Gisaburô Sugii

He was born in Numazu City. Between 1958 and 1961 joined Toei Doga as animator. Here he became a close friend of reputed animation director Osamu Tezuka, and when Tezuka left the company to create his own, Mushi Production, he called Sugii to work with him. So Sugii joined Mushi until 1967. Here Sugii was promoted to animation director and finally director of several animation TV series ("Iron Arm Atom", "Great Adventure of Son Goku"...). After that experience he becomes free-lance, but he worked again in Mushi as animation director in several more films, including the failed last film of the company, "Belladonna" (1973). In 1969 he joined for the first time a little studio, Group Tack. Here he made his most prominent films, debuting as director with "Jack and the Beanstalk" (1974). He specialized in adaptions of manga author Mitsuru Adachi, directing the animation film version of "Nine" (1983), "Touch" (1986-87, co-directed with his personal assistant Naoto Hashimoto), and "A Beautiful Sun Beam" (1988), as well as the TV series of the latter two. Sugii gained a reputation with his "artsy" animation films "Night On the Milky Way Railroad" (1985) and "Tale of Genji" (1987).