Key animator
2010	Dance in the Vampire Bund	Akiyuki Shinbo Masahiro Sonoda Template:Small	Shaft	Template:No	Template:No	Ending director
	Hidamari Sketch x Hoshimittsu	Akiyuki Shinbo Kenichi Ishikura Template:Small	Shaft	Template:No	Template:No	Ending director
	Arakawa Under the Bridge	Akiyuki Shinbo Yukihiro Miyamoto Template:Small	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:No
2011	Softenni	Ryouki Kamitsubo	Xebec	Template:No	Template:No	Opening director and storyboard
2012	Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne	Template:Yes	Xebec	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2013	Unlimited Psychic Squad	Shishō Igarashi	Manglobe	Template:Yes	Template:No	Ending storyboard
	Sasami-san@Ganbaranai	Akiyuki Shinbo	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:No
2014	The Pilot's Love Song	Template:Yes	TMS Entertainment 3xCube	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
	Hanamonogatari	Akiyuki Shinbo Template:Small Tomoyuki Itamura	Shaft	Template:No	Template:No	Ending director and storyboard
2015	Fafner in the Azure: Exodus	Takashi Noto Template:Small Nobuyoshi Habara	Xebec	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
	Nisekoi:	Akiyuki Shinbo Template:Small Yukihiro Miyamoto Template:Small	Shaft	Template:No	Template:No	Opening director
2016	Sweetness and Lightning	Tarō Iwasaki	TMS Entertainment 3xCube	Template:No	Template:No	Opening director
	March Comes In like a Lion	Akiyuki Shinbo Kenjirou Okada Template:Small	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:No
2018	Fate/Extra: Last Encore	Akiyuki Shinbo Template:Small Yukihiro Miyamoto Template:Small	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:No
2019	The Price of Smiles	Template:Yes	Tatsunoko Production	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2020	Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story	Doroinu Template:Small Various	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:No	Key animator
2022	RWBY: Ice Queendom	Template:Yes	Shaft	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Opening director

OVAs

Year	Title	Director(s)	Studio	SBTemplate:Efn	EDTemplate:Efn	Other roles and notes	Ref(s)
1994	Legend of the Galactic Heroes	Noboru Ishiguro Template:Small Masatoshi Tahara Template:Small Keizou Shimizu Template:Small	K-Factory (Shaft)	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Key animator
2000	Kita e: Pure Session	Mitsuko Kase	Studio D-Volt	Template:No	Template:Yes
2003	Arcade Gamer Fubuki	Yūji Mutō	Shaft	Template:No	Template:Yes	Key animator
2008	Shina Dark	Template:Yes	Shaft	Template:No	Template:No
2010	Hen Semi	Ryouki Kamitsubo	Xebec	Template:No	Template:No	Opening director and storyboard
2012	Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne	Template:Yes	Xebec	Template:No	Template:No

Films

Year	Title	Director(s)	Studio	SBTemplate:Efn	EDTemplate:Efn	Other roles and notes	Ref(s)
2010	Fafner in the Azure: Heaven and Earth	Template:Yes	Xebec	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2016	Kizumonogatari I: Tekketsu	Akiyuki Shinbo Template:Small Tatsuya Oishi	Shaft	Template:No	Template:Yes
2017	Kizumonogatari III: Reiketsu	Akiyuki Shinbo Template:Small Tatsuya Oishi	Shaft	Template:No	Template:Yes
	Fireworks	Akiyuki Shinbo Template:Small Nobuyuki Takeuchi	Shaft	Template:No	Template:Yes
2019	Fafner in the Azure: The Beyond	Takashi Noto	Xebec Zwei	Template:Yes	Template:No
2023	Fafner: Behind the Line	Takashi Noto	I.G Zwei	Template:No	Template:No	Key animator

Video games

Year	Title	Studio	Roles	Ref(s)
2016	Fate/EXTELLA	Shaft	Opening cinematic storyboard artist

Notes

Web citations

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External links

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