Hajime Ootani

Hajime Ootani (大谷 肇) 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.

Television series
Highlights roles with series directorial duties. Highlights roles with assistant director or supervising duties.

OVAs
Highlights roles with series directorial duties.

Video games
Highlights roles with major directorial duties.