Gisaburô Sugii
- Director
- Animation Department
- Writer
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).
